Download or read book A Thoroughly Canadian General written by Paul Douglas Dickson and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General H.D.G. 'Harry' Crerar (1888-1965) was involved in or directly responsible for many of the defining moments of Canadian military history in the twentieth century. In the First World War, Crerar was nearly killed at the second battle of Ypres, was a gunner who helped to secure victory at Vimy Ridge, and was a senior staff officer during the pivotal battles of the last Hundred Days. During the Second World War, he occupied and often defined the Canadian army's senior staff and operational appointments, including his tenure as commander of First Canadian Army through the northwest European campaign. Despite his pivotal role in shaping the Canadian army, however, General Crerar has been long overlooked as a subject of biography. In A Thoroughly Canadian General, Paul Douglas Dickson examines the man and his controversial place in Canadian military history, arguing that Crerar was a nationalist who saw the army as an instrument to promote Canadian identity and civic responsibility. From his days as a student at the Royal Military College in Kingston, to his role as primary architect of First Canadian Army, the career of General H.D.G. Crerar is thoroughly examined with a view to considering and reinforcing his place in the history of Canada and its armed forces.
Download or read book The Generals written by J. L. Granatstein and published by University of Calgary Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1993, The Generals is a collective biography of the Canadian armys leaders in World War II, and is the winner of the Dafoe Book Prize for International Relations and the UBC Medal for Canadian Biography. The only book of its kind on this subject, The Generals remains an invaluable resource for academics, policy makers, and anyone interested Canada's military history.
Download or read book An Army of Never Ending Strength written by Arthur W. Gullachsen and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An army may march on its stomach, but it needs more than hot dinners to fight. As Canadians battled through Northwest Europe in the Second World War, how did they reinforce their front lines? An Army of Never-Ending Strength provides detailed insight into the administration, structure, and troop and equipment levels of the First Canadian Army during 1944–45. Captain Arthur W. Gullachsen demonstrates the army’s effectiveness at reinforcing its combat units and draws a powerful conclusion. The administrative and logistical capability of the Canadian Army created a constant state of offensive strength, which made a marked contribution to eventual Allied victory.
Download or read book General Sir Arthur Currie written by A.M.J. Hyatt and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1987-12-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most important Canadian in the First World War, Arthur Currie was an extraordinary successful field commander in a war that produced few successful generals. In this biography A.M.J. Hyatt recalls the military career of a remarkable man. Currie's achievements were realized in spite of some formidable obstacles. He was not a professional soldier, having been a civilian before the war. He entered the war under the shadow of a scandal, which, had it been disclosed at the time, would certainly have brought public disgrace. He was not a charismatic man; he had none of the personal flair of so many successful military leaders. In many ways these apparently negative factors make his story all the more remarkable, the secret of his success the more intriguing. That secret, as Hyatt explains, was a fine sense of tactics: Currie, the 'amateur' soldier, had all the instincts of a dedicated professional, and he used them to minimize the destruction of the young Canadian troops under his command. When the war was over Currie returned to civilian life, and was knighted for his service. This biography offers the first balanced account of a central figure in Canadian military histor
Download or read book The Embattled General written by William F. Stewart and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Turner (1871-1961) was a capable but controversial Canadian general who played a critical role in the development of the Canadian Corps up to 1917 and contributed significantly to its success thereafter. Despite his many accomplishments (including being awarded the Victoria Cross), Turner is often portrayed as a political appointee and repeated failure - representations that ignore, minimize, or misconstrue his successes as a combat commander and head of Canadian forces in England. In The Embattled General, William Stewart reveals Turner's tactical, operational, and administrative contributions to the Canadian war effort. Uniquely, Turner held senior commands in both combat arms and administration. Stewart narrates and analyzes Turner's successes and failures in the Boer War and the First World War's battles of Ypres, Festubert, St Eloi, and the Somme. He also studies Turner's career after his transfer to command Canadian forces in England in December 1916, where Turner reformed an administration in chaos. After the war, Turner post-war played a key role in the formation of the Royal Canadian Legion. Based on exhaustive research from over 1,200 volumes of material, including many previously untouched sources, The Embattled General provides a balanced and just re-evaluation of Turner, identifying his merits as well as his flaws.
Download or read book The Weight of Command written by J.L. Granatstein and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three-quarters of a century after the Second World War, almost all the participants are gone. This book contains interviews with and about the Canadian generals who led the troops during that war. Edited and introduced by one of the foremost military historians of our time, this carefully curated collection brings to life the generals and their wartime experiences. The content is revealing and conversations frank. Peers and subordinates alike scrutinize key commanders of the war, sometimes offering praise but often passing harsh judgment. We learn of their failings and successes – and of the heavy weight of command borne by all.
