The first time we visited Ottawa, the Canadian capital, was in 2009, five years after landing in Canada. Being a soldier, I was very much impressed with the Canadian War Museum, especially as to how it serves to remind us of the sacrifices of soldiers across the globe and also sensitises us about the immense calamity any war can have on the civilisation. In 2014, Guillaume Le Floch, the French exchange student came to stay with us and we all visited the capital city and obviously we visited the War Museum once again.

Canadian War Museum was established 1880 in Ottawa to pay tributes to the men and women who endured the tests of war. Today the museum stands as a gratitude for the service and sacrifice of Canadians soldiers. The new, modern building, commissioned in 2005 on its 125th anniversary and the sixtieth anniversary of the end of WWII., emerges from the ground and rises progressively higher at its eastern end, closest to Parliament Hill. Its textured concrete walls and roof are somewhat reminiscent of a bunker, while a partially grass-covered roof is consistent with the Museum’s theme of regeneration and its environmental friendly design.

The museum also provides an evolving searchable catalogue of its collections. Types of artifacts found in the database include archaeological specimens, aboriginal arts and artifacts, folk art, furniture, war art, military objects, glass, porcelain, textiles and much more. This catalogue now contains more than 240,000 objects and is growing to include more than a million artifacts held with the museum.

Much of the Museum’s public exhibition space is devoted to its Canadian Experience Galleries. These displays underline the profound effect that war has had on Canada’s development and the significant role Canadians have played in international conflicts. Their content is a rich mixture of some 2,500 objects from war art to armoured vehicles, as well as scores of audio-visual displays and many hands-on activities.

The first gallery introduces the concept of war and its relevance to Canadians and Canada. Visitors explore the Canadian experience of conflict from aboriginal warfare and post European contact and the Northwest Resistance of 1885.

The second gallery covers the South African War (1899-1902) or, as it is also known, the Boer War, where more than 7,000 Canadians, including 12 women nurses participated. This war marked Canada’s first official dispatch of troops to an overseas war. This gallery also houses exhibits from the First World War. During World War I, Canada was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, with its own foreign affairs. In 1910, the then Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier declared that “when Britain is at war, Canada is at war. There is no distinction.” Some 619,000 Canadians, about 7% of the population, had enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force for service overseas.

The third gallery explores Canada’s fight against dictatorships overseas during the Second World War. The gallery introduces the visitor to the oppressive and aggressive dictatorships of the 1930s, and the mounting pressure for a strong response from the rest of the world. Britain’s declaration of war did not automatically commit Canada, as had been the case in World War I. The government and people were united in support of Britain and France. After Parliament debated the matter, Canada declared war on Germany on 10 September 1939. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King promised that only volunteers would serve overseas.  In the beginning Canada was unprepared for such a large scale war.  The regular army of 4500 men, augmented by 51,000 partly-trained reservists were deployed and was surely a modest beginning. The Second World War fundamentally changed Canada. Canada experienced industrial transformation and a booming economy during the war. New technologies and manufacturing principles produced enormous quantities of military supplies. By 1942, there was full employment as hundreds of thousands of Canadian men and women found work in war industries. As a result of its enormous military contribution during the war, Canada also became recognized as an important and assertive international actor, increasingly pursuing its own path in foreign policy.

The fourth gallery showcases The Cold War, Peacekeeping, and Recent Conflicts, 1945 to the present.  Canada became a respected international player through its commitments to Western defence and peacekeeping. The first Peacekeeping force consisted of Canadians to resolve the 1956 Suez Crisis.  Lester B. Pearson, the then Foreign Minister, who later became prime minister of Canada, won a Nobel Peace Prize for using the world’s first, large-scale United Nations peacekeeping force to de-escalate the situation. Since then, there was hardly a peacekeeping mission till date that did not have Canadian participation.

The LeBreton Gallery houses the Military Technology collection and is a diverse collection of vehicles, artillery and other large artifacts that tell the personal stories of war, from the eighteenth century to the present.

