In Living and Learning in Retirement’s 50th year, Ted Barris continues his Friday lectures this winter at Glendon College’s Centre for Excellence. His series, “Missing in Action: Untold Stories of Canadians’ Participation in Historic Moments,” features famous periods of world history, in which Canadians played vital roles.

Lecture No. 4, “Where was Nazi Germany most vulnerable in WWII?” The On May 16, 1943, 133 airmen took off in 19 Lancaster bombers on a night sortie, code-named “Operation Chastise.” Hand-picked and specially trained, the Lancaster crews flew at treetop level from England to the industrial heartland of the Third Reich and the Ruhr River dams, whose massive water reservoirs powered Nazi Germany’s military industrial complex. What most don’t realize was that nearly a third of the key airmen in the raid were Canadians. Their work, some say, turned the tide when it was needed most

Ted Barris has published 20 non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. His book, The Great Escape: A Canadian Story, won the 2014 Libris Award as Best Non-Fiction Book in Canada. His book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, received the 2018 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. And his book, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire, was long-listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. In December 2022, Ted Barris was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.