Canada

Nuclear Missions – a Canadian CF104 Starfighter Pilot’s Story

Flying at high speed and low level, RCAF pilot Allen French was at the sharp end of potential nuclear bombing missions during the Cold War. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! Flying at high speed and low level, RCAF pilot Allen French was at the sharp end … Read more

The Cold War Atomic Spies

  On 29 August 1949 at 7:00 a.m. the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! The test stunned the Western powers. American intelligence had estimated that the Soviets would not produce an atomic weapon until 1953, while the British did not expect it … Read more

Cold War Canadian airborne anti-submarine missions

    Colonel Terry Chester’s flying career spanned some 42 years, and 10,000 flying hours. He joined the RCAF in Sept 1964 and in 1968 was awarded Navigator Wings. Terry flew for 3,000 hrs on the Argus Maritime patrol aircraft where he spent a good portion of his RCAF career hunting for Soviet Submarines in both … Read more

The 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang, North Korea

The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students was held from 1–8 July 1989 in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It was the largest international event staged in North Korea up until then. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google Podcasts The event took four years of preparation by the North Korean government, … Read more

Born into a family of Canadian Communists

Fred Weir was a third-generation red diaper baby from Toronto and a long-time member of the party. His uncle, trained at the Lenin School in Moscow in the 1920s as an agent of the Communist International, the Comintern and spent many years in the USSR. Fred had visited a few times, had studied Russian history … Read more

The Gouzenko Affair – the start of the Cold War

Igor Gouzenko exposed Soviet intelligence’s efforts to steal nuclear secrets as well as the technique of planting sleeper agents. The “Gouzenko Affair” is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War,  with historian Jack Granatstein stating it was “the beginning of the Cold War for public opinion” and journalist Robert Fulford writing he … Read more

The first western pilot to fly the MIG-29 Soviet fighter plane

What was it like to be the first western pilot to fly the most advanced Soviet fighter aircraft? At the 1989 Abbotsford Air Show, during the dying days of the Cold War, Canadian CF-18 pilot Major Bob Wade became the first Western pilot to fly a Soviet MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter aircraft. This episode tells you … Read more

Flying the Cold War CF-104 Starfighter over Germany

  Laurie Hawn is a retired Canadian Member of Parliament and former career fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Laurie tells the story of low level delivery of nuclear weapons via the Starfighter as well as conventional missions. Also we get insight into the escape, evasion and interrogation training given to NATO pilots. … Read more

Cold War Canadians Hunt For Red October

Colonel Terry Chester spent a good portion of his RCAF career hunting for Soviet Submarines in both the Pacific and Atlantic area’s of operation. He was instrumental in the design criteria for sub hunting capability’s when Canada procured the, then new Aurora, for anti-submarine hunting in the early 1980’s. Terry has great stories to tell … Read more