The Memorial Hall located in the Museum’s spacious foyer, is a space for quiet remembrance and personal contemplation. The concrete walls, grooved with large, offset rectangles, are reminiscent of the rows of white grave markers in Allied war cemeteries. The lone artifact is the headstone from the grave of Canada’s Unknown Soldier from the First World War, a simple bench the only furniture. Sunlight through the Hall’s only window directly illuminates the headstone every Remembrance Day, 11 November, at precisely 11 am, the moment the Great War ended in 1918.

The Regeneration Hall is a narrow, soaring hall with angled walls and a narrow triangular window that frames the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. There is the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower that houses seven Books of Remembrance which record the names of the men and women who have given their lives in military service to Canada. (Please click to read my earlier blog). The hall is a representation of hope for a better future. High narrow windows spell out in the dots and dashes in Morse Code which stands for “Lest We Forget” and “N’oublions jamais”.

The Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour explores Canada’s long history of honouring individuals; how Canadians have remembered and commemorated their military past. Through personal stories, photographs, art and artifacts, this gallery shares the earliest forms of honouring through burial, painting or dance, to the erection of national monuments.

The Military History Research Centre has a comfortable main reading room. An Archives Reading Room is also available for researchers accessing archival documents, photographs and rare books. The staff is always available to assist you with research, answer any questions, and assist in accessing the collections.

“Spitfire Dance”, a dramatic musical entertainment in two acts, is staged by the War Museum. The musical is accompanied by World War II era songs, and it tells the stories of pioneer female aviators of the Royal Canadian Air Force, their courage, their daring and their frustrations. It is a memorial for all those women who dared compete in that most male of establishments of the time – aviation.

Every nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that none can ever repay. The only way they can is to remember them, cherish them and honour their sacrifice. I conclude with the first four lines from Binyon’s poem For the Fallen, written in September 1914.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

While beautiful to look at, freezing rain is one of the most hazardous types of winter precipitation. Accumulations of a tenth of an inch of freezing rain may not sound significant, but is more than enough to break a few branches on the trees, bring down power lines (and cause power outages), and cause sleet on road surfaces.

During the scary freezing rain, the entire area is paved in a sheet of ice at about minus ten degrees Celsius.  This is hazardous, especially  for the morning commuters, resulting in many accidents on the roads and highways.  The drivers of the cars parked in the open find it difficult to even open their car’s doors as they either slip on the glass surfaced floor or the doors are jammed by the freezing ice.  These drivers first have to scrape off the ice from the doors and windshields and then drive on glass like roads.

The public transport is also affected as the drivers are extra cautious and driving slow on the icy roads.  It is compounded by many non-functioning traffic lights due to power outages.  The street cars (trams) are delayed due to ice forming on overhead power lines.  The trains are delayed, mostly due to failure of the signalling systems.  In effect, most people on a  freezing rain day reach their offices late.

Over a hundred flights are cancelled and many delayed due to the freezing rain.  The landing and taxiing surfaces have to be cleared of the ice regularly, causing major delays.  The de-icing activity has to be carried out on all aircrafts prior to take-off, contributing to further delay.

The problem of ice forming over the wings and tail of the aircrafts is a major concern as it adversely affects the performance of the aircraft, especially at take-off due to reduced lift. This ice has to be removed and the airports in Canada are equipped with deicers. These are vehicles that spray a mixture of a glycol and water, heated and sprayed under pressure, to remove ice and snow on the aircraft surfaces.

What causes the dreaded freezing rains?

Freezing rain develops as falling snow encounters a layer of warm air deep enough for the snow to completely melt and become rain. As the rain continues to fall, it passes through a thin layer of cold air just above the surface and cools to a temperature below freezing point. However, the drops themselves do not freeze, but remain in liquid state due to a phenomena called supercooling.  When the supercooled drops strike the frozen ground (power lines, or tree branches), they instantly freeze, forming a thin film of ice.

