The Great Naval Battle Of North Point: Myth Or Reality?,
2012
Directorate of Heritage and History
The Great Naval Battle Of North Point: Myth Or Reality?, Richard O. Mayne
Canadian Military History
Hollywood itself could hardly have scripted a better battle. According to eyewitnesses, a German U-boat lurking off the shores of North Point, Prince Edward Island, laid a trap for an unsuspecting convoy transitting the Northumberland Strait. On 7 May 1943, the trap was sprung, Canadian naval escorts and aircraft did their best to defend the beleaguered convoy from a brazen and unorthodox attack that was unlike any other. There could only be one conclusion: the German commander was half-mad. Just like the fictional Captain Ahab, he was willing to take unwarranted risks with his boat and men to destroy his …
Table Of Contents,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Tommy Prince: Warrior,
2012
St. Jerome’s University
Tommy Prince: Warrior, Mckenzie Porter, P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Canadian Military History
Over the last decade, there has been a flurry of interest in the Aboriginal men and women who served in the world wars and Korea. No one is more famous than Sergeant Thomas George Prince, MM (1919–77), one of the most decorated non-commissioned officers in Canadian military history. Yet he remains, to most Canadians, an unknown figure.
Colonel Wily’S Brainchild: The Origins Of The Canadian War Museum In Ottawa’S Cartier Square Drill Hall, 1880–1896,
2012
Canadian War Museum
Colonel Wily’S Brainchild: The Origins Of The Canadian War Museum In Ottawa’S Cartier Square Drill Hall, 1880–1896, Cameron Pulsifer
Canadian Military History
Since 1996 the Canadian War Museum (CWM) has been a major partner with the Wilfrid Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies in the production of Canadian Military History. The CWM was described in 1991 by a government appointed Task Force on Military Museum Collections in Canada as the country’s “flagship military museum,” but, as the report made clear, the museum lacked many of the essential resources for that role. The CWM occupied cramped and antiquated quarters on Sussex Drive in Ottawa and was receiving only about 125,000 visitors a year.1 Since then, in May 2005, it has …
A Forgotten Victory: Courcelette, 15 September 1916,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
A Forgotten Victory: Courcelette, 15 September 1916, David Campbell
Canadian Military History
The 2nd Canadian Division, which landed in France on 15 September 1915, had established an uncertain operational record by the summer of 1916. As part of the Canadian Corps, the division had spent virtually all of its time in or near Belgium’s notorious Ypres Salient, where it was embroiled in a grim campaign of trench warfare. Notable successes in trench raiding were offset by costly setbacks, such as the division’s failure to hold a series of mine craters at St. Eloi in April 1916. This was followed in June by the withdrawal of one of its brigades in the face …
Story Of The 22nd Battalion, September 15th, 1916: The Capture Of Courcelette,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Story Of The 22nd Battalion, September 15th, 1916: The Capture Of Courcelette
Canadian Military History
Editor’s note: The George Metcalf Archival Collection at the Canadian War Museum has a thick file of original materials related to the 22nd Battalion’s role in the battle of Courcelette including messages written by its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel T.L. Tremblay, and after action reports, many hand-written, by future Dominion Archivist Lieutenant-Colonel Gustav Lanctot. Nothing is known about the provenance of this file. It was in storage at the museum when, in 1971, serious efforts began to assemble disparate documentary materials into a proper archives collection. The file presents a splendid opportunity for someone to complete an in-depth account of the 22nd’s …
Fighting Time: Gregg Centre And Royal Canadian Engineers Join Forces To Record New Brunswick’S Past,
2012
University of New Brunswick
Fighting Time: Gregg Centre And Royal Canadian Engineers Join Forces To Record New Brunswick’S Past, Lee A. Windsor, Lee Ellen Pottie
Canadian Military History
No abstract provided.
Table Of Contents,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Saint John’S Red Head Battery: A Forgotten Military Artifact Of Confederation,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Saint John’S Red Head Battery: A Forgotten Military Artifact Of Confederation, Roger Sarty
Canadian Military History
In the early 1860s, driven by the threat of war with the United States, British army engineers and local contractors built a coast artillery battery on top of the red-coloured bluffs overlooking the eastern approach to Saint John harbour. It is broadly similar to earlier coastal batteries that still exist at Halifax and Quebec City, but on a more massive scale because artillery was rapidly increasing in size and power during the 1860s. Other heavy batteries were constructed at other Canadian ports during that decade, but all were subsequently rebuilt with more modern structures. Red Head Battery is the only …
Photo Essay: The D-Day Beaches From The Air,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Photo Essay: The D-Day Beaches From The Air
Canadian Military History
No abstract provided.
