Elinor Florence's Blog, page 20
February 25, 2014
Hats, Helmets and Headgear
Fifty thousand Canadian women joined the armed forces in wartime. But even while battling the Third Reich, they still wanted to look their best. Since they were forced to wear the same hat every day for years, style was crucial. So which branch of the armed forces had the most flattering headgear? You be the judge.
February 18, 2014
Memories of Maxwell Cassidy
When Janet Mears of Australia started searching for information about her great-uncle Maxwell Cassidy, killed in a 1944 training accident in Canada, the results were astonishing. Not only did she discover that Max had been in love, she found the Canadian girl he left behind – alive and well, and eager to share her memories. That girl is my mother.
February 11, 2014
Twenty Wonderful Wartime Weddings
Was there ever a period in history when romance was so exciting, so terrifying, and yet so wonderful as during wartime? The men were so handsome in their uniforms, and the women so desireable. No wonder thousands of passionate love affairs and weddings took place during those heady years.
February 4, 2014
Canada: a Perilous
Place for a Pilot
On September 8th, 1944, an RCAF aircraft was flying near the air training base at North Battleford, Saskatchewan when it went into a spin. Killed was Flight-Sergeant William Hashim, aged 24. His passenger was almost certainly the only woman in the RCAF to die in an air crash while on duty: Leading Aircraftwoman and photographer Muriel Almyra North, aged 21.
Canada: a perilous
place for a pilot
On September 8th, 1944, an RCAF aircraft was flying near the air training base at North Battleford, Saskatchewan when it went into a spin. Killed was Flight-Sergeant William Hashim, aged 24. His passenger was almost certainly the only woman in the RCAF to die in an air crash while on duty: Leading Aircraftwoman and photographer Muriel Almyra North, aged 21.
January 28, 2014
Ten Flyer Flicks Worth Watching
Here’s my top ten list of wartime aviation movies – beginning with one that hasn’t even been made yet! The Mighty Eighth, to be produced by Steven Spielberg, is a planned new miniseries featuring the young men who flew B-17 bombers in the U. S. Eighth Air Force.
January 21, 2014
The Bracelet Mystery
Whose wrist did this lovely little bracelet adorn? The mystery surfaced after I wrote a post called Letters From a Lonely Airman, about a young navigator named Jim Barnes from Battleford, Saskatchewan, who died on a bombing raid over Germany. I asked readers for more information about him, and Emily Tucker of North Battleford sent me this photograph of a bracelet bearing the name "Barnes, J.M.J."
January 14, 2014
The Reluctant Bomb Aimer
“I won’t go! I’m not going!” Bomber pilot Edmund Kluczny (nicknamed “Captain Cool” by his crew) was horrified when he heard his bomb aimer’s outburst. Tonight’s target would take them deep into Germany’s heavily-defended industrial area. The pilot needed his crew inside their Lancaster and ready for takeoff, but the bomb aimer was refusing to get on board. This was a problem that Captain Cool needed to solve, and fast!
January 7, 2014
Best Wartime Fiction
Wartime novels make great reading. Since I’m less concerned with military strategy, and more interested in how war affects people’s hearts and minds, my favourite wartime fiction is laden with drama and romance. Here are some of the best.
December 30, 2013
Brotherly Love
For almost one hundred years, a story has circulated in our family about how my grandfather Charlie, right, was saved from certain death on the battlefields of France during the Great War by his younger brother Jack, left. But several family members have expressed skepticism about whether it really happened.
