Military History Commons^™

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 …

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.

The American Influence On The Canadian Military, 1939–1963, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

On Armistice Day in 1927, officials of the Canadian and United States governments dedicated a monument at Arlington Cemetery near Washington to commemorate the service of those Americans who had fought with Canadian forces before their country became a belligerent in the Great War. The occasion, stage-managed by Vincent Massey, Canada’s first Minister to the United States, was a glittering ceremony featuring permanent force infantry of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Royal 22nd Regiment in their British-pattern scarlet tunics, as well as the pipes and drums of the 48th Highlanders, a well-known kilted Toronto militia regiment. Everyone was on …

L’Intervention Militaire À Oka: Stratégie, Communication Et Couverture De La Presse, Claude Beauregard

Canadian Military History

The incidents which occurred in Oka during the summer of 1990 represent the outcome of a situation judged to have been totally unacceptable by the Mohawk community. What was originally to have been an enlargement of a golf course provoked a conflict which ended in the death of a police officer of the Surete du Quebec and intervention of the Canadian Armed Forces; in short, the Oka crisis became a national crisis.

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.

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 Seqforth 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 Lieut.-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 …

Granatstein On Montgomery, J.L. Granatstein

Canadian Military History

Review of Stephen Brooks, ed. Montgomery and the Eighth Army: A Selection from the Diaries, Correspondence and Other Papers of Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, August 1942 to December 1943. London: The Army Records Society, 1991.

Military Intelligence, David Stafford

Canadian Military History

Reviews of: F.H. Hinsley and C.A.G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War. Volume 4: Security and Counter-intelligence. London: HMSO, 1990 and Michael Howard. British Intelligence in the Second World War. Volume 5: Strategic Deception. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

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, …

Constructing Memory: The Vimy Memorial, John Pierce

Canadian Military History

The 75th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge is also the 56th anniversary of the dedication of the Vimy Memorial. In the summer of 1936 over 100,000 people witnessed a ceremony which captured the imagination of the world and crystalized the Canadian memory of Vimy ridge. The historical reality of the battle was re-worked and reinterpreted in a conscious attempt to give purpose and meaning to an event which was to symbolize Canada’s coming-of-age as a nation.

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 …

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

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Burma Banzai: The Air War In Burma Through Japanese Eyes, A. Sutherland Brown, William Rodney

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Through The Camera’S Lens: Scenes From Aboard The Frigate Hmcs Dunver, 1943-1945, Cliff Quince, Serge Durflinger

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Professionalism Under Fire: Canadian Implementation Of The Medak Pocket Agreement, Croatia 1993, Lee A. Windsor

Canadian Military History

For many Canadians, the Somalia Affair became a symbol of their armed forces in the 1990s. Intense media coverage of a Somali teen’s murder by Canadian paratroopers, its cover-up by senior bureaucrats and officers at National Defence Headquarters and a series of subsequent scandals shook public confidence in the nation’s military institutions. Negative coverage particularly in the first half of the 1990s created an image of military incompetence and unprofessionalism, vividly captured in letters to the editor to major newspapers across the country. In recent years that image was balanced with more positive ones of Canadian Forces personnel protecting the …

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 …

Artist Of War: Jack Shadbolt (1909–1998), Laura Brandon

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 …

A Difficult Path To Tread, Paul Gough

Canadian Military History

In a previous issue of Canadian Military History (Vol.5, No.l, Spring 1996) I looked at the recently unveiled Canadian War Memorial in Green Park in London, UK. I drew comparisons between the memorial and its counterparts on the Somme and at Vimy Ridge, I was fascinated by the fusion of abstract and figurative elements, and speculated that this combination of hard modernist edges with dramatic use of statuary seemed to be a particular strength of Canadian war memorials. Later that year I was invited by Professor Terry Copp to join a Canadian universities study group in France. At Caen, Normandy …

Tom Wood: Naval War Artist (1913–1997), Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Sydney, Nova Scotia And The U-Boat War, 1918, Brian Tennyson, Roger Sarty

Canadian Military History

During the summer of 1918. when German submarines thrust into North American coastal waters, Sydney. Nova Scotia suddenly became a major naval base and Canada’s foremost convoy assembly harbour.¹ Nearly a hundred of the Royal Canadian Navy’s coastal patrol vessels came to the Cape Breton port, with at least 1,500 crewmen and shore personnel,² but this was not enough. Britain was unable to help. Therefore the United States Navy pitched in for what was the first instance of joint operations by the armed forces of the two North American nations. Some 350 American sailors came to establish base …

Little Known Canadian Units: Royal Canadian Naval Beach Commando “W”, E.G. Finley, Ed Storey

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.

Leo Major, Dcm And Bar, Robert Fowler

Canadian Military History

Of all the British gallantry decorations, the Distinguished Conduct Medal must be considered the most prized because it is so seldom awarded. In the Korean War, only eight such awards were made out of a total of 205 honours and awards to Canadian soldiers.¹ In the Second World War, the DCM was even more rare, making up only three per cent of all honours and awards. Thus, the award of the DCM and bar, spanning both wars, to Léo Major is a remarkable accomplishment.

In Memoriam: Charles Comfort: War Artist — 1900–1994, Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.

Preparing For The “Hall Of Honour”: The Canadian War Museum, Hugh A. Halliday

Canadian Military History

No abstract provided.