Category Archives: Legion Magazine

Excerpt from O Canada: War & Hockey

An item from the Legion Magazine.

In one of hockey’s oldest rivalries, the Royal Military College of Canada plays against the United States Military Academy West Point in Kingston, Ont., on Feb. 1, 2025, for the 102nd time. [United States Military Academy West Point]

Excerpt from O Canada: War & Hockey

STORY BY STEPHEN SMITH

Hockey is the game we hold dearest in Canada, the one we define ourselves by, still. It’s a haven for our identity, and it’s where we cultivate our national pride— and store our strategic reserve of contradictions, too. We like to think of it as a natural resource, of course, hewn from the wintry north, and forged by us into the game—and the passion—it has become, even as it, too, has forged us.

The story isn’t quite that straightforward, we should acknowledge. While hockey does indeed have roots in Indigenous games of stick-and- ball, it owes much as well to migrant imports: Scottish shinty, Irish hurling and various golf-like Dutch diversions. But isn’t that a Canadian story in itself?

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Military historian and author Fred Gaffen has summarized Canada’s role in WW II in his latest book Path To Victory. [Burnstown Publishing House]

Historian Fred Gaffen recounts Canada’s WW II story in a new single-volume book

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Military historian and author Fred Gaffen is the first to admit that there are “so many books written about the Second World War, many of them by Canadians.” Nevertheless, he argues, a proportion might appear to be a “bit too formidable,” perhaps especially for those who want the facts without academic rabbit holes.

Gaffen cites his grandchildren and new Canadians interested in history as two motivators for writing his recent book, Path to Victory: Canada and the Second World War 1939 – 1945, released in August 2025 by Burnstown Publishing House.

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A Cornish toast to historian Tim Cook

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Historian Tim Cook was a frequent contributor to Legion Magazine. He died on Oct. 25, 2025.
[Marie Louise Deruaz]

A Cornish toast to historian Tim Cook

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The traditional Cornish fishing village of Mevagissey, situated on the west coast of England, seemed like as good a place as any to discover the works of Canada’s “preeminent military historian” Tim Cook. It was a pleasant enough day, just after Christmas, while outside, parting clouds and a tame ocean breeze presented prime conditions for exploration—to amble along cobbled streets, to frequent ye olde pubs, perhaps even to trek through the hills bound for oh-so-near Pentewan.

The urge, however, was absent. Quayside saunters and savoured pints could wait. Far more tantalizing was Cook’s newly unwrapped tome, The Necessary War, Volume 1: Canadians Fighting The Second World War: 1939-1943, a gift from a bemused father-in-law wondering why a Brit would desire such a seemingly obscure read.

Victoria Cross Medal (left). Private Jess Randall Larochelle (right). [CORPORAL ISSA PARÉ, RIDEAU HALL © OSGG-BSGG, 2007; DND]

Campaign group renews efforts to award Jess Larochelle the Victoria Cross

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Canadian Armed Forces veteran Bruce Moncur knows what makes a legend. He wasn’t present to witness the exploits of Royal Canadian Regiment comrade, Jess Randall Larochelle, on Oct. 14, 2006, having himself been wounded in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan several weeks earlier, but he didn’t need to. Why would he, the now-5th grade teacher argues, when the tale spoke for itself?

That day, Larochelle’s platoon encountered a numerically superior Taliban force while manning a remote observation post. Two soldiers had already been killed when the Restoule, Ont., private, having sustained a broken back and fractured neck vertebrae amid the battle, all but singlehandedly fought off 40 insurgents by machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade for an hour, perhaps even more.

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Who won the war in Europe? Historians weigh in

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Soldiers raise the Soviet flag on the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin in May 1945.

[Yevgeny Khaldei (1917-1997)]

Who won the war in Europe? Historians weigh in

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

History isn’t always what we might assume it to be, and there appears to be no consensus among nations over the question of which country contributed most to the Allies’ Second World War victory in Europe.

The North American public tends to assume that the United States played the greatest role in bringing about VE-Day. But don’t tell that to a Russian.

As many as 30 million Soviets are estimated to have died between Germany’s June 1941 invasion of the USSR and the war’s end, while the number of German troops killed by the Soviets is estimated at more than 3.5 million. That’s three-quarters of the total 4.7 million German military killed by Allied forces in the Second World War.

Kevin Hicks of the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts speaks to visitors. [Courtesy Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts]

An armchair tour of the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

From Halifax to Vancouver, Winnipeg to St. John’s, N.L., Royal Canadian Legion halls across the country have proudly displayed the likes of uniforms, medals and other military memorabilia for nearly a century, each object standing as a testament to Canada’s contributions in war and peace, all stories unto themselves.

Such is the case at the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts, where its many tales, old and new, speak to the service of Saskatchewanians. What began as an informal exhibit space at the city’s Nutana Branch, has developed, following decades of donations, into a fully fledged centre with a diverse collection. Since 2017, when Legionnaires officially transferred the thousands of items to the newly incorporated museum situated on site, the facility has continued its work of promoting military heritage, driven by a cadre of community volunteers with a bright vision for the future.