Category Archives: Legion Magazine

9 must-watch movies featuring Canada at war

An item from the Legion Magazine.

9 must-watch movies featuring Canada at war

STORY BY LEGION MAGAZINE

Have you ever watched a war movie and thought, “when are they going to mention Canada?” It’s rare that the great white north gets anything more than a nod in cinematic depictions of warfare, but these nine movies break the mould and let Canada take centre stage.

On June 24, 1940, HMS Emerald set sail for Canada with British gold and securities worth millions of pounds. [Imperial War Museums]

Ted Barris on WW II’s Operation Fish

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“It’s a stunning story that has sort of been lost to time,” said Canadian author and journalist Ted Barris on WW II’s stranger-than-fiction Operation Fish.

That tale, recounted in the bestselling author’s 2023 book Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory, involved a bold yet desperate gamble to safeguard Britain’s gold in the event of a Nazi invasion—by shipping the country’s entire reserves to Canada.

Despite remaining little-known today, Barris believes that the mission’s importance, with all its immense perils, can’t be overstated. “We often think of the Second World War as being a six-year-long siege,” he said. “Well, there were pivot points along the way where had they gone differently, the war would have been much longer and might not have ended up the way it did. One of those pivot points was Operation Fish.”

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The last of the U-boats is scuttled

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Wilhelm Bauer (U-2540) is on display at the Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany. In 1983, it was restored to its original Second World War configuration and is the only floating example of a Type XXI U-boat. [Wikimedia]

The last of the U-boats is scuttled

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

On Feb. 12, 1946, U-3514 was sunk off the coast of Northern Ireland in Operation Deadlight, meant to ensure elimination of the German submarine fleet after the war.

The sub was sunk at 10:04 a.m. by ship guns and depth charges, the last of 116 scuttled by the Royal Navy.

In anticipation of the end of the war in early May 1945, German U-boat captains began scuttling their own boats, preventing an estimated 200 from falling into the hands of the Allies. On May 4, the German Navy ordered all U-boats to go to ports in Norway. On May 8, there were 156 still afloat.

Second World War veteran George Beardshaw is believed to be the last living British Home Child. [St. Joseph’s Health Care London]

A WW II rifleman remembers

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

George Beardshaw no longer recalls the dates, but he retains the memories. A proud 102-year-old Canadian veteran of the Second World War, he was born in Yorkshire, England, on Sept. 14, 1923. The story of how he came to serve Canada, however, isn’t a strictly happy one, having been one of some 100,000 adolescent Britons, mostly of orphaned or impoverished backgrounds, sent to the dominion between the 1860s and the 1940s as part of the Home Children scheme.

Many, including Beardshaw, endured considerable hardship in rural households. Some even experienced exploitation and abuse by their Canadian foster families.