The Human Cost of War in Canadian Military History

224 Kevin Spooner of authority and convention. This is indeed the stuff ofwhich folk heros are made. The Quest ofthe Folk, Labrador Odyssey, Home Medicine, Canadians at Last and The Tenant League ofPrince Edward Island represent an intense academic effort to document and analyze the cultures and histories of Maritime Canada. Taken together, their diversity of focus signifies the cultural and historical differences of the region itself. These texts serve collectively as reminders that when we speak ofthe socio-cultural conditions ofAtlantic Canada, we need to consider which society we are representing , whose historywe are reading and what influences background our own constructions of culture. The Human Cost of War in Canadian Military History Kevin Spooner The Cream ofthe Crop: Canadian Aircrew 1939-1945. Allan D. English. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996. Battlefields in the Air: Canadians in the Allied Bomber Command. Dan McCaffery. Toronto: Lorimer, 1995. Murder at the Abbaye: The Story ofTwenty Canadian Soldiers Murdered at the Abbaye d'Ardenne. Ian J. Campbell. Ottawa: The Golden Dog Press, 1996. Hell on Earth: Aging Faster, Dying Sooner: Canadian Prisoners ofthe Japanese During World War II. Dave Mcintosh. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Ltd., 1997. Significant Incident: Canada's Army, The Airborne, and the Murder in Somalia. David Bercuson. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996. The Gallant Cause: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Mark Zuehlke. Vancouver/Toronto: Whitecap Books, 1996. A re Canadians an "unmilltary" people? We might be forgiven for thinking so. /"\since the 1950s, Canada has become peacekeeper to the world par excellence. Canada has consistently provided armed forces to serve the United Nations on peace support missions throughout the world. And, understandably, Canadians take pride in this role. Images ofpeacekeepers adorn coffee-tablebooks, monuments, stamps and even our money. At a time when other nations resolve their differences through war, Canadians clahn to be the world's observers and umpires. All of this, however, has a tendency to overshadow two important facts. First, while peacekeepers may preserve Volume 34 • No. 2 • (Ete 1999 Summer) Journal of Canadian Studies • Revue d'etudes canadiennes peace, they are none the less trained soldiers. Second, Canada does have a significant military history that both predates and coincides with our career as a peacekeeper. This history includes participation in five wars during this century alone. Military topics in Canadian history continue to attract public and academic interest. Early work in the field of military history often produced little more than "blow by bloody blow" accounts of battles. While this writing served a purpose, its preponderance resulted in the neglect of significant dimensions of the Canadian military experience. Aside from the tales of war heroes, the human element was overlooked; the experiences of the uordinary11 soldier remained largely untold. The "new" military history has made progress by recovering these unheard voices from the past and expanding the range of subjects considered worthy of study. Topics now include training grounds, the home front and even the reactions and experiences of "the enemy." The books examined in this review each reveal something of the changes in the way military history is being written. All of them remind the reader of the individual, or collective, human cost of war. Allan English's The Cream ofthe Crop is a significant departure from traditional military history. There are no accounts of air battles and bombing missions in this study of Canadians who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. Instead, English provides a "behind the scenes" exploration of key issues that had a direct bearing on the effectiveness of the Allied aerial war effort. Aircrew selection and training receive considerable attention, as does the controversial issue of crew removed from service on the grounds that they had demonstrated a "lack of moral fibre" [LMF]. By taking into account these two issues, English's analysis sheds new light on the overall effectiveness with which British and Canadian authorities organised people in the production and operation of the machinery of war. This, English suggests, was of "fundamental importance" to Canada's war effort (5). Early work in the field of aviation medicine, carried out...