The freezing rain drops on hitting a tree branch or a power line condenses around it as these objects are at a much lower temperature than the supercooled rain drops.  As they accumulate, the weight of the tree branch or the power line keeps increasing.  Once this weight crosses the strength of the material, it snaps and falls on the ground.  In case of a snow fall, the snowflakes even if they accumulate on trees and power lines, tend to slide off them due to their own weight.

The freezing rain leave streets under a layer of ice in the morning and results in the closure of many schools, colleges and universities.  The students are always very pleased with these ‘natural’ holidays.

Many customers experience power outages due to downed power lines or due to tree branches falling on power lines.  The crews of the power companies work overtime round the clock to ensure speedy restoration of power.

Police services and radio/TV channels warn motorists to slow down due to ice. It is expected of drivers to treat all lighted intersections without power as all-way stop signs.  That means any vehicle approaching a failed signal must come to a halt and the vehicle which halted first leaves first.  The emergency services always work at full efficiency to cater for many road accidents and to assist drivers who spin off the road.

Environment Canada gives sufficient warnings- generally a week – about the impending freezing rain.  Various TV and Radio News channels cover it in full details and warns the citizens to be careful and suggest preventive actions.  As soon as the rains stop, the salter trucks of the city spread salt on the roads and sidewalks to facilitate melting of the sleet that form on the surfaces.

How does salt act as an ice melter? All icy surfaces have a thin layer of water. When salt (Sodium Chloride – NaCl) applied to such surfaces, starts to dissolve. This ionises the salt into positively charged sodium and negatively charged chlorine ions. These ions, in turn, react with water molecules and form hydrated ions (charged ions joined to water molecules).

This process gives off heat, because hydrates are more stable than the individual ions. The emitted energy then melts microscopic parts of the ice surface. When an automobile drives over the ice, the pressure helps force the salt into the ice and more of this hydration occurs.

The ice-cream makers of the pre-refrigerator days employed the same principle (freezing point depression). The ice and salt mixture ensured that the temperature was well below the freezing mark (zero degrees C), even though the ice melted.  Dry Ice or solid carbon di oxide was also used as a more sophisticated alternative. That begs the question why is solid carbon-di-oxide (CO2)  called dry ice? This is because the solid carbon di oxide on being heated does not melt into liquid and instead changes directly into the gaseous state by a process called sublimation.

Snowstorms result in accumulating snow on the roads resulting in hazardous driving conditions. Municipal authorities are mostly responsible for ensuring that the roadways, back lanes, sidewalks, active transportation trails and designated park pathways are cleared of snow the earliest. These are maintained in such a manner so as to provide safe and accessible operating conditions for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians; reduce the hazards of icy road conditions; and facilitate the handling of emergencies by Police, Fire and Ambulance Services during winter.

Salters are sent out at the start of the storm when snowfalls do not exceed 8 cm (3″) and plows are sent to clear the roads when the snow on the roads is accumulating faster than the salt can melt it away (when snowfall exceeds 8 cm.) High traffic speed and volume roads are cleared first. Streets with less traffic volumes and lower speeds are cleared after the main roads to ensure that residents, and emergency service vehicles like fire trucks and ambulances can safely travel to hospitals, schools, work and residents can get to public transportation systems during or immediately after a snowfall.

Municipalities employ trucks for many horticultural activities during spring and summer. They are used for tree planting/ pruning/ cutting, watering (mounted with a water tank), grass cutting (mounted on a tractor), landscaping, etc. By fall, these vehicles (trucks and tractors) are fitted with a light dosser blade in the front and a salt dispenser mounted on to the body. The trucks are used for plowing the roads and the tractors for the walkways. They doze the snow away in the front while spreading salt from the back. Highway construction/ maintenance companies also modify their trucks for snow plowing. These trucks travel at about 100 kmph on the highways plowing the snow.

Approximately 150 kilogram of salt per Canadian is spread on the roads each year to make them safe for travel in winter. In Ontario the salt comes from the world’s largest salt mine located on the Eastern shore of Lake Huron in Goderich.

