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Military History Commons

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2012

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Articles 211 - 240 of 613

Full-Text Articles in Military History

The Road To Transformation: Ascending From The Decade Of Darkness, Bernd Horn, Bill Bentley Apr 2012

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 …


Close Fire Support: Sexton Self-Propelled Guns Of The 23rd Field Regiment, 1942–1945, Andrew Iarocci Apr 2012

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 …


“Bloody Provost”: Discipline During The War Of 1812, John R. Grodzinski Apr 2012

“Bloody Provost”: Discipline During The War Of 1812, John R. Grodzinski

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


Table Of Contents Apr 2012

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


The Guns Of Bretteville: 13th Field Regiment, Rca, And The Defence Of Bretteville-L’Orgueilleuse, 7–10 June 1944, Marc Milner Apr 2012

The Guns Of Bretteville: 13th Field Regiment, Rca, And The Defence Of Bretteville-L’Orgueilleuse, 7–10 June 1944, Marc Milner

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


Sydney F. Wise, 1924–2007: A Personal Recollection, W.A.B. Douglas Apr 2012

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 Apr 2012

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 …


Afghanistan: A Glimpse Of War—Contemporary History At The Canadian War Museum, Andrew Burtch Apr 2012

Afghanistan: A Glimpse Of War—Contemporary History At The Canadian War Museum, Andrew Burtch

Canadian Military History

How do you exhibit the history of an ongoing conflict, with an unknown outcome and with most documents restricted on the basis of operational security? What story can you tell? Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War, a special exhibition developed by and currently on view at the Canadian War Museum (CWM), addresses these questions by using first-hand accounts from eyewitness records, media reports, interviews, open source material, and the visitors themselves. The exhibition presents the origins of the war in Afghanistan, and Canadian participation from the first deployments in 2002 to current operations in Kandahar province. The personal stories in …


Kamerad, Tritt Ein!: German Trench Culture—An Aspect Of The Human Side Of The First World War, Bruno Friesen Apr 2012

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 Apr 2012

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 …


The Great Naval Battle Of North Point: Myth Or Reality?, Richard O. Mayne Apr 2012

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 …


Trial By Fire: Major-General Christopher Vokes At The Battles Of The Moro River And Ortona, December 1943, G.C. Case Apr 2012

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 …


Table Of Contents Apr 2012

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


Tommy Prince: Warrior, Mckenzie Porter, P. Whitney Lackenbauer Apr 2012

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, Cameron Pulsifer Apr 2012

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 …


Story Of The 22nd Battalion, September 15th, 1916: The Capture Of Courcelette Apr 2012

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 …


A Forgotten Victory: Courcelette, 15 September 1916, David Campbell Apr 2012

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 …


Fighting Time: Gregg Centre And Royal Canadian Engineers Join Forces To Record New Brunswick’S Past, Lee A. Windsor, Lee Ellen Pottie Apr 2012

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 Apr 2012

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


Saint John’S Red Head Battery: A Forgotten Military Artifact Of Confederation, Roger Sarty Apr 2012

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 Apr 2012

Photo Essay: The D-Day Beaches From The Air

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


21st Army Group In Normandy: Towards A New Balance Sheet, Terry Copp Apr 2012

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.


Oral History At The Canadian War Museum, Angus Brown Apr 2012

Oral History At The Canadian War Museum, Angus Brown

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


Longing And Loss From Canada’S Great War, Tim Cook, Natascha Morrison Apr 2012

Longing And Loss From Canada’S Great War, Tim Cook, Natascha Morrison

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


Airborne Communications In Operation Market Garden, David Bennett Apr 2012

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, …


Arbitrary Justice?: A Comparative Analysis Of Canadian Death Sentence Passed And Commuted During The First World War, Teresa Iacobelli Apr 2012

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 …


Aleutian Allusions: Mackenzie King’S Diary And The Invasion Of Kiska In 1943, Glen Roger Perras Apr 2012

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 Apr 2012

Table Of Contents

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.


The Attack On The Church In St. Martin-De-Fontenay: 31 July–1 August 1944, Jacques Dextraze Apr 2012

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 …


Working With Montgomery: On Being A Scientific Adviser To A Commander-In-Chief (21 Army Group 1944–1945), B.F.J. Schonland Apr 2012

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.