Download or read book Politics of Command written by John Nelson Rickard and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2010-03-20 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December 1943, Lieutenant-General A.G.L. McNaughton resigned from command of the 1st Canadian Army amidst criticism of his poor generalship and of his abrasive personality. Despite McNaughton's importance to the Canadian Army during the first four years of the Second World War, little has been written about the man himself or the circumstances of his resignation. In The Politics of Command, the first full-length study of the subject since 1969, John Nelson Rickard analyses McNaughton's performance during Exercise SPARTAN in March 1943 and assesses his relationships with key figures such as Sir Alan F. Brooke, Bernard Paget, and Harry Crerar. This detailed re-examination of McNaughton's command argues that the long-accepted reasons for his relief of duty require extensive modification. Based on a wide range of sources, The Politics of Command will redefine how military historians and all Canadians look at not only "Andy" McNaughton but also the Canadian Army itself.
Download or read book Manpower and the Armies of the British Empire in the Two World Wars written by Andrew L. Brown and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first and only examination of how the British Empire and Commonwealth sustained its soldiers before, during, and after both world wars, a cast of leading military historians explores how the empire mobilized manpower to recruit workers, care for veterans, and transform factory workers and farmers into riflemen. Raising armies is more than counting people, putting them in uniform, and assigning them to formations. It demands efficient measures for recruitment, registration, and assignment. It requires processes for transforming common people into soldiers and then producing officers, staffs, and commanders to lead them. It necessitates balancing the needs of the armed services with industry and agriculture. And, often overlooked but illuminated incisively here, raising armies relies on medical services for mending wounded soldiers and programs and pensions to look after them when demobilized. Manpower and the Armies of the British Empire in the Two World Wars is a transnational look at how the empire did not always get these things right. But through trial, error, analysis, and introspection, it levied the large armies needed to prosecute both wars. Contributors Paul R. Bartrop, Charles Booth, Jean Bou, Daniel Byers, Kent Fedorowich, Jonathan Fennell, Meghan Fitzpatrick, Richard S. Grayson, Ian McGibbon, Jessica Meyer, Emma Newlands, Kaushik Roy, Roger Sarty, Gary Sheffield, Ian van der Waag
Download or read book Terrible Victory written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mark Zuehlke is an expert at narrating the history of life on the battlefield for the Canadian army during World War II. In Terrible Victory, he provides a soldiers-eye-view account of Canada's bloody liberation of western Holland. Readers are there as soldiers fight in the muddy quagmire, enduring a battle that lasted three weeks and in which 6,000 soldiers perished. Terrible Victory is a powerful story of courage, survival, and skill.
Download or read book The Information Front written by Timothy Balzer and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In wartime, capturing the hearts and minds of the citizenry is arguably as important as victory on the battlefield. The Information Front explores the Canadian military’s use of public relations units to manage news during the Second World War. These specialized units were responsible for providing sufficient and positive news coverage to Canadians at home. This fascinating study traces the transformation of an emergent PR organization into an efficient publicity machine. It also scrutinizes news coverage and PR activities during major Canadian operations at Dieppe, Sicily, and Normandy to reveal how the military used censorship and propaganda to rally support for the war effort.
Download or read book A Companion to World War II written by Thomas W. Zeiler and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 1541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to World War II brings together a series of fresh academic perspectives on World War II, exploring the many cultural, social, and political contexts of the war. Essay topics range from American anti-Semitism to the experiences of French-African soldiers, providing nearly 60 new contributions to the genre arranged across two comprehensive volumes. A collection of original historiographic essays that include cutting-edge research Analyzes the roles of neutral nations during the war Examines the war from the bottom up through the experiences of different social classes Covers the causes, key battles, and consequences of the war
Download or read book Four Days in Hitler s Germany written by Robert Teigrob and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-05-09 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1937, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King travelled to Nazi Germany in an attempt to prevent a war that, to many observers, seemed inevitable. The men King communed with in Berlin, including Adolf Hitler, assured him of the Nazi regime’s peaceful intentions, and King not only found their pledges sincere, but even hoped for personal friendships with many of the regime's top officials. Four Days in Hitler’s Germany is a clearly written and engaging story that reveals why King believed that the greatest threat to peace would come from those individuals who intended to thwart the Nazi agenda, which as King saw it, was concerned primarily with justifiable German territorial and diplomatic readjustments. Mackenzie King was certainly not alone in misreading the omens in the 1930s, but it would be difficult to find a democratic leader who missed the mark by a wider margin. This book seeks to explain the sources and outcomes of King’s misperceptions and diplomatic failures, and follows him as he returns to Germany to tour the appalling aftermath of the very war he had tried to prevent.
Download or read book Orchestrating Warfighting written by Tim Bean and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-09-10 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orchestrating Warfighting provides a detailed and wide-ranging examination of the employment of corps and divisions from the First World War through to the early twenty-first century. Division and corps formations have been at the forefront of the British Army’s prosecution of war since 1914. They constituted the major command and organisational elements that underpinned the conduct of large-scale warfighting on land. Divisions and corps were of central importance to the conduct of the First and Second World Wars, the maintenance of a conventional deterrence posture during the Cold War, and were also employed in major confrontations since 1945, including the Korean War and two Gulf Wars. The British Army of the early twenty-first century still retains two divisional formations alongside the British-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps within NATO. Orchestrating Warfighting examines British, Dominion, and imperial corps and divisions, taking part in the total wars of the first half of the twentieth century and smaller scale conflicts since 1945. It throws new light on questions of command, generalship, and the management of battles and campaigns across a diverse range of theatres. Orchestrating Warfighting is of interest to historians of the British Army, operational military history, and modern war.
