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True North History, 123 Maple Street, Toronto, ON (2026)

10/19/2026

🚨 **He Used Science to Help Canadian Artillery Destroy Enemy Guns. Then He Took Command of Canada’s Army in the Second World War. But His Own Military Career Ended in Controversy.**

His name was **Andrew George Latta McNaughton**—one of Canada’s most scientifically minded military commanders.

Born in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, in 1887, McNaughton studied electrical engineering at McGill University. But when the First World War began, he joined the Canadian military as an artillery officer.

He would help change how Canadian soldiers fought.

During the First World War, locating enemy artillery was a deadly challenge. German guns could bombard Canadian positions without revealing exactly where they were hidden.

McNaughton applied his scientific training to the problem.

He helped develop and improve methods known as *flash-spotting* and *sound-ranging*. By analysing the flashes from firing guns and measuring the sounds of their explosions, artillery specialists could estimate enemy gun positions more accurately.

This intelligence helped Canadian forces target German artillery and reduce the danger to their own troops.

His scientific approach contributed to the Canadian Corps’ growing effectiveness during battles such as Vimy Ridge in 1917 and the Hundred Days Campaign in 1918.

By the end of the First World War, McNaughton had risen to command the Canadian Corps’ heavy artillery.

But his greatest challenge was still ahead.

When the Second World War began in 1939, McNaughton returned to active military service. He took the 1st Canadian Infantry Division overseas to Britain and eventually became commander of the **First Canadian Army**.

For Canada, this was a major responsibility. The army had expanded enormously from its modest pre-war beginnings, and McNaughton was determined that Canadian soldiers should fight as a distinct national force rather than simply be absorbed into British formations.

His commitment to Canadian military independence was strong—but it also brought him into conflict with other senior commanders and political leaders.

Then came the disastrous Dieppe Raid of August 1942.

Canadian troops suffered devastating casualties during the assault on the German-occupied French port. McNaughton had supported the operation, and its failure intensified criticism of his leadership, alongside other disagreements over command and military planning.

In December 1943, he resigned as commander of the First Canadian Army.

For a man who had helped build Canada’s overseas army, it was a painful end to his field command.

Yet his public service continued. In 1944, McNaughton became Canada’s minister of national defence. After the war, he served as a diplomat and represented Canada in international affairs.

His career also reflected another important part of Canada’s wartime story: scientific research could be just as vital as battlefield courage. McNaughton’s work with the National Research Council helped strengthen the scientific foundations behind Canadian military technology, including research connected to the development of radar.

He died in 1966, leaving behind a complex legacy of innovation, ambition, national pride and controversy.

**Andrew McNaughton was not a flawless commander. But he helped demonstrate that scientific thinking could change the battlefield—and that Canada’s military identity was being forged through both its achievements and its mistakes.**

Do you think military innovation and leadership deserve to be remembered together, even when a commander’s career ends in controversy?

Share your thoughts and follow **True North History** for more stories from Canada’s military past.

10/19/2026

🚨 **She Was Only Eight Years Old When She Arrived in Canada as a Refugee. A Sign Was Hung Around Her Neck—and She Had No Idea What It Meant.**

Halifax, Nova Scotia. 1949.

A little girl named Ausma Levalds stepped ashore at Pier 21 with her family. They had fled Latvia during the Second World War, leaving behind the country they once called home.

For Ausma, the journey to Canada was more than a move across the Atlantic. It was the beginning of a life in a country she had never known.

But something unexpected happened when her family arrived.

Officials selected Ausma to represent the **50,000th displaced person to reach Canada** under the postwar resettlement programme.

A sign was hung around her neck as photographers gathered to record the moment.

The extraordinary part?

According to *Canada’s History*, Ausma had no idea she had been chosen for this symbolic milestone until the sign was placed around her neck.

Imagine being eight years old, arriving in a strange country after your family had been forced to flee war—and suddenly becoming the centre of attention.

