Descending on Dawson Creek, British Columbia in the early spring of 1942, the Alaska Highway building soldiers of the United States Army came as a complete and very sudden surprise. Link to another story “Dawson Creek and the North Country” Trappers Rose Mould and her husband left their cabin one morning to walk their trap …
Tag Archives: Northern Canada
Singing and Laughing at Their Work
Singing at their work? Twichell never expected to see and hear that. But he did. Southern Sector commander O’Connor, convinced by his black soldiers’ performance at Sikanni Chief that they could build bridges, gave them more bridges to build, made bridge building something of a specialty for the 95th. Link to the last story in …
Morale Leads the 95th to Sikanni Chief
Morale among the black soldiers of the misused and abused 95th Engineers confronted their new commander, Lt. Colonel Heath Twichell, with his biggest problem and he proposed to fix it. Link to the last story in this series “Pink Mountain and the 95th” The Army, Twichell knew, considered his new troops substandard; didn’t trust them …
Pink Mountain and the 95th
Pink Mountain took five soldiers from the 95th the very day Lt. Colonel Twichell replaced their disgraced commander, Colonel Newman. Twichell inherited major problems—disorganization, dismal morale, lack of a real mission. But before he could turn to those issues he had to deal with the immediate crisis. Link to Another story on the 95th “Rushed …
Dieppe
Dieppe, a port city in Northern France, offered the Allies an opportunity. Their German enemy controlled the entire continent, and to win the war the Allies would sooner or later have to make a successful amphibious attack. A raid on Dieppe would test equipment, teach valuable lessons, and make a serious dent in Germany’s continental …
Canada Went to War Early
Canada declared war on Germany when Great Britain did in 1939. And the first important Canadian contributions happened in the air. The Royal Canadian Air Force established an air training command in Canada to train pilots from Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand—and, of course, Canada. And Canada paid hundreds of millions to support it. …
Grievous Error–Mine
Grievous errors, I commit them all too often. Here’s my latest. I’ve told you stories about Carcross Yukon many times, it’s a fascinating place. But until now I’ve completely ignored the town’s most famous and important citizen–Polly the Foul Mouthed Parrot. I apologize, and I am here tonight to correct that error or at least …
We Fought the Road and A Different Race
We Fought the Road and now A Different Race tell an important and fascinating story that too many people don’t know. In early 1942 the rampaging Empire of Japan advanced on America through the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. America couldn’t get enough men and material to Alaska to defend it without a land route from …
Murder on the Yukon
Murder? The last thing on the minds of Fred Clayson, Lynn Relfe, and Lawrence Olson as they spent Christmas morning walking down the bank of the Yukon. A couple of hours later and a few kilometers away, their nude corpses floated under the Yukon ice. Information included came from Michael Gates’ book The link will …
Sometimes Funny
Sometimes funny, the exploits of bush pilot Les Cook on the Alaska Highway Project make great stories. Most stories portray Les as a hero. Cook flew when no one else could or would. He and his plane saved lives. Cook’s plane brought food, mail, emergency equipment and doctors to places no other mode of transportation …