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It was a madcap barn-storming adventure – designed to commemorate one of the greatest aviation feats of derring-do - that not only captured the heart and imagination of a nation but created headlines around the world at the end of the Swinging Sixties. It even played a pivotal role in Britain's vital export drive –by helping sell the then revolutionary Harrier jump jet to the Americans. Exactly fifty years ago in May 1969 the Daily Mail launched 'The Great Transatlantic Air Race' to commemorate the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic – that took place fifty years before that -...

The significance of Vimy has shifted through the decades as new generations ponder the sacrifice There were many people in chilly, war-weary London who wanted to shake Canadian prime minister Robert Borden's hand on April 9, 1917. The first accounts of "Canada's victorious day" on Vimy Ridge filtered through the imperial war cabinet within hours of the battle and well-wishers sought out the prime minister to offer congratulations. His diary bursts with pride. "I hope that this victory is only the augury of further triumphs," he wrote. Events may have moved quickly in those day, but news moved slowly. At...

When the silence fell over Vimy Ridge on Easter Monday morning, it seemed to Canon Frederick Scott, chaplain of the 1st Canadian Division, as if the war had gone to sleep. The silence lasted only a few minutes, perhaps as long as a quarter of an hour. But it seemed so much longer, and was remembered long after the fact because of the cacophony that would follow. Every soldier waiting that April morning for the battle to begin in the ravaged field in northeastern France noted the quiet and an unnatural stillness. Canon Scott, a 55-year-old Anglican minister who just...

Two veterans of First World War remember Vimy Ridge on anniversaryGillian Livingston Canadian Press April 11, 2005 TORONTO (CP) - The maze of muddy trenches carved deep into the hills of Vimy Ridge are still etched in the memories of Clare Laking, a 106-year-old veteran of the First World War. Although he did not see action in the decisive battle for the ridge in France that began 88 years ago on April 9, 1917, he saw the battleground months later and understood the immense challenge that Canadian soldiers faced that day - something he still remembers today. "I could see...

Sez I:   My Country calls? Well, let it call. I grins perlitely and declines wiv thanks. Go, let 'em plaster every blighted wall, 'Ere's ONE they don't stampede into the ranks. Them politicians with their greasy ways; Them empire-grabbers -- fight for 'em? No fear! I've seen this mess a-comin' from the days Of Algyserious and Aggydear: I've felt me passion rise and swell, But . . . wot the 'ell, Bill? Wot the 'ell? Sez I:   My Country? Mine? I likes their cheek. Me mud-bespattered by the cars they drive, Wot makes my measly thirty bob a...