Download or read book The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada 1919 1965 written by Reginald H. Roy and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada 1919 1965 written by Reginald H. Roy and published by Evergreen Press. This book was released on 1969 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ortona written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful retelling one of the major victories of Canadian troops over the German army’s elite division during WWII. In one blood-soaked, furious week of fighting, from December 20 to December 27, 1943, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division took the town of Ortona, Italy, from elite German paratroopers ordered to hold the medieval port town at all costs. Infantrymen serving in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders, supported by tankers of the Three Rivers Regiment, moved from house to house in hand-to-hand combat amid heavy shelling and wrested the town from the grip of the fierce German defenders. Getting into Ortona had been a battle of its own. Ortona, the pearl of the Adriatic, stands on a promontory impregnable from three sides, with seacliffs on the north and east, and a deep ravine on the west. The Canadian infantrymen, drawn from virtually every corner of Canada, attacked from the south under the command of Major-General Chris Vokes, fighting across narrow gullies, mud-choked vineyards and olive groves, into the narrow streets of Ortona itself. When the vicious battle was over, 2605 Canadians were dead or wounded. But the town that had become known as "Little Stalingrad" was now in Allied hands.
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.
Download or read book Mobilize written by Larry D. Rose and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Military specialist Larry D. Rose examines why Canada was not training and preparing to go to war before the declaration in 1939. The failures of all involved are examined, as are the other issues that delayed this important decision resulting in the significant loss of Canadians in Dieppe and in Hong Kong.
Download or read book The Gothic Line written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like an armor-toothed belt across Italy’s upper thigh, the Gothic Line was the most fortified and fiercely defended position the German army had yet thrown in the path of the Allied forces. On August 25, 1944, it fell to I Canadian Corps to spearhead the famed Eighth Army’s major offensive, intended to rip through it. The 1st Infantry and 5th Armored Divisions advanced into a killing ground covered by thousands of machine-gun, antitank gun positions, and pillboxes expertly sited behind minefields and dense thickets of barbed wire. Never had the Germans in Italy brought so much artillery to bear or deployed such a great number of tanks. For 28 days, the battle raged as the Allied troops slugged an ever deeper hole into the German defences. The Metauro River, the Foglia River, Point 204, Tomba Di Pesaro, Coriano Ridge, San Martino, and San Fortunato became place names seared into the memories of those who fought there. They fought in a dust-choked land under a searing sun which by battle's end was reduced to a guagmire by rain. But they prevailed and on September 22 won the ground overlooking the Po River Valley, opening the way for the next phase of the Allied advance.
Download or read book On to Victory written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eighth Canadian Battle Series volume is the little-told story of the tense final days of World War II, remembered in the Netherlands as “the sweetest of springs,” which saw the country’s liberation from German occupation. The Liberation Campaign, a series of fierce, desperate battles during the last three months of the war, was bittersweet. A nation’s freedom was won and the war concluded, but these final hostilities cost Canada 6,298 casualties, including 1,482 dead. With his trademark “you are there” style that draws upon official records, veteran memories, and a keen understanding of the combat experience, Mark Zuehlke brings to life this concluding chapter in the story of Canada in World War II. May 4, 2010, will mark the 65th anniversary of the Netherlands’ liberation.
Download or read book Operation Husky written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 10, 1943, two great Allied armadas of over 2,000 ships readied to invade Sicily. This was Operation Husky, the first step toward winning a toehold in fascist-occupied Europe. Among the invaders were 20,000 Canadian troops serving in the First Canadian Infantry Division and First Canadian Tank Brigade — in their first combat experience. Over the next 28 days, the Allied troops carved a path through the rugged land, despite fierce German opposition. Drawing on firsthand accounts of veterans and official military records, Operation Husky offers a gripping, meticulous account of this seminal operation and the young men who fought, died, and survived it.
Download or read book Clio s Warriors written by Tim Cook and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clio's Warriors examines how the Canadian world war experience has been constructed and reconstructed over time. Tim Cook elucidates the role of historians in codifying the sacrifice and struggle of a generation as he discusses historical memory and writing, the creation of archives, and the war of reputations that followed each of the world wars on the battlefield. Only recently have military historians pushed the discipline to explore the impact of war on society. In analyzing where the practice of academic military history has come from and where it needs to go, Clio's Warriors plays a vital role in the ongoing challenge of writing critical history.
Download or read book The Liri Valley written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second instalment in military historian Mark Zuehlke’s compelling World War II tales of Canadians overcoming insurmountable odds in Italy. For the allied armies fighting their way up the Italian boot in early 1944, Rome was the prize that could only be won through one of the greatest offensives of the war. Following upon his book about the battle of Ortona, Mark Zuehlke returns to the Mediterranean theatre of World War II with this gripping tribute to the valiant Canadians who opened the way for the Allies to take Rome. The Liri Valley is testament to the bravery of these Canadians, like the badly wounded Captain Pierre Potvin, who survived more than thirty hours alone in the hell of no man’s land. This book, like the battle it records, will live long in readers’ memories.
Download or read book Vancouver Past Essays in Social History written by Robert A. J. McDonald and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on Vancouver's social history, the essays written for thisspecial edition of BC Studies treat hitherto neglected areas of thecity's past and bring new insights into how its residents lived andworked. Receiving particular attention is the socio-economic andresidential structure of Vancouver with one author arguing that thecity's economy created an urban working class which was at oncemore complex and politically more conservative than that of the highlypolarized communities on Vancouver Island and in the Interior.
