Military History Commons^™

Sir Arthur Currie And The Legacy Of The Great War: Letters From The Archives Of The Canadian War Museum, Mark Osborne Humphries

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Military Aid To The Civil Authority In The Mid-19th Century New Brunswick, J. Brent Wilson

Canadian Military History

During the mid–19th century, the role of the military in New Brunswick began to change. Although its primary function remained defence against invasion, the civil power called on it with increasing frequency; first the British regulars and later the militia assisted in capacities ranging from fighting fires to policing. Nevertheless, as New Brunswick changed from colony to province, the militia did not automatically replace the imperial garrison. Civil authorities were reluctant to call on it, and volunteers assumed this role only after the regulars departed in 1869. This article first examines the types of disorder that occurred between the 1830s …

“He Was My Best Subaltern#8221;: The Life And Death Of Lieutenant Herrick S. Duggan, 70th Field Company, Royal Engineers, Nic Clarke

Canadian Military History

At 0400 hours on 21 October 1915, 24 year–old First Lieutenant Herrick “Heck” Stevenson Duggan died of wounds in Béthune, France. One of the 61,000 casualties suffered by the British Army during its failed Loos offensive (25 September to 19 October 1915), Herrick differed from the vast majority of the dead and wounded because he was Canadian, not British.

Based primarily on correspondence between Herrick Duggan and his family during the years 1913–15, this article explores Duggan’s life and experiences leading up to, and during, the Great War. In doing so it examines how the “war to end all wars” …

A Force Of Reason: Canada, Central America, And The Grupo De Observadores De La Naciones Unidas Para Centro America, Andrew B. Godefroy

Canadian Military History

Though the Cold War never led to open hostilities between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers did engage in a seemingly endless series of wars by proxy in their struggle for dominance over international affairs. One of the major arenas was Central America, where regional politics influenced by ideologies led to decades of internal and external strife. Yet a glimmer of hope for peace emerged in the early 1980s even though acrimonious relations persisted between the US and USSR. Central and South American governments, with the encouragement of more distant nations, began a process …

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

“War Diaries Of The First World War” At Library And Archives Canada, Ken Reynolds

Canadian Military History

This note is the next instalment in a series of short pieces on Internet resources and tools available to researchers, writers and readers of Canadian military history. The author, Ken Reynolds, an historian with the Department of National Defence, also writes “The Cannon’s Mouth” blog.

Incursion At Howz-E Madad: An Afghanistan Vignette, Sean M. Maloney

Canadian Military History

On 20 June 2007, Canadian and Afghan National Army forces supported by Dutch and American air forces conducted one of a series of incursions into the Zharey District west of Kandahar City. This incursion, called Operation SEASONS, was representative of operations undertaken in the summer of 2007 by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in this area and is an evolution from how Canadian ground forces have been employed since they were re–introduced to the region in 2005. This account is based on the personal experiences of the author who observed these combat operations while they were in progress.

Medical Care Of American Pows During The War Of 1812, Gareth A. Newfield

Canadian Military History

In 2005, a service in Halifax commemorated US soldiers and sailors who perished in Britain’s Melville Island prisoner-of-war camp during the War of 1812 and whose remains now lie on Deadman’s Island, a nearby peninusla. The service culminated nearly a decade of debate, in which local history enthusiasts, the Canadian and American media, and Canadian and US politicians rescued the property from developers. The media in particular had highlighted the prisoners’ struggles with disease and death, often citing the sombre memoirs of survivors.¹ Curiously, Canadian investigators relied largely upon American accounts and did little research on efforts at amelioration …

Harry Crerar And An Army For Strategic Effect, Paul Dickson

Canadian Military History

Few people did as much to shape Canada’s Second World War effort, and no single person did as much to shape the Canadian army, as did General H.D.G. “Harry” Crerar. As chief of the general staff during the critical year and a half following the fall of France in June 1940, he was the primary architect of First Canadian Army, established the conditions for the army’s training and expansion, and advised the government to dispatch troops to Hong Kong. As a corps commander, he campaigned for Canadian involvement in the Dieppe raid. And, by 1944, he had assumed command of …

