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Masters Of The Channel Night: The 10th Destroyer Flotilla’S Victory Off Ile De Batz, 9 June 1944, Michael Whitby

Canadian Military History

It was a dark and somewhat stormy night. In the western English Channel, off the Ile de Batz, twelve destroyers, eight Allied (including two Canadian) and four German, hurtled towards each other at a combined speed of 47 knots. Radar, penetrating the black murk ahead of the Allied ships, detected hostile contacts at ten miles range and the force deployed for action. Minutes later they opened devastating fire upon a startled enemy.

The battle that ensued on the night of 9 June 1944 was the raison d’etre of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, a destroyer strike force based on Plymouth. When …

Some Reflections On The Teaching Of Military History In Canada, Robert Vogel

Canadian Military History

Military History occupies a somewhat tenuous position in the curricula of Canadian universities. It is most often regarded as a kind of marginal enterprise to be offered by a faculty member who has some side-interest in these matters as a relief from the more serious social, economic and cultural questions with which History is properly concerned. This is, of course, not a new phenomenon. It is, quite to the contrary, a tradition which stretches back to the very beginning of history as an academic discipline in the 19th century. It was particularly the attitude within the British historical profession.

William Drummond And The Battle Of Fort Erie, Donald E. Graves

Canadian Military History

The officers and men of the British army that defended Canada from American invasion during the War of 1812 knew they were “forgotten soldiers.” Fighting in a distant and secondary theatre, far from the gaze of a government and public pre-occupied with events on the continent, especially in Spain, they took a somewhat perverse pride in their status as outcasts. As one quipped about the Duke of Wellington—“thank God he managed to do without us” at Waterloo. But they also took a particular pride in their own local heroes including such men as Gordon of the 1st Regiment of Foot, …

Operations Of 1 Canadian Infantry Divisional Artillery, 24 August-22 September 1944, Lee A. Windsor

Canadian Military History

In January 1944 1st Canadian Infantry Division reverted to command of I Canadian Corps after seven months of campaigning in Sicily and Italy under a British Corps. The story of the division’s resentment toward the level of paperwork foisted on them by H.D.G. Crerar’s untried corps headquarters is legendary. Modern military historians assume this rancour is indicative of a 1914–18 mindset among Second World War Canadian senior officers which prevented them from adapting to the fast–paced nature of modern mechanized warfare in the 1940s.¹ Ironically, much of that “paper–pushing” appears to have contributed to the Canadian Army’s victories over …

Death At Licourt: An Historical And Visual Record Of Five Fatalities In The 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, 25 March 1918, Cameron Pulsifer

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Relief Amid Chaos: The Story Of Canadian Pows Driving Red Cross, Hugh A. Halliday

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Byng’S And Currie’S Commanders: A Still Untold Story Of The Canadian Corps, Patrick H. Brennan

Canadian Military History

In 1915, the Canadian Corps was little more than a rabble of enthusiastic amateurs. Yet by 1917-18, it had become an accomplished professional fighting force, one characterized by Denis Winter as “much the most effective unit in the BEF” and by Shane Schreiber as “the shock army of the British Empire.” While Canadian military historians have studied this evolution extensively few have examined the decisive element in the transformation—the development of a cadre of proficient senior combat officers. No one questions Currie’s status as Canada’s best fighting general, but of the supporting team he and his predecessor, General Byng, assembled …

A Cape Bretoner At War: Letters From The Front 1914-1919, Brian Tennyson

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Colour Of War: Works On Paper From The Canadian War Musuem, 1914 To 1945, Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

Eighty percent of the Canadian War Museum’s 13,000 works of art are on paper, in the form of drawings, prints and watercolours. They date from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day, recording 250 years of Canadian military history.

The paintings presented in the exhibition Colours of War demonstrate the quality of work completed in watercolour during the First and Second World Wars, as well as the variety of subjects. Artists from Canada, Britain, and Belgium approached war in many different ways, often finding a tragic beauty in the human and material destruction they witnessed. Many were officially commissioned war …

“Keep-A-Fighting! Play The Game!” Baseball And The Canadian Forces During The First World War, Andrew Horrall

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

“More A Medicine Than A Beverage”: “Demon Rum” And The Canadian Trench Soldier Of The First World War, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

A couple of months before he was killed at Vimy Ridge, Private Ronald Mackinnon noted that he had to cut his letter to his father short because he heard “the joyful cry [of] ‘rum up’.” In the renches, everyone reacted when rum was issued. The rum ration was, in the words of Private E. Seaman of the 3rd Battalion, “the highlight of the day.” First Battalion infantryman Ralph Bell wrote that “When the days shorten, and the rain never ceases; when the sky is ever grey, the nights chill, and trenches thigh deep in mud and water; when the front …

Canada’S First Armoured Unit: Raymond Brutinel And The Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades Of The First World War, Cameron Pulsifer

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Shattered Landscape: The Great War And The Art Of The Group Of Seven, Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

General Simonds Speaks: Canadian Battle Doctrine In Normandy, Guy Simonds, Terry Copp

