The Soldier's General: Bert Hoffmeister at War (review)

Allied generals of the Second World War are often dismissed as a pretty uninspired bunch. At best they are dilettantes, dithering amateurs fumbling their way through problems of command, or poorly trained regular officers from cash-starved democratic countries who are quickly out of their depth trying to fight a modern war. Either way, this cadre of erstwhile shop keepers and lounge lizards is generally seen as all but incapable of beating the Teutonic Gods of War at their own game. And those who seem inspired—Montgomery and Patton come readily to mind—were all seriously flawed people, with as many detractors as supporters. Fortunately, Canada's best combat general of the Second World War, Bert Hoffmeister—arguably one of the best generals on any side—fits none of these molds, and his military career is finally the subject of a major, eminently readable, biography.

Hoffmeister was one of those Allied generals the German professional officers could never figure out: a lumber salesman turned soldier who beat them at soldiering. According to the author, Major Doug Delaney (infantry officer and Professor of History at the Royal Military College of Canada), Hoffmeister's success as a battlefield commander derived from at least three things: his own personal (but not overweening) ambition to succeed at whatever he took on; the basic skills of management and personnel handling he learned in the British Columbia lumber business; and the fact that he served—and survived—every level of command from company to division. In December 1939 he marched off to war as a company commander in the Seaforth Highlanders of Victoria, British Columbia, en route to join the 1st Canadian Infantry Division for passage to Britain. By his own admission he was untrained and callow in the ways of war, something which years of training in England did little to rectify. Hoffmeister and the Seaforths, which he then commanded, learned by doing, starting on the beaches of Paccino in July 1944. By September Hoffmeister had command of the 2nd Brigade, which he fought through the dreary Adriatic campaign of late 1943, including the grim battle for Ortona in December 1943. When a divisional command opened up in January 1944, Hoffmeister was selected—although as an infantryman he was perhaps not the logical choice to command an armoured division. Nonetheless, the faith of his superiors was not misplaced. In five months Hoffmeister went from commanding a battalion to the rank of major general in command of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division. He led that division for the balance of the war, training, guiding, and fighting it with distinction. Unquestionably his greatest moment was when the 5th CAD bounced the Gothic Line defences near Rimini in September 1944. His infantry and tanks out-fought the Germans on all levels, often attacking positions in which the defenders outnumbered them, driving deep into the enemy position, pushing tanks up hills the Germans thought were impassable and destroying their savage counter attacks. In one instance in early 1945 5th CAD defeated two German divisions in a single action at the Valle di Comacchio on the way to Venice. As 5th CAD attacked through one division it was counterattacked by another: the reserves saw off the counterattack and the division never missed a beat in its advance. In the end, Hoffmeister was so highly regarded that he was selected—over all the regular force generals—to command Canada's Pacific force which, in the event, was never deployed.

Doug Delaney has written a compelling and scholarly military biography of Bert Hoffmeister, the soldier's general. The book, essentially Delaney's RMC Ph.D. dissertation, is based on extensive archival research in Canada and abroad, interviews and field study in Italy.

The interpretive framework here is drawn from Major Delaney's own experience as an infantry officer in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, using extensive research on...