History Commons^™

Review Of "Strategy And Command: The Anglo-French Coalition On The Western Front, 1915" By Roy A. Prete, Mark Klobas

Canadian Military History

Review of Strategy and Command: The Anglo-French Coalition on the Western Front, 1915 by Roy A. Prete

Review Of "War Junk: Munitions Disposal And Postwar Reconstruction In Canada" By Alex Souchen, Andrew Iarocci

Canadian Military History

Review of War Junk: Munitions Disposal and Postwar Reconstruction in Canada by Alex Souchen

Review Of "The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’S Battle To Mend The Disfigured Soldiers Of World War I" By Lindsey Fitzharris, Teresa Iacobelli

Canadian Military History

Review of The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris

Review Of "The Forgotten Front: The Eastern Theater Of World War I, 1914-1915" Edited By Gerhard P. Gross, Benjamin Hughes

Canadian Military History

Review of The Forgotten Front: The Eastern Theater of World War I, 1914-1915 edited by Gerhard P. Gross

Review Of "Canada’S Mechanized Infantry: The Evolution Of A Combat Arm, 1920-2012" By Peter Kasurak, Robert C. Engen

Canadian Military History

Review of Canada’s Mechanized Infantry: The Evolution of a Combat Arm, 1920-2012 by Peter Kasurak

Review Of "Canada In Nato, 1949-2019" By Joseph T. Jockel And Joel J. Sokolsky, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

Review of Canada in NATO, 1949-2019 by Joseph T. Jockel and Joel J. Sokolsky

Canada’S Most Decisive Victory: An Analysis Of Canada’S Role In The Hundred Days Offensive, 8 August - 11 November 1918, Ryan Goldsworthy, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

Of Canada’s long military history, Vimy is the one battle that most Canadians will know. Some will be familiar with Passchendaele, D-Day or the disasters at Hong Kong and Dieppe. Canadians should know the Hundred Days because the battles that constitute that offensive were almost certainly the most important victories ever won by Canadian soldiers. This article analyses the various reasons for the stunning Canadian successes of that war-winning offensive: chiefly the Canadian experience and doctrine; the state of the enemy and the Allies; artillery and counter-battery fire (the most important tactical arm); and logistics and administration. Ultimately, as the …

Bearing Witness To Sacrifice: Death, Grief And Memorialisation In The Collections Of The Canadian War Museum, Teresa Iacobelli

Canadian Military History

This article presents a selection of artworks, archival material and artifacts from the Canadian War Museum (CWM) that illuminate how Canadians—soldiers and civilians— have experienced and endured war. By focusing on the themes of death, grief and memorialisation, these items convey how Canadians have borne the sacrifice of war, and the way in which those losses have been memorialised in ways both public and private.

Cet article présente une sélection d’oeuvres d’art, de documents d’archives et d’artefacts du Musée canadien de la guerre (MCG) qui illustrent la façon dont les Canadiens – soldates et civils – ont vécu et enduré …

“Such An Immoral Creature”: Widowed Women And The Board Of Pension Commissioners, Lyndsay Rosenthal

Canadian Military History

Widows’ pensions were a vital source of income following the loss of a spouse during and after the war. While soldiers enlisted with the promise that their families would be taken care of, accessing state assistance could be exceedingly difficult. In addition to proving their husband’s death was connected to their wartime service, widows also had to meet contemporary ideals about gender, sexuality and motherhood. These pensions provided more financial support than any other social welfare system available at the time. However, pension regulations governed widows’ daily lives and influenced major life events such as marriage and childrearing.

Indigenous Veterans Of The First World War And Their Families In The Prairie West, William John Pratt

Canadian Military History

This study of forty-five military pension files of Indigenous First World War veterans of the Treaty 4, 6 and 7 regions shows that the racist perspectives and structures of settler colonialism on the Prairies could prevent just administration of benefits. Pension files of Indigenous veterans expose the tragedy of their lives during and after the First World War. Many soldiers had lingering pains and ailments as a result of the war, as well as continuing problems shaking the gaze of settler colonialism, which seemed unable to view them as both Indigenous and veterans. Despite the numerous legal and cultural obstacles …

Je Ne Me Souviens Pas: Pensioned Veterans From French Canada’S 22nd Battalion, Serge Marc Durflinger

