History Commons^™

Canadian History Text Books And The Wars, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Encounter Over Korea, Andy Mackenzie

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

A Worm’S Eye View: The 1/4 Koyli In Normandy, Lewis Keeble

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

A Canadian On Horseback: 9 July 1944 Memorialized In Bronze, Mary Mackie

Canadian Military History

Canadian and British troops liberated Caen after 33 days of the bloodiest battles of the Normandy campaign. A small but dramatic ceremony in the main square marked the historic first raising of the French flag. But a Canadian artillery officer on horseback made the moment symbolically Canadian too.

“There Must Be No Holes In Our Sweeping”: The 31st Canadian Minesweeping Flotilla On D-Day, Michael Whitby

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Confrontation In Normandy: The 3rd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment On D-Day, Stan Medland

Canadian Military History

On D-Day, the 6th of June 1944, the 3rd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment R.C.A. landed in France on Juno Beach as part of the Third Canadian Infantry Division.

The regiment consisted of four batteries: the 4th from Peterborough, Ontario, the 52nd from Weymouth, Nova Scotia, the 94th from Quebec City and the 105th from St. George, New Brunswick, along with a headquarters from Toronto.

Originally trained as field artillery, the regiment had been converted to anti-tank. Each battery had two troops of four 6-pounders anti-tank guns and one of four M 10s, the latter being Sherman tanks with a 3-inch gun …

Tactical Air Power In Normandy: Some Thoughts On The Interdiction Plan, Robert Vogel

Canadian Military History

The Allied campaign in North-West Europe in 1944–45 ended with the capitulation of the German Army and must, therefore, be considered an eminently successful operation. In its initial phase, that is the assault on Normandy and the securing of a defensible lodgement area, it was undoubtedly one of the most dangerous and complicated operations of the war. Nevertheless it ended as the victory which marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. Like many other campaigns, however, it did not go exactly as planned and many have claimed that the Allied Armies were neither properly trained nor adequately …

The Defeat Of The 12th Ss: 7–10 June 1944, Oliver Haller

Canadian Military History

In the early hours of 6 June 1944, the first reports of a major Allied operation were transmitted to the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division. In anticipation of the long-awaited Allied invasion of occupied France, a company was sent to investigate the Caen area. Though the young soldiers of the division were uncertain of what actually awaited them, the first acts in a conflict that would claim most of their lives were being performed. However, defeat was not on their minds during that hectic morning—the men of the 12th SS were fixed on driving the “little fish” back into the …

Churchill And The Historians, Robert Vogel

Canadian Military History

Review of Robert Blake & Roger Louis, eds., Churchill: A Major Reassessment of his Life in Peace and War. London: Oxford University Press, 1992; Tuvia Ben-Moshe, Churchill: Strategy and History. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 1992; Richard Lamb, Churchill as War Leader: Right or Wrong? London: Bloomsbury, 1991; John Charmley, Churchill, The End of Glory: A Political Biography. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1992.

Canadian Infantry: Besting The Best, Gil Drolet

Canadian Military History

Review of Terry Copp, The Brigade: The Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1939-1945. Stoney Creek, ON: Fortress Publications, 1992.

Technology And The Great War, A.M.J. Hyatt

Canadian Military History

Review of Tim Travers, How the War Was Won: Command and Technology in the British Army on the Western Front, 1917-1918. London: Routledge

Wounded In Sicily, 12 July 1943, S.W. Thomson

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Researching Guy Simonds, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

Review of Dominick Graham, The Price of Command: A Biography of General Guy Simonds. Toronto: Stoddart, 1993.

The Canadian Attack At Amiens, 8–11 August 1918, Dean Chappelle

Canadian Military History

By mid-1918, the character of the First World War had changed completely from the relatively static previous three years of battle. In March, the Germans had launched their desperate gamble to win the war in a single massive offensive and had been halted, at great cost to both sides, by June. On 18 July the French, aided by American forces, launched their highly successful counter-attack at Soissons and demonstrated that the German forces were far weaker t h a n the previous year. The opportunity was ripe to strike quickly and in force. This occurred at 4:20 a.m. on the …

Souvenirs De Guerre: Memories Of War, Harry Pope

Canadian Military History

Major Harry Pople is one of the few junior officers to have written a detailed account of his service as a platoon commander in Italy. Originally written for the journal of the Royal 22nd Regiment, La Citadelle, his memoirs are presented as a commentary on more official accounts.

