Victory by chocolate

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Ah, chocolate. Milk, dark, sweet, semi-sweet—no matter. For soldiers in the field, it has for centuries been respite, fuel source, even currency that bought service, purchased lives, symbolized peace and goodwill, and enlisted hearts and minds.

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Travels of a wounded soldier

Story by Sharon Adams

At noon on Jan. 17, 1917, a group of comrades were eating a lunch of bully beef and hardtack near Vimy, France, when their dugout was damaged by German shelling.

Their work was cut out for them. They needed a new dugout “so we will have a place for the night,” Private Harry Morris wrote home in a letter to his family, published online by the Canadian Letters and Images Project (http://www.canadianletters.ca).

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January 28, 1986

Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
All seven astronauts on board are killed, including teacher Christa McAuliffe.

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That thing that happened after
the Battle of Bladensburg

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

The War of 1812 was at its peak and the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, was ending in a British victory just northeast of Washington, D.C.

It was August 1814. In a few months, the war would be over. But now the American capital was in a frenzy. British troops were gathering on the horizon and the Battle of Washington was about to begin.

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Convoy duty aboard HMCS Port Arthur

Story by Sharon Adams

It’s fair to say Harvey Douglas Burns did not know what lay in store when he left the merchant marine and joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942.

Sailors in the merchant navy had cabins, shared with one shipmate. After joining the crew of HMCS Port Arthur, he asked a shipmate where he was going to sleep. “Do you see them bars up there? That’s where you hang your hammock.”

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January 20, 2004

Some 2,000 Canadian troops leave CFB Valcartier, Que., for Afghanistan.

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