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The First World War Between Memory And History: A Conference Retrospective, Christopher Schultz, Jonathan Weier
The First World War Between Memory And History: A Conference Retrospective, Christopher Schultz, Jonathan Weier
Canadian Military History
Long after the guns of the First World War went silent on 11 November 1918, the war continues to spark debate. The many points of contention were on full display at the “From Memory to History” conference, hosted by Western University in London, Ontario, over three days in November 2011. Scholars and enthusiasts from around the world gathered to share, debate, and ultimately demonstrate that the war’s many legacies are still open to interpretation, even as the centenary of the war’s outbreak approaches. Perhaps the most crucial lesson learned is that both memory and history are malleable concepts, prone to …
Confidential Report On The Recent Bombing Of Le Havre, R.F. Delderfield
Confidential Report On The Recent Bombing Of Le Havre, R.F. Delderfield
Canadian Military History
Flight Lieutenant R.F. Delderfield was a RAF public relations officer in 1944 when he was ordered to the continent to cover the capture of Le Havre. Arriving about a week after the city was liberated, Delderfield spent two days examining the town and interviewing soldiers and civlians about their impressions of the RAF bombing of the city. The report is noteworthy for the attention it pays to the impact of the bombing of the local population. The RAF subsequently modified its plans for the bombing of Boulogne so that only defensive works around the perimeter of the city were attacked …
Leonard Brooks—War Artist (1911–2011), Laura Brandon
Leonard Brooks—War Artist (1911–2011), Laura Brandon
Canadian Military History
Just 13 days after his 100th birthday, Leonard Brooks, a Second World War Canadian artist passed away. Trained as a commercial artist, Brooks joined the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in 1943 and was appointed an official war artist the following year. He painted scenes of the Royal Canadian Navy on Canada’s east coast, shipboard life on minesweepers, frigates and aircraft carriers and various war scenes in England and France. A total of 113 pieces of his work, “all my children” in his words, are held by the Canadian War Museum.
Simple Shelters?: Monitoring Radioactive Fallout Across Canada, 1959–63, Andrew Burtch
Simple Shelters?: Monitoring Radioactive Fallout Across Canada, 1959–63, Andrew Burtch
Canadian Military History
During the early Cold War, the Canadian government adivsed public that they could cheaply build fallout shelters in their homes to protect their families from radiation after a nuclear war. Publicly, the government stayed out of the shelter-building business, citing the cost was too high. However, from 1959 to the mid-1960s, the Canadian Army secretly constructed a network of 2,000 fallout shelters in government building: the Nuclear Detonation and Fallout Reporting System. This article explores the origins of this network and the reasons for its decline.
Crossing The Canal: Combined Arms Operations At The Canal Du Nord, Sept–Oct 1918, David Borys
Crossing The Canal: Combined Arms Operations At The Canal Du Nord, Sept–Oct 1918, David Borys
Canadian Military History
The crossing of the Canal du Nord stands as one of the most impressive Canadian tactical operations of the First World War. Incorporating a risky battle plan, emphasizing combined arms operations and utilizing the recently re-organized Canadian Engineers, the battle stands as benchmark for the evolution of 20th century combat. Although sustaining high casualties, the Canadian Corps overcame one of the strongest German defensive positions along the Westner Front in an operation that foreshadowed the mobile, combined arms doctrine of the Second World War.
S.L.A. Marshall And The Ratio Of Fire: History, Interpretation, And The Canadian Experience, Robert Engen
S.L.A. Marshall And The Ratio Of Fire: History, Interpretation, And The Canadian Experience, Robert Engen
Canadian Military History
The famous “ratio of fire” data proposed by S.L.A. Marshall claims that no more than 15-20 percent of soldiers fired their weapons in combat. This article examines whether or not historians can treat Marshall’s ratio of fire data as veracious, and if so what interpretations one can assign to the phenomenon of combat non-participation. The article contends that based upon the Canadian experience it is premature to universalize Marshall’s findings beyond his specific historical subjects, and that studies of human behaviour in war need to look beyond the ratio of fire data as a paradigm for understanding the conduct of …
“A Useful Accessory To The Infantry, But Nothing More”: Tanks At The Battle Of Flers-Courcelette, September 1916, Andrew Mcewen
“A Useful Accessory To The Infantry, But Nothing More”: Tanks At The Battle Of Flers-Courcelette, September 1916, Andrew Mcewen
Canadian Military History
The Battle of Flers-Courcelette is chiefly remembered as the combat introduction of tanks. The prevailing historiography maligns their performance as a lacklustre debut of a weapon which held so much promise for offensive warfare. However, unit war diaries and individual accounts of the battle suggest that the tank assaults of 15 September 1916 were far from total failures. This paper thus re-examines the role of tanks in the battle from the perspective of Canadian, British and New Zealand infantry. It finds that, rather than disappointing Allied combatants, the tanks largely lived up to their intended role of infantry support.
