Category Archives: Legion Magazine

War Santa and the Ukrainian wish list

Leave a reply

An item from the Legion Magazine.
Front Lines
Stephen J thorne

War Santa

War Santa and the Ukrainian wish list

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Working out of his home in Texas, a former United States Air Force sergeant is making a list and checking it twice. He calls himself War Santa and he already knows who’s naughty and who’s nice.

Working anonymously, War Santa exploits the knowledge and connections he made working in military intelligence to procure equipment and deliver it to Ukrainian soldiers, Americans and other foreign fighters in Ukraine.

Since March, he’s shipped or hand-delivered nearly US$130,000 in high-end drones, night-vision devices, encrypted radios, winter clothes, uniforms, helmets, body armour and more to special-forces units, demining teams and artillery units, along with Ukraine’s leading intelligence agency and 92nd Mechanized Brigade, a former rifle division that purged its Soviet honours and heritage in 2015.

Polish volunteers provide vital assistance in getting some of the more sensitive military supplies through the Polish-Ukrainian border.

 

READ MORE
Silk Scarves
Military Milestones

 Bundesarchiv,Bild 146-1988-028-25A/CC-BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons

The Nazi mass murders of Canadian troops in WW II

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

On Dec. 28, 1945, Major-General Kurt Meyer was found guilty of war crimes for the massacre of 18 Canadians at Abbaye D’Ardenne in Normandy, France, shortly after D-Day in 1944.

Meyer commanded the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, arch-enemy of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division as it advanced inland from Juno Beach on June 7, 1944. Meyer had instructed his troops to retaliate against the Allies for the bombing of German cities.

The bulk of the 12th Panzer Division were Hitler Youth members aged 17-19. These fanatical teens were led by battle-hardened older officers who had fought with the 1st SS Panzer Division on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union and were inured to brutality. Old or young, these Nazis were not averse to murdering prisoners of war.

In 1943, correspondent John Hetherington reported on the “bestial young Nazi fanatics” captured in Italy. He recounted tales of PoWs who were taken to camps in Crete, Greece, being tortured by Hitler Youth guards.

 

 

READ MORE

Civilian death toll, Russian war crimes soar in Ukraine

Leave a reply

An item from Legion Magazine.
Front Lines
Stephen J thorne

Ukranian Ministry of Internal Affairs

Civilian death toll, Russian war crimes soar in Ukraine

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

The verified civilian death toll after more than nine months of war in Ukraine was approaching 7,000 last week, with more in the process of corroboration, independent monitors reported.

In a document released Dec. 5, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pegged the figure at 6,702, adding 10,479 civilians had been injured since Russian troops invaded the country on Feb. 24, 2022.

At least 424 of the dead were children, the office said in its monthly update.

“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes,” said the report, which covered developments through the month of November.

 

READ MORE
Silk Scarves
Military Milestones

 Danilo Krstanovic/Reuters/Alamy/2D1GJ50

Canadian peacekeepers challenged in the Balkans

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

Although nearly as many Canadian military personnel served in the long and bloody civil wars in the Balkans as the 40,000 deployed to the war in Afghanistan, Canadians are much less familiar with their service and sacrifice.

In the Balkans, the Canadian Armed Forces was involved in the heaviest infantry combat since the Korean War, and the most intense air combat since the Second World War.

The CAF first went to the troubled area in 1991, shortly after the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began to break up.

They went in as peacekeepers—but discovered there was no peace to keep.

 

READ MORE
Revera Retirement Living

From refilling prescriptions to getting expert advice from licensed pharmacists, Pocketpills offers a complete pharmacy experience from home over the holiday season. That means more time for wrapping presents, more time for making snowmen, and more time for family and friends.

Click the link below to see offers in your area or call 1-855-950-7225 and mention that you are a Legion member.

LEARN MORE