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Ranging from the early explorations of New France to recent peace-keeping efforts with the United Nations, these anecdotes capture the Canadian experience of war: the warmth of wartime friendships, the sudden anguish of loss, the chaos and, at times, comic confusion of the battle field. ... Read more

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Another Kind of Justice is the first historical survey of Canadian military law, providing insights into military justice in Canada, the purpose of military law, and the level of legal professionalism within the Canadian military.

Drawing on a wide range of materials, Chris Madsen traces the development of military law from 1867 to 1997. After delving into the British roots of Canadian military law, he brings his discussion up to date with analysis of recent sexual discrimination cases and the Somalia inquiry. He explains how the law has served a strictly functional purpose in maintaining discipline, and demonstrates how it claims its legitimacy and distinct status in relation to civil law. It becomes clear that military law has responded to pragmatic needs in a reactive rather than a planned manner.

Another Kind of Justice describes the statutes and regulations that govern Canada's armed forces, the institutions responsible for overseeing military law, and how knowledge about military law is disseminated. Madsen concludes that longstanding organizational problems and training deficiencies bear some of the responsibility for the unfortunate behaviour of Canadian soldiers in Somalia. ... Read more

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Command and leadership are very personal endeavours. The manner in which an individual commands others and exercises leadership speaks more to the character and personality of the individual in question than it does to the concept of command or leadership in and of themselves.

Intrepid Warriors takes an intimate look at a number of Canada's finest military commanders and leaders during the crucible of war. Collectively, the chapters in this volume offer invaluable insights into different command and leadership approaches, behaviours, and styles. They also reinforce the timeless truth that the character and presence of courageous leaders are critical to military outcomes, particularly during times of ambiguity, uncertainty, and chaos.

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Intrepid Warriors is a first-rate survey of character elements vital to military command
Colonel Bernd Horn presents Intrepid Warriors: Perspectives on Canadian Military Leaders, an anthology of essays by diverse authors, profiling notable Canadian military commanders. Especial attention is paid to those who distinguished themselves amid the dangerous fog of war. Offering insights into successful leadership styles, approaches, and behaviors, as well as emphasizing how crucial a courageous leader is to a successful military outcome, Intrepid Warriors is a first-rate survey of character elements vital to military command as well as of heroic individuals.
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Chapters: Military Units and Formations Established in 1883, the Royal Canadian Regiment, Royal Canadian Dragoons, Royal Winnipeg Rifles. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 31. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Royal Canadian Regiment (The RCR) is an infantry regiment of the Canadian Forces. The RCR is the senior infantry regiment in the Regular Force, but its 4th Battalion (formerly the London and Oxford Fusiliers) is ranked 11th in the order of precedence among Reserve Force infantry regiments. The regiment consists of four battalions, three in the Regular Force and one in the Reserve Force (militia). The regiment's four battalions are stationed in Ontario and New Brunswick. With many of its soldiers drawn from Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces in recent decades, the regiment maintains a general connection as the "local" infantry regiment for eastern Canada. The RCR maintains a Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) in Petawawa, Ontario, which has no operational command role but handles regimental affairs outside the responsibility of the individual Battalions. The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum is also located in London, in the historic Wolseley Hall. Wolseley Barracks in London has been continuously occupied by some element of the regiment since construction of Wolseley Hall was completed in 1888. At various times Wolseley Barracks has been the home of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, and remains the home of the 4th Battalion today. The Royal Canadian Regiment is one of Canadas oldest Regular Force military units. The regiment was formed as the Infantry School Corps on 21 December 1883, authorized by a Militia Act which also created the Cavalry School Corps. These school corps were created as regular units that would train the Canadian militia. The Infantry School Corps' first battle honou...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=883830 ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Written by a former director-general of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Security Service, a memoir of life in Canadian security and intelligence between 1942 and 1973. The narrative is supported by the author's personal letters and formerly classified official documentation which has now been released under the Access to Information Act. ... Read more

