The Last Gun To Fire

 We begin today with Canadian Headquarters Staff, by William Nicholson in 1918.

World War Two saw the rise of nosecone art. A number of examples are found here.

Canadians In The Snow is by James Morrice, done in 1918.

Battlefields Of Ypres was painted by David Young Cameron in 1920.

This is new, as well as more contemporary. Blackfood artist Adrian Stimson painted two indigenous soldiers, Master Corporal Jamie Gillman and Corporal Percy Bedard during the Afghan War. Between are panels, with cedar, tobacco, sweetgrass, and sage, emblems of indigenous peoples.

Across is this artifact, where one enters and exits the permanent collection. Canadian soldiers ended the First World War at Mons, Belgium, giving two field guns to the town and saying they were the last guns to fire on the enemy before the armistice. At the centennial of the ending of the war, Mons returned this one to Canada, and it now resides here. A fitting place for it.

Gallery Perspectives

 Side by side, we see two behemoths of World War Two. The German Panzer v Panther became the main battle tank of the German military. The Soviets developed the T-34/85 tanks.

The Sherman was a mainstay of Western Allied forces. The Lee, at right, was less used.

I always like spending time with these tanks.

The way out is lined with war art, most on big canvases. No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital At Doullens was painted by Gerald Moira in 1918.

Anna Airy painted Cookhouse, Witley Camp in 1918.

Canada's Grand Armada 1914 is by Frederick Challener in 1919, depicting the first sailing of Canadians to the battlefields of Europe.

Cold War Firepower

 The M109A4 self propelled howitzer looks like a tank, but is in fact a Howitzer cannon mounted onto the body of a tank- much bigger than a tank's normal weaponry.

More vehicles over this way.

The BRM-1K was a reconnaissance vehicle used by the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.

Beside it, the Chieftain, the main battle tank for the British into the 1990s.

Side by side, two Leopard tanks, mainstays of the Canadian military from the 1970s into the current day, and used in Afghanistan. I've been in one once. As big as they are, they're confined within. If you have a problem with claustrophobia, this would be problematic.

These two are throwbacks to the Second World War.

Fighter-Interceptor

 A reminder to members of City Daily Photo that the theme for April 1st is Entertainment. 

This is an emergency van, used as a mobile canteen in Britain, both for civilians affected by air raids and for Allied servicemen during World War Two.

The Voodoo fighter-interceptor jet is mounted above Lebreton Gallery. A standard for the Canadian military during the Cold War, it dominates the space.

Kurt is the name of a weather station that was installed in northern Labrador during World War Two, dropped off by Germans from a u-boat. It functioned for a short time before going offline, and was forgotten for decades until a German researcher going through naval records found mention of it. It was recovered and now resides here.

These memorial plaques are from the flagship location of the old Eaton's retail store chain. They commemorate staff members who died in both World Wars.

Two dioramas of the same general location are found close by. Passchendaele was the name of a ferocious battle of the First World War, won by Canadians at great cost. This depicts a German bunker cutaway; at right, a Canadian soldier is about to throw a grenade at the doorway. Sergeant Tommy Holmes is the man who won the Victoria Cross on the 26th of October, 1917, for what he did at Passchendaele.

The other diorama shows a much larger section of the battlefield, and thus the soldiers are much smaller. But they are seen on either side of the river flowing down off the ridge through the ruined landscape. Arthur Currie, the commanding general, set forth a methodical plan to take the ridge section by section. Against all odds, Canadian soldiers did it.

The Voodoo looms overhead. It is an impressive jet.