Download or read book The Necessary War Volume 1 written by Tim Cook and published by Penguin Canada. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Co-winner of the 2014-2015 Charles P. Stacey Award Tim Cook, Canada’s leading war historian, ventures deep into World War Two in this epic two-volume story of heroism and horror, of loss and longing, sacrifice and endurance. Written in Cook’s compelling narrative style, this book shows in impressive detail how soldiers, airmen, and sailors fought—the evolving tactics, weapons of war, logistics, and technology. It gauges Canadian effectiveness against the skilled enemy whom they confronted in battlefields from 1939 to 1943, from the sweltering heat of Sicily to the frigid North Atlantic, and from the urban warfare of Ortona to the dark skies over Germany. The Necessary War examines the equally important factors of morale, discipline, and fortitude of the Canadian citizen-soldiers. The war was an engine of transformation for Canada. With a population of fewer than twelve million, Canada embraced its role as an arsenal of democracy, exporting war supplies, feeding its allies, and raising a million-strong armed forces that served and fought in nearly every theatre of war. The nation was mobilized like never before in the fight to preserve the liberal democratic order. The six-year-long exertion caused disruption, provoked nationwide industrialization, ushered in changes to gender roles, exacerbated the tension between English and French, and forged a new sense of Canadian identity. Canadians were willing to bear almost any burden and to pay the ultimate price in the pursuit of victory. As with his award-winning two-volume series on WWI, Tim Cook uses original sources, letters from soldiers, rare documents, and maps of battlefields to illustrate the contributions and sacrifices made by what is often called the greatest generation. Magisterial in its scope, The Necessary War illuminates Canada’s past as never before. From the Western Front to the home front, Canadians served many roles in a war that had to be fought and won.
Download or read book The Canadian General Election of 1997 written by Alan Frizzell and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 1997-10-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The General Election of 1997 did not turn out as Jean Chretien and the Liberal Party had planned. Chretien called an early election, believing that his party was in a position to retain the majority they had won in 1993. They got their majority, but just barely. When the campaign began, the focus for many Canadians was the economy and job creation. National unity, however, quickly became a key issue, and triggered the most heated debates of the campaign. As was the case in 1993, the election of 1997 saw the country divided along regional lines. The Bloc Quebecois remained strong in Quebec, while the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats dominated the maritime provinces. The Reform Party, meanwhile, won the west in a landslide, becoming the Official Opposition for the first time. It was Ontario, however, where the election was won: the Liberals won all but two seats in Canada’s largest province, and in the end that was enough to carry Jean Chretien to victory. The Canadian General Election of 1997 is a study of the key aspects of the campaign and the election itself. In addition to analyzing each party’s campaign, authors examine the role of the media, pollsters, the electoral system, and the voters. Articles are contributed by some of the best-known political writers in Canada today: Anthony Westell, Stephen Clarkson, Peter Woolstencroft, Alan Whitehorn, Keith Archer, Faron Ellis, AndrBernard, Chris Dornan, Ed Greenspon, Michael Marzolini, and Louis Massicotte. This readable volume will appeal to an academic as well as a general readership, and is ideally suited for libraries and political science courses. New to this year’s volume is a post-election survey by Jon Pammett.
Download or read book The Canadian General Election of 2004 written by Jon H. Pammett and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2004-12-01 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Canadian General Election of 2004 is the definitive study of the campaign and the election. The 2004 edition includes analyses of: The campaigns of the 4 major parties and smaller parties The role of newspapers, television and the internet in the campaigns The pre-election polls Voting patterns across the country The rise in non-voting Articles are contributed from leading Canadian political writers, commentators and pollsters, including: Stephen Clarkson, Faron Ellis, and Peter Woolstencroft, Alan Whitehorn, Alain Gagnon, Susan Harada, Tamara Small, Christopher Waddell, Paul Attallah, Michael Marzolini, Andre Turcotte and Lawrence Leduc.
Download or read book The Soldiers General written by Douglas E. Delaney and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Self-doubt so plagued him that he suffered a nervous breakdown even before fighting his first combat action. But, by the end of the Second World War, Bert Hoffmeister had exorcised his anxieties, risen from Captain to Major-General, and won more awards than any Canadian officer in the war. Fighting from the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 to the final victory in Europe in May 1945, this native Vancouverite earned a reputation as a fearless commander on the battlefield – one who led from the front, one well loved by those he led. How did he do it? The Soldiers’ General explains, in eloquent and accessible prose, how Hoffmeister conducted his business as a military commander. With an astute analytical eye, Delaney carefully dissects Hoffmeister’s numerous battles to reveal how he managed and how he led, how he directed and how he inspired. An exemplary leader, Hoffmeister stood out among his contemporaries, not so much for his technical ability to move the chess pieces well; there were plenty who could do that. Rather, Bert Hoffmeister was exceptional for his ability to get the chess pieces to move themselves.
