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Book Excerpt: The Guns Of Normandy: A Soldier’S Eye View Of France, George G. Blackburn

Canadian Military History

Editor’s Note: Everyone who studies the land battles of the Second World War knows that artillery was the principle weapon employed by the Allied armies, but the gunners rarely receive the attention they deserve in narratives of the campaign. George Blackburn has written a book, The Guns of Normandy which restores the gunners to their rightful place. CMH is proud to publish two chapters from this book to announce that our Autumn issue will include an excerption from Mr. Blackburn’s forthcoming sequel. Chapter 15 takes up the story on 12 July 1944 as 4th Field Regiment is committed to support …

Photo Essay: Hmcs Haida, Carla Morse

Canadian Military History

In Canada, historic naval ships are not as plentiful as in the United States but their history is just as rich. Although Canada’s naval tradition is a young one, officially starting with the Naval Act in 1910, the legacy is a lasting one that continues to thrive up to the present with the commissioning of the new City Class Frigates. Canadians have chosen to preserve three of the many ships that saw service in WWII. Two of them, the corvette HMCS Sackville and COS Acadia are in Halifax and the other, the destroyer HMCS Haid, is in Toronto. The …

The 107th “Timber Wolf” Battalion At Hill 70, Steven A. Bell

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Recent Additions To The Canadian War Museum’S Vehicle Collection, James Whitman

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Making Bricks Without Straws: The Development Of The Korean War Exhibit At The Canadian War Museum, Mark Reid

Canadian Military History

Established a scant half century ago, the Canadian War Museum has a mandate to document, examine and present our national military heritage to the people of Canada, about 200,000 of whom grace its halls annually. If the Museum is to be anything more than a collection of trophies or a veterans’ touchstone, this story must be interestingly told with historical balance, accuracy and dignity. It is hoped that the following brief account of a recent exhibit will illustrate how this goal is sought and, occasionally, accomplished.

The lack of a Korea Gallery in the national military museum was not an …

Women Making Shells: Marking Women’S Presence In The Munitions Work 1914–1918: The Art Of Frances Loring, Florence Wyle, Mabel May, And Dorothy Stevens, Susan Butlin

Canadian Military History

In 1915, while working as a volunteer in a munitions factory canteen, Canadian artist Florence Carlyle described the munitions factory in letters to her family as a “systematized hell.” However, the atmosphere of the factory made a deep impression on her, for she continued; “what a picture for an artist...an artist with a fifty foot canvas and tubs of paint.”

This paper will focus on the art commissioned from Canadian women artists during the First World War by the Canadian War Memorials Fund (CWMF), and specifically upon art which depicts the subject of women working in Canadian munitions factories. These …

“Three Cheers For Earl Haig”: Canadian Veterans And The Visit Of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig To Canada In The Summer Of 1925, John Scott

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

“I Will Never Forget The Sound Of Those Engines Going Away”: A Re-Examination Of The Sinking Of Hmcs Athabaskan, 29 April 1944, Peter A. Dixon

Canadian Military History

On the morning of 29 April 1944 the Canadian Tribal Class Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan was sunk in the English Channel after an engagement with the German Elbing Class Destroyers T-24 and T-27. The official explanation from the “inquiry into the Loss of HMCS Athabaskan” claimed that Athabaskan sank because of two explosions, the first at 0417 hours, and the second at 0427 hours. The first explosion was attributed to a torpedo from T-24. The second explosion was believed to have occurred when fuel fires, caused by the first explosion, ignited the 4-inch magazine. While this may seem …

Ocean Bridge: The History Of Raf Ferry Command By Carl Christie [Review], Laurie Peloquin

Canadian Military History

Review of Carl A. Christie, Ocean Bridge: The History of the RAF Ferry Command. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

Dieppe Revisited: A Documentary Investigation By John P. Campbell [Review], Hugh G. Henry

Canadian Military History

Review of John P. Campbell, Dieppe Revisited: A Documentary Investigation. London: Frank Cass, 1993.

Regimental History: The State Of The Art, Paul Dickson

Canadian Military History

Review of David Bercuson, Battalion of Heroes: The Calgary Highlanders in World War II. Calgary: The Calgary Highlanders Regimental Fund Association, 1994 and Alex Morrison and Ted Slaney, The Breed of Manly Men: The History of the Cape Breton Highlanders. Sydney, Cape Breton: The Cape Breton Highlanders Association and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1994.