She was a child. She could not possibly represent the full suffering of millions of displaced people. Yet, in that moment, her arrival symbolized something much larger than one family’s journey.

**The Second World War had ended in Europe in 1945. But for millions of people, the struggle to find a home continued.**

Cities lay in ruins. Families had been separated. Many people could not return to their former homes because of persecution, political upheaval, or the new borders and governments that emerged after the war.

Canada eventually admitted more than 157,000 displaced people between 1945 and 1951, according to Parks Canada.

They came from different parts of Europe and carried different experiences. Some had survived N**i persecution. Others had endured forced labour, imprisonment, or the destruction of their communities. Many were trying to build a future far from the places where their lives had been shattered.

Their arrival also exposed a difficult side of Canada's history. The country did not immediately open its doors equally to everyone fleeing postwar Europe. Immigration policies remained restrictive, and displaced people often faced difficult screening and resettlement processes.

For those who were accepted, reaching Canada was only the beginning. They still had to learn new customs, find work, and rebuild their lives.

Ausma’s photograph captured one small moment in that enormous story.

Behind the sign around an eight-year-old girl’s neck stood thousands of families hoping for the same things: safety, stability, and a chance for their children to grow up without war.

At **True North History**, we remember the people who helped shape Canada not only through military service, but also through the courage it took to begin again.

**What do you think a child like Ausma might have felt arriving in a completely new country? Share your thoughts below.**

10/19/2026

🚨 **They Had Survived Siberian Labour Camps, Hunger, and the Loss of Their Families. In 1949, 123 Polish Orphans Arrived in Canada to Begin Again.**

Halifax, Nova Scotia. September 7, 1949.

A ship called the *USAT General Stuart Heintzelman* arrived at Pier 21 carrying displaced people from Europe. Among them were 123 Polish Catholic orphans whose childhoods had been devastated by the Second World War.

Their journey to Canada had begun thousands of miles away.

In 1939, N**i Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland from opposite directions. Soviet authorities deported hundreds of thousands of Polish civilians from eastern Poland, sending many to labour camps and settlements in Siberia.

Families were torn apart. Parents died from hunger, disease, and brutal conditions. Children were separated from relatives, and some lost their entire families.

When the Soviet Union released many Polish prisoners and deportees in 1941, survival was still far from guaranteed.

Some children travelled with adults toward the Middle East. Others eventually reached refugee settlements in East Africa, including Tengeru, in what is now Tanzania.

For these young people, the war had not simply destroyed their homes. It had taken away the security of knowing where they belonged.

**And even after the fighting in Europe ended, their journey was not over.**

In Canada, Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau of Montreal helped launch a plan to bring Polish orphan children to the country. Canadian authorities approved the resettlement scheme in 1948.

The process took months. Children underwent medical examinations and immigration screening. From a larger group considered for resettlement, 123 were cleared to travel to Canada in the first major arrival.

On September 7, 1949, they reached Halifax.

Some of the children were very young. Others were teenagers who had already endured experiences no child should have to face.

Among them was 18-year-old Sofia Wakulczyk. Her parents had died in Siberia. When reporters asked about the children’s future, she made clear that she and her companions wanted to build their lives in Canada rather than return to a country now under communist rule.

Their arrival was not without controversy. Polish communist representatives attempted to challenge the resettlement, but Canadian officials refused to surrender the children to Polish authorities.

The children were escorted onward, with many temporarily housed in Quebec before being placed in schools and new homes. Older young people pursued education or found work.

Canada could not restore their lost childhoods or bring back their parents.

But it could offer them the chance to create a future.

These 123 young people represented only a small part of the millions displaced by the war. Yet their arrival at Pier 21 reveals an often-overlooked chapter of Canadian history: the struggle to find safety after the guns fell silent.

At **True North History**, we remember not only the battles that ended the war, but also the children who had to rebuild their lives long after it.