How does salt act as an ice melter? There is a thin layer of water on all icy surfaces. When salt (Sodium Chloride NaCl) is applied to such surfaces, salt starts to dissolve. This ionises the salt into positively charged sodium and negatively charged chlorine ions. These ions, in turn, react with water molecules and form hydrated ions (charged ions joined to water molecules.) This process gives off heat. That energy then melts microscopic parts of the ice surface. When an automobile drives over the ice, the pressure helps force the salt into the ice and more of this hydration occurs.

The ice-cream makers of the per-refrigerator era employed the same principle (freezing point depression.) The ice and salt mixture ensured that the temperature was well below the freezing mark (0 degrees C), though the ice melted.

Environment Canada has recognised that salt has adverse impacts on wildlife, plants, water and soil, and in 2001 considered adding it to the country’s list of the most toxic substances. Instead, in 2004, the government instituted a voluntary code of practices to encourage municipalities and others to use the deicer more sparingly, while maintaining highway safety. But with the vast amount of salt used, huge quantities are still polluting soil and water. It noted that after winter thaws, there were spikes in the amount of salt in streams with those taking runoff from the main highways having approximately double the concentration of the pollutant than watercourses nearby that don’t take storm water from the roads. Environment Canada says it is currently reviewing whether the voluntary practices code has led to any reduction in the amount of salt being spread on roads.

How Canada reduces use of salt for deicing?

Pre-wetting is the process of spraying the road surface with a liquid de-icing agent (salt brine) before spreading the salt on the roadway. A salt brine solution is spread on the roads before any expected freezing temperatures. The liquid starts to work before the precipitation starts to freeze. It acts like a barrier between the road and the snow/ice, so that it doesn’t stick to the road and cause slippery conditions. If no precipitation happens, brine stays on the road and last for several days. Pre-wetting results in less salt being spread, saving money and minimising threat to the environment. Wet salt clings to the road instead of bouncing off or being swept off by traffic.

A living snow fence is a barrier created by plants, shrubs and trees to reduce snow blown across roads. Planting trees and shrubs is not only more attractive and more environmentally friendly than building a wood fence, but also more convenient than putting up and taking down traditional snow fences. Snow fences force wind to go around and through the fence. This causes the wind to lose energy and speed. As the speed of the wind slows, the snow forms a drift before or behind the snow fence. How much snow a fence traps depends on the height of the fence and the amount of snow that falls. Manufactured snow fences are installed next to roadways that experience lots of blowing snow.

Another effective snow fence is standing corn in the corn fields all along the roads. Each year in late summer, participating farmers leave a swath of standing corn (six to 12 rows wide), parallel to the road and about 20 meters from the road. Farmers are compensated for this.

Delayed flights during and after a snowstorm is common in Canada. Salt can never be used on an aircraft due to its high corrosion properties. The delay is mostly due to the de-icing activity carried out on all aircraft prior to take-off.

The problem of ice or snow forming over the wings and tail of the aircraft is a major concern as it adversely affects the performance of the aircraft, especially at take-off as the lift may be reduced. This ice has to be removed and the airports in Canada are equipped with deicers. These are vehicles that spray a mixture of a glycol and water, heated and sprayed under pressure to remove ice and snow on the aircraft surfaces.

While it removes ice and snow, deicing fluid has a limited ability to prevent further ice from forming. If winter precipitation is falling, such as snow, freezing rain or sleet, anti-icing fluid is applied after the deicing process is complete. This fluid is of a higher concentration of glycol than deicing fluid. It has a freezing point well below zero degrees Celsius and therefore is able to prevent the precipitation that falls into it from freezing on the aircraft’s surface. Anti-icing fluid also has an additive that thickens it more than deicing fluid to help it stick to aircraft surfaces as it speeds down the runway during takeoff.

“Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn’t you? Look harder. It’s where someone got axed in the snow.” —Margaret Atwood, in Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature, 1995

In the Indian Army, everyone, irrespective of their rank are expected to salute a dead body, whether it is of a fallen soldier who may be junior in rank, a civilian – why even if he is the enemy.  This is the image taken after the Kargil War of 1999 where the Pakistani soldiers are collecting the dead bodies of their fallen soldiers.  Note that every Indian soldier is saluting the enemy fallen soldiers, even though they killed many of their comrades.