Canadian Military History

On the afternoon of 11 July 1944, a Canadian Corps HQ once again became operational on the soil of France. Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds assumed responsibility for 8,000 yards of front in the Caen sector. There was little time or inclination to mark this event or link it with the memory of the vaunted Canadian Corps of World War 1 fame—there was too much to be done. Elements of the newly-arrived 2nd Canadian Infantry Division would take over part of the line and acquire some badly needed experience. Plans for the Corps’ role in Operation “Goodwood” had to be elaborated …

“A Proper Slaughter”: The March 1917 Gas Raid At Vimy Ridge, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

The Test Of Command: Mcnaughton And Exercise “Spartan,” 4–12 March 1943, John Nelson Rickard

Canadian Military History

The large-scale General Headquarters (GHQ) exercise known as “Spartan,” held in the south of England during March 1943, was a significant event in the history of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. The purpose of “Spartan” was to test the army in the dual tasks of breaking out of an established bridgehead and making the transition to open warfare. As a direct result of shortcomings on the exercise, three Canadian generals lost their commands. Of greatest significance was the eventual relief of General A.G.L. McNaughton as commander of the First Canadian Army in November 1943. During and after …

“The Development Of An Unbeatable Combination”: Us Close Air Support In Normandy, Michael Bechthold

Canadian Military History

In the climactic scene of the highly-acclaimed Saving Private Ryan, the beleaguered Ranger and Airborne forces of Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) are about to be overrun. Against overwhelming odds they have fought to save a crucial stone bridge over the Merderet River. It is a losing battle. With defeat imminent, the Americans retreats across the bridge and prepare to blow it. However, before that can happen, Captain Miller is shot and is unable to detonate the explosives. As a German tank rumbles across the bridge it appears all is lost. Then, in typical Hollywood tradition, the calvary arrives--two …

Exercise “Musk Ox”: Asserting Sovereignty “North Of 60”, Hugh A. Halliday

Canadian Military History

The Second World War was over and the Canadian armed forces were being reduced rapidly. The first chilly blasts of the Cold War had not yet penetrated to the consciousness of most Canadians. What role could the forces play in the postwar world? The most obvious answer was to revert to those interwar operations that had most directly benefited the nation—aerial surveys, northern communications, limited engineering projects. New tasks had evolved; aerial search and rescue was an example.

The Canadian government was aware that it had neglected the north during the war; the American presence in the Alaska Highway, CANOL, …

Canadian Armour In Normandy: Operation “Totalize” And The Quest For Operational Manoeuvre, Roman Johann Jarymowycz

Canadian Military History

The Allied record in Normandy is irritating simply because we could have done better. The extensive casualty rates to infantry and armour nearly exhausted American arms and created a political crisis in Canada. The dazzling success of American armour during “Cobra’s” pursuit eclipsed the Canadian armoured battles of August, despite the fact that the vast majority of Allied tank casualties from direct gunfire engagements occurred in II Canadian Corps. The exultation of operation manoeuvre, the closing of the Falaise Gap and the liberation of Paris obfuscated the reality of tactical deficiency. It required three bloody months and seven major operations …

Reflections On Caen, Bocage And The Gap: A Naval Historian’S Critique Of The Normandy Campaign, Marc Milner

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Recapturing The North: Exercises “Eskimo,” “Polar Bear” And “Lemming,” 1945, Hugh A. Halliday

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Tactics, Training, Technology: The Rcn’S Summer Of Success, July–September 1942, Robert Fisher

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

The Blind Leading The Blind: The Battle Of The St. Eloi Craters, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

The battle at St. Eloi between 27 March and 19 April 1916 was a minor side-show compared to the armageddon raging between the Germans and the French at Verdun. Yet, it was an important event for the 2nd Canadian Division as it was their first set-piece battle on the Western Front. It was also an unmitigated disaster.

C. Anthony Law (1916–1996): Official War Artist, Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Canada, Conflict And Commemoration: An Appraisal Of The New Canadian War Memorial In Green Park, London, And A Reflection On The Official Patronage Of Canadian War Art, Paul Gough

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Air Support In The Breskens Pocket: The Case Of The First Canadian Army And The 84 Group Royal Air Force, Michael Bechthold

Canadian Military History

Operation “Switchback” was conceived to capture the Breskens pcoket and liberate the south bank of the Scheldt Estuary leading to Antwerp. As the Allies moved out of Normandy in the late summer of 1944, their primary supply line remained over the invasion beaches. The logistical situation became critical as the distance fromthe beachhead lengthened. The British scored a major coup in early September when they captured the port of Antwerp. Not only was this the largest port in Europe, it had been taken with its port facilities intact. Unfortunately, there remained one problem; Antwerp lay some 50 miles from the …

Canadian Military Heritage, Volume 1: 1000–1754 [Review], Desmond Morton

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Posters And The Canadian War Museum, Hugh A. Halliday

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Operation Research And 21 Army Group, Terry Copp

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Collections Of The Cwm: An Historical Resource, Cameron Pulsifer

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.