Canada's Military History 2.0

 C-119 Flying Boxcar. September 22, 1952. The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet. It was designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechanized equipment and to drop cargo and troops by parachute. The first C-119 made its initial flight in November 1947, and by the time production ceased in 1955, more than 1,100 had been built. The Royal Canadian Air Force received 35 new C-119Fs delivered in 1952. They were in service until 1967 for transport operations, air resupply, paratroop ops, and medical evacuation. The aircraft was also used in the Arctic regions to resupply military bases, weather stations, and radar sites and to support survey and scientific expeditions. The RCAF used the airplane as a part of the UN peacekeeping force in effect during the 1956 Israel and Egypt hostilities. The RCAF provided 16 C119s and their crews. #C119FlyingBoxCar https://amzn.to/4gCL9Hd

 HMS Charybdis  HMS Charybdis in 1868. HMS Charybdis, Esquimalt, BC, 1870. HMS Charybdis and Canada: A Short but Significant Connection HMS Charybdis, a 21‑gun Pearl‑class screw corvette launched in 1859, holds a very unique place in Canadian naval history as being the first warship that the Dominion of Canada ever operated. Although the Royal Canadian Navy would not be created until 1910, Canada briefly possessed and operated Charybdis nearly three decades earlier. In 1880, after two decades of hard service across the Pacific and Far East, the Royal Navy loaned the aging vessel to the Canadian government for use as a training ship—a step toward developing domestic maritime capability. She officially entered Canadian service on 26 July 1881, making her home port in Saint John, New Brunswick, and sailed under the Canadian blue ensign as a Dominion government vessel. Canada hoped to use Charybdis to train a new generation of sailors for fisheries protection, coastal defence, and...

 HMCS RAINBOW near Vancouver, British Columbia, 1912. HMCS Rainbow enters Esquimalt Harbour on November 7, 1910. One of two old British cruisers obtained by the government in 1910 for the new Canadian navy, Rainbow was assigned to the west coast, where it spent most of the war as a training ship. HMCS Rainbow holds a singular place in Canadian naval history as the first commissioned ship of the newly created Royal Canadian Navy, entering service on 4 August 1910. Initially built for the Royal Navy in 1891 as an Apollo‑class protected cruiser, she had already served for years abroad—particularly in Asian waters—before being transferred to Canada. After arriving at Esquimalt later that same year, HMCS Rainbow became the main vessel in Canada’s fledgling Pacific Station. She performed training cruises, ceremonial duties, and fishery patrols. Even though she was past her prime and of very modest capability, she symbolized Canada’s early naval ambitions and provided the West Coast with ...

 HMCS Margaret during World War I Launched in early 1914 by Thornycroft at Woolston, England, HMCS Margaret was initially built for the Canadian Customs Preventive Service—the first vessel designed specifically for customs patrol duties. With a reinforced hull for ice resistance and a cruising range of 4,000 miles, she was a formidable presence on Canada’s maritime frontier. Just days before the outbreak of World War I, Margaret was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned on 3 February 1915. Armed with two modern 6-pounder Vickers guns, she joined a small fleet of patrol vessels tasked with escort duties and coastal defence along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Margaret was present in Halifax Harbour during the Halifax Explosion of 1917, sustaining only minor damage amid the devastation. After the war, Margaret was returned to the Customs Preventive Service in 1919 and resumed her peacetime patrols, now focused on intercepting smugglers during...