Our Regiment once had the Quarter Guard – main guard room – located near the road frequented by civilian traffic.  Whenever a funeral procession passed by, the Regimental Guard ‘Presented Arms‘ and  offered a ‘General salute‘ to honour the dead.

It is a cliché in Indian movies when the police arrive at a scene of death, the inspector on realising that someone is dead, is shown removing his cap as a mark of respect.   Does the Police manuals lay down such an act?

It is rare to see the Police personnel saluting the dead anywhere.  Why they do not even remove their caps as depicted in the movies.  From where did this ‘Cap Off’ tradition begin?

History of removing headgear as a mark of respect can be traced back to the days of the knights, wearing helmets that covered their heads.  They lifted their visors to show their faces to their monarchs. superiors and friends as a sign of respect.  They used their right hand to lift their visors to show that it did not hold a weapon as most soldiers were right handed.

This practice quickly caught on.  Later, the helmet or hat became a part of the soldier’s uniform and thus it began to be thought to be disrespectful to take it off.  It is a lot dangerous to take off a helmet in battle with gunfire and other shrapnel flying around.  The salute with the right hand now replaced the gesture of lifting the visor or removing the headgear.

By the 20th century, hats were pretty much worn by everyone in the West when they went outdoors, as it kept the sun off in the summer and kept the head warm in the winter.  In addition to this, in the cities there was an amazing amount of industrial dirt and grime and the hats were good for keeping the dirt off the head and out of the hair.

Men’s hats are easily removed, but women’s hats with ribbons, bows, flowers and other decorations can be quite a task to remove, especially if they are anchored with hatpins, messing up their hairdos. Hence, only the men were expected to remove their hats as a mark of respect.  Proper hat etiquette defines that while removing the hat, the lining should never show, for obvious reasons.  One must always hold the hat in such a way that the outside is all that is visible.

Men generally ‘tipped’ their hats, or removed them, in the presence of women as a sign of good manners and respect. This developed into removing one’s hat when indoors as a sign of respect and trust.  When entering a home or a building, a hat was generally removed immediately upon entering.

From this originated the expression ‘Hats Off’ normally used when you wish to show your admiration for someone.  Hence it was a ‘male only‘ expression.

There is another tradition regarding hats that when men put something on their hatband, it is generally placed on the left side.  Anything on a woman’s hatband is usually placed on the right side.  Is it because men generally commence walking with their left foot and women with their right?

Orators generally removed their hats while speaking–even when outdoors, for the audience to observe their facial expressions.  In theaters and while in a church, the hats are removed once the gentlemen took their seats, mainly as a consideration for those sitting behind.

Today many wear baseball caps as a fashion statement with some believing it to be cool to wear it backwards.  It is a good etiquette to remove such caps while indoors as there is absolutely no purpose to keeping it on; not even to cover up a bald spot or your badly kept hair.  So, Hats Off to all those who keep wearing their hats all the time, even while indoors.

The general rule for wearing a cap is to find one with a good fit. It should feel snug on your head to avoid falling off, but never so tight that it gives you a headache or reduces blood circulation.  Ensure that you always keep your cap clean.
Unless the visor is obstructing your view do not wear a cap backwards. Only toddlers wear it sideways.
A plain cap is any day better than a graffiti-laden lid.
In high-humidity environs or if you sweat a lot or plan on being in the sun, choose a cap made of a breathable fabric. In cold opt for warmer material such as wool or suede.

‘Army marches on its stomach‘ is an age-old military adage attributed to both Napoleon and Frederick the Great. This saying gives out the importance of the army being well-provisioned, well –administered and well-fed. With my service of over two decades with the Indian Army, I felt that the Army marched more on its ‘knees’ more than its ‘stomach’.

