Professionalism Under Fire: Canadian Implementation of the Medak Pocket Agreement, Croatia 1993

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 peace in the Former Yugoslavia, Africa, and East Timor. Nevertheless, the spectre of Somalia still lingers in the minds of many both in and out of uniform

“Treasures” from the Canadian War Museum’s Backlog

In the 1970s Canadian War Museum curatorial staff decided they needed to bolster the scope of the museum’s national military collection. Consequently, they placed ads in Legion magazine and enclosed flyers in veterans’ pension cheques inviting veterans to send in military or military related items they had in their possession that they thought would be of interest to the museum. The response was overwhelming. In the end, a grand total of 24,400 objects poured in; many more than was anticipated and much too large a number for the museum’s small staff to properly register and catalogue. The only option was to carry out a basic inventory and then pack the objects away in boxes (which occupied a total of 197 pallets) pending the day when sufficient resources would become available to process them adequately, so that they would become properly identified and usable museum artifacts

“It made them Forget about the War for a Minute”: Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force Entertainment Units during the Second World War

On 3 February 1944, wounded Canadian service personnel recuperating in a British hospital were delighted to hear that a concert party, part of the Canadian Army Show, was in the area and would be performing for patients that evening. The variety was extremely well-received; singing, dancing and comedy routines seemed to be exactly was the injured needed to raise their spirits. After the show was over, a man in a wheelchair approached performer James Cameron and exclaimed “it was so good to see that—please come back again.” The Captain in charge of this satisfied patient wrung Cameron’s hand and enthusiastically declared “First Canadian show I’ve seen, Major-Brother, and it was like mail from home.” Under consideration here is the development and function of the Second World War Canadian military entertainment units that inspired such comments

Equipment of the Canadian Infantrymen, 1939–1982: A Material/Historical Assessment

The history of Canada’s soldiers in the twentieth century tends to incorporate a few recurrent themes. One of these is the changing nature of the soldier’s experience of war, from the Boer War through to the Second World War and beyond. Another is the gradual transition of Canadian military forces from British to American spheres of influence, a theme that has become particularly relevant since 1939. This article will explore these two themes from a material history perspective, an approach that is generally absent from the broader historiography. The focus will be the transformations in the Canadian infantry soldier’s personal field equipment and kit from the Second World War through to the 1980s. The evidence from this period points to two conclusions: first, that the experience of war and the growing professionalism of the Canadian infantryman has been reflected in his equipment; and second, that there has been an American influence on the equipment of the Canadian soldier since the outbreak of the Second World War

Viking Force: Canada’s Unknown Commandos

Most people interested in Canadian military history know about hte elite first Special Battalion, formed in July 1942 as the Canadian element of the largely American First Sepcial Service Force.1 Few, however, have ever heard of Viking Force, Canada’s first attempt at creating an elite Commando unit in the Second World War. Viking Force does not appear in any Canadian Army Order of Battle, and did not even last long enough for its members to put on the unit’s horned-helmet shoulder patch, yet it played an important role in the sad story of the Dieppe fiasco. Acknowledgment of that role is long overdue

On the Beach and in the Bag: The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind

When the last Allied ships drew away from the beaches of Dieppe on 19 August 1942, they left behind over 2,700 of the 4,963 Canadians who had embarked on the raid: 807 men were dead, including four Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps [RCAMC] medical orderlies, and 1,946 (including four Canadian Medical Officers (MOs), a chaplain, and at least 11 RCAMC medical orderlies and 48 accredited stretcher-bearers) were abandoned to German captivity on the beaches and environs.1 As Lord Lovat wrote decades after the event, “the raid was an exceedingly bitter experience, learnt the hard way.”2 It is to the fate of these nearly two thousand men, and in particularly the 568 who had been wounded and then captured, that this article is devoted. Many of the survivors faced lengthy hospitalization and rehabilitation, frequently under the care of POW medical personnel rather than German doctors. The account of that medical treatment is one of the untold stories of the Dieppe raid

A Lesson in Success: The Calonne Trench Raid, 17 January 1917

The Allied armies slugged it out on the Western front for nearly four years before finally achieving the breakout sought since November 1914. The four-division strong Canadian Corps led this “spearhead to victory.” Its commander was Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, and his corps was commonly referred to as the “shock troops” of the British Expeditionary Force and as “the enemy’s elite soldiers” by the German high command. This reputation stemmed from the Canadians’ impressive record of success in raiding the German lines throughout the war. The Canadian Corps’ flexibility, and initiative, the aggressiveness of its soldiers, and their ever improving skills of fire and movement continually added to the growing legend of Canadians being masters of the art of the trench raid. One operation in particular, a raid against the German lines along the Lens-Bethune railway northeast of Cite Calonne on 17 January 1917, was almost flawless in its planning and preparation, and near text-book in its execution and resulting effect

“Regret Deeply…” The Second World War Experiences of Bill and Fred Tucker

Over a million Canadians wore a uniform in the fight against Hitler’s Germany. The Tucker family of Kitchener, Ontario sent two brothers, Bill and Fred, to aid in this cause. Only one returned