Huge Boston Christmas tree
an annual gift from Nova Scotia

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Family and cultural ties between Nova Scotia and New England have always been strong. To this day, you’d swear by the accents along parts of Nova Scotia’s South Shore that you were in Maine or Massachusetts.

A half-century after Confederations, when the munitions ship Mont-Blanc blew up in Halifax Harbour after colliding with the relief vessel Imo on Dec. 6, 1917, it was Bostonians and the people of Massachusetts who led the way in flooding the city with aid and supplies. They were also among the last to leave.

As a thank you, Nova Scotia sends Boston a Christmas tree each year. It is decorated and lit during an elaborate ceremony on the Boston Common on the first Thursday after each American Thanksgiving.

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Japan advances on Hong Kong

Story by Sharon Adams

In late 1941, Japan began its war against the West, attacking the American base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, invading Malaya the next day, and marching on Hong Kong.

Canada had dispatched the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles from Quebec City to join 14,000 Allied defence troops in the Hong Kong garrison. They arrived on Nov. 16, undertrained, poorly armed and without their transport and heavy equipment.

They were told there were only 5,000 ill-equipped and badly supplied Japanese troops nearby, which was far from the case: 52,000 seasoned, heavily armed Japanese invaders launched their assault on Hong Kong on Dec. 18.

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December 17, 1992

Canada ends 29 years of continuous service in the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.
The mission formally ends in 1993. More than 25,000 Canadians served on the
Mediterranean island since 1964, and nearly 30 died.

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The death of a poet and fighter pilot

Story by Sharon Adams

On Dec. 11, 1941, a 19-year-old pilot died in England. He had been in service only 10 weeks, had seen combat only once, and as far as anyone knows, inflicted no damage on the enemy. But he will never be forgotten as long as there are pilots who want to slip the surly bonds of Earth and chase the wind on silvered wings through footless halls of air.

The pilot was John Gillespie Magee Jr., author of “High Flight,” the official poem of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force.

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Capture of 22-metre transatlantic narco-sub
marks new era in war on drugs

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Spanish authorities recently captured a 22-metre submarine after its three crewmen transported US$121-million worth of cocaine 7,700 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean from Colombia, then scuttled it and ran.

It’s the biggest narcotics submarine ever found, and the first confirmed to have transported drugs from the Americas to Europe, signalling what experts have characterized as a new era in the distribution of illicit drugs.

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December 10, 1943

In Italy, Brigadier Bertram M. Hoffmeister orders the Loyal Edmonton Regiment
to push on to the Cider Crossroads, a key intersection near Ortona.

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