When Canadian Patrol Entered a Burned-Out Village — And Spent the Night Feeding German Children

March nineteen forty-five, Rhine Valley, Germany. The snow crunched under twelve pairs of boots as the Canadian patrol moved through the broken village. Corporal James MacKenzie held up his fist, and every man behind him stopped walking. Smoke still rose from the buildings around them. The air smelled like burned wood and something worse that MacKenzie tried not to think about. His breath came out in white clouds. The thermometer clipped to his pack read minus eight degrees.