Celebrants reflect an air of joyous optimism on New Year’s Eve 1945.

A Happy New Year 1945

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

While Allied troops fought hunger, bitter cold and advancing German forces in the forests of Belgium, a Movietone News reel appeared in North American theatres declaring the new year of 1945 “V-Year…the year of final victory.”

Indeed, things were looking up. U.S., British and Canadian forces had pulled off history’s largest seaborne invasion in June 1944, taken back France by Aug. 30, and liberated the Scheldt, securing access to the critical port of Antwerp, by November.

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Military historian David Borys specialized in studying the Canadian war experience and hosts the “Curious Canadian History” podcast. [David Borys]

Punching Above Our Weight: David Borys on the Canadian military’s evolution

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

David Borys, a Canadian military historian and faculty member at Vancouver’s Langara College, has released a new book entitled Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867. The tome charts the evolution of the Canadian armed forces from the country’s first post-Confederation conflicts to the world wars and beyond. Renowned historian J.L. Granatstein called the book “quick paced, well-researched, and well-illustrated.”

Borys spoke to Legion Magazine about writing it.

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Public access to the Central Archives of the Special Administration of Justice (CABR) was limited until Jan. 1, 2025. [Wikimedia]

Dutch name 425,000 suspected Nazi collaborators 80 years after Holocaust

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

The Netherlands National Archives is opening its files on some 425,000 suspected Nazi collaborators eight decades after the Holocaust took the lives of 102,000 Dutch Jews.

War In Court, a project of the Netherlands-based Huygens Institute, released list of the names online after a law restricting public access to the archive expired Jan. 1, 2025. The archives’ more detailed digitized files are expected to follow.

“This archive contains important stories for both present and future generations,” the institute said in a statement. “From children who want to know what their father did in the war, to historians researching the grey areas of collaboration.”

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Dick Averns, curator of “WITNESS: Histories of Conflict in the War Art of Bill MacDonnell” views two paintings at one of Alberta’s Military Museums. [Josie Chu]

Calgary exhibitions highlight the resonance of war art

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Alberta’s Military Museums, in partnership with the University of Calgary, have unveiled two temporary exhibitions with an evocative focus on war art. Housed at the Founders’ Gallery until Feb. 17, 2025, the first collection is entitled “Witness: Histories of Conflict in the War Art of Bill MacDonnell.”

Meanwhile, the second showcases a renowned regiment in “Far from Home: Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry 110 Years of Art.” Both explore the complexities of warfare through paint on canvas, inviting visitors to reflect on humanity at its very best and worst.

Curatorial co-ordinator Dick Averns spoke with Legion Magazine about both exhibits, as well as the role art plays in tell the story of war.

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