The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy, 1943–1945 by Daniel G. Dancocks (review)

REVIEWS 301 Thereader must drawhisor herownconclusions, orfollow up theleads thatare offered.It is both a strengthand a weakness of the book that its readability dependson a matter-of-factnarration of eventsfrom the standpoint of theparticipants themselves. Onelearns a gooddealof how people behave inwar, butless ofwhy they arethere. There aresome wellbalanced and,it mustbe said,conventional assessments of Harris's exaggerated belief in thecapabilities ofstrategic bombing. Theauthors demon- •tratebeyondquestion that õ Group wasunique.They documentthe bravery, loyalty, and prideof personnel in the Group.They arguethat •trategic bombing was'the onlyway the Allieshad to hit the enemy repeatedly and effectively' (364),whichcertainly wasWinstonChurchill's justification of the bomberoffensive. There is not, unfortunately, the penetrating analysis needed toaccept thisargument asmuch morethanan articleof faith. Havingmadethat caveat,the collaboration of thesetwo authorshas resulted in good popular history thatdeserves toberead.It willenlighten a w•de rangeof readers, including professional historians. wxI•.ly3uouas National Defence Headqtuzrters The D-DayDodgers: TheCanadians in Italy, 1943-1945. •)•x•IV.S.G. t).•,NCOCKS. Toronto: McGlelland and Stewart1991.Pp.xii, 508, illus.$34.95 Militaryhistory,like other intellectualendeavours, can be subjectto trendiness - certaintopicsare fashionable whileothersare relegatedto the backwaters ofscholarship. Historians of theSecond WorldWar,for example, have focused their attentionmoreon the infantry-armour-air campaign in northwest Europethanon thebloody,muddy,slugging matches thatcharacterized operations in Italy. DanielG. Dancocks, in TheD-DayDodgers, goes some distance towards restoring balancein the historiography of the Canadian army's campaigns of theSecond WorldWar. Thoughthere are dozensof regimentaland specialized historiesof the Ita]ian campaign, todatetherehasbeenonlyoneworkof notedetailing, in its entirety, theexperience ofthe1stCanadian Division (andsubsequently the IstCanadian Corps), G.W.L.Nicholsoh's TheCanadians inItaly,published in 1957 aspartofNational Defence's official history ofthewar.Dancocks's work differs fromNicholson's in twoimportant regards: first,it isreadily available for purchase; and,second, it contains a plethora ofpersonal accounts which add a humandimension to thenarrative. In factthebookopens withfive pages of suchreminiscences, whichmighthaveservedtheirpurpose better •thinthebodyofthework,where theycould beplaced intocontext. The DDay Dodgers is,however, morethan justthethirty-five-year-old official history w•th anecdotes tacked on;it relies on contemporary research, including the •0• THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW workof CarloD'Este, BillMcAndrew, Brereton Greenhouse, andStephen Harris,to shednewlightonpersonality clashes, psychological breakdowns, the treatmentof Canadian prisoners of war,the experiences of artists and journalists, andotherissues theofficial history did not address. Dancocks attempts to describe the Canadiancampaign in Italy in allits facets, fromtheexperiences ofthecommon soldier to thepolitics ofcoalition warfare,including thehistory of 417 Squadron (theRCAF's onlyrepresentativein the theatre),the experiences of the combined Canadian-American ht SpecialServiceForce,discussions of the importanceof topography and climateon militaryoperations, and the inherentconfusion thatcharacterizes modernwarfare. Whatemerges isan account of a warmany,espedally the Americans, thought of novalueto thedestruction of NaziGermany, butto whichMackenzieKing wantedthe Canadianarmy to contributein themistakenhopethatit wouldavoid casualties in theend.TheAllies rarely,if ever, outnumbered theirenemies, whose knowledge ofdefensive warfare was only surpassed bytheirdetermination nottocedeground. TheD-DayDodgers isessentially a narrative, thoughon occasion Dancocl• subjects hismaterial to analysis, tryingto sortout sometimes contradictory interpretations, suchas Vokes'shandlingof the battle of Ortona or the strategic valueof theItaliancampaign asa whole.Theseforaysare,however, somewhat rare, andthereare, in fact,fewprimarysources in the notes. Of greater value to the graduatestudentor professional historianare the personal accounts whichmightserveto illustrate one'sresearch, many of whichtheauthorhascollected in theformofinterviews or personal letters. For anyonewishingto learnmore aboutthe Canadianexperience in the Italian campaign,as well as the politicalmanoeuvringsurrounding that experience, TheD-Day Dodgers wouldbea goodstart. BILLRAWLING Directorate ofHistory, National Defence Headquartzrs WarandPeacekeeping: From South AfricatotheGulf- Canada's Limited Wars. J.L GRANATSTEIN andt)AvIt) BERCUSON. Toronto:KeyPorterBooks1991.Pp.vi, 266, illus. $39.95 WarandPeacekeeping isthethird volumeofa series thatincludedMarching •o Amugeddon andA Nation Forged in Fire.The firstdealtwiththe GreatWar and the second with the Second World War. This third volume servesto fill in the gaps between theothertwo. The resultis a bit untidybut I doubtif it couldbe helped.The first section, called the'Ageof Innocence,' covered theperiodfromtheFenian Raidstoandincluding ourparticipation in theBoerWar.The middlesection - andeach isabouteighty pages long- deals withCanadian forces in Korea. The lastpart- the'Ageof Peacekeeping' - is a sweeping but nonethetcm ...