Relaxing

A couple of Chapleau, Ontario, chose an image of a British battle cruiser to adorn their 1915 Christmas card.

Soldiers training at Camp Borden, Ontario, during the Second World War had a wide range of entertainment options available.

In September 1939, a church magazine in Holland, Manitoba, printed this poem about the coming of war.

In the great tradition of stirring naval poetry, Lieutenant-Commander Hugh Campbell wrote this tribute to the men and ships of the 31st Canadian Minesweeping Flotilla while serving on HMCS Fort William. The 31st operated off Omaha and Utah beaches during the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.

Early 1945 saw Canadian military and local teams battling on the ice at Paisley, with the Canadian teams featuring talent from the NHL.

A pamphlet sold on the home front for 25 cents with sheet music and lyrics for the song "Hitler on the Run!" by Neil MacDonald.

A letter home to Canada written on birch bark.

The Happy Gang was one of the most popular entertainment groups of the 1940s, and considered its material to be ammunition for the "'second front' at home, the Fun Front."

Arthur LeMay was better known for his comic strip "Aventures de Timothée," but during the Second World War he turned his hand to propaganda cartoons to support the war effort.

The wings ceremony was an important milestone for airmen in training, a public acknowledgement that they had mastered their trade. This course, at a school operated by Canadian Pacific Air Lines, was unusual in having so many Polish airmen.