The evolution of war photography

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

In an age when technology limited most photography to static studio poses and bland, if not severe, countenances, Canadian army photographer William Rider-Rider elevated the art to a higher level under the most trying of circumstances.

Armed with a bulky 4×5 box camera, the lieutenant from London, England, captured striking images of Canadian soldiers in the trenches and among the ruins of First World War Europe. The locales, the faces and the circumstances humanize the history behind the photographs, bringing it to life as few did.

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Canadian leads coalition against Gadhafi

Story by Sharon Adams

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi responded harshly to opponents and citizens as the demonstrations of the Arab Spring devolved toward civil war in 2011. He vowed to eradicate them house by house.

To protect civilians, the United Nations called for a ceasefire and imposed a no-fly zone and 19 countries, led by NATO, intervened against Libyan military attacks and conducted a naval blockade.

The whole coalition effort—more than 20 warships and nearly 200 warplanes—was commanded by RCAF Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard.

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March 17-18, 1813

The British at Fort Erie, on the Niagara River, begin an artillery duel, firing across the Niagara River on Black Rock, N.Y.

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Battling the enemy and the weather

Story by Sharon Adams

In March 1945, after cloudy weather foiled a February bombing raid, Allied air forces zealously attacked Chemnitz, a major German industrial centre, 260 kilometres south of Berlin, close to the Austrian border. It was a rail junction with one of the largest Nazi railway repair shops.

After a three-day attack on the marshalling yards by U.S. bombers, British Bomber Command carried out four successive nights of raids.

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Games of war

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

I don’t know what it was that fascinated me about war when I was a kid, but I seemed to spend an awful lot of time immersed in its history, and myth, at a very young age. We all did. When not eating, sleeping or going to school, we baby-boomer kids spent most of the 1960s outdoors—riding bicycles, playing hockey in the street or on backyard rinks, and playing war.

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March 7, 1951

Second Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, assaults and secures Hill 532 in the Battle of Maehwa-San in South Korea; seven die and 37 are wounded.

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