WWII Archives

WWII shoehorn finds its way home

By Barb Gonie – Pierceland, Sask. The cold wind howled at the window and I decided to work indoors as the hall closet needed cleaning. I pulled a dusty shoebox from the top shelf and [continue…]

Downpour followed a ‘perfect summer’s night’

By Art Johnston – Olds, Alta. In the war years, I was stationed at Mossbank, Sask. I played in the station band, so on weekend leave I would get a 72-hour pass instead of a [continue…]

Being a war ‘groom’ was the right decision

By Mary Lloynd – Abbotsford, B.C. Royal Air Force (RAF) serviceman, Henry Lloynd had to come all the way to Canada to discover his future and it would be me, way back when I was Mary [continue…]

Family forced off farm by government at war

By Fred Tarnasky – Medicine Hat, Alta. I was born in a farmhouse in Bessarabia, Russia in 1939. My father was born in 1908 and my mother in 1914. I was the firstborn to my parents [continue…]

WWII service took Canadian all over Europe

By Cecil Moffatt – Regina, Sask. After two years in the reserve army unit, I stepped forward and volunteered for active duty on July 10, 1941. A full medical and service registration came next. I was issued [continue…]

War’s outbreak saw mother left to raise six in a one-room house

By Angele Dalby – Penticton, B.C. When the Second World War began, the young men and women who were conscripted or volunteered went off to war. After a short training session they were shipped overseas [continue…]

RAF airmen welcomed into hearts and home

By Mary Olson – Athabasca, Alta. I was six to 12 years old during WWII and remember quite a bit that went on here in Alberta during the war years. The Royal Air Force (RAF) Flying [continue…]

“Goose Squadron” fell from the night sky

By Patty Haun Roos – Victoria, B.C. My grandma always talked about her younger brother Rudy and how his plane was shot down by the Germans in WWII. She said that was the day her whole [continue…]

Many people collected bones for the war effort

By Phil Leidl – Kelowna, B.C. I was seven years old, growing up in Leipzig, Sask., when the military put out a call for animal bones. It was WWII and the bones were being collected [continue…]

We fed WWII soldiers home on leave

By Margaret Albers – Weyburn, Sask. As I get older, my thoughts go back to the first years ofd married life in the Garville School District near Bengough, Sask. We spent the first year living in [continue…]

To the present generation, our past is ‘just a story’

By Anne (Kurkowsky) Cohoon – Wilberforce, Ont. My brother, Michael Kurkowsky, was a soldier. He was born on a farm north of the village of Hyas in east-central Saskatchewan, and attended Lake Helen School. During the [continue…]

Thrilling hang-gliding flight taken at 80

By George Hennessy – Falkland, B.C. I was born in January 1918 to pioneer parents on their homestead farm, 12 miles southwest of historic Battleford, Sask. Mother, as a young woman, walked (mostly behind a covered [continue…]

‘I observed enemy aircraft in the area’

By Robert Hislop – Shellbrook, Sask. I joined the army, light infantry, in Saskatoon on Nov. 18, 1941. I was Private L3017. I took basic training in Saskatoon and Jolliette, Quebec. I celebrated my 21st birthday [continue…]

RCAF Women’s Division 1945

Personnel of the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division stationed at No.6 Operational Training Unit (Royal Canadian Airforce Schools and Training Units), RCAF Comox, British Columbia, April 24, 1945. – Photographer unknown / Canada. Dept. [continue…]