Hoffmeister In Italy, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

This article was excerpted from Granatstein’s The Generals: The Canadian Army’s Senior Commanders in the Second World War and is published with permission of the author and Stoddard Publishers, Toronto. The author expressions his gratitude to Dr. Bill McAndrew and Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. English for their assistance which will be evident in this article.

Fifth Canadian Armoured Division: Introduction To Battle, William Mcandrew

Canadian Military History

The Canadian government authorized the formation of 1st Canadian Armoured Division (CAD) early in 1941. It organized at Camp Borden in March and, redesignated 5th CAD, sailed for the United Kingdom in the fall. Originally its organization was based on two armoured brigades (each of three regiments, a motor battalion and a support group composed of a field regiment, a Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) regiment, an anti-tank regiment and an infantry battalion). In light of operational experience with armour in North Africa the organization was subsequently changed; an armoured brigade was changed for one of infantry (three battalions), and the support …

Crossing The Melfa River, Edward J. Perkins

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To The Battle For The Melfa River, W.A. Milroy

Canadian Military History

The battle for the Melfa River on 24 May 1944 started with Lieutenant-Colonel Vokes’ VOKESFORCE, based on the British Columbia Dragoons, advancing through the breakthrough of the Hitler Line at about 0800 hours. This force established a firm base, codeword KUMMEL, about 2,000 yards beyond the 3rd Infantry Brigade salient. STRATHFORCE, (also known as #8220;Griffin Force,#8221;) based on Lieutenant-Colonel Griffin#8217;s Lord Strathcona#8217;s Horse (RC), moved through KUMMEL at about 1330 hours. Its objective was to seize a crossing of the Melfa River.

Christmas In Ortona, Italy 1943, S.W. Thomson

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

“The Rock Of Accomplishment”: The Loyal Edmonton Regiment At Ortona, Shaun R.G. Brown

Canadian Military History

The struggle for Ortona is one of the best known battles fought by Canadians in the Second World War. Matthew Halton, the CBC’s chief radio correspondent in Italy, made “Moro River” and “Ortona” household words in 1943 and since then veterans as well as war correspondents and historians have offered numerous accounts of that December in Abruzzi.

This article focuses on the role of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment in clearing the town of Ortona, but it is important to remind ourselves of the context within which the battle was fought. The Allies had invaded the Italian mainland to force Italy …

In The Tradition Of Nelson: The Royal Navy In World War Ii, Robert Vogel

Canadian Military History

Review of Correlli Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991.

The Canloan Story, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

Review of Wilfred Smith, Code Word Canloan. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1993

War In The Trenches, A.M.J. Hyatt

Canadian Military History

Review of Bill Rawling, Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Canadian Naval Intelligence, David Stafford

Canadian Military History

Review of Michael Hadley and Roger Sarty, Tin-Pots and Pirate Ships: Canadian naval forces and German sea-raiders, 1880-1918. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991.

Letter From Kashmir, S.W. Thomson

Canadian Military History

Colonel S.W. “Syd” Thomson, D.S.O., M.C., CD., joined the Rocky Mountain Rangers in the 1930s transferring to the Seaforth Highlanders at the outbreak of war. Wounded in Sicily, he returned to serve as Company Commander, Second-in-Command and Commanding Officer of the battalion. In October 1944 he was promoted to Acting Colonel and sent to England to command an infantry training unit at Aldershot.

In April 1945 he reverted to Lieutenant-Colonel to take command of the Black Watch. Colonel Thomson volunteered for the Pacific Force and remained in the Army until 1946. He rejoined the forces to serve with the United …

The Royal Air Force Historical Society, Henry Probert

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Five Years As A Prisoner Of War, Andrew Cox

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Victims Of Circumstance: The Execution Of German Deserters By Surrendered German Troops Under Canadian Control In Amsterdam, May 1945, Chris Madsen

Canadian Military History

On the morning of 13 May 1945, five days after the formal capitulation of Hitler’s Wehrmacht, a German military court delivered death sentences on two German naval deserters, Bruno Dorfer and Rainer Beck. The trial occurred in an abandoned Ford assembly plant on the outskirts of Amsterdam, a site used by the Canadian army for the concentration of German naval personnel. Later that same day, a German firing squad, supplied with captured German rifles anda three-ton truck from the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and escorted by Canadian Captain Robert K. Swinton, executed the two German prisoners of war a …

The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry At Verrieres, J.M. Rockingham

Canadian Military History

Major-General J.M. “Rocky” Rockingham wrote this letter to Colonel C.P. Stacey shortly after the appearance of the The Canadian Army, 1939–1945. The tendency of Canadian historians to focus on what went wrong instead of what went right is a well-established tradition.