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Excellent. Easy read. Professional
An excellent account of the beginnings of Canadian security and intelligence activities, and the RCMProle in security and intelligence work. Easy read. Supported by many formerly official documents of the1940s-1970s. ... Read more

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The history of Canada is filled with charismatic and talented military leaders. Each of the men featured in this collection was wildly successful in business and used his private wealth to provide Canada with a military unit at its times of greatest need. Today these respected units continue to serve Canada and Canadians. ... Read more

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Buster is a biography of James Sutherland Brown, CMG, DSO, a distinguished Canadian soldier who advanced from boy bugler to Brigadier General. He was noted for his organizational and planning abilities as well as his humane command. As Assistant Quartermaster General of the 1st Canadian Division he was substantially responsible for the rapid advance of the Division through Mons, Beligium, to the Rhine in the last 100 days of WWI. He also provided for the efficient demobilization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1919-20. As Director of Operations and Intelligence he was the author of Defence Scheme No.1 designed to defend Canada in case of an attack by United States in the 1920s, a plan that has been mocked by academic historians but praised by his colleagues.

As District Officer Commanding in Victoria during the Great Depression he managed on a slim budget to get military facilities built and the Militia as prepared as possible in anticipation of WWII. He then lost a confrontation with his immediate superior, General McNaughton, centred on the humane treatment of the unemployed in Relief Camps in the 1930s and consequently he resigned. Though he sought one, he was refused a role in WWII as a result of this clash. ... Read more

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Zukhlke's Terrible Victory
Great Work.
Wish there were a few more pictures
Continue to do a great job that you do in telling the stories of what Canadians did back in World War 2.

Scholarly, Difficult Work for Historians Only
This work is a difficult and detailed slog through the nightmare of opening the Scheldt Estuary by the 1st Canadian Army so the port of Antwerp could be utilized.The large amount of detail and the constant swinging back and forth between operations and locations make this work difficult to follow, particularly since the maps are inadequate and many sites mentioned in the text are not to be found on the maps.I give this work five stars minus for the excellence of narrative coverage with only somewhat usable maps and difficult reading.

All that being said, this book should be on the shelf of every historian interested in World War II.

Please permit me an aside before continuing.As the author said, the Scheldt Battle was probably the biggest and most egregious of Montgomery's blunders in a career of operational failures.As in all of Montgomery's battles, he mainly depended on colonial/commonwealth troops to do the heavy lifting while minimizing British casualties.If one looks hard at El Alamein, his only true victory, British troops were the minority of his attacking forces.Evidently this was because he held the same opinion as General Alan Brooke, namely that British troops and their leadership were inferior to the Germans (see this discussion in Andrew Roberts; "Masters and Commanders.")The other primary reason for using Commonwealth troops wherever possible was because England had not been able to replace its manpower in the field since 1942 and its army was a "wasting" asset.That did not slow down the British high command from seeking control of operations for personal and national glory, however.In this case Montgomery refused to obey Eisenhower and open the Scheldt as his first priority after taking Antwerp (when the estuary could have been opened easily before being heavily garrisoned by the Germans.)Instead Montgomery focused strictly on the potential personal glory of thrusting across the Rhine with Market-Garden, another one of his defeats.

So once again the Canadians were called in to repair one of Montgomery's blunders and save the British from heavy casualties (one should remember Dieppe and that the US went into France on two beaches, the British two, and the Canadians one (Juno.)I have often wondered why Canadians allowed the British to use and abuse their forces, but the Indians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans did as well.Canadians were allowed no part in the Allied command hierarchy outside of the First Canadian Army (and Burn's 1st Canadian Corps of three divisions in Italy which joined the 1st Canadian Army in early 1945) in spite of their contributions to the war effort in manpower, productivity and financial strength -- a slight by both the British and Americans. (End of aside.)

In this battle British forces even refused to attack in unfavorable situations, so the Canadians attacked instead.Fortunately, this book gives the Canadians due credit for their efforts and should be required reading in all Canadian schools (in an abridgement.)Canadians were perhaps the most determined of all the Allies to cooperate for total victory even when given tasks beyond their resources like during the Scheldt operation.That they were able to accomplish what they did was truly amazing and a credit to Canada.