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The Success Of The Light Armoured Vehicle, Ed Storey
The Success Of The Light Armoured Vehicle, Ed Storey
Canadian Military History
In order to understand the purchase of military vehicles, one must understand the vehicle and where it falls in the evolution of vehicle procurement. This article, written in response to an earlier article in response to an earlier article in Canadian Military History by Frank Maas, examines the chronology and motivations behind the Canadian acquisition of wheeled armoured fighting vehicles.
The Battle Of Hong Kong: 70 Years Later, Tyler Wentzell
The Battle Of Hong Kong: 70 Years Later, Tyler Wentzell
Canadian Military History
Tyler Wentzell, a Canadian infantry officer and the author of a recent article on Brigadier J.K. Lawson, visited Hong Kong last summer. He had the opportunity to range over the former British colony and explore the area where the Canadian fought and died in December 1941. This feature provides a “then and now” look at those battlefields.
“A” Company On Attack On Troteval Farm By The Fusiliers Mont-Royal On 24 July 1944, Jacques Dextraze
“A” Company On Attack On Troteval Farm By The Fusiliers Mont-Royal On 24 July 1944, Jacques Dextraze
Canadian Military History
General J.A. Dextraze, “J Dex” to Canada’s post-war army, served as Chief of the Defence Staff from 1972 to 1975 but in 1944 he was a 24-year-old company commander in Les Fusiliers de Mont-Royal (FMR). This account of the action carried out by his company of 24 July 1944 offers a graphic description of the challenges confronting the Canadians during the battles for Normandy. This attack was conducted to clear the start line for Operation Spring which would commence that next day. Though written in the first person, this report was drafted by Captain Joe Engler, the historical officer assigned …
The Canadian War Museum And Bomber Command: My Perspective, David J. Bercuson
The Canadian War Museum And Bomber Command: My Perspective, David J. Bercuson
Canadian Military History
This article based on David Bercuson’s keynote address at the 22nd Military History Colloquium held at the University of Waterloo in May 2011. Bercuson discusses his role in the controversy over the panel text about the Combined Bomber Offensive at the new Canadian War Museum. Arguing the the original text was not wrong, but reflected older scholarship, he concludes by observing that no serious scholar, whether a single author or a museum staff, should be saved from the age-old processes of historical review, revision and re-writing to reflect more recent research when it is more accurate.
Side-Steppers And Original-Firsts: The Overseas Chevron Controversy And Canadian Identity In The Great War, Andrew Iarocci
Side-Steppers And Original-Firsts: The Overseas Chevron Controversy And Canadian Identity In The Great War, Andrew Iarocci
Canadian Military History
Badges of rank, qualification, and achievement can play significant, it not always explicit, roles in military culture. In late 1917 the British War Office instituted a new award, overseas service chevrons, to recognize service abroad for all ranks and branches of the Empire’s expeditionary forces. This article considers evolving Canadian attitudes toward the chevrons throughout 1918 and in the postwar years. Rather than boost the morale of rank and file soldiers in the Canadian Corps, the chevrons appear to have caused much resentment. Some front liners believed that the award should somehow be distinguish between combat and non-combat service. After …
Rearranged Snowdrops: The Construction Of Memory At The Abbaye D’Ardenne, Vanessa Mcmackin
Rearranged Snowdrops: The Construction Of Memory At The Abbaye D’Ardenne, Vanessa Mcmackin
Canadian Military History
The construction of memory regarding the Second World War is a field in Canaidan historiography that requires further exploration and research. The memorial at the Abbaye d’Ardenne in Normandy provides a case study that speaks to larger patterns of collective commemoration of the war by Canadians and the local population. Memories of war must be examined in the context of their construction. Several factors have given the Abbaye prominence among the many monuments to Canadian the many monuments to Canadian soldiers in Normandy. The monument itself, the physical space it occupies, the motives of those who create and sustain it, …
“Truly They Died That We Might Be Free”: Remembering The Westlake Brothers, Jean-François Born
“Truly They Died That We Might Be Free”: Remembering The Westlake Brothers, Jean-François Born
Canadian Military History
This article examines Canada’s Second World War memory through the experiences of the Westlake family of Toronto. George, Albert and Thomas Westlake were killed in action in Normandy, within a period of four days. Their story is fascinating in terms of the representation of Canadian war casualties of the Second World War. In addition, the article sheds light on one family and how it remembers and has acted to prevent the fading of memory. The Westlake family has ensured that George, Albert and Thomas are honoured and will be remembered. Examining this family provides a new perspective on the Second …
An “Eternal Memorial For Canadian Heroes”: The Dutch Town Of Putte Commemorates The Essex Scottish Regiment, Andrew Horrall
An “Eternal Memorial For Canadian Heroes”: The Dutch Town Of Putte Commemorates The Essex Scottish Regiment, Andrew Horrall
Canadian Military History
Twelve members of the Essex Scottish Regiment were killed at the Belgian-Dutch border town of Putte on 5 October 1944 in one of the Scheldt campaign’s opening engagements. Three years later, as Prime Minister Mackenzie King passed through Putte at the start of his first official visit to the Netherlands, the town presented him with a china plate bearing the names of the men who had died there. Putte’s modest, heartfelt gesture was the first official tribute that Canada’s leader received on Dutch soil, and provides insights into little-explored ways in which the Second World War continues to be commemorated.
