Juno Beach and Beyond

In the summer of 1998, the epic war film Saving Private Ryan was in theatres. Its portrayal of the American landings at Omaha Beach on D-Day hooked audiences for a story underlining American exceptionalism in the “good” war. In reflection, one Canadian journalist asked what the film would have been like had Canadians made it...

The Second World War was a war of peoples and machines. After the high blood price of the First World War, nations like Britain, the United States, and Canada turned to technology to defeat the Axis powers. Steel, not flesh was the mantra, and Canada became the fourth-largest Allied producer of war material. The Allies...

In the summer of 1945, the war in Europe was over, but the search for airmen who had gone missing over nearly six years had just begun. While hundreds of thousands of Canadian service personnel returned to Canada and demobilized, Canadians who had lost family and friends during the war grieved. Yet others held out...

Seventy-six years ago, Canadians participated in one of the most formative events of the 20th century. The airborne and seaborne landings in Normandy on June 6th 1944 saw American, British, Canadian and other Allied forces return to France to stay for the first time since 1940. D-Day was a great and tragic day. The success...

Canadians played a leading role in restoring freedom to the Dutch. It was arguably Canada’s finest hour. On May 5th 2020 (Liberation Day in the Netherlands) the Juno Beach Centre Association, Defining Moments Canada, and the Canadian Research and Mapping Association, supported by the Canadian War Museum, partnered on a webinar to commemorate the 75th...

In May 1945, the residents of Bay Bulls (and later, St. John’s), Newfoundland witnessed as a German submarine entered the harbour. The boat was U-190, and its crew had surrendered to vessels of the Royal Canadian Navy days before. Back on 16 April 1945, U-190 had torpedoed and sank HMCS Esquimalt, the last Canadian warship...

Editor’s note: this is the second of a two-part episode featuring an interview with Second World War veteran Don White. This episode focuses on Don’s memories of the liberation of the Netherlands. We covered Don’s early military career and his time in Italy in the previous episode entitled “Interviewing Don White”. Don’s daughters, Holly and...

Don White is 95 years old and full of energy. He is a Canadian Second World War veteran who saw fighting in Italy and the Netherlands with the Royal Canadian Dragoons. In recent years, Don has found himself at the centre of Canadian-Dutch commemorations of the end of the war in Europe.  We got in...

Almost 20 years ago, the TV miniseries Band of Brothers propelled parachute troops from the Second World War into our popular memory. Executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg told the story of a company of American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. Not for the first time, American star power and money helped to...

In February 1945, the First Canadian Army began its largest battle of the Second World War. Canadian, British, Belgian, Dutch, and American forces struck into the Rhineland, gateway to the Ruhr, Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland. With nearly a half-million Canadian and Allied troops under his command, General Harry Crerar commanded the largest military force ever...