Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star November 1950. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star November 1950. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Headstone – Robert Craig died in the Canoe River train accident on November 21, 1950.

Foam Lake Cemetery

Memorial – Memorial at Canoe River train crash site. In November of 1950 thousands of soldiers were sent to Fort Lewis, Washington, for training before their journey to Korea. They went by rail. At 10:35 in the morning of November 21st, a troop train carrying 340 soldiers - soldiers of the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery - was just east of the village of Canoe River, British Columbia. An express train on the same track was speeding in the opposite direction. And the two crashed, head-on. The troop train was tossed into the air, its engine thrown back onto the coach cars behind it. Steel cars were shattered by other steel cars in a raging inferno. Seventeen Canadian soldiers died that morning, and the bodies of four of them were never found. Many of those who escaped death suffered horrible injury including massive burns. The sacrifice made by the men at Canoe River was no less than that of all war veterans who died in the service of our country. These Canoe River men also died so that others might live in peace. We remain eternally in their debt.

Newspaper Clipping

Photo of Robert Craig

Monument – Reverse of Korean War Veterans War Memorial. It is a memorial to the victims of the Canoe River crash. The monument is located in the Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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