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The Fall Of Hong Kong: The Condon Report, David Macri
The Fall Of Hong Kong: The Condon Report, David Macri
Canadian Military History
David Macri recently defended his PhD thesis “Hong Kong in the Sino–Japanese War: The Logistics of Collective Security in South China, 1935–1941” at the University of Hong Kong. The thesis raises new and important questions about the strategic background to the events of late 1941. Dr. Macri is also interested in operational and tactical issues and this report from the US National Archives is of special interest to Canadians. The author, Major Reynolds Condon, was an American assistant military attaché in Hong Kong who witnessed the battle before being released back to the US. His report, while not always factually …
Making The Department Of National Defence Work In The 1970s: The Deputy Minister And The Cds Remember, J.L. Granatstein
Making The Department Of National Defence Work In The 1970s: The Deputy Minister And The Cds Remember, J.L. Granatstein
Canadian Military History
In the aftermath of unification, the Canadian Forces were struggling to deal with the changes that overtook them, not least the Trudeau government’s relative indifference to the military, the impact of bilingualism, and massive reorganization. General Jacques Dextraze, who became chief of the defence staff in 1972, and Sylvain Cloutier, the deputy minister in the Department of National Defence from 1971 to 1975, played key roles in managing the changes. Interviews conducted by J.L. Granatstein in 1988 indicate where they agreed—and disagreed—and tell us much about the characters of these two key figures.
War And Medicine At The Canadian War Museum, Andrew Burtch, Tim Cook
War And Medicine At The Canadian War Museum, Andrew Burtch, Tim Cook
Canadian Military History
War and Medicine is the Canadian War Museum’s major summer exhibition. War and Medicine provides an unflinching look at the relationship between medical practice and military operations over the past 150 years. It comprises more than 300 artifacts, images, and works of art from the Museum’s National Collection and 50 lenders in Europe and North America. The exhibition is open until 13 November 2011.
The 1936 Vimy Pilgrimage, Eric Brown, Tim Cook
The 1936 Vimy Pilgrimage, Eric Brown, Tim Cook
Canadian Military History
This article explores the significance of the 1936 Vimy Pilgrimage. More than 6,200 Canadian veterans and their families voyaged to France for the unveiling of Walter Allward’s Vimy Memorial on 26 July 1936 by King Edward VIII. The symbolism of the pilgrimage, along with the messages presented during the unveiling ceremony, played a key role in establishing the importance of the Vimy Ridge memorial to Canadians.
