Mike Bechthold CLICK HERE to register In a few short years, the Royal Canadian Air Force expanded from a small domestic force of 8 squadrons and 4,000 personnel to a globe-spanning air force with 80 operational squadrons and 250,000 personnel (including 17,000 women). The RCAF defended London, led the Normandy invasion, protected convoys in the North Atlantic, […]
R. Scott Sheffield CLICK HERE to register The Second World War became a total war for Canada, drawing in virtually every person in virtually every region of the country in diverse ways, including Canada’s First Nations population. As wards of the state, this was not Status Indians’ war to fight, and yet more than 4,000 enlisted, and […]
Marie Eve Vaillancourt CLICK HERE to register The Dieppe Raid is shrouded in controversy and tragedy. For decades, it dominated Canadians’ collective memory of the war. Considered a tragic failure since 1942, its story is as complex as it is nuanced. The presentation will explore the challenges of putting together an exhibition on a subject […]
CLICK HERE to register Stacey Barker The Second World War brought many crucial changes to the lives of Canadian women, including the opportunity for wider military service. Recruits who joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division, and the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service challenged conceptions, broke barriers, and helped […]
All LCSC public lectures will be available both in-person and virtually on Zoom. For those interested in attending in-person, please visit 232 King Street North, Waterloo. Doors open at 6:30pm and the event begins at 7:00pm. If you are unable to attend in-person but would still like to watch the event virtually, click here to register […]
The war memorials that dot communities across the country are the sites of the most important public ceremonies of the civic calendar. They hearken back to our history, they help us remember our war dead, and they help us envision the future. But they have histories of their own. This talk by Thomas Littlewood presents […]
Speaker: Tim Cook Click HERE to register. In this talk, Canada’s top war historian, Tim Cook, will discuss his latest book, Lifesavers and Body Snatchers, on how the carnage of modern battle gave birth to revolutionary life-saving innovations. It brings to light shocking revelations of the ways the brutality of combat and the necessity of […]
In the 20th century’s greatest war, one battlefield held the key to victory or defeat – the North Atlantic. It took 2,074 days and nights to determine its outcome, but the Battle of the Atlantic proved the turning point of the Second World War. For five and a half years, German surface warships and submarines […]
CLICK HERE to register for the event. Speaker: Megan Hamilton The Canadian Army of the Second World War spent more time preparing and training their citizen soldiers then they did in sustained action. This chiefly took place across Canada and in the United Kingdom. Adequate training functioned as a cradle for collective action, morale, […]
CLICK HERE to register for the event. Speaker: Evren Altinkas Robert Frew, one of the Canadians active in Turkey during the Turkish War of Independence At the end of the First World War, as a result of the Mudros Armistice, the Ottoman State was occupied by Allies. British, French, Italian and Greek forces […]
“Vimy” and its Mother. The foal was born on the height from which it takes its name. July, 1917. Horses and mules were essential to the ability of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces to operate in the First World War. Equines hauled supplies, ammunition, artillery, as well as acted as cavalry. Working alongside each other across […]
The 33rd Canadian Military History Colloquium will be held in-person at Wilfrid Laurier University on 26-27 May 2023. For more information click here.