War Stories

An interactive map of the Hussars’ journey is available here. Introduction After a grand trip to the tiny country of San Marino, my daughter Rachel and I were back on the trail of Uncle Norm Kightley of the 8th Hussars in the River Battles that raged from mid September 1944 until the Canadians were recalled to Europe in February 1945. After fighting their way through the mountains for the entire Italian Campaign, once Rimini was taken it was supposed to be great tank country

Introduction This Easter, Rachel and I visited Italy, spending the week in the beach town of Rimini. Throughout our travels we have reached an exchange rate of competing interests, this trip we negotiated two days of battlefield touring in exchange for one tiny country. Rachel is on a quest to visit all the tiny countries of Europe, so most of our tours involve at least one tiny country. This trip included a visit to San Marino, a teeny mountain top town that is completely em

November 5 th , 2024, was an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day in the US Military Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. I visited the cemetery to pay my respects in hopes that the 10,000 souls in the cemetery who had given their lives for freedom could somehow be called upon to preserve democracy once again. The cemetery has over 8,300 burials and a further 1,722 names inscribed on the tablets to the missing and I sat on a bench in the middle of the immaculate grounds urg