Download or read book Last Man Standing written by Thomas Glen Lockhart and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2012-11 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Canadian platoon embarked under the cover of darkness in late October 1944 near Cesna Italy assigned with a tank hunting mission. Their goal was to help Allied forces establish a bridgehead to build a critical crossing across the Savio River. Ongoing heavy fire from German tanks required an elite group of Canadian soldiers with tank killing experience to break the German advance and in less than one hour, one man changed Canadian history forever. This is a story which outlines the heroic military victory in the Battle of Italy, 1943-45 and the extraordinary valour of Private Ernest "Smokey" Smith who single-handedly destroyed multiple German Panzer tanks with projectile infantry anti-tank guns and protected a wounded comrade with a sub-machine gun from opposition forces. Born in New Westminster, BC Ernest Smith grew up during Canada's depression of the 1930s. Like many young men at the time, Smith "rode the rails" is search of employment where he eventually volunteered and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in the new war of 1939. Smokey was an exemplary soldier whose bravery ultimately resulted in him becoming Canada's last surviving recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Download or read book Out of the Shadows written by William Alexander Binny Douglas and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 1995 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of the highly regarded work includes recent research on the topic of radio intelligence and cryptography.
Download or read book The River Battles written by Mark Zuehlke and published by Douglas & McIntyre. This book was released on 2019-11-09 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Canadians called it the Promised Land. In late September 1944, the Emilia-Romagna plain before I Canadian Corps stretched to the far horizon—a deceptively wide-open space where the tanks could run free. Throughout British Eighth Army, hopes ran high that once it entered the plain, the Germans could be driven from Italy. As soon as the advance began, however, the plain’s true nature was revealed: the land was criss-crossed by rivers, canals and drainage ditches over which all bridges had been demolished. With higher command urging haste, the Canadians entered a long and nightmarish series of battles to win crossings over each waterway, whose high banks provided the Germans with perfect defensive positions. Early fall rains caused rivers to spill their banks and transformed the countryside into the worst quagmire the soldiers had ever seen. More than five months of battle followed, with weeks of hard fighting required to advance from one river to the next. Each month, conditions only worsened, and the casualty rates rose appallingly. As their comrades fell one by one, most soldiers sought merely to survive. Doing that much required every measure of stamina, courage and fighting skill they possessed. The fifth and final Canadian Battle Series volume set in Italy, The River Battles tells the story of this campaign’s last and hardest months. In riveting detail and with his trademark “you-are-there” style, Mark Zuehlke shines a light on this forgotten chapter of Canada’s World War II experience.
Download or read book Why We Fight written by Robert C. Engen and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, the Canadian Armed Forces has used the work of foreign scholars and writers in its professional military education to try to understand the human dimension of warfare: why and how people are motivated to fight, and how they behave once they do fight. Yet the specific Canadian context, experience, and perspective are often lost in favour of appeals to universal truths. The first major Canadian study of combat motivation in almost forty years, Why We Fight redresses this imbalance by presenting some of the best new work on the subject. Bringing together top military practitioners and scholars to discuss some of the most controversial issues of modern warfare, Why We Fight examines the face of battle as experienced by Canadians. It explores sexual violence in war, professionalism, organizations, leadership, shared intent, motivation in extremis, and the toxicity of the "warrior" culture. Its chapters offer key insights on combat motivation theories, the modern operating environment, and the collective and individual identities of the men and women who fight for Canada. Many worry that technology is leading us towards a post-human age, particularly in war. Why We Fight affirms the centrality of the human being in warfare in Canada's past, present, and future.
Download or read book Bassett written by Siggins, Maggie and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 2012-06-27 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John White Hughes Bassett is an extraordinary figure in Canadian public life, a man who's been at the centre of politics, sports, the media and business for over forty years. True to his style, John Bassett doesn't approve of an independent journalist who's neither a bosom friend nor an implacable foe writing his story. But his public career belongs not only to him but also to the many Torontonians and Canadians whose lives have been touched by his astonishingly diverse activities as a politician, publisher, businessman and sportsman. Based on more than 200 interviews with friends, family, business asociates, critics and enemies, Bassett is a remarkably thorough portrait of a distinguished Canadian publisher, broadcaster and businessman.
Download or read book The Savage Storm written by James Holland and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2023-12-12 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed WWII historian James Holland both narrates and reframes the controversial first months of the Italian Campaign and sets a new standard in the chronicling of war Following victory in Sicily, while the central command planned the spring 1944 invasion of France, Allied troops crossed into southern Italy in September 1943, expecting to drive Axis forces north and liberate Rome by Christmas. Italy quickly surrendered but German divisions fiercely resisted, and the hoped-for quick victory descended into one of the most challenging and protracted battles of the entire war. James Holland’s The Savage Storm, chronicling the dramatic opening months of the Italian Campaign in unflinching and insightful detail, is unlike any campaign history yet written. Holland has always narrated war at ground level, but here goes further by chronicling events almost entirely through the contemporary eyes of those who were there on all sides and at all levels—Allied, Axis, civilians alike. Weaving together a wealth of letters, diaries, and other documents—from the likes of American General Mark Clark, German battalion commander Georg Zellner, New Zealand lance-corporal Roger Smith, legendary war reporter Ernie Pyle, and Italian politician Filippo Caracciolo—Holland traces the battles as they were experienced across plains, over mountains, through shattered villages and cities, in intense heat and, towards the end of December 1943, frigid cold and relentless rain. Such close-up views persuade Holland to recast important aspects of the campaign, reappraising the reputation of Mark Clark himself and other senior commanders of the U.S. Fifth and British Eighth armies. Given the shortage of Allied shipping and materiel allocated to Italy because of the build-up for D-Day, more was expected of Allied troops in Italy than anywhere else, and, as accounts at the time attest, a huge price was paid by everyone for each bloodily contested mile. Putting readers vividly in the moment as events unfolded, with characters made unforgettable by their own words, The Savage Storm is a defining account of the pivotal months leading to Monte Cassino, and a landmark in the writing about war.