Canadian Military History

An examination of the pension files of men having served in the 22nd Battalion (canadien-français), the Canadian Corps’ only French-speaking line battalion, situates veterans into a specific ethno-linguistic and, more generally, socio-economic context. This article seeks to illuminate some of the many personal crises that could, and commonly did, afflict veterans, their families and their survivors. It demonstrates that beyond the devastation of serious physical or psychological wounding, many of Canada’s returned men, perhaps far more than we imagined, suffered persistent ill health, financial distress and family estrangement. Almost without exception, the sixty 22nd Battalion case files examined …

“Anxious To Be Restored”: Managing War Neuroses In Interwar Canada, Heather Ellis

Canadian Military History

Using newly available records from the Veterans Affairs Pension Files, doctors’ notes and Veterans’ Hospital records, this article explores how war neurosis was simultaneously a personal and public event. Veterans were required to describe symptoms that breached masculine ideals to demonstrate that their disability impacted their daily lives. Ex-servicemen were caught in a delicate balance between following the soldier ideal and describing their symptoms accurately. War neurosis not only impacted veterans in the private examining room of the pension administrator it also affected their ability to find and maintain employment and the lives of their family members. The more public …

A Generation Curtailed: The Lifespans Of Canada’S Pensioned Veterans Of The Great War, Jonathan Scotland

Canadian Military History

Despite long-time interest in links between the Great War and concepts of a Lost Generation, there have been few efforts to study veteran lifespans. The death dates of Canadian pensioned veterans recorded in the Department of Veterans Affairs pensions files, combined with those recorded in department’s death cards, offers an opportunity to quantify not just veteran life expectancy, but actual lifespans. The ensuing analysis of pensioned veteran lifespans suggests that research conducted in the mid 1930s by F. S. Burke for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which concluded that pensioned veteran life expectancy would exceed that of the average Canadian …

“When Wartime Friends Meet”: Great War Veteran Culture And The (Ab)Use Of Alcohol, Jonathan F. Vance

Canadian Military History

After the First World War, Canadian veterans created a culture that celebrated the camaraderie, sense of purpose, and light-hearted moments of their experience as soldiers. Much like the trench culture of the war years, it poked fun at misfortune, satirized the enemy, and presumed that a stiff drink could make any situation better. Veteran culture provided ex-soldiers in the 1920s and 1930s with the mutual support they needed to get through difficult times, but it was a milieu in which the excessive consumption of alcohol was accepted and even encouraged. This had little impact on the settled, well-adjusted veteran but …

“By Reason Of Age And Necessity”: Pension Claims Of Veterans Of The War In South Africa, Amy Shaw

Canadian Military History

Under the War Veterans Allowance Act (1930) some veterans of the War in South Africa (1899-1902) became eligible for support from the Canadian government. The terms of eligibility and the discourse around granting these pension allowances echo debates during the war itself, with a focus on the men’s physicality and an ambiguity about the country’s relations with the British Empire. The act required both military service and impecunity of the veterans it proposed to assist. The veterans’ interactions with the government, asserting both need and earned reward, position the Act as a significant point of transition in the country’s discourse …

Editors' Introduction, Mark Osborne Humphries, Lyndsay Rosenthal, Eric Story

Canadian Military History

Guest Editors' introduction to special issue.

Op Lobe And The Evacuation Of Canadian Personnel From Libya, 2014: An Interview With Major (Retired) Doug Henderson, Andrew Burtch

Canadian Military History

In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Libya and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s intervention that overturned Muammar Gaddafi’s government amid fears of reprisals against civilians, Canada and other countries re-established a diplomatic presence. The region was still unstable with many competing militias in a tentative truce following Gaddafi’s downfall. Canada’s embassy required a military presence to secure the compound and the safety of Canadian VIPs. In July 2014, the men and women of Operation LOBE were forced to evacuate from Libya amid a diplomatic exodus during a resurgence of civil war. This piece, based largely on …

Review Of "The Secret History Of Rdx: The Super-Explosive That Helped Win World War Ii" By Colin F. Baxter, Alex Souchen

Canadian Military History

Review of The Secret History of RDX: The Super-Explosive that Helped Win World War II by Colin F. Baxter

Review Of "The Empire On The Western Front: The British 62nd And Canadian 4th Divisions In Battle" By Geoffrey Jackson, Bradley Shoebottom

Canadian Military History

Review of The Empire on the Western Front: The British 62nd and Canadian 4th Divisions in Battle by Geoffrey Jackson.

Review Of "Always Ready: A History Of The Royal Regiment Of Canada" By Donald E. Graves With Captain (Ret’D) Mihail Murgoci, Roger Sarty

Canadian Military History

Review of Always Ready: A History of the Royal Regiment of Canada by Donald E. Graves with Captain (ret’d) Mihail Murgoci.