**If you had been a Canadian welcoming these children in 1949, what would you have wanted them to know about their new home?**

10/18/2026

🚨 **They Were Sent Across the Atlantic to Escape the Bombs. Instead, 77 Children Never Reached Canada.**

September 17, 1940. Somewhere in the dark, stormy Atlantic Ocean.

A passenger liner called the *SS City of Benares* was carrying British children away from the danger of N**i bombing. Their parents had made an agonizing decision: send their children thousands of miles away in the hope that they would survive the war.

For 90 children aboard that ship, Canada was supposed to mean safety.

Then a German U-boat attacked.

The *City of Benares* was travelling in a convoy when German submarine U-48 fired torpedoes at the ship. The explosions struck near the children's sleeping quarters.

The liner began to sink into the cold Atlantic.

Families had sent their sons and daughters away believing the ocean would protect them from the war. Now, in the darkness, children and adults faced freezing water, violent waves, and a desperate struggle to reach lifeboats.

Some lifeboats were smashed or overturned in the storm.

Rescue did not come quickly enough for many aboard.

Of the 90 child evacuees, **only 13 survived.** The other 77 children were lost, along with many adult passengers and crew members.

One lifeboat drifted alone for eight days before the survivors were finally spotted and rescued by HMS *Anthony*.

Think about that for a moment.

Children who had already left their homes, parents, friends, and familiar streets behind were now trapped in the middle of the ocean, waiting to discover whether anyone would find them.

They were not soldiers. They had no control over the war or the decisions that had put them aboard that ship. They were children whose families had simply wanted them to live.

The disaster shocked Britain and brought the government's official overseas evacuation programme to an end.

The tragedy also revealed a terrible reality of the Battle of the Atlantic: the ocean was not a safe escape from war. German submarines threatened the ships carrying food, supplies, soldiers, and civilians across the same waters.

For Canada, the story is deeply connected to the country's wartime history. The ship had been bound for Canadian ports, including Quebec City and Montreal, where children were expected to begin new lives away from the bombing of Britain.

Instead, many never arrived.

Today, the story of the *City of Benares* reminds us that the cost of war cannot be measured only in armies, ships, or territory. It must also be measured in childhoods interrupted, families shattered, and futures that never had the chance to unfold.

At **True North History**, we remember the children whose names might otherwise disappear behind the larger stories of the Second World War.

**What do you think this tragedy teaches us about the true cost of war?**

Please share this story so these children are not forgotten.

10/18/2026

🚨 **She Was Just 9 Years Old When the N**is Took Her Father. Years Later, She Started a New Life in Canada.**

Paris, France. 1941.

Helene Goldflus was still a child when the N**i occupation shattered her family’s ordinary life.

Her father was taken away in May 1941. The family never saw him again.

Her mother was pregnant with twins, and Helene and her brother were taken in by neighbours. But as N**i persecution of Jewish families intensified, even a neighbour’s home could no longer guarantee their safety.

Helene and her brother were separated and hidden.

The French Children’s Aid Society, known as OSE, helped arrange hiding places for Jewish children. Helene spent three months in a convent outside Paris before being moved to a farm.

She eventually found her brother again near Arquian, France. For the next three years, the children lived with a family who sheltered them.

Imagine being a child, separated from your parents, moving between hiding places, and never knowing when danger might arrive.

While other children worried about school, friends, and growing up, Helene’s childhood was shaped by persecution, separation, and survival.

**But her story did not end with the war.**

After the liberation of France, Helene and her brother returned to Paris and reunited with their mother. Their twin brothers, who had been cared for by a non-Jewish family during the war, were reunited with their mother in 1947.

The family eventually moved to Toronto, where they lived with Helene’s aunt and uncle.

Freedom brought new challenges. Helene struggled to adjust to a new country and the English language. She had survived N**i persecution, but now she had to build a life in an unfamiliar place.

