English painter Samuel Scott’s 18th century work depicts San José’s demise at the hand off the English ship Expedition at Wager’s Action of the Colombian coast in June 1708. (Wikimedia)

Colombia to recover $23-billion cargo from “holy grail of shipwrecks”

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

It was either May 28 or June 8, 1708. Sources can’t seem to agree. But one thing is certain in a sea of legend and lost treasure: the Spanish galleon San José was the real deal—the “holy grail of shipwrecks.”

The flagship in a fleet of 17 cargo vessels and naval escorts, the Spaniard was laden with an unimaginable fortune in gold, silver and jewels. The fleet was sailing from Portobelo in modern-day Panama, to Cartagena, Colombia, and on to Spain when San José was sunk during a pitched battle with an English warship.

The ship and its treasure were lost for more than three centuries, and now they’ve been found.

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Lieutenant Mike Levy in 1952. (THE MILITARY MUSEUMS)

A Canadian gamble at Kapyong

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“Kill the American pigs,” the Chinese officer yelled to his troops during the night of April 24-25, 1951. For most Canadian defenders holding a desolate Korean hill at Kapyong, the communist soldier’s words, spoken in an unfamiliar language, would have meant little—even beyond the intense heat of battle.

Everyone, that is, except Lieutenant Mike Levy, a platoon commander who, within earshot of the enemy battle cry, decided to respond.

“We are Canadian soldiers,” retorted the young subaltern in the appropriate Chinese dialect, “we have lots of Canadian soldiers here.”

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U.S. Army Specialist Peter Lemon, a native of Toronto, earned a Medal of Honor during a North Vietnamese attack on his firebase in South Vietnam on April 1, 1970. He was 19. (PETER C. LEMON)

The teenager who became Canada’s last Medal of Honor recipient

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

On April 1, 1970, U.S. Army Specialist Peter Charles Lemon was on the perimeter of Firebase Illingworth, five kilometres from the Cambodian border in southwest Vietnam, fighting for his life as more than 400 North Vietnamese troops attacked.

It was 2:17 on a Wednesday morning and the Americans of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, knew the enemy were coming. Ground surveillance radar had found them stacked up and swarming at the tree line.

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HMCS Esquimalt. (Wikipedia)

The U-Boat Menace Returns: HMCS Esquimalt Sunk in Canadian Waters

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The dim lights of Halifax—no longer in total blackout since the war’s tide had turned in the Allies’ favour—were visible from HMCS Esquimalt in the early hours of April 16, 1945. Situated around 32 kilometres offshore, the minesweeper had joined HMCS Sarnia in searching for U-boats that were, according to Allied intelligence, operating off the coast.

Gone were the days of Die Glückliche Zeit—or ‘The Happy Time,’ as the German Kriegsmarine’s initial success in the Atlantic had once been known. The Battle of the St. Lawrence, while not quite a distant memory, had never posed the same existential threat as it had back in 1942. Indeed, over the years since, the so-called wolf-pack hunters had largely become the hunted.

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