Introduction I had visited Normandy several times, so this time, I concentrated on major German Defensive installations along the Normandy coast that I had not previously seen. I also threw in the British Normandy memorial. They have a seasonal display called Standing with Giants and this was my first chance to visit while the display was present. British Normandy Memorial The Memorial Surprisingly, until recently there was no British Memorial in Normandy. On the 75th Anniver

My good friend Sandy Cyr’s grandfather Jan (John) Scholte served in the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade in WW2. The Irenes briefly served under the Second Canadian Corps so I took a look at their actions. Sandy was able to get John’s service records from the Dutch Army and Google Translate helped trace his story. During a recent long weekend, Rachel and I visited a number of museums in the Netherlands and took the opportunity to visit a few memorials to the Princess Irene Brigad

In addition to our battlefield and tiny country tours, we took the opportunity to explore the ancient cities of Rimini, Ravenna and Bologna during our visit to Italy. All of the cities have impressive structures that are thousands of years old. Rimini Rimini has been inhabited from ancient times but was created as a Roman city in 268 BC when 6,000 Romans were sent to Rimini to establish a base at the mouth of the Marecchia River to expand into the Po Valley. The beaches of

During our recent visit to Italy, my daughter Rachel and I negotiated a travel package, two days of battlefield tours in exchange for the tiny country of San Marino. Rachel has made it her mission to visit all of the countries of Europe that participate in The Games of the Small States of Europe during her four-year teaching assignment at the NATO school in the Netherlands. She has done very well so far with 9 of 10 visited to date. She is only missing the smallest, Vatican C

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 5th, 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 urgin

Liberation March The Canadian Liberation March from Hoofdplaat to Knokke-Heist commemorates the 1944 liberation of Belgium and parts of the Netherlands by Canadian forces during World War II. It retraces the 33-kilometer route taken by the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade during Operation Switchback. The First Canadian Army played a pivotal role in liberating the Belgian coastal town of Knokke-Heist. Their advance began in Hoofdplaat, Netherlands, and pushed through villages lik

Clan Sullivan: Carol, Pat, Terry, Michael and Brian. Introduction We recently conducted a WWI Tour with my good buddy Terry Sullivan and his wife Sandy Cyr. We were joined by four of eight of Terry’s siblings: Michael, Brian, Carol and Pat along with Carol’s Husband Rod. We focused on the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and as part of the Caribou monument visit, we visited the significant locations for the Sullivan grandfather Corporal William Sullivan and Private Wallace Pike, g

Introduction We recently conducted a WWI Tour with my good buddy Terry Sullivan and his wife Sandy Cyr. We were joined by four of eight...

Introduction This fall we are going on a Caribou Trail tour to visit all of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Memorials in France and...

During my visit to the Channel Ports, I stopped at a number of Atlantic Wall fortifications and visited Dunkirk, the site of the great...

One of this spring’s tours was to follow the Canadians as they fought their way north from Normandy to clear the channel ports to reduce...

As part of my tour tracing the paths of Uncles Norm Kightley 8th Hussars and George Johnston, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada...

8th Hussars and the Argylls Rachel’s buddies Janaya and Beth were visiting for the weekend, so I took the opportunity to follow my Uncle...

Prelude to War Once we decided to visit Slovenia this Easter, it was mandatory that I look into the battlefield situation. I knew...

Rachel and I spent a lovely Easter week in Slovenia. I’m not sure how we decided on Slovenia, some friends had visited a while ago, but I...

Norm Kightley was my uncle on my mother’s side of the family. He and his wife Marj were frequent visitors to our family, and I knew him...

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...

Malta was the most heavily bombed country in the Second World War. The history of Malta is fascinating and the struggles the island and...