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Operation Husky - The Invasion of Sicily
During our tour of Malta, we went to the Lascaris War Rooms, where the British controlled the air defence of Malta. The same location was...
pd-allen
Feb 1024 min read
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The Siege of Malta
Malta was the most heavily bombed country in the Second World War. The history of Malta is fascinating and the struggles the island and...
pd-allen
Jan 2726 min read
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Historic Malta
As part of the deal that has allowed me to explore the battlefields from Rachel’s base in Maastricht, Netherlands while she teaches at...
pd-allen
Jan 1014 min read
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JN954 Crash at Maastricht
Background I was looking for something else and came across a number of RCAF aircrew who are buried in the Maastricht General Cemetery,...
pd-allen
Nov 30, 202417 min read
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Private Percy Mervyn At the Leopold Canal
Early Years Percy Ivan Mervyn was born on February 20, 1925, to Albert Mervyn and Dorothy Mittie Dickson in Sault Ste Marie. He was their...
pd-allen
Nov 26, 202415 min read
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Canadian Liberation March
This year was the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belgium and the Netherlands and the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Liberation...
pd-allen
Nov 10, 202415 min read
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D-Day Gold Beach
My next stop on the D-Day tour was Gold Beach, the British Beach in the centre of the D-Day landings. Gold Beach had 4 sectors, but due...
pd-allen
Oct 30, 202411 min read
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D-Day Juno Beach
As I continued on my Normandy Tour, I took a one-day Canadian Beaches and inland tour. I had been to Juno beach before but felt since the...
pd-allen
Oct 27, 202410 min read
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D-Day The US Beaches
US Beaches I hadn’t visited any US D-Day beaches during my previous visit to Normandy, so I decided to take a one-day tour of the...
pd-allen
Oct 24, 202414 min read
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Final Flight for Robert McKenzie
Back Story During a recent visit to Normandy, I visited a number of locations associated with Flight Lieutenant Robert McKenzie, a...
pd-allen
Oct 11, 202416 min read
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Battle of the Scheldt - North
The exploration of the Battle of the Scheldt continued, looking at the Action on the Northern Bank. Fortunately, I did not have to sleep...
pd-allen
Oct 10, 20249 min read
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Battle of the Scheldt - Southern Bank
Thanks to a teacher girls’ weekend in Milan, Rachel’s car and I got to spend some time exploring the Battle of the Scheldt, a major...
pd-allen
Oct 8, 20249 min read
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Operation Market Garden
As part of the 80th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden there was a demonstration of the parachute drop at Eerde, just north of...
pd-allen
Sep 26, 20247 min read
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Liberation of the Netherlands
I was fortunate to arrive back in the Netherlands in time for celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Limburg...
pd-allen
Sep 25, 20246 min read
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War Stories of the Rich and Famous
A question about this map from a post about the Canadians at Second Ypres led to the fascinating story of two grandfathers in the Great...
pd-allen
Sep 4, 202412 min read
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Rachel Tours Cambrai
On our last day of touring, we worked our way back south of Arras before heading back home to Maastricht. Monchy-le-Preux Our first stop...
pd-allen
Jun 14, 202410 min read
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Rachel Tours Arras
After a good day on the Somme, we headed up to Arras for Part Deux of the Rachel Battlefield Tour. Rob Wolsey, a Canadian Battlefield...
pd-allen
Jun 5, 202413 min read
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Rachel Tours The Somme
After listening to my war stories and some dedicated blog reading, Rachel decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about, so on...
pd-allen
May 30, 202412 min read
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Canadians at Passchendaele - Oct - Nov 1917
This tour is taken is following Norm Christie’s excellent series for King and Empire. The Battle of Passchendaele, episode 4, in his For...
pd-allen
May 27, 202412 min read
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4 comments


Canadians at Mont Sorrel - June 1916
The next stop on my tour of Ypres was the Battle of Mont Sorrel, 2-13 Jun 1916. As with other tours, this adventure is following Norm...
pd-allen
May 23, 20249 min read
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