Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets have been indiscriminate. Much of Eastern Europe is on elevated alert levels as the prospect of a wider war looms. [Ukrainian Ministry of Defence]

Nordic countries distribute booklets preparing populace for war

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

As the rhetoric escalates and violence spreads, Nordic countries have issued formal instructions to their citizenries on how to prepare for war and other crises.

“We live in uncertain times,” declares a Swedish government booklet distributed to households across the country. “Armed conflicts are currently being waged in our corner of the world.

“If Sweden is attacked, everyone must do their part to defend Sweden’s independence—and our democracy…. In this brochure, you learn how to prepare for, and act, in case of crisis or war.”

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• Shield maidens, night witches and Joan of Arc: women in combat go way back
• Heart of Oak, ships of steel
• In Toronto, a Korean War veteran remembers

Newfoundlanders at the their camp known as the “Beothuk,” in the south of Inverness, Scotland during WWII. [Bob Clarke/NOFU.ca]

The WW II contributions of Newfoundland’s foresters

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Just two months after the outbreak of the Second World War, despite having an abundance of woodlands, Britain found itself facing an acute timber shortage.

The reason was simple: too few loggers to meet increased demand.

A widespread absence of wooden frames to literally and figuratively prop up the nation’s coal-mining industry proved to be the most pressing challenge. Without that infrastructure in place, such a critical part of the war effort was under threat.

READ MORE

More from Military Milestones

• Remembering Canadian veteran and “In Flanders Field” poet John McCrae
• An un-Canadian welcome: The Scheldt opening ceremony of 1944
• Fighting the tide: The first Canadian Battle of Hill 355

Member Benefit Partner

Learn More

An American poster invoked Joan of Arc in rallying women to buy savings stamps during the First World War.

Shield maidens, night witches and Joan of Arc: women in combat go way back

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for defence secretary says women shouldn’t serve in military combat roles, ignoring decades of research and at least three millennia of actual practice.

“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles,” said Pete Hegseth, a Fox News political commentator and former National Guard officer.

“It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• Heart of Oak, ships of steel
• In Toronto, a Korean War veteran remembers
• North Korean army mobilizes in Russia-Ukraine war

John McCrae [Wikimedia]

Remembering Canadian veteran and “In Flanders Field” poet John McCrae

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae’s views of conflict had changed.

A veteran of the 1899-1902 Boer War, the Guelph, Ont., physician shipped out to South Africa with the imperialistic ideals of poet Rudyard Kipling in his head.

“I shall not pray for peace in our time,” he once wrote to his mother, Janet Simpson Eckford McCrae. “One campaign might cure me—but nothing else ever will.”

A year of overseas service with ‘D’ Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, did, in a sense, cure him. Largely gone were the romanticized beliefs that war was an adventure, replaced by the realities of life and death on South Africa’s unforgiving veldt.

READ MORE

More from Military Milestones

• An un-Canadian welcome: The Scheldt opening ceremony of 1944
• Fighting the tide: The first Canadian Battle of Hill 355
• In his blood: The life and death of Norman Bethune

Member Benefit Partner

Learn More