The Role And Work Of Bomber Command: A Note By Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris For The Prime Minister And Cabinet, 28 June 1942, Arthur Harris

Canadian Military History

Editor’s Note: Few senior Allied Commanders have been criticized as strongly as Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris. And even those critics who recognize the vital contribution Harris and the Bomber Command made to the defeat of Nazi Germany are disturbed by the tone of Harris’ letters to Churchill and Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal. Harris never wavered in his conviction that Germany could be defeated by strategic bombing with ground roops assigned to a secondary role. This view underlay his arguments for assigning priority to strategic bombing. In pursuing the case Harris mixed careful argument and clear logic with …

Leesten, 50 Years Later, Henk Dykman

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Two Days Of My Six Year War: 9–10 July 1944, J. Robert Cameron

Canadian Military History

Early in July I was called back to Battery H.Q. and briefed on Operation “Charnwood,” after which I went back to the troop and told the sergeants who in turn gave the information to the crews so that everyone knew what was intended and could carry on should he end up as senior man. The gist of the briefing was that an attack was to start by the English on our left at 0700 hours and would proceed south through Buron, Gruchy and Authie just north of Carpiquet airport by mid-morning, after which the Canadian 9th Brigade on the left …

Canada And The Pacific War, Majorie Wong

Canadian Military History

The war in Asia and the Pacific did not end in as tidy a fashion as it had in Europe. Official surrenders of the Japanese extended from 28 August to the end of September 1945. Several theatres had been created by Allied political and military leaders with Canadians involved in all of them.

“Backdoor To War”: A Canadian Infantryman At Hochwald And Xanten, February–March 1945, Hugh Mcvicar

Canadian Military History

Hugh McVicar was born in 1914 in Guelph, Ontario and graduated from Parkdale Collegiate in Toronto in late 1933. After a year at Toronto Normal School and work at a variety of occupations he joined Swift Canadian Company as a salesman. Married, with a young child and approaching 30 years of age, joining the army was “the farthest thing from his mind.” He was called up under the National Reserves Mobilization Act (NRMA) in March 1944 and immediately agreed to accept general service, meaning service overseas.

As a bookkeeper he was assigned to the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps but …

Some Personal Recollections Of Army Operations Research On Radar In World War Ii, George Lindsey

Canadian Military History

Operational Research had its origin at the beginning of the Second World War, and made important early contributions to many aspects of the Air Defence of Great Britain, an activity of monumental significance in the war. Air defence depended for its success on the development of a command, control, communication and information system on a scale that had never been approached before. It also depended on other types of technology, such as high performance aircraft, air-to-air weapons and anti-aircraft artillery, and, most critically, on the new science of radar. All of these offered opportunities for applications of operational research, as …

Whiz Bangs And Whoolly Bears: Walter Estabrooks And The Great War, Compiled From His Diary And Letters, Hal A. Skaarup

Canadian Military History

The Order of Battle for the Canadian Corps during World War One included the 32nd Field Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery (CFA), in the 8th Army Brigade. One memorable gunner who served in that unit was Sergeant Walter Ray Estabrooks. He enlisted in the spring of 1916 with the 65th Depot Battery at Woodstock, New Brunswick. Here, on the 9th of April, he was issued a uniform and service number 335805. Walter Estabrooks would go on to become part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and participated in what came to be known as “The Great War.” This extraordinary …

Paved With Good Intentions: Hmcs Uganda, The Pacific War, And The Volunteer Issue, Bill Rawling

Canadian Military History

Admirals and politicians alike must have winced at the headlines: “PACIFIC SERVICE PROTEST” was splashed across the Daily Sketch; “PACIFIC? NOT US!” proclaimed the Evening News, in one of the worst public relations disasters the Royal Canadian Navy faced during the Second World War. As the two newspapers—among many others—explained, the crew of one of Canada’s two cruisers, HMCS Uganda, while on operations in the Pacific theatre, refused to volunteer for further service when requested, forcing the ship to return to port. There were, however, no accusations of cowardice or disloyalty, either explicit or implied; rather, the …

Merry Hearts Make Light Days: The War Of 1812 Journal Of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, 104th Foot Edited By Donald E. Graves [Review], Wesley B. Turner

Canadian Military History

Review of Donald Graves (ed.), Merry Hearts Make Light Days: The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John Le Conteur, 104th Foot.