Mr. Shakespeare's review is excellent and I will not attempt to repeat what he said.But the extreme detail of the text is not supported by correspondingly detailed maps, and one of the main battles, across the causway to Walcheren is not covered at all.I was not always able to follow the text on the maps (located in the front of the book), and the arrows designating the movements of brigades were not especially useful.I would have liked smaller scale maps on which I could follow the movements of battalions and companies since that was how the narrative was organized.

The prose is necessarily so detailed that reading speed is reduced to a minimum.As I said in my title, this is a scholarly book for historians rather than something for the general reader.My only exception to that statement involves Canadians -- this book is perhaps one of the most important books on World War II for them.The other major Canadian battles north of Italy would be Dieppe, Juno Beach, operations Totalize and Tractable, and the crossing of the Rhine in operation Veritable, coverage of which is spread across many books.

Again, allow me to commend the author on his fine work and recommend it to all historians interested in World War II.It enhances the repution of Canadian forces in World War II far beyond what is normally said in books by British authors and is important to all who wish to read about the military history of our northern neighbors.

That Schedlt Was Hell On Earth
Mark Zuehlke's "Terrible Victory" is a tribute to the Canadians who bravely fought in the confusing Scheldt Estuary Campaign.The complex campaign took place in the low soggy border country of Belgium and The Netherlands in the fall of 1944.By then, Operation Overlord was four months old, 21st Army Group had reached the Dutch border in their drive towards the Rhine.Monty's front lines stretched from the Belgian coast through the potential supply port of Antwerp. Like much of Canadians fighting, these battles have dropped out of memory because no one wanted to be painfully reminded -- especially the First Canadian Army veterans.

In his panoramic new history, Mark Zuehlke describes the battles while saluting its neglected fighting men. He tells us how, in the beginning, they had to limp along the dike tops with multiple handicaps -- rudimentary training, poor equipment and few supplies -- which threatened to stall the offensive like the mucky ground that sucked down their men and vehicles. They had to close ranks when few replacements were available. And they had to make do with picked over supplies while Monty redirected fresh convoys for his own Rhine campaign. Denied a promised paratrooper drop on key islands, the Canadians, Mr. Zuehlke argues, were over matched by near-impossible challenges in what has been termed a sideshow by some military historians.

Mr. Zuehlke relates these events in his enlightening new book.It's a lengthy history of the confusing conflict, which all began with the obvious need to open more supply ports.Mr. Zuehlke asserts that no one dared order Monty to make the critical port of Antwerp his main priority; He had his eye on a more glorious prize -- the Rhine crossings.He begrudgingly reassigned a few units after repeated nagging and scolding by Admiral Ramsey, and strong suggestions from Eisenhower and Marshall.

A generally well-argued book, "Terrible Victory" may be more for the scholar or military officer than the layman; like the regimental histories it is based on, it can be a long slog. Mr. Zuehlke makes abundantly clear in this exhausting, epic story of small infantry fights; the glamor of decisive tank battles and daring sky battles is mostly missing.

In this campaign, the rocket-firing Typhoons and Spitfires seem to have lost their effectiveness with no German columns to strafe.Later he introduces us to the Canadian's new menagerie: flamethrower Wasps, water loving Buffaloes and Weasels, Kangaroo APC's and bizarre Crab flail tanks.

For a wider perspective on the lessons drawn over the Battle of the Scheldt, the reader can do no better than turn to Mr Zuehlke's excellent book. He has a foot soldiers' passion and a reporter's eye for telling detail.Canadian forces met countless physical challenges, which he recorded in detail: deep mud that would bog down tanks, trucks and men alike; steep canal dikes guarded by German artillery and machine guns; hard-hitting 20mm guns camouflaged in the distant tree line; dozens of pillboxes, fortified houses, and slip trenches manned by tough German paratroopers; Powerful self-propelled guns lurking around the next corner or skulking in the wood.He tells us of exploding mortar shells, grenades, and mines; their hot, jagged pieces of shrapnel bringing excruciating death.

