Research, analysis, and stories from the Project '44 team.
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Frederick Thornton Peters, born in 1889 on Prince Edward Island, was one of Canada's most decorated naval officers — earning the Victoria Cross for leading HMS Walney through point-blank fire into Oran Harbour during Operation Torch.
Read More →On the night of 8–9 August 1944, a Canadian battlegroup under Lieutenant-Colonel Donald Worthington set out to capture Point 195 north of Falaise — and ended up six kilometres from their objective, isolated and destroyed by German armour.
Read More →Defining Moments Canada, the Juno Beach Centre Association, and Project '44 announce a partnership to lead the 2020 national commemorative project marking the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland and Victory in Europe.
Read More →The Battle of the Scheldt, fought between September and November 1944, was one of the most gruelling operations of the Northwest Europe campaign — and the key to sustaining the Allied drive into Germany.
Read More →Moe Hurwitz made his combat debut on August 8th, 1944, in Operation Totalize — the largest operation yet undertaken by the Canadian Army in the European war. What followed would define the rest of his life.
Read More →Samuel Moses 'Moe' Hurwitz was born in Montreal in 1919, the eighth child of thirteen. This is the story of how a Jewish kid from the city found himself commanding a Sherman tank crew in the hedgerows of Normandy.
Read More →In August 1944, Major David Vivian Currie led a mixed battlegroup into the village of St-Lambert-sur-Dives and held it for three days against everything the German Army could throw at him — earning the only Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian Army officer during the Normandy campaign.
Read More →Discover the incredible stories of 10 Canadian heroes from the Second World War — soldiers whose courage, sacrifice, and dedication helped shape the course of history.
Read More →Project '44 was founded to highlight the underappreciated role of Canada in the Second World War — but the mapping methodology we've developed has far broader potential. Australia is next.
Read More →The flash and thunder of over 1,000 artillery pieces lit up the darkness at 0330 hours on 25 July 1944 — ushering in Operation Spring, the largest Canadian set-piece attack of the war to that point, and one of its costliest days.
Read More →Operation Atlantic, 18–21 July 1944 — the combat debut of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division in Normandy, fighting through the ruins of Caen and across the Orne in support of the British Operation Goodwood.
Read More →Operation Market Garden — conceived as a daring plan to end the war by Christmas 1944 — ultimately fell short of its ambitious objectives, leaving Allied forces short of the Rhine and setting the stage for a long winter campaign.
Read More →Hello everyone, my name is Tommy, and I'm excited to introduce myself as the new Community Manager for Project '44 — the leading digital resource for understanding the Second World War through maps, documents, and data.
Read More →Project '44: The Road to Liberation is a free online web map covering the European Theatre of Operations from the D-Day landings in June 1944 to Victory in Europe in May 1945 — built from original war diaries and archival records.
Read More →Before a single Allied soldier could set foot on the beaches of Normandy, the Royal Canadian Navy had to clear a path through one of the most heavily mined waters in the world. It remains one of the unheralded acts of bravery of the entire war.
Read More →In early 2021, our team was asked to help trace the wartime service of Sergeant Elwin Arbour of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry — a story that took us from Ontario to the mountains of Italy.
Read More →Canada's war in the Pacific began at Hong Kong in December 1941 and continued until Japan's sudden surrender in August 1945 — a contribution largely overshadowed by the war in Europe, but no less significant for those who fought it.
Read More →A close examination of 143 Wing RCAF Typhoon operations between D-Day and the end of the Normandy Campaign reveals the critical — and often overlooked — contribution of Canadian tactical air power to the liberation of France.
Read More →On 11 August 1944, a Canadian force drove into the gap between the German and Canadian armies to seize the village of Clair Tizon — an operation that illustrates both the opportunities and the dangers of the Normandy campaign's final phase.
Read More →Operation Husky, launched on 10 July 1943, was one of the largest amphibious operations of the Second World War — a stepping stone from North Africa into the heart of Fortress Europe.
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