Digital Commons Network^™

Is Religious Ignorance A Crime Against The First Amendment?, Peter Steinfels

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

No abstract provided.

Religious Reasons In Public: Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom, But Be Prepared To Prune, Christopher J. Eberle

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of 75 Mm Sherman Tank Casualties Suffered Between 6th June And 10th July 1944: Report No. 12

Canadian Military History

Long before the war it was evident that science would have much to contribute to the development of military equipment, and it was no surprise that research found such wide applications to the technically difficult but fundamentally amenable problems of Radar, Anti-aircraft and Fragmentation, to name only a few. These problems offered great possibilities to the well-established methods of the physical sciences. By contrast, the complexities of military tactics proved for a long time intractable, since even the smallest battle is a bewildering compound of variables, and new methods had therefore to be worked out before there could be any …

“Black, White And Grey”: Wartime Arguments For And Against The Strategic Bomber Offensive, David Ian Hall

Canadian Military History

The strategic bomber offensive against Nazi Germany has attracted more than its fair share of attention, most of which has been highly critical, both on moral as well as pragmatic grounds. Scholarly articles and books, in addition to a much larger number of sensationalized popular accounts, have appeared at a steady rate since the end of the war.¹ More recently, journalists and television producers—capitalising on the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the Second World War—have taken an interest in this controversial yet highly marketable and therefore profitable subject. Partly revisionist, and deliberately emotive, their “factions” (part fact and part dramatic …

Prisoners Of War As Library Users, Jean Langdon-Ford

Canadian Military History

One does not usually associate libraries and study classes with amenities provided for internees in Prisoner of War camps in the First World War. It was surprising then for me, as Librarian/Archivist of the Canadian War Museum, to find evidence in our Library/Archives of well-organized libraries in the First World War internment camps in Germany. My introduction to POW library users in this war came about as I was undertaking a preliminary inventory of the rich resources of the Canadian War Museum (CWM) Archives. In the CWM Archives are two files related to libraries in POW camps in Germany. One …

The Attack On Boulogne, Roger Rowley

Canadian Military History

Account by Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Rowley, OC, Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Highlanders given to Historical Officer, 21 September 1944.

A Sequence Of Unfortunate Events: Why The Lost Colony Collapsed, Kate Jesse

Young Historians Conference

The era of colonization of the Americas began in 1492 with Columbus. However, it is not until the Roanoke Colonies in 1584 and 1587, that England attempted to claim part of this new land for itself. However, both colonies failed. The first ended when the inhabitants returned to England after a year on Roanoke Island while the second, known as the Lost Colony, mysteriously disappeared. This paper examines the causes of the second Roanoke Colony's failure as the combined results of the inability of John White to resupply the colonists quickly and the unfortunate location of the colony near Algonquians …

The Mobile Striking Force And Continental Defence, 1948–1955, Sean M. Maloney

Canadian Military History

The need to project land force power within the confines of the northern portion of the North American continent may appear, at first glance, ridiculous in today’s world. In the early years of the Cold War, both Canada and the United States gave credibility to a land supported air threat to North America and took steps to meet such a contingency. The Canadian response was to configure the small, almost token, active Canadian Army into an airtransportable formation called the Mobile Striking Force (MSF). Some have suggested that the creation of the MSF and its operations in the 1948–1955 period …

Operational Manoeuvre Group: Operation Sohil Laram Ii, Kandahar Province, February 2008, Sean M. Maloney

Canadian Military History

In February 2008 Regional Battle Group (South) in Afghanistan, based on The 1st Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles supported by Canadian “enablers” and working with Afghan national security forces, conducted a mission known as Operation SOHIL LARAM II in the Maywand district of Kandahar province. A weak NATO presence coupled with a corrupt police force had allowed the Taliban to turn Maywand into a safe haven. Following the dismissal of the police force, Op SOHIL LARAM II was successful in disrupting Taliban operations, reasserting government authority and regaining the confidence of the local population. In addition, the disruption of Taliban …

From Mother Country To Far Away Relative: The Canadian-British Military Relationship From 1945, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

Historically, Canada has looked to Great Britain for its military culture. During the First and Second World War, the Canadian army was virtually interchangeable with the British army. However, the decline of the British military power starting in 1940 increasingly caused Canada to gravitate towards her neighbour to the south.

A Canadian Conscript Goes To War—August 1918: Old Myths Re-Examined, Patrick Dennis

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

“The Pow Will Safely Return!”: Second World War Allied And German Propoganda, Amber Lloydlangston, Tracy Lo

Canadian Military History

During the Second World War, both the Allied and Axis governments expended significant resources in the production and dissemination of propoganda. Directed at their own people, the propoganda of these governments fostered correct thinking, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours. Directed at military personnel of enemy nations as part of psychological warfare operations, this propoganda was far more subversive. Its goal was to undermine the efficiency and coherence of enemy forces and, ultimately, to weaken their will to fight. Among the different media harnessed to achieve this end, aerial leaflets hold a unique place in the history of psychological warfare operations. Their …

Toward A Transnational History Of World War I, Michael S. Neiberg

Canadian Military History

Michael S. Neiberg delivered the keynote address at the 19th Military History Colloquium, held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, 1–3 May 2008. This is the text of his address.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …}

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 …

Sydney F. Wise, 1924–2007: A Personal Recollection, W.A.B. Douglas

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

The First Use Of Poison Gase At Ypres, 1915: A Translation From The German Official History, Mark Osborne Humphries

Canadian Military History

While English-speaking historians know in detail about almost every event on the BEF’s front, the same cannot be said of our knowledge of the German side of the Western Front. This is not surprising, as comparatively few English language books have been written about the German experience on the battlefields of the Great War. Recent English language scholarship by Holger Herwig, Annika Mombauer, and Robert Foley, to name but a few historians, has enriched our understanding of the conflict. However, these works have tended to concentrate on political and diplomatic history, or in the case of Mombaurer and Foley, on …

Kamerad, Tritt Ein!: German Trench Culture—An Aspect Of The Human Side Of The First World War, Bruno Friesen

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Preparing For The Bomb: The Development Of Civil Defence Policy In Canada, 1948–1963, Mark Davidson

Canadian Military History

During the period 1948 to 1963 civil defence in Canada developed in a number of stages that reflected changes in technology, weaponry and scientific discovery. The first stage of development, roughly between 1948 and 1952, witnessed only minor developments. Civil defence followed the Second World War practice, with a focus on air raid shelters and, if possible, evacuation. In the years 1952 to 1954 as the possibility of a nuclear attack became more real as a result of the Soviet development of intercontinental bombers, civil defence officials moved towards a policy of mass evacuation of target areas and the rescue …

Trial By Fire: Major-General Christopher Vokes At The Battles Of The Moro River And Ortona, December 1943, G.C. Case

Canadian Military History

During the month of December 1943, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division (1st Cdn Div) underwent the most severe trial yet experienced by Canadian troops in Italy, when it crossed the Moro River, engaged two German divisions in rapid succession and, after a week of vicious street fighting, took the town of Ortona. Hailed at the time as victories, these battles have since been the subject of considerable debate among soldiers and historians alike. Much of the controversy has revolved around the division’s commander, Major-General Christopher Vokes, who has been accused by some of mishandling his formation, and has been castigated …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, 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, 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 …