In previous years, the big June event out at Fort Rodd Hill was a Timeline type event, with several other re-enactment groups participating and many eras represented all the way to medieval and roman. This year, the theme was set as Women on the Homefront. As this would be predominantly representing the 1940s, we decided to combine it with our annual D-Day commemoration for a bigger two-day WW2 themed event.
On 0755 hours Sunday morning December 7, 1941 the United States Navy’s Pacific
Fleet was attacked by Imperial Japanese Naval forces. By 0945, just shy of 2 hours, the attack was over, leaving in it’s wake all of the USN Pacific Fleet 8 battleships either sunk, capsized, or run aground. It’s three aircraft carriers were saved by not being in harbour that day.
In total of the 96 ships in harbour that day, 18 were sunk or heavily damaged. 188 Naval and Army Air Corp planes were lost and a total of Naval, Army, Marine and civilian casualties for the day were 2,403 dead and 1,178 wounded.
On Monday, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan and the US had
entered World War 2.
On the evening of Dec. 7th, 1941 the Canadian Prime Minster announced that Canada was at war with Japan. The British garrison at Hong Kong had been attacked and even though Canada had been at war since 1939, it was the first time the Canadian Army had gone into action. On Christmas Day the garrison fell and of the 1,975 Canadians that were part of the defense force, 290 were killed in action and those who survived the battle became POW’s and their ordeal was just beginning, another 287 would die in the camps.
VEMRA once again held it's annual, and very popular, one night only fundraiser of amateur dramatics on the last Saturday of September.
This year, as with most years there were four skits presented. Each was stationed in a different area of Fort Rodd Hill.
And despite facing stiff competition from the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Victoria, and less than ideal weather conditions, it still ended up being a very successful night.
This past weekend we had our most recent event out at Fort Rodd Hill.
Fab Forts is always a very casual, fun event where anything goes. Some of us dust off that impression that rarely sees the light of day, others create a whole new one, and most just wear their favorite tried and true.
This year turned out to be a fairly busy day, with Rome being one of the most popular attractions.
