Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino
[From the Author’s personal collection: “Monte Cassino in the Clouds”, © Andrew C. Moffat]

The battles for the Mountain on which sat the Benedictine Monastery of Monte Cassino were vital to the Allies progress up the boot of Italy – but apart from Ortona they were also the most difficult and costly battles in the entire Italian Campaign. British, Canadian, American and Polish forces all suffered.

I had studied the Battle for Monte Cassino while attending the two-year Army Staff College ...

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History Lessons, Military, Nostalgia

Our Colonial Status

Our Colonial Status
[Original flag images © Claudio Divizia/Dollar Photo Club]

As a part of the British Empire we, like all others submitting to the Monarch, were referred to as “Colonials”. And so long as we were under the protection of Great Britain and bound to her both politically and economically, we held that subservient status.

Had it not been for the obstinacy of such as Sir Sam Hughes in 1914 and General AGL McNaughton in 1939, our forces would have been piecemeal absorbed ...

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Education, History Lessons, Military, Nostalgia, Opinion, Politics

Persons I have been privileged to know

Persons I have been privileged to know
[Original R.C.M.P. stamp image © Sam Spiro/Dollar Photo Club]

Sheer circumstance [or, as I personally choose to believe, “The hand of God”] has led me to meet a very wide range of people who have – at one time or another – had an impact on some part of our World.

This is not an ego-trip, for I had nothing to do with initiating these meetings: nor have any of them benefitted me or my career, other than through the impact ...

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History Lessons, Military, Nostalgia, Opinion

Veterans’ Support

Veterans’ Support
[Original image “Handicapped one-legged man walking on crutches” © Daddy Cool/Dollar Photo Club]

It is Veterans who made Canada and it is veterans who have given Canada international acceptance and recognition; and yet it is Veterans who are being ignored and all too often dishonoured by our government.

We are told that Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden’s 1914 Oath of Government support for Veterans now has no substance  and imposes no obligation on subsequent Governments – that our Government no longer ...

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History Lessons, In The News, Medical, Military, Opinion, Politics