The Memory Project: News

Thanking Veterans Goes On

May 22, 2013 Blog Alex Herd

One of the many letters schoolchildren write to our veterans, expressing their gratitude for their service and sacrifice.

Through our Thank a Veteran Letter Campaign, the Memory Project encourages Canadian students of all ages to say thank you by writing a letter to one of Canada’s veterans featured in the Memory Project Archive.

Victory in Europe!

May 8, 2013 Blog The Memory Project/Le Projet Mémoire

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Photo taken on V-E Day in New York Harbor. Robert Pickering.

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On May 8, 1945 German forces surrendered in Europe, ending the Second World War in that theatre.

Pro Patria - The Battle of Hill 187 - 60 Years On

May 3, 2013 Blog Andrea Quaiattini

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Ralph Verge

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2-3 May mark the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Hill 187, the Canadian Army’s last major battle of the Korean War. Over the course of the night of 2-3 May 1953, “A” and “C” Companies of 3rd Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment (3 RCR) endured constant enemy shellfire and wave after wave of enemy troop assaults on their positions.

Communities in Dialogue: A human library in Winnipeg

May 3, 2013 Blog Maddy Macnab

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Major Karl-Hans Désilets transported students around the globe with stories of his many flying missions as an RCAF pilot.

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“It’s going to be winter,” my colleague Brandy, a native Winnipegger, cautioned. We heard this admonition again and again as we made preparations for our Winnipeg event. “We’re snowed in,” one of our speakers told me. “It’s minus 19!” lamented another. Suitably warned, we arrived on March 20th, along with our colleagues from our sister speakers bureau, Passages to Canada, bundled up like arctic explorers. The verdict? Sure, Winnipeg was pretty cold; but everywhere we went, the warm reception we received more than made up for it.

Black May and the Battle of the Atlantic

May 2, 2013 Blog Alex Herd

Updated Focus On the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War! Click here

Rear-Admiral Leonard Warren Murray, CB, CBE, RCN. Courtesy Department of National Defence.

May 2013 marks the 70th anniversary of “Black May” – May 1943, the turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic, when German U-boats suffered their greatest losses against Allied naval forces in the Second World War. Allied technical and tactical developments – including the ability of aircraft to ensure full protection of convoys across the ocean – also resulted in a significant decline in Allied shipping losses.

Feature of the Week: The Battle of Kap'yong

Apr 23, 2013 Blog Alex Herd

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry cross a log bridge in Korea in February 1951. John McCall is the soldier sixth from the front of the column. John McCall.

22-25 April marks the anniversary of the Battle of Kap'yong in 1951, when 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, along with Australian, British, and New Zealand troops, stopped an enemy offensive in the hills of Korea.

Artefact of the Week

Apr 22, 2013 Blog The Memory Project/Le Projet Mémoire

CBC's Normand Eaves (standing) and Norman McBain (kneeling) interview Lieutenant-Colonel Jacques Dextraze, commanding officer, 2nd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment in Korea.

Remembering Joseph Wilson, The Last Survivor of HMCS Esquimalt

Apr 16, 2013 Blog The Memory Project/Le Projet Mémoire

In April 2012, Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Esquimalt requested the audio recording and artefacts of Joseph Wilson, a veteran interviewed by the Memory Project. Wilson was the last living survivor of the sinking of the warship HMCS Esquimalt at the end of the Second World War before he passed away in January 2012. CFB Esquimalt was putting together a video on Wilson’s commemoration and burial at sea and asked for any material the Memory Project could share and the Memory Project was happy to oblige.