Climate anomaly caused WW I mud,
flu pandemic: study

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

The First World War is synonymous with torrential rain, deathly deep mud and bitter cold. It seems no stalemate or major battle was without these added miseries that brought with them disproportionate infection, disease and death.

Now a new scientific study says a once-in-a-lifetime climate anomaly is to blame for the horrendous weather that contributed to hundreds of thousands of battlefield deaths and the 1918 Spanish flu (H1N1) pandemic that cost tens of millions of lives worldwide.

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The bombing of Dortmund

Story by Sharon Adams

In the fall of 1945, a new Allied bombing directive called for heavy attacks on Germany’s industrial heartland, with oil, transportation and communication the chief targets, and the added objective of eroding civilian morale.

The directive said the aim was virtual destruction of areas attacked, demonstrating the overwhelming superiority of Allied air forces.

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October 7, 1918

The Spanish Flu claims its first victim in Montreal. The pandemic kills
approximately 50,000 Canadians and an estimated 7 million to 50 million worldwide.

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October 5, 1970

British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped in Montreal, Quebec. Ransom demands from the Liberation cell of the FLQ included the release of 23 “political prisoners”; $500,000 in gold; broadcast and publication of the FLQ Manifesto; and an aircraft to take the kidnappers to Cuba or Algeria.

What happened next?

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James Andrew Watson: WW II bomber pilot sacrifices life to save crew

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

It was the night of April 27-28, 1944, and Lancaster R-ND 781/G of 622 Squadron, Royal Air Force, piloted by Flight-Lieutenant James Andrew Watson of Hamilton, Ont., was on a bombing mission to Friedrichshafen, Germany.

R-ND would never reach its target, but Watson’s heroic actions that black night over occupied territory would inspire an unsuccessful campaign to award him a posthumous Victoria Cross.

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Eyes in the sky

Story by Sharon Adams

Squadron Leader William Isaac Clements is credited as the first Royal Canadian Air Force member to fly a wartime sortie over enemy territory during a reconnaissance trip into Germany at the end of September 1939.

In 1939, he was among many Canadian air force personnel seconded for duty or to study with the Royal Air Force prior to the war. He was promoted to squadron leader a week after he was attached to the Royal Air Force on March 24, 1939, and served as a flight commander in No. 53 Squadron, which was sent to France in September as the strategic reconnaissance unit of the Advanced Air Striking Force.

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September 30, 2009

Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, becomes the world’s seventh, and Canada’s first, space tourist.

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