Slowly, she found her footing. She joined Jewish youth groups, developed lasting friendships, and began creating the future that war had threatened to take from her.

In 1951, she married. She later raised four children, worked as a French teacher for the Toronto School Board, and volunteered with Jewish organizations.

A childhood marked by fear had become a life devoted to family, education, and community.

Helene’s story reminds us that the end of the Second World War did not instantly erase the pain survivors carried. For many, survival was only the beginning of a long journey toward rebuilding.

Her experience is preserved by the Montreal Holocaust Museum through photographs and recorded testimony.

At **True North History**, we remember not only the battles and the soldiers, but also the children whose lives were changed forever by war.

**What does Helene’s story teach us about the courage it takes to begin again? Share your thoughts below.**

10/18/2026

🚨 **Imagine Being a Child in a Canadian Community When a German Submarine Fired a Torpedo at Your Shore.**

Bell Island, Newfoundland. November 2, 1942.

It was the middle of the Second World War, and the danger was no longer thousands of miles away.

A German U-boat had entered the waters near Bell Island, a small mining community whose iron ore helped supply the Allied war effort.

Then came the attack.

A torpedo struck the Scotia loading pier. The explosion damaged the waterfront and shattered windows, bringing the reality of war directly to the people living on the island.

Imagine being a child in a nearby home.

You might have been getting ready for bed, listening to the wind outside, or sitting with your family when the explosion shook the community.

Suddenly, the war you had heard about in newspapers and on the radio was frighteningly close.

**This was not a battlefield in Europe. It was home.**

Bell Island's importance came from its iron ore mines. The ore was shipped to steel mills, where it helped produce materials essential to the Allied war effort.

German submarines wanted to disrupt those supplies.

And Bell Island became a target.

The first attack came on September 5, 1942, when German submarine U-513 torpedoed and sank the merchant ships *SS Saganaga* and *SS Lord Strathcona*.

Two months later, U-518 returned.

On November 2, its torpedoes sank the *SS Rose Castle* and the French ship *PLM 27*. Another torpedo struck the Scotia pier, causing significant damage.

Across the two attacks, four merchant ships were sunk and approximately 70 men lost their lives.

For the families of those sailors, the tragedy was devastating. For the people of Bell Island, the attacks brought fear, loss and a new awareness of how vulnerable their community had become.

Doctors, nurses and local civilians helped care for survivors. The community also had to confront the grim task of mourning the dead.

**The people of Bell Island were civilians, but the war had reached their doorstep.**

In the weeks that followed, authorities increased patrols and installed anti-torpedo nets around the ore-loading piers to help protect the harbour.

The attacks also became part of the wider Battle of the Atlantic, the struggle to keep vital shipping routes open against German U-boats.

There is one important historical detail: in 1942, Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada. It was a separate British dominion. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

Today, Bell Island is part of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and its wartime experience remains an important part of the region's history.

The story reminds us that children growing up during the war did not all experience it in the same way. Some faced bombing overseas. Others lived in communities where enemy submarines threatened the ships, harbours and industries that supported the Allied war effort.

They might never have seen a battlefield, yet the war could still shake their homes, change their families' lives and take away people they knew.

The attacks on Bell Island are a reminder that the Battle of the Atlantic was not fought only by sailors at sea.

Its consequences reached the people waiting on shore.

🇨🇦 **True North History** remembers the sailors who never returned, the civilians who helped their community through tragedy, and the families who lived with the reality of war close to home.

**Question:** Did you know that German U-boats attacked Bell Island in 1942? Share this little-known chapter of wartime history with someone who should know it.

10/18/2026

🚨 **She Was Only Six Years Old When Canada Forced Her Family to Leave Their Home. She Never Forgot What Happened.**

Vancouver, British Columbia. 1942.

Imagine being a little girl who has never known another home.

Your toys are where you left them. Your school is familiar. Your neighbourhood is full of people you know.

Then, suddenly, everything changes.

Your family is told to leave.

