The Princess Patricias hold the line

Story by Sharon Adams

The first Battle of Ypres in 1914, during Germany’s race to the sea at the start of the First World War, created an eight-kilometre bulge in the front northeast of Ypres, Belgium. Within this salient, Allied lines were surrounded on three sides by German-held territory.

The salient was a thorn the Germans intended to remove from their side, fighting four battles between April 22 and May 13, 1915, together known as the Second Battle of Ypres.

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Choose our cover for the next issue of Legion Magazine!

Among its many features, the July/August 2020 issue of Legion Magazine will explore the aftermath of a destroyed Europe and how its people chose to remember, rebuild and recover. Help choose our cover! Cast your vote, give us your opinion and share with your friends on social media!

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German U-boat crews abandoned
plans to scuttle, surrender instead

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

It was a cloudy afternoon on May 13, 1945, when four Canadian navy ships intercepted U-889 some 250 kilometres southeast of Cape Race, N.L. The patrol aircraft that discovered the steaming German submarine circled overhead.

The war had been over less than a week and all German U-boats had been ordered to cease offensive operations, even before the surrender was formalized.

Almost three-quarters of the Unterseeboot crews had died during the war—an unheard of 28,000 of 40,000 men, many of whom fell victim to technologies that outpaced their own. The surrender order no doubt came as bittersweet relief to many in a service that had diminished from primarily volunteer to increasingly pressed crews.

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May 13, 1945

German submarine U-889 surrenders to the Royal Canadian Navy near Shelburne, N.S.

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RELEASED TODAY!
Military Moments | Liberation of the Netherlands
Narrated by The Honourable Roméo Dallaire

Tuesday, May 5, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands in the Second World War, and Legion Magazine has released a new web video to mark the event.

Lieutenant-General (ret) The Honourable Roméo Dallaire narrates this instalment of the award-winning web video series Military Moments.

The Liberation of the Netherlands web video takes viewers back to the German invasion and occupation of Holland, depicting the terrible hunger and hardship inflicted on the Dutch by Nazi Germany and detailing how Allied forces—led by Canada—liberated the country. From September 1944 to April 1945, Canada played a key role in ending the Second World War, as Allied forces closed in on Germany from all sides.

Dallaire was born in Denekamp, Netherlands, in 1946, and his family immigrated to Canada when he was six months old. He is a Canadian general, senator, humanitarian, author and statesman. He served as commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1993-94, and subsequently founded The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers. He has also been a prominent advocate for veterans with PTSD.

For the past five years, Legion Magazine has worked with notable Canadians in sharing Canada’s history in the web video series Military Moments. These educational videos have featured a stellar roster of narrators, including Dan Aykroyd, William Shatner, Mike Myers, Alex Trebek, David Suzuki, Gordon Pinsent, The Honourable Mayann Francis, Linden MacIntyre, Alan Doyle, Barry Pepper and the late Leonard Cohen. Military Moments is available on the Legion Magazine YouTube channel.

WATCH VIDEO