For your summertime reading enjoyment, here’s a selection of fast and easy wartime tales that struck my fancy – starting with this delightful picture of Samantha Kot, who re-enacted an old photo she discovered right here on Wartime Wednesdays.

Here is one of the reasons they call it The Greatest Generation. Canadian Army veteran Russell Thompson of Seeley’s Bay, Ontario, who will turn 99 in a few months, embodies the values that made this country great.

The artists who created these beautiful Toronto Star Weekly covers have been mostly forgotten, so it was a delightful surprise to hear from a woman whose great-aunt Elizabeth Cutler was a regular contributor to the magazine. Sheree Meyer of Orlando, Florida shared her memories of her talented Great-Aunt Betty.

A group of young men from Cranbrook, British Columbia, members of the Rovers branch of the Boy Scouts, built this cabin deep in the forest to use as their private clubhouse in the happy days before the Second World War. Four of them died while serving their country. Now all that remains is the stone fireplace, a crumbling memorial to those brave young men who never returned to the mountains they loved so much.

When I discovered this photograph online, I was struck with the lovely elegance of Dorothy Chapman Garen in her Royal Canadian Air Force uniform. I was even more thrilled to find that Dorothy, now aged 95, is living not far from me in Canmore, Alberta, where I was able to thank her in person for her service to our country.