You do not understand politics, military strategy, or the fear spreading across the country. You only know that strangers are deciding where you and your family can live.

This was the reality faced by **Joy Kogawa**, a Canadian-born child of Japanese ancestry, during the Second World War.

Joy was born in Vancouver in 1935. Before the war, her childhood was rooted in British Columbia. But after Japan entered the war against the Allied powers in December 1941, Japanese Canadians faced growing suspicion and discrimination.

In 1942, the Canadian government forcibly removed Japanese Canadians from the Pacific coast, including Canadian citizens who had committed no wrongdoing.

Families were uprooted from their homes and communities. Many were sent to internment camps or remote settlements in the interior of British Columbia. Their property was seized and sold by the government.

Joy was among the children whose lives were turned upside down.

She and her family were sent to Slocan, an inland community in British Columbia where Japanese Canadians were relocated during the war.

Imagine what that meant for a six-year-old.

The familiar streets of Vancouver were gone. Her family had lost the life they knew. Instead of growing up in the home where she had begun her childhood, she had to adjust to a very different environment.

**And she was a Canadian child, in the country she called home.**

The injustice did not end when the war ended in 1945. Many Japanese Canadians were not immediately allowed to return to the Pacific coast. Some were pressured to move east or leave Canada for Japan, even when they had been born in Canada.

Families had lost homes, businesses, possessions, and years of their lives.

For Joy Kogawa, the experience would remain deeply important throughout her life.

As an adult, she became a celebrated Canadian writer. Her novel *Obasan*, published in 1981, explored the painful legacy of Japanese Canadian internment through a deeply personal story of family, memory, silence, and loss.

Her writing helped bring wider attention to a chapter of Canadian history that many people had overlooked.

In 1988, the Canadian government formally apologized to Japanese Canadians for wartime internment and announced redress for survivors.

But an apology could not return every lost home or restore every childhood that had been interrupted.

Joy Kogawa's story reminds us that the Second World War did not affect Canadian children only through rationing, absent parents, or relatives fighting overseas.

Some children experienced injustice in their own country.

They watched their families lose their homes—not because of anything they had done, but because of their ancestry.

**A child should never have to wonder whether the country she calls home will turn against her family.**

🇨🇦 **True North History** remembers Joy Kogawa and the Japanese Canadian families whose wartime experiences are an essential part of Canada's history.

**Question:** Had you learned about the forced removal of Japanese Canadians during WWII when you were in school? Why do you think this story deserves more attention today?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

10/18/2026

🚨 **They Were Too Young to Fight in WWII. But Canadian Children Found Other Ways to Help Win the War.**

Canada, 1942.

Imagine being a schoolchild while your father, uncle, or older brother is thousands of miles away fighting in Europe.

You hear news of battles on the radio. You see adults reading newspaper headlines. You know the war is serious, even if you cannot fully understand everything happening.

And then your teacher tells your class that you, too, can help.

You may not be old enough to wear a uniform. But there is work you can do.

**This was the wartime reality for Canadian children on the home front.**

While Canadian soldiers fought overseas, children across the country found ways to support the national war effort.

At school, students collected scrap materials, including paper and metal. Items that might otherwise have been thrown away could be recovered and reused when supplies were needed for wartime production.

For children, it turned an ordinary school activity into something that felt much bigger.

A pile of old newspapers was no longer just rubbish. It was material worth saving.

A classroom collection became a shared mission.

In London, Ontario, students at Lord Roberts School participated in paper drives, raised money for the Canadian Red Cross, and contributed to campaigns supporting the war effort.

These were not soldiers marching across a battlefield. They were ordinary schoolchildren learning that their actions could make a difference.

And their contributions did not stop at recycling.

Some young Canadians helped raise money for war charities. Others made items for servicemen overseas, while groups such as the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts supported community campaigns.

Children also took on extra responsibilities at home.

