High In The Sunlit Silence

 Pilots of the Royal Canadian Air Force took part in the air war over Europe starting with the Battle of Britain and going to the end.

This extraordinary poem is one some may be familiar with, by an American pilot and poet, John Gillespie Magee, who went to war, joining the RCAF, and died shortly after his own country joined the war.

Here we have Sergeant M.E. Boreham, The British Empire Medal, by Robert Steward Hyndman, an elegant portrait of Myrtle Boreham, who served in the RCAF from 1942-45, much of that stationed in London.

Canadian soldiers would be part of the campaigns on Sicily and the Italian mainland, where they would face vicious fighting and develop a tough reputation.

Entry Into Assoro, Italy is by Canadian war artist William Ogilvie, depicting the entrance of Canadian soldiers into the town on July 22nd, 1943.

Some of the weaponry that Italian soldiers would have been using are seen here.

Another extraordinary painting, this by Charles Comfort, showing combat at close quarters. This is Casa Berardi.

From here you can walk through a recreation of a street scene in the Italian campaign- with a Canadian soldier on one side of a narrow corridor.

And a German soldier on the other. This is the kind of scale of fighting in the Italian campaign- street to street, house to house, room to room. And a harbinger of things to come. This brings it to life vividly.

Journalists were embedded with the Canadian military, sending their reports back home as they accompanied the troops.