Review Of "Winning And Losing The Nuclear Peace: The Rise, Demise And Revival Of Arms Control" By Michael Krepon, Paul Esau

Canadian Military History

Review of Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace: The Rise, Demise and Revival of Arms Control by Michael Krepon

Review Of "Dying To Learn: Wartime Lessons From The Western Front" By Michael A. Hunzeker, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

Review of Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front by Michael A. Hunzeker.

Review Of "The Battle Of The Peaks And Long Stop Hill: Tunisia, April-May 1943" By Ian Mitchell, Tobias Clark

Canadian Military History

Review of The Battle of the Peaks and Long Stop Hill: Tunisia, April-May 1943 by Ian Mitchell.

Review Of "From Rinks To Regiments: Hockey Hall-Of-Famers And The Great War" By Alan Livingstone Macleod, Peter L. Belmonte

Canadian Military History

Review of From Rinks to Regiments: Hockey Hall-of-Famers and the Great War by Alan Livingstone MacLeod.

Crossing The Grebbe Line: Canada’S Faustian Bargain To Save Civilians In The Western Netherlands, April-May 1945, Nathan Dyck

Canadian Military History

Beginning at the military-political level and ending at the regimental level, this paper will explore the growth of Canadian responsibility within a failing Allied relief framework throughout the Dutch Hunger Winter 1944-1945. Beginning in early April 1945, I Canadian Corps experienced a growing responsibility to secure an independently negotiated and effective ceasefire on the Grebbe Line to enable transport of food prior to broader German surrender. Under the name of Operation Faust, I Corps utilised targeted medical and food relief practices to address gaps in Allied relief capacity, following what Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ) referred to as a “hastily improvised” …

Pursuit To Valenciennes 1918: The Fate Of Soldiers At The Point Of Capture, Brian Pascas

Canadian Military History

This article tracks the Canadian Corps’ pursuit of the retreating German army in the last weeks of the First World War. As French hamlets, villages and towns were liberated, the war-weary troops—nursing grudges after almost four years of war—encountered civilians who had endured poor and sometimes brutal treatment under the yoke of the cruel invader. During the Battle of Valenciennes hundreds of German soldiers were killed; the vast majority perished under immense artillery barrages. But a number who survived the onslaught of shells and bullets succumbed to Canadians’ rifles while or after surrendering. Motives are identified that drove frontline soldiers …

“A Very Fine Plan In The Memory Of Our Boys:” Commemorating The Owen Sound Collegiate And Vocational Institute Second World War Dead, David Ross Alexander

Canadian Military History

The memorial plaques dedicated to the First and Second World War dead of many of Canada’s secondary schools including the Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute may have borne close resemblance but the experience of those whose names appeared on the walls was very different. The adolescent experience of students who attended these schools during the interwar years contrasted with that of their mothers and fathers. They enlisted, fought and died in a much more technologically advanced and globalised war than the previous generation. They were shaping their own distinct identity in youth and war and how would the collective …

Hidden In Plain Sight: The Militia And Defence Headquarters Personnel File Series, 1903 To 1938, Paul Marsden, Glenn Wright

Canadian Military History

In the late 1940s, the Department of National Defence enthusiastically embraced microfilming technology, undertaking a massive project to microfilm several million files covering the period 1885 to 1948. This article describes the authors’ research to trace one particular microfilm job covering Military Personnel Files managed by the Department of Militia and Defence. The authors have unearthed a large cache of unexplored records, comprising tens of thousands of military personnel files, the majority of which deal with military service during the Great War.

The Lives And Afterlives Of Material Culture: New First World War Artifacts At The Canadian War Museum, Laura Brown, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

This article presents a selection of First World War artifacts that have been acquired by the Canadian War Museum since its opening in 2005. Each object is infused with multiple stories. Some were treasured mementos handed down through families, while others were nearly forgotten over time. Once at the museum, they acquired new narratives as these objects, artifacts and material culture are integrated into exhibitions, educational and digital products or accessed by researchers. The artifacts tell stories, contribute to our understanding of the diversity of Canadian experiences during the war and demonstrate the central role of the artifact in the …

Review Of "Duty To Dissent: Henri Bourassa And The First World War" By Geoff Keelan, Andrew Theobald

Canadian Military History

Review of Duty to Dissent: Henri Bourassa and the First World War by Geoff Keelan