During a military tactical exercise, we underwent while at the National Defence Academy (NDA) in October 1981, we were led by Captain Raj Mehta, now a retired General. We were about 12 cadets, all at their zenith of physical fitness and with real razor-sharp minds, least bothered about the scratches rendered on our skins by the wild thorny bushes and who could least be worried about many falls and rolls one had to endure during such training. The sharp mind coupled with agility ensured that all the cadets stood up and continued with the task at hand as if nothing had happened, even after ten feet fall.

Captain Raj Mehta was 33 years old, but still young at mind and physique, was training us in jungle warfare on a pitch-dark new moon night in the hilly terrains of Pune, India. He ensured participation of each and every cadet, whether it was a discussion or a tactical exercise and had a knack of extracting points of view from every cadet. This instilled a lot of confidence in us and along with learning the operational concepts, he succeeded in turning us into leaders of men. Honour, trust in the subordinates, accepting wrong doings with humility, taking on failures with a lion’s heart, being true to one-self were a few traits I imbibed from him as cadet at the age of nineteen and I am sure it was the foundation stone for my army career ahead for the next twenty-two years.

Captain Mehta stood out among all our instructors in that he had a lot of trust in the cadets and many a times accepted all our fake stories and excuses with an uncanny smile. We all thought we succeeded in ‘fooling’ him, but later in life realised his magnanimity, especially after bringing up our children through their teens. I carried this aspect of trust, and it really helped me to command my unit, where in I delegated a lot of the tasks to the junior leaders and Havildars (Sergeants) as I had to look after our children being a single parent then.

On that night, Captain Mehta was with the Cadet Ajay Sharma (now a retired Colonel), appointed as the section commander with two other cadets leading the section as the points-men. We were moving downhill through the jungle in a single-file section formation.   Suddenly the section commander and Captain Mehta disappeared to be found in a ditch about 10 feet deep, with the next five falling all over them. They all came out and we continued with the exercise. At the end of the exercise at about 10 PM, Captain Mehta debriefed us and one could see a bit of discomfort on Captain Mehta’s face. The next morning, we found Captain Mehta with a bandaged knee and a plastered right hand. He had suffered a fracture of the wrist joint and was put in plaster for six weeks. He did not take a day off and he adapted to driving his Vespa with one hand. The very same knee troubled him later on too. Despite the troublesome knee, General Mehta as a Divisional Commander was known for visiting all the posts in his Division, mostly located above 10,000 feet above Mean Sea Level.

As a young Lieutenant I served under Colonel Mahaveer Singh, our Commanding Officer. Colonel Mahaveer, a Rajput and a humble man with a large heart. He looked after all the young officers as his children and many a times accepted all our pranks and (mis)adventures with a great spirit. He let the young officers take on responsibilities and encouraged and motivated us to put in our best and accomplish the impossible. No wonder that our unit was the best in the formation and young officers from other units of the formation always looked forward to getting attached to our unit and spend a few days with us. All of them were surprised to see the relationship all the young officers had with Colonel Mahaveer, how we used to play basketball with him, share a joke, narrate an incident and above all the movie stories he narrated without losing any of the expressions, especially ‘Sharabi’. Colonel Atul Mishra, Colonel Anupam Gaur, Brigadier Mike Iyer were a few I recollect enjoying these stories as young Lieutenants.

While climbing with Colonel Mahaveer to a post in the Northern Sector, located at about 12,000 feet, he found my pace a bit straining. Colonel Mahaveer was fifty years old and I was twenty-five, half his age. Colonel Mahaveer had suffered a ligament tear on his knee as a result of playing soccer. After about half an hour of climb, we sat down to rest and then Colonel Mahaveer advised me “Look after your knees, else you will suffer my plight at this age. Without a fit knee, you will be a useless soldier”. I accepted the advice, and it ensured that I kept my knee always safe and sound.

After penning down this article I decided to obtain the approval of General Raj Mehta, prior to placing it in the public domain. “While the name makes the anecdote more real you could drop the name as the message it conveys remains unaffected” was the General’s stand. I debated in my mind the General’s request of dropping his name – and at last I ruled to go ahead with the name to give the article the real “Punch” rather than talking in a general term about a real General.