The distinctive Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial at the site in northern France where the Newfoundland Regiment was all but wiped out on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. [Stephen J. Thorne/LM]

60 pictures: Battle sites, cemeteries and monuments of WW I

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Time has softened the battlefields of First World War France and Belgium.

The grey-brown mud and deep red blood have surrendered to shades of green and gold, the fields of battle now verdant forests, placid pastures, and crops of corn and grain.

The trenches and craters of 1914-1918 have long since turned to undulating, grass-covered mounds and soft folds and bowl-shaped cavities in the landscapes of places with iconic names like Ypres and Passchendaele, Vimy and the Somme.

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Mike McGlennon, now vice-president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada Association, poses with a comrade during his deployment in the conflict in January 1991. [courtesy of Mike McGlennon]

Persian Gulf War veterans’ fight for “past due” recognition

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“What is a war—and what does Canada consider a war?”

Such questions, and many more, come from former serviceman Mike McGlennon. Rhetorical though they might appear, they’re nevertheless questions that the vice-president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada Association expects the federal government to address—and soon. Already, he adds, answers are well “past due.”

“War” is not in the organization’s name for a reason. Despite the deployment of at least 4,458 Canadian service personnel after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, and despite those same military members later earning battle honours prior to the Feb. 28, 1991, ceasefire, none were legally recognized as “wartime service” veterans, instead attaining a “special duty area” designation.

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