Wikipedia

The incredible story of Captain William Dyess

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

In researching the Second World War career of William Dyess, the thought keeps arising: How can this possibly be all the same guy?

Captain Dyess’s abbreviated service in the U.S. Army Air Force and elsewhere was more eventful than any Hollywood script could credibly imagine.

The Texas native volunteered to stay in the Philippines and fight the overwhelming Japanese advance on Bataan, serving both as a fighter pilot and an infantryman; he was taken prisoner and survived the Bataan Death March of April 1942, then endured a year of starvation and brutality in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps before he escaped, joined a Filipino guerilla force and fought in the jungle for three months.

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• A Roman legionnaire’s pay slip and the siege at Masada
• Russia no ‘paper tiger,’ warns Norad commander
• Gudrid the Far-Travelled an icon among Norse women

Wikipedia

The Lion of the First World War

STORY BY PAIGE GILMAR

“He had a lion’s heart,” Constance McKean told The Sunday Post in September 1927.

Constance was none other than the second wife of one of Canada’s most-decorated First World War heroes: George Burdon McKean.

In his four years of military service, George would be awarded the Military Medal, the Victoria Cross and the Military Cross for, as his citations noted, “conspicuous bravery” and “magnificent” conduct.

“Captain George Burdon McKean…was one of the bravest men who fought on any front during the war,” wrote The Sunday Post.

READ MORE

More from Military Milestones

• Remembering Quebec nationalist Paul Rose
• Quebec City’s bloody weekend: the Easter Riot of 1917
• The Story behind the Canadian Navy’s “Black Tot Day”

Learn More

Most popular on Legion Magazine

• On operations with G.I. Joe
• The hunt for Convoy HX-133
• Should Canada increase its military involvement in the Indo-Pacific region?

JE Ball/Twitter

A Roman legionnaire’s pay slip and the siege at Masada

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

A Roman soldier’s pay slip uncovered outside the ancient fortress at Masada several years ago suggests little has changed when it comes to the army, the fighting man and unfair labour practices.

Written on a scrap of papyrus, the 1,900-year-old pay slip—one of only three ever found in the Roman Empire—shows that the imperial grunt was left penniless once the military recouped expenses for meals, equipment, clothes, even horse feed.

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• Russia no ‘paper tiger,’ warns Norad commander
• Gudrid the Far-Travelled an icon among Norse women
• The sinking of U-111 by the British anti-submarine trawler Lady Shirley

THE CANADIAN PRESS/MONTREAL GAZETTE

Divisive figure: remembering Quebec nationalist Paul Rose

STORY BY PAIGE GILMAR

Ten years ago, on March 14, the ringleader of the October Crisis, died. But it turned out that this figure, so imperative to the Quebec sovereignty movement, was aptly name—for no man came out of the situation smelling like a rose better than Paul Rose himself.

“A folk hero to some, a murderer to most, Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorist Paul Rose is one of the most polarizing figures in Quebec history,” historian Éric Bédard told The Montreal Gazette.

READ MORE

More from Military Milestones

• Quebec City’s bloody weekend: the Easter Riot of 1917
• The Story behind the Canadian Navy’s “Black Tot Day”
• Louis Riel: a Métis freedom fighter

Most popular on Legion Magazine

• The Wounded
• The October Crisis
• In their fathers’ footsteps