Canadian Soldiers In West African Conflicts, 1885–1905, Andrew B. Godefroy

Canadian Military History

This article examines the role played by Canadians at the turn of the century in West Africa. Though not intended to draw sweeping conclusions about the influence of such operations on the Canadian army as a whole—such analysis must follow at a later time when more contextual evidence is available—it does rediscover a largely forgotten chapter in the origins and evolution of the army, as well as raise a number of questions that obviously deserve greater attention. Most important, perhaps, this article demonstrates that a new approach to the analysis of the pre–1914 Canadian army is required, one that focuses …

“Anything But Lovely”: The Canadian Corps At Lens In The Summer Of 1917, Geoff Jackson

Canadian Military History

Much has been written on the Canadian Corps and the string of victories that it achieved after its initial triumph at Vimy Ridge. The corps did not have a perfect record after Vimy, although the battles are often depicted as such. The attack on the town of Lens in August 1917 demonstrated that the corps was still capable of making mistakes that were extremely costly in casualties and did not garner any sort of victory.

Examining the battle of Lens will dispel some of the myths. The brief literature on Hill 70 and Lens has always lumped them together as …

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’S “Debt Of Honour Register”, Ken Reynolds

Canadian Military History

This note is the next installment in a series of short pieces on Internet resources and tools available to researchers, writers and readers of Canadian military history. The author, Ken Reynolds, an historian with the Department of National Defence, also writes “The Cannon’s Mouth” blog.

Fighting The Mujahideen: Lessons From The Soviet Counter-Insurgency Experience If Afghanistan, Tony Balasevicius, Greg Smith

Canadian Military History

The Canadian Forces currently in Afghanistan as part of a NATO coalition are playing a major role in a counter-insurgency campaign directed against a resurgent Taliban threat. Dealing with this menace will not be easy as the Taliban, realizing they cannot defeat NATO’s superior military strength, have resorted to asymmetric actions that strike at the coalition’s will through the cumulative effects of terror and small-scale “hit and run” military operations. Although NATO must contend with these tactics, concentrating solely on the military aspects of the problem will not address the real danger.

The true nature of the Taliban’s threat rests …

A War Artist’S Legacy: Patrick G. Cowley-Brown (1918–2007), Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

First Deployment Of The 14th Field Regiment, Rca: D-Day—Bernières-Sur-Mer—6 June 1944, Wesley B. Alkenbrack

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

The Road To Transformation: Ascending From The Decade Of Darkness, Bernd Horn, Bill Bentley

Canadian Military History

Nobody likes mistakes. Fewer yet like to revisit errors—to analyze, discuss or study them. They are often an embarrassment and remind us of our fallibility and shortcomings. It is always much easier to celebrate our achievements and successes—that leaves everyone with a warm feeling. However, although it is always preferable to avoid making mistakes, once they occur they are important and must be recognized as such. They speak to our weaknesses as both individuals and institutions. They are signals, if not alarms, to warn us of deficiencies that must be addressed. In fact, it has often been said for good …

Close Fire Support: Sexton Self-Propelled Guns Of The 23rd Field Regiment, 1942–1945, Andrew Iarocci

Canadian Military History

On the battlefields of the First World War, initially successful attacks all too often ended in failure because artillery weapons could not be moved up quickly enough to support assault infantry at the sharp end of the fight. As the first tanks appeared on the battlefields in late 1916, British designers tabled ideas for self-propelled gun carriages capable of negotiating difficult terrain, carrying their own loads of ammunition and providing some degree of protection for their crews. One design that never made it off the drawing board was the ED3 Emplacement Destroyer, a 27,000-pound vehicle mounting a 4.5-inch howitzer.^{1 …}