Tag Archives: Legion Magazine

WHILE QUANTITIES LAST—End of Summer Clearance CONTINUES!

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Celebrating Canada Stainless Steel Flask

Canvas Sling Bag - Oh the places we’ll go

Celebrating Canada Canadian Wildlife Notebook and Pen Combo

Rare birds: The Canada Aviation and Space Museum’s WW I collection

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum’s First World War aircraft collection is considered among the best in the world. It includes multiple one-of-a-kind and rare period planes. [Stephen J. Thorne/LM]

Rare birds: The Canada Aviation and Space Museum’s WW I collection

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Just a decade after the Wright brothers achieved history’s first powered flight, the airplane had become a weapon of war and the focus of an arms race.

Warplanes started out as rudimentary aircraft with open cockpits and limited instrumentation. Pilots, quite literally, flew by the seat of their pants—without parachutes.

The aviation industry was in rapid growth, in constant evolution, improving designs and performance.

Jules Paivio, the last Canadian veteran of the Spanish Civil War, was granted honourary citizenship by Spain in 2012. [TheBeretProject]

My son in Spain: Canada’s last combat veteran of the Spanish Civil War

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

What began beside a family cabin in Sudbury, Ont., appeared to be ending against the bullet-ridden wall of a faraway Spanish farmhouse.

Jules Paivio, a 20-year-old Finnish Canadian of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (the Mac-Paps), watched on as his Italian captors, aligned with the enemy’s Nationalist forces, prepared a firing squad. Together with other prisoners, the 15th International Brigade volunteer pondered his fate.

His birthday was at the end of the month—on April 30, 1938—but he couldn’t imagine living to see it. Such was the brutality of the Spanish Civil War.

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BIG SAVINGS—End of Summer Clearance NOW ON!

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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True North Strong and Free Picnic Blanket

Canadian Wildlife Notebook and Pen Combo – Grin. Bear it. Take notes.

In days of yore: How WW I rivals revived chivalry in war

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Captain Gerald Gibbs (left) and his observer pose with the German aircrew (centre) Gibbs shot down, then treated to dinner. Two weeks later, one of the Germans sent him fan mail asking for his autograph.(BNPS)

In days of yore: How WW I rivals revived chivalry in war

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

There are few rivals in war who have shared the mutual regard and respect, even camaraderie, as those who flew aircraft during the First World War.

Theirs was a singular experience, the scale and intimacy of which were unique in the annals of conflict, even aviation, before or since. With it, a new chivalric tradition, vestiges of which persist to this day, was born.

Blazing trails in the skies in bare-bones, canvas-and-wood airplanes, they fought mano a mano, skill to skill, often just metres apart. And mostly without parachutes.

HMSC Oakville near Nova Scotia 1943.(Wikimedia)

Oakville’s Gamble: A Canadian Corvette vs. U-94

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Between 1942 and 1943, on behalf of the Canadian government, Hubert Rogers used his skills in comic book style writing and animating to create propaganda posters the eye-catching tagline such as, “Men of Valor: They Fight for You.”

Produced in both English and French while covering all three branches of the armed forces, one such poster highlighted the efforts of HMCS Oakville—particularly the heroics of seamen Hal Lawrence and Art Powell—in the attempted capture and eventual sinking of U-94 on Aug. 28, 1942.

On that fateful late summer day, the Flower-class Corvette had joined other Allied vessels, including HMCS Halifax and HMCS Snowberry, in escorting Canadian oil tankers through the Caribbean as part of convoy TAW-15.

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