Legion Magazine

02/15/2025

02/15/2025

Former defence chief Walter Natynczyk: Now Officer of the Order of Canada

On Dec. 18, 2024, Governor General Mary Simon announced the appointment of 88 individuals to the Order of Canada. Among them was retired general Walter Natynczy

02/14/2025

The Royal Canadian Legion is woven into the very fabric of Canada and has touched many lives over generations, from our grandparents to our children. At community events, weddings, receptions, and at gatherings of Remembrance, the Legion has been a place where memories are made, and Canadians come together as one. Our branches remain cornerstones in our communities, symbols of who we are—strong, proud, united, and ready to serve. This legacy has defined us for nearly a century. Honour that history and keep that connection alive. Stand with the Legion—it’s a very Canadian thing to do.

Join today at www.legion.ca/join-us

02/13/2025

Legion Magazine wins silver for Best Blog Column at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards in Toronto!

02/13/2025

Legion Magazine wins Gold for Best Photo Journalism at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards in Toronto!

02/12/2025

Talk may be cheap but, when it comes to war, words matter. From declaration to surrender, wars begin and end with words: they provoke, commit, inspire, motivate, reassure and mislead.

Mislead, indeed. Perhaps conflict’s most telling and well-known quotation is “the first casualty of war is the truth,” variously attributed to the Greek dramatist Aeschylus circa 550 BC, English writer Samuel Johnson in 1758, and U.S. Senator Hiram Warren Johnson in 1918. Regardless, truer words were never spoken.

Tough talk is a fundamental tenet of war speak, but as he stood in Spain one day in 1809 and cast his eyes over the ragged levies that were to carry him through his peninsular campaign against the French, Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley—the Duke of Wellington—spoke plainly and honestly of what stood before him.

  Talk may be cheap but, when it comes to war, words matter. From declaration to surrender, wars begin and end with words: they provoke, commit, inspir

02/10/2025

Chris Snider was a 21-year-old second lieutenant commanding 8 Platoon, ‘C’ Company, 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, when his 10-man patrol came under fire from Chinese mortars ensconced in the hills facing them.
It was the night of April 25, 1953, and Snider had detected opposing troops approaching them in the no man’s land that formed the border between the Koreas.
The war was nearly three years old and Snider, a U.S.-born, Oakville, Ont.-raised Canadian army volunteer, had become accustomed to the whiz of rifle and machine-gun rounds zooming past and the randomness of the shells dropping in from above.

The patrol was hunkered down between the berms of a rice paddy. The rest of the battalion was well behind them. The artillery batteries were farther back still.

In Toronto, a Korean War veteran remembers

02/10/2025

With no domestic institution interested, Roméo Dallaire’s archives head to the U.S.

Retired lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire is a Canadian military icon. When he decided to donate his vast collection of letters, memos, documents and recordings in September 2024, no Canadian institution, not Library and Archives Canada or his alma mater the Royal Military College of Canada, was apparently interested in the archives. But, the United States Military Academy West Point in New York was and, thus, those Canadians who want to research the first-person accounts of the career of this extraordinary man have to go to the U.S. to do so. This is the very definition of irony.

With no domestic institution interested, Roméo Dallaire’s archives head to the U.S.

02/08/2025

in 1945, the First Canadian Army launched Operation Veritable, an offensive attack that would assist in the Liberation of the Netherlands.

Their mission? Secure the west bank of the Rhine River. Progress was not easy, but the Canadians and Allies were successful after weeks of fighting.

This year, we mark the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands and retrace the steps to the end of the .

Learn more: https://ow.ly/l4Ky50UUmTV

📸:

02/08/2025

Bullets, beans and mouse holes: Talking urban operations with Major Jayson Geroux

Major Jayson Geroux is an infantry officer with The Royal Canadian Regiment, an urban operations instructor and an urban warfare historian. He served in Bosnia-Herzegovina (in the former Yugoslavia) and Afghanistan, where he participated in the April 2012 Battle of Kabul.
Geroux is recognized as a leading voice in urban warfare training. His expertise extends to academics, having received an master’s degree in military history from the University of New Brunswick. His thesis discussed the 1943 Battle of Ortona.

Here, Geroux offers his insights on the world of urban operations.

Major Jayson Geroux is an infantry officer with The Royal Canadian Regiment, an urban operations instructor and an urban warfare historian. He served in Bosnia-

02/07/2025

Operation Elephant was a daring Second World War attack made by the First Canadian Army. The objective was to clear a strong defensive German position on a small island in the Netherlands, known as Kapelsche Veer.

The Canadians embarked on their mission in four-person canoes, in the frigid, winter waters.

When it came time to attack, soldiers in the canoes were hindered by thick ice, fast moving water and muddy shores, causing their snowsuits to become wet and heavy.

Despite the difficult conditions, the Canadians eventually won the battle in 1945, when they forced the German paratroopers to evacuate the island.

This year, we will retrace the steps to liberation and mark the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands and the end of the .

Learn more: https://ow.ly/tbH350UQpOU

📸: Library and Archives Canada