The Canadian's effort was no disappointment to Mr. Zuehlke. Nor is it to readers. Although the First Canadian Army's story wades through three months of soggy, bespattered, complicated history, Mr. Zuehlke follows them along the dike tops admirably. Thoroughly researched, well told, this is a muddy crawl from start right through to the last German held island.Suddenly, we find ourselves springing up and racing across the last causeway to accept the surrender of the last demoralized garrison troops.

Mr. Zuehlke's prose is clean and steadily paced, but there are probably too many unfamiliar names, too many strange places, too many unknown units to engage any but the most dedicated war stories reader. The book will probably not please either Montgomery backers or Montgomery bashers. The author sees Monty as a pre-madonna but stops at labeling him an egomaniac.

Mark Zuehlke has not given us an easy read. Not that his style is obscure: he is a popular writer, though here he writes in plain, devastating clarity about three months of miserable, hard campaigning.

The difficulty of traveling alongside this unsparing author all the way from the River Seine across the Leopold Canal, to the Bevelands, the Breskens Pocket and flooded Walcheren lies simply in having to witness all the suffering of this campaign.

Zuehlke's book wants to rescue these soldiers from obscurity, and defend the First Canadian Army in which they served from the ridicule of recent historians, who have either belittled Canada's efforts (too few soldiers for such a mammoth task), or accused it of using lack of volunteers as an excuse for not gaining ground.

Like in The Gothic Line: Canada's Month of Hell in World War II Italy, the real value of Mr. Zuehlke's writing is in the story telling.Any researcher could compile the facts and figures.What Mr. Zuehlke has done is to tell tales of the men who created those numbers, those who left Holland wearing purple hearts, and those who are buried in the dikes and humble household gardens.

This is a serious book, a long book, and at times a weary one. But it is also ultimately satisfying. The author has a broad vision and a clean style.

For sure, he offers a watertight account of his subject.Mark Zuehlke writes well, and his story flows nicely as he paddles us across the River Scheldt, up the Leopold Canal, and around in the flooded polders of Holland.

The author stands beside Lloyd Clark: Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany 1944 and 1945-The Greatest Airborne Battles in History as a writer of popular history whose work also represents the widest knowledge and highest scholarship. This is the best single-volume account of the Scheldt Campaign for many years. Even those of us who think we know Monty's campaigns well are reminded again what an awful fight it was.

A fascinating recreation of the a forgotten yet hard-won campaign crucial to the war effort
Prize-winning author and military historian Mark Zuehlke presents Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944, the grim true story of the First Canadian Army's deadliest battle of World War II. Set in the muddy Belgian and Dutch lowland country, Terrible Victory tells of the First Canadian Army's drive to gain access to the West Scheldt estuary near Antwerp, and with it the ability to send supplies to the Allied armies' advance toward Germany, at any cost. They were pitted against entrenched German forces ordered to die defending their ground. The result was a brutal close quarters conflict fought in miserably cold and wet conditions. A fascinating recreation of the a forgotten yet hard-won campaign crucial to the war effort, and a highly recommended supplement to World War II history shelves. ... Read more

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This is the story of the brave and deeply committed army chaplains who brought faith and courage to Canada's troops during one of history's most ruthless wars. Tracing the growth of the Canadian Chaplain Service from its chaotic and controversy-ridden early days to its maturation and an efficient field force, the author highlights both the role of the Service on the battlefield and the personal experiences of the chaplains. Refuting the widely held view that chaplains serving overseas were cloistered from front-line realities, Crerar describes the padres' experiences in camps, hospitals and on the battlefield. He examines how they maintained their faith in the face of death and destruction, and explores the bonds forged between chaplains and troops. The book concludes in the post-war era with the decline of the chaplains' hopes for spiritual renewal upon their return to Canada - their dreams dashed not by the war, but by the subsequent peace. ... Read more

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Recounts in detail the history of Canadian naval forces in WWII, taking a ship-by-ship and encounter-by-encounter approach. ... Read more

