Ernie Verhulst (Part 1):
A wide-eyed boy in Rotterdam, May 1940

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Ernie Verhulst’s first glimpse of the Luftwaffe came on May 10, 1940. He was eight years old and the significance of the Nazi advance across Europe had not been lost on anyone in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

His parents and their neighbours in the rowhouses around the city’s Charlois district had prepared for the German invasion, taping windows and cutting gates into their garden walls to facilitate escape routes in case of bombardment.

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Canadians take island on the Maas River

At the battle of Kapelsche Veer on the Maas River in the Netherlands Jan. 26-31, 1945, it was as though hell had frozen over.

After failed attacks by the Polish and British, the 4th Canadian Armoured Division was ordered to destroy the German position on the island of Kapelsche Veer.

The island was small—only eight kilometres long and less than two at its widest. But its faces were steep angles, the southern side protected by dikes wide and high, with German defensive positions built in and machine guns covering all approaches.

It was only a tiny bridgehead, but it gave the Germans a fine place to observe Allied movement and to fire into Allied positions.

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January 25, 1900

Nursing sisters receive the rank and pay of lieutenants.

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The folly of militarizing space

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

The International Space Station has been manned by 220 people from 17 countries since 2000, including six Canadians on eight missions. It is a shining star in the annals of borderless co-operation and the peaceful pursuit of knowledge. A “space force” conjures up images of The Thunderbirds, the marionette-driven 1960s television series whose (unintentionally) comical if not earnest puppets comprised a force of privately funded do-gooders operating on land, sea and in outer space. The reality would inevitably be somewhat less altruistic and peace-fostering.

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The Gulf War begins

The Persian Gulf War began on Jan. 16-17, 1991, when a coalition of 35 countries under the United Nations came together to push Iraq out of Kuwait.

Iraq invaded on Aug. 2, 1990, claiming Kuwaiti oil rigs were tapping into Iraqi oil fields and that Kuwait was really a part of Iraq.

Canadian warships were dispatched within weeks. The Canadian commander, Captain Duncan (Dusty) Miller, became co-ordinator of multinational naval combat logistics.

United Nations warnings escalated until January, when Iraq ignored an ultimatum to withdraw, and the UN Security Council authorized coalition countries to liberate Kuwait.

More than 4,000 Canadian Armed Forces members served on HMC ships Terra Nova, Athabaskan and Protecteur, and in 1991 and ’92, with Huron and Restigouche; on U.S. hospital ships and with 1 Canadian Field Hospital in the Saudi Arabian desert; at Canadian headquarters in Bahrain; and in communications, logistical and security support roles.

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January 16, 1920

In Paris, the League of Nations Council meets for the first time.

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