Fighting the Defensive Battle on the Jamestown Line: The Canadians in Korea, November 1951

Barbed wire. Artillery duels. Patrolling in “no-man’s land.” Static warfare from fixed defensive positions. This description could easily fit the western front in 1916. In fact, however, it also depicts the Jamestown Line in central Korea from the beginning of the static phase of the Korean war in late October 1951 to the cease-fire of July 1953. The apparent similarity of this static war to the Western Front from late 1914 to early 1918 has obscured the importance and uniqueness of the Korean experience to recent military history. For while stalemate on the Western Front derived from fundamental military problems, the stalemate in Korea was profoundly political in nature

The Canadian War Museum and Bomber Command: My Perspective

This article based on David Bercuson’s keynote address at the 22nd Military History Colloquium held at the University of Waterloo in May 2011. Bercuson discusses his role in the controversy over the panel text about the Combined Bomber Offensive at the new Canadian War Museum. Arguing the the original text was not wrong, but reflected older scholarship, he concludes by observing that no serious scholar, whether a single author or a museum staff, should be saved from the age-old processes of historical review, revision and re-writing to reflect more recent research when it is more accurate

A Halifax: The Story of MZ 899

We know a great deal about the Royal Air Force’s (RAF)’s bomber offensive. There is also an extensive library of autobiographies, memoirs and other primary sources telling the personal stories of a great many aircrew, some famous—such as Guy Gibson who led the Dam Busters Raid of 1943—and others not so famous—such as Howard Hewer’s In For a Penny, In for a Pound, the story of a young man who flew in Nos. 148 and 218 Squadrons of the RAF. But few of those works have focused on the aircrew of individual aircraft because of the dearth of primary source material available to tell their stories. This is the saga of one such crew who flew a Halifax Mark III with No. 433 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and who did not survive the war. The heart of this story is based on the personnel records of these men, held at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa

Advertising for Prestigeâ€: Publicity in Canada-US Arctic Defence Cooperation, 1946-48

Climate change is transforming the Arctic. Questions abound about what this will mean for the Canadian Forces, for Canada’s sover­eignty position, for northern peoples, and for stability and security in the circumpolar world. Fortunately, Canadians have encountered and debated similar issues in the past. This volume, featuring chapters by established and emerging scholars, offers essential historical analysis on Canadian Arctic security and sovereignty policies and practices since the Second World War. The “lessons learned” lay a solid foundation for future research and historiographical debate in this dynamic field, and should inform Canadian thinking on what is necessary to protect national interests in the twenty-first-century Arctic

Long Night of the Tankers

Long Night of the Tankers presents a fresh account of a lesser-known but critical component of the Atlantic naval theatre during World War II. Using war diaries, after-action reports, and first-hand accounts, authors Bercuson and Herwig examine the story behind Operation Neuland, the German plan to interrupt vital oil supplies from reaching the United States and the United Kingdom by preventing Allied oil tankers from leaving refineries in the Caribbean. The story begins in February 1942 and follows this German attempt to scuttle the Allied war machine through to the end of the war. Told largely from the German perspective, it details the planning and execution of the Germans and the diplomatic, political, and military responses of the Allies, particularly the United States, to overcome the German effort. Winner, 2014 John Lyman Book Award for U.S. Naval History (North American Society for Oceanic History

Canada-US Defence Relations Post-11 September

Ye