"I never saw his equal for true grit... He lay all day with his body torn and bleeding, and it was only at night when the stretcher bearers could approach the trench to get out the wounded that he was carried away, and then he went last." The history of Canada is filled with charismatic and talented military leaders. Each of the men featured in this collection was wildly successful in business and used his private wealth to provide Canada with a military unit at its times of greatest need....

A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLERHad there been no Sam Steele, it has been observed, Hollywood would have had to invent him. Born into the comparative stability of the Victorian era's Pax Britannica, Steele lived to witness the postwar turmoil of the Lost Generation. From humble beginnings in what is now Bracebridge, Ontario, to his knighthood in England two years before his death in 1919, Steele's life epitomized the themes of personal adventure, servi...

Many of the airmen of the First Word War who challenged both the enemy and death did not survive. These are their stories.In the clinging mud and trench warfare of WWI, it was soon clear that the cavalry — the elite of the elite — would be of little use.The dashing men and officers of the cavalry searched for a way to be front and center in the conflict, and found it in the new air forces being established on both sides of the Western Front. Soon lances and sabres were repl...

Full-cast dramatisations of three of Noel Streatfeild's classic children's booksRising to fame with her 1936 novel Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild soon became one of the most popular authors of her day. She was one of the first winners of the Carnegie Medal and was awarded an OBE in 1983. She died in 1986, but her stories continue to captivate children today. Included here are three of her very best - Ballet Shoes, The Growing Summer and When t...

In early 1917 the war in the air intensified on the Western Front in France. Richthofen's deadly Jagdstaffel 11 was flying vastly superior Albatros and Halberstadt planes, with synchronized machine guns. Into the fray came 40 Squadron RFC with its problematic FE8s.No contest you would think, but the bravery and courage of men like Lionel Blaxland, Mick Mannock and their fellow pilots ensured the Germans did not have it all their own way.Author Peter McManus has been extreme...

When the Wright Brothers made their first flight in the early years of the twentieth century it sparked the imagination of those who wanted to fly, both in their country and around the world. In Britain, however, the spark wasn't strong enough to light a fire and it was in other parts of Europe, notably France, where flight began to develop seriously.Early pioneers of flight faced a high level of danger and many died in pursuit of fulfilling their dream. Although aircraft design had made i...

The story of HMCS Oakville, a corvette that fought U-boats in WWII and remains a hero to its hometown in Oakville, Ontario.This is an in-depth look at the history and legacy of HMCS Oakville, a Canadian World War II corvette that fought in the Battle of the Atlantic, and was one of the few corvettes to sink a U-boat. From its creation through its christening off the shores of its namesake town, its exploits at sea, the famous encounter with U9...

A military history analyzing the evolution of sniper warfare during WWI by the firearms expert and author of Eastern Front Sniper.From the sharpshooters of the American Civil War to Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, military snipers are legendary for their marksmanship and effectiveness in battle. The specialized role of the sniper developed among the ranks of the British Army over the course of World War I. As Martin Pegler shows in this wide-ranging study, the techn...

In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of aboriginal people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald’s "National Dream."It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between First Nations and non-Native populations, and the lingering racism and m...

"This concise and well-written book will serve as a valuable library addition for anyone interested in the naval activities of the Great War." —Sea ClassicsThe cruisers of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserlische Marine) were active throughout the First World War and saw action all around the globe, tying up valuable Allied naval resources out of all proportion to their number. Drawing on firsthand accounts and original research in German archives, the author here des...

This is the wartime history of the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign, along with the story of her four sister ships HMS Revenge, HMS Resolution, HMS Royal Oak and HMS Ramillies. These ships were built and launched during World War I and although old and slow, and bitterly criticised by Churchill and others as being "Coffin Ships", the Royal Sovereign class battleships in fact played a valiant and doughty role in World War II. The Royal Oak was an early loss, thanks mainly to pre-war Governmen...

During World War II St. John’s, Newfoundland played a critical role in the fight against Nazi Germany. Seamen from all over the world sailed to and from the old seaport, chosen for duty because it was closest to Europe and because its people knew both the peril and glory of the North Atlantic. In his introduction to this absorbing collection of stories, Bill Rompkey examines the city’s service to one of the most famous battles in military history and the effect it had on the people of St. ...