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In these Red Cross memoirs, some 30 women tell their stories of volunteer work with the Canadian Red Cross Corps in overseas postings during World War Two and the Korean War. These dramatic narratives take us across oceans infested with enemy submarines to witness Canadian women on duty in the UK, in Europe and in Asia. The volunteers shouldered challenging and often dangerous jobs, working as nurse's aides, ambulance drivers, welfare officers, cooks, transport drivers and in the social clubs Canadian soldiers visited on leave. We learn how it feels to survive daily bombings and severe food shortages, to witness death and destruction all around, and to acquire the spirit and courage exhibited by so many 'ordinary' people during the war. Laced with humour and filled with grace, these stories are a testament to the vital yet often overlooked responsibilities that thousands of women gallantly accepted for the Allied war effort. The book contains many period photographs as well as an illuminating introduction to the Canadian Red Cross Corps. ... Read more

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Memoirs present wartime experiences for a new generation
Frances Martin Day, Phyllis Spence, and Barbara Ladouceur, eds., Women Overseas: Memoirs of the Canadian Red Cross Corps (Overseas Detachment).Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 1998. Women Overseas is a collection of memoirs of 31 women who volunteered to work with the Canadian Red CrossCorps overseas during the Second World War.Included here are also storiesof Canadian Red Cross Corps personnel who served in the Korean War. The individual stories are based on recollections many years after the war,notes from diaries and letters, and archives of the Red Cross Overseasclubs of Victoria an Vancouver.As some of the contributors have sincepassed away, the book becomes a legacy many people who have veterans intheir families wish they were able to have on paper.For example, we havethe contribution of Audrey C. Kitching, who became the wife ofMajor-General George Kitching after returning home. The reader ispresented with the lives of these volunteers in their various wartimephases:civilian life prior to joining the Red Cross;training in Canadaand awaiting word to travel to Great Britain in the ocean-going convoyscharacteristic of wartime; descriptions of experiences in France or Italy,or in the case of the 1950-1953 war, in Korea. Even if a reader'sfirst interest is the military history of the Second World War, this bookoffers much information about such topics as the build-up to D-Day in June,1944 or the extent of civilian casualties in Normandy after theJune-August, 1944 war, where an estimated 40,000 civilians were killed. From the memoirs there are narrations of incidents when the Red Cross staffwould meet wounded soldiers being evacuated out of battle, with the mud ofthe battlefield, as one author describes, still permeating their clothingand boots.In such encounters, the women at the field hospitals expressedsurprise at how much the soldiers felt a need to talk about their battleexperiences and under what circumstances they became wounded. Whileother books provide more of a structured account of how the hospitals andevacuation routes were established, the reader does learn much from WomenOverseas about the workings of General Hospitals, or the more forward fieldhospitals, and Casualty Clearing Stations.And much is presented about theworkings of the Canadian Red Cross Overseas: the duties as ambulancedrivers, escort officers, food administration, and handicrafts officers,working with such groups as blind veterans.The organization is describedas finding much success in its work in Great Britain and on the continentin its work with soldiers and civilians, as well as in its liaison with itscounterparts among the allies. Examples of the dangers of the workare also described in the memoirs.For example, in her account of"Sunny Italy wasn't warm or sunny", Dorothy Falkner BurogoyneDoolittle, from St. Catherine's, Ontario, describes what had happened tothe No. 14 General Hospital that had been sent to Italy before her group. They were on a convoy that was bombed in the Mediterranean in earlyNovember, 1943."No lives had been lost, but they had lost all theirpossessions, and word had got back to London that the Red Cross girls atNo. 14 needed anything and everything." Women Overseasaccomplishes much more than was perhaps intended as a record of personalaccounts of the Canadian Red Cross Corps (Overseas Detachment).The readeris presented with a work that educates about Canadians in the Second WorldWar through biographical narrations of women who were part of the supportstructure both for our soldiers and for civilians in such countries asGreat Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy during the Second World War.Asan important addition, so as not to neglect the Korean War, the addition ofthose memoirs are also most welcomed. Such a book offers great ideasfor further research.On a personal note, Helen M. Egan's chapter,"We found the drivers very protective of us" mentions a referenceto Jean Lamb, who "had already worked in Italy with the Canadianoffensive which had pushed up from Sicily, but she had returned when theorder came through that all married girls had to return to London." My father was a batman to a Captain Lamb in Italy, until the officer'sdeath.Now I have something close to home to research.It is such littleaspects of the vast and complicated story of Canadians in war that help aperson continue with an interest to learn more and more. ... Read more