Oral History At The Canadian War Museum,
2012
Canadian War Museum
Oral History At The Canadian War Museum, Angus Brown
Canadian Military History
No abstract provided.
21st Army Group In Normandy: Towards A New Balance Sheet,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
21st Army Group In Normandy: Towards A New Balance Sheet, Terry Copp
Canadian Military History
The purpose of this article is to offer further evidence in support of the view that the combat performance of the Anglo-Canadian armies in Normandy has been greatly underrated and the effectiveness of the German forces vastly overrated. This argument informs my study of the Canadians in Normandy, published under the title Fields of Fire, but the intention here is to consider questions about combat between British and German units in Normandy.
Longing And Loss From Canada’S Great War,
2012
Canadian War Museum
Longing And Loss From Canada’S Great War, Tim Cook, Natascha Morrison
Canadian Military History
No abstract provided.
Arbitrary Justice?: A Comparative Analysis Of Canadian Death Sentence Passed And Commuted During The First World War,
2012
University of Western Ontario
Arbitrary Justice?: A Comparative Analysis Of Canadian Death Sentence Passed And Commuted During The First World War, Teresa Iacobelli
Canadian Military History
The topic of military executions has dominated the study of discipline and punishment during the First World War. Considering the relatively small number of men who were executed, 361 in British and Dominion forces combined, it is startling how much attention the subject has garnered. The morality of the practice has been widely discussed and debated and it has spawned recent pardons campaigns in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada. Yet, virtually ignored in these debates have been the stories of the 3,080 men of the British and Dominion forces who were also sentenced to death, but saw their …
Airborne Communications In Operation Market Garden,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Airborne Communications In Operation Market Garden, David Bennett
Canadian Military History
Operation Market Garden, Field Marshal B.L.M. Montgomery’s grand attempt to end the war in 1944, has been ceaselessly analysed in an attempt to understand the reasons for its failure. Factors such as the distance of the drop zones from the objectives in Arnhem, the delay in resupply, the presence of strong German forces in the area, as well as the slow progress of XXX Corps in linking the airborne bridgeheads, are some of the main reasons cited for the failure of the operation. Another element often raised has to do with the failure of communications equipment at Arnhem. Peter Harclerode, …
Aleutian Allusions: Mackenzie King’S Diary And The Invasion Of Kiska In 1943,
2012
University of Ottawa
Aleutian Allusions: Mackenzie King’S Diary And The Invasion Of Kiska In 1943, Glen Roger Perras
Canadian Military History
No abstract provided.
Table Of Contents,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
The Attack On The Church In St. Martin-De-Fontenay: 31 July–1 August 1944,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
The Attack On The Church In St. Martin-De-Fontenay: 31 July–1 August 1944, Jacques Dextraze
Canadian Military History
Editor’s Note: 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 on 1 August 1944 offers a graphic description of the challenges confronting the Canadians during the battles for Verrières Ridge. This attack was conducted in the context of Montgomery’s orders to “keep up the pressure on the Caen area... to make easier the task of the American armies fighting hard on the western …
Enemy Reaction To Overlord: Allied Intelligence Assessment, 6 May 1944,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Enemy Reaction To Overlord: Allied Intelligence Assessment, 6 May 1944, Bill Williams
Canadian Military History
Editor’s Note: In the months leading up to Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, Allied planners invested heavily in their attempts to learn about German dispositions. Much has been written about the “failure” of the Allies to detect the German 352nd Division which nearly doomed the American landings at Omaha. However, this was only one small piece of the intelligence picture. Ultra decrypts based on German wireless messages provided Allied planners with details of the German Order of Battle in France though the exact location of battalions, regiments and divisions was not always certain. Brigadier Bill Williams, General Montgomery’s senior …
Working With Montgomery: On Being A Scientific Adviser To A Commander-In-Chief (21 Army Group 1944–1945),
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
Working With Montgomery: On Being A Scientific Adviser To A Commander-In-Chief (21 Army Group 1944–1945), B.F.J. Schonland
Canadian Military History
No abstract provided.