With many men away in uniform and some women working in wartime industries, family routines changed. Older children sometimes helped with farm work, household chores, and other tasks that had previously been handled by adults.

**For some children, growing up during the war meant learning responsibility earlier than they might have otherwise.**

But there was an emotional side to these activities, too.

A child collecting scrap might have had a father serving overseas. A student raising money for the Red Cross might have known someone who had been wounded. A classroom making gifts for servicemen might have included children who were desperately hoping their own relatives would come home safely.

Behind the school campaigns were real families waiting for letters and news.

The war was being fought across the ocean, but its uncertainty was felt in Canadian homes and classrooms every day.

It is important to remember that Canadian children were not all affected in the same way. Many continued to attend school and live with their families, while others faced bereavement, financial hardship, or increased responsibilities at home.

Yet across communities, children found ways to participate in a national effort much larger than themselves.

They were not asked to storm beaches or capture enemy positions.

They were asked to collect, save, make, grow, and contribute.

And they did.

Today, photographs of wartime schoolchildren remind us that history is not made only by generals, politicians, and soldiers.

Sometimes, it is also made by a child carrying a bundle of old newspapers into school, hoping that a small contribution might help bring a loved one home.

🇨🇦 **True North History** remembers the Canadian children whose efforts helped support the home front during the Second World War.

**Question:** If you had been a Canadian schoolchild in 1942, which would you have found most meaningful—collecting scrap, raising money for soldiers, or making gifts for those serving overseas?

Tell us in the comments.

10/17/2026

🚨 **A Little Girl Arrived in Canada During WWII With Almost Nothing. She Had No Idea What Her New Life Would Look Like.**

Canada, 1940.

Imagine being a child, standing in an unfamiliar place with a small suitcase beside you.

You have crossed an ocean to escape a war. Your home is thousands of miles away. The people around you speak with unfamiliar accents, and the family waiting to take you in are strangers.

You are safe for now.

But you still miss your mother.

You still wonder about your father.

And you have no idea when you will see them again.

For some British children during the Second World War, this was the beginning of life in Canada.

As German bombing threatened British cities in 1940, the British government created the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB). Its purpose was to send children to safer countries, including Canada, where families had offered to care for them.

Between July and September 1940, **1,532 children were evacuated to Canada through the official scheme.**

Canadian authorities arranged their arrival and helped place them in carefully selected homes. Some families welcomed siblings together; others received children who had never met them before.

For the children, however, reaching safety did not mean leaving every fear behind.

A new bedroom could not replace the familiar sound of their mother's voice. A kind foster family could offer comfort, but it could not make the distance between Canada and Britain disappear.

Some children adjusted well. Others struggled with homesickness and uncertainty.

Imagine trying to explain the war to a young child who only wants to know when their parents are coming.

**That was one of the hidden costs of wartime evacuation: children could be protected from bombs while still carrying the emotional weight of separation.**

And the journey itself could be dangerous.

On September 17, 1940, the passenger ship *SS City of Benares*, carrying children evacuated from Britain, was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Seventy-seven children died.

The tragedy forced the British government to suspend its official overseas evacuation scheme.

For the children who had already reached Canada, life continued far from home. They attended school, made friends, and experienced Canadian communities during wartime. Some eventually returned to Britain; others maintained lasting connections with Canada.

Their experiences remind us that history is not only about armies, generals and battles.

It is also about childhood interrupted.

It is about parents making impossible decisions because they believe distance might save their children.

And it is about ordinary Canadian families who opened their homes to young people they had never met, hoping to give them a chance at safety.

Today, those stories deserve to be remembered—not as a single tale of tragedy, but as thousands of individual childhoods shaped by a world at war.

🇨🇦 **True North History** remembers the children who crossed the Atlantic in search of safety, and the Canadian families who helped them find a temporary home.

**What would you find hardest as a child: leaving your home behind, or not knowing when you would see your parents again?**

Share your thoughts in the comments.

True North History

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