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The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, which encompasses Canada's tank and armoured car regiments, has a proud past. Lavishly illustrated with photos, war art, maps and diagrams, this book traces the history of the RCAC from its cavalry ancestors through World War I and the interwar period that saw the advent of the tank and other new forms of armour.Most of the book deals with World War II as Canadian armoured units played important roles in the defeat of the Third Reich. Finally, the RCAC has been involved in most of Canada's military commitments since then, including peacekeeping duties.This is a large, authoritative, profusely illustrated book that is a must for all libraries and collectors of books in military history. ... Read more

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It is estimated that no less than 20,000 British North Americans, and possibly as many as 50,000 served in the US Army during the Civil War. No sooner had the war drawn to a close than a new threat materialised south of the border: The Fenian Brotherhood, the American branch of the Irish Republican Army. The Brotherhood's primary goal was Irish independence; this they would attempt to achieve by an invasion of Canada. This fine text by David Ross and Grant Tyler examines the Canadian campaigns 1860-70, illustrated by numerous photographs and eight full page colour plates by Rick Scollins. ... Read more

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In Spring 1945 the outcome of the war was ritually certain but the mighty River Rhine still stood in the way of the Allies. Eisenhower's strategy was to guarantee a crossing in the Ruhr area by allocating the main effort to Montgomery's 21st Army Group. Monty's task was to envelope and take out the last German war production and open the way onto the North German Plain.

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"We are thus not only the first country in the world with the capability to produce nuclear weapons that chose not to do so, we are also the first nuclear armed country to have chosen to divest itself of nuclear weapons."

Pierre Trudeau United Nations, 26 May 1978

From 1963 to 1984, US nuclear warheads armed Canadian weapons systems in both Canada and West Germany. It is likely that during the early part of this period, the Canadian military was putting more effort, money, and manpower into the nuclear commitment than any other single activity. This important book is an operational-technical history and expose of this period.

Its purpose is to bring together until-recently secret information about the nature of the nuclear arsenal in Canada, and combine it with known information about the systems in the US nuclear arsenal. The work begins with an account of the efforts of the Pearson government to sign the agreement with the US necessary to bring nuclear weapons to Canada. Subsequent chapters provide a detailed discussion of the four nuclear weapons systems deployed by Canada: the BOMARC surface-to-air guided interceptor missile; the Honest John short range battlefield rocket; the Starfighter tactical thermonuclear bomber; the VooDoo-Genie air defence system. Each chapter also includes a section on the accidents and incidents which occurred while the weapons were at Canadian sites. The final chapter covers the ultimately futile efforts of the Maritime Air Command and the Royal Canadian Navy to acquire nuclear weapons. An appendix includes the text of the until-now secret agreements Canada signed with the USA for the provision of nuclear weapons.

Illustrated throughout with photographs and diagrams, and supported by extensive transcriptions of original documents, Canadian Nuclear Weapons will be of great value both to scholars and interested laypersons in its presentation of what has been a deeply hidden secret of Canadian political and military history.

Customer Reviews (1)

Canadian Nuclear Arsenal
This book describes the US/Canadian cooperation in deploying nuclear weapons to various Canadian bases. The material presented ranged from policy issues down to images of weapon control panels. There is something for everyone who is interested in this subject. Some of the mundane messages, technical order pages included would be of interest only to the serious reader. If you are looking for a cursory history nuclear weapons in Canada, skim the book, if you want minute details, this book has it. I am glad I have this book and it covers a time and places that I haven't seen in any other book. ... Read more