The Success Of The Light Armoured Vehicle, Frank Maas
The Success Of The Light Armoured Vehicle, Frank Maas
Canadian Military History
Since the 1970s, budget constraints and debates over the tank’s relevance have prompted the Canadian Forces (CF) to pursue lighter, cheaper, and more flexible vehicles. The Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV), built in London, Ontario, has been purchased in great numbers to satisfy these demands, and it has largely succeeded. The CF has purchased the LAV as a wheeled, multi–purpose vehicle to fulfill a variety of roles (infantry carrier, medical evacuation vehicle, etc.), that is cheaper and easier to maintain than tracked alternatives. The CF has continued to purchase LAVs because they have been successful in the field, and they support …
Brigadier J.K. Lawson And Command Of “C” Force At Hong Kong, Tyler Wentzell
Brigadier J.K. Lawson And Command Of “C” Force At Hong Kong, Tyler Wentzell
Canadian Military History
Brigadier J.K. Lawson, the commander of the Canadian contingent at the Battle of Hong Kong, has been the subject of only a few statements in any work concerning the battle. These statements, as false and misleading as they are, have been referenced many times and are generally taken as fact. This article seeks to rectify this affair by providing a biographical profile of Lawson based on archival data and interviews with his family. Contrary to other accounts, Lawson was a professional soldier with substantial education and experience in his craft and he was extremely well–suited to his appointment to command …
The Decision To Reinforce Hong Kong: September 1941, Terry Copp
The Decision To Reinforce Hong Kong: September 1941, Terry Copp
Canadian Military History
In November 1941 the Canadian government, reacting to a British request, despatched “C” Force to reinforce the garrison at Hong Kong. Shortly after the Canadians arrived, the Japanese army attacked and captured the British colony. The entire Canadian contingent of almost 2,000 men was either killed or captured in the battle. Recriminations began immediately as Canadians tried to understand the reasons behind the despatch of the force. This argument was neatly summed up by Carl Vincent in his book titled, No Reason Why. Ignoring the simplicity of hindsight, this article re–examines the political and strategic situation of 1941 to …
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Ch-147d Chinook Nose Art In Afghanistan, Ed Storey
Ch-147d Chinook Nose Art In Afghanistan, Ed Storey
Canadian Military History
Nose art is an important component of any combat aircraft’s markings. Nose art not only helps to boost crew morale, esprit de corps and instill pride in the service, but it also adds a distinct character to the aircraft. Although the subject of current nose art has changed since the classic “pin up” girls of the 1940s, today’s artowrk is just as interesting and worthy of study. With the help of imagery taken in Afghanistan and first–hand study of the artwork, this article catalogues and explores the meaning of the artwork now used.
Preparing For War: The 25th Battalion In Halifax, 1914–15, Robert N. Clements, Brian D. Tennyson
Preparing For War: The 25th Battalion In Halifax, 1914–15, Robert N. Clements, Brian D. Tennyson
Canadian Military History
The 25th Battalion was authorized in November 1914 and recruited men from throughout Nova Scotia before departing for England in May 1915. It spent the winter and early spring of 1914–15 in Halifax, where it was based at the Armoury and on the Common. Robert Clements, a native of Yarmouth, enlisted in the battalion in November 1914 and served in it throughout the war, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Many years later he wrote an informal history of the battalion, giving a colourful account based on his personal experiences and observations. These excerpts from his soon to be published …
“When You’Re A Long, Long Way From Home”: The Establishment Of Canadian-Only Social Clubs For Cef Soldiers In London, 1915–1919, Sarah Cozzi
Canadian Military History
This article examines the off–duty activities of Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) soldiers in Britain during the First World War. For many CEF soldiers abroad, Britain became their “home away from home,” with London serving as their main leave–time destination. Although thousands of CEF soldiers visited the English capital, Canadian federal and military authorities maintained a hands–off approach to the off–duty lives of the men. Fearing for the men’s well–being, Canadian philanthropist, Lady Julia Drummond, established the Canadian–only King George and Queen Mary Maple Leaf Club. Founded upon middle– and upper–class moral standards the Maple Leaf Club emphasizes the role of …
“Canada’S Roll Of Honour”: Controversy Over Casualty Notification And Publication During The Second World War, Timothy Balzer
“Canada’S Roll Of Honour”: Controversy Over Casualty Notification And Publication During The Second World War, Timothy Balzer
Canadian Military History
During the Second World War, the Canadian Army’s announcement of casualties to next–of–kin and the press often caused controversy. Even though the army tried to notify the family and public as quickly as possible, it could not always do so. Unofficial communications with the family, procedural failures, and more frequently press and censorship errors, cause occasional mistakes in casualty reporting. Moreover, the interests of Canada’s allies often prevented the timely publication of casualty names and figures, as in the aftermath of the Dieppe Raid, Sicily campaign and Normandy landings. These delays were often for alleged security reasons, sometimes with questionable …
No Easy Thing: Senior Command In The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, Randall Wakelam
No Easy Thing: Senior Command In The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, Randall Wakelam
Canadian Military History
There is relatively little Canadian military history which looks specifically at the questions and themes surrounding senior command (commanders of large formations of troops—normally generals or lieutenant–generals). Current interpretations call for a trilogy of abilities: the ability to defend national interests in the highest military (and often political) circles; the ability to organize and manage forces both before and during combat; and the ability to lead both directly and indirectly those who have to implement the plans. Were Canadians then, and are historians today, right to apply this multiple standard? This article looks at the three officers who commanded First …