In this Book

summary

Terry Copp’s tireless teaching, research, and writing has challenged generations of Canadian veterans, teachers, and students to discover an informed memory of their country’s role in the Second World War. This collection, drawn from the work of Terry’s colleagues and former students, considers Canada and the Second World War from a wealth of perspectives.

Social, cultural, and military historians address topics under five headings: The Home Front, The War of the Scientists, The Mediterranean Theatre, Normandy/Northwest Europe, and The Aftermath. The questions considered are varied and provocative: How did Canadian youth and First Nations peoples understand their wartime role? What position did a Canadian scientist play in the Allied victory and in the peace? Were veterans of the Mediterranean justified in thinking theirs was the neglected theatre? How did the Canadians in Normandy overcome their opponents but not their historians? Why was a Cambridge scholar attached to First Canadian Army to protect monuments? And why did Canadians come to commemorate the Second World War in much the same way they commemorated the First?

The study of Canada in the Second World War continues to challenge, confound, and surprise. In the questions it poses, the evidence it considers, and the conclusions it draws, this important collection says much about the lasting influence of the work of Terry Copp.

Foreword by John Cleghorn.

1

Introduction

Geoffrey Hayes, Mike Bechthold, and Matt Symes

The introduction provides an outline of the book's purpose as a collection of essays in honour of Terry Copp and a general synopsis of what each of the five sections are about, offering a new and diverse interpretation of Canada's Second World War experience.
2

Terry Copp’s Approach to History

Mark Osborne Humphries

Osborne provides an overall look at Terry Copp as an historian and his approach to studying history. He looks at Copp's specific theoretical and methodological approach that presents a coherent, theoretical model for practicing and teaching history based on evidence and historical inquiry.
3

“To Hold on High the Torch of Liberty”:Canadian Youth and the Second World War

Cynthia Comacchio

Comacchio provides a detailed portrait of Canada's youth and considers how the war formed a "generational marker" that cut across divisions of gender, class, and culture.
4

Fighting a White Man’s War? First Nations Participation in the Canadian War Effort, 1939–1945

Scott Sheffield

Sheffield looks at Aboriginal communities in Canada and the various motives behind First Nations participation during the war. His work reveals that Native people responded to the war with diverse, but articulate voices that not only declared their "right to belong" but also "their right to be."
5

Harnessing Journalists to the War Machine: Canada’s Domestic Press Censors in the Second World War

Mark Bourrie

Bourrie provides a study of Canadian censorship, arguing that appointing professional journalists as press censors was far from ideal. In his analysis, he concludes that overall, the system of voluntary self-censorship employed during the war sought a middle ground that balanced security concerns with the public's right to know.
6

Dangerous Curves: Canadian Drivers and Mechanical Transport in Two World Wars

Andrew Iarocci

Iarocci begins his study on the home front at the LeBreton Gallery of the Canadian War Museum looking at Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) trucks of the Second World War are located. He admits to the scale of motorized transport and how it changed dramatically between the two wars, but he argues that the human element - the need for well-trained drivers and mechanics - made the experience of the two wars more similar than one might expect.
7

How C.P. Stacey Became the Army’s Official Historian The Writing of The Military Problems of Canada, 1937—1940

Roger Sarty

Sarty provides a careful study of the young Charles Stacey, later the official historian of the wartime Canadian Army and the dean of Canadian military historians.


8

“Strike Hard, Strike Sure”: Bomber Harris, Precision Bombing, and Decision Making in RAF Bomber Command

Randall Wakelam

Wakelam's chapter takes an interest in both the scientific side of the Allied bombing campaign over Germany and the human side of decision making. He takes up his story in the aftermath of the infamous Butt Report of September 1941, which showed that just one bomber in three came within five miles of their target. In exploring who was right, Sydney Bufton, the Group Captain or Arthur Harris, the head of Bomber Command, Wakelam highlights the complexities of both military command and operational research.
9

Leadership and Science at War: Colonel Omond Solandt and the British Army Operational Research Group, 1943–1945

Jason Ridler

Ridler's chapter is a study of the wartime career of Omond Solandt, a Canadian who became superintendent of the British Army Operational Research Group (AORG). Ridler traces how OR grew from the development of radar and anti-aircraft defences to wider studies of weapons, equipment, and tactics. At each stage, personalities and connections mattered. He describes how the young Canadian's remarkable intelligence, leadership, and drive made him Schonland's replacement in 1944.
10

Wartime Military Innovation and the Creation of Canada’s Defence Research Board

Andrew Godefroy

Godefroy also takes an interest in Dr. Solandt's appointment to the DRB. He details how the wartime government mobilized Canada's small scientific community through the National Research Council (NRC).Godefroy argues that "the DRB signalled Canada's intent to takes its own defence and security requirements seriously."

11

Overlord’s Long Right Flank: The Battles for Cassino and Anzio, January–June 1944

Lee Windsor

Windsor's chapter seeks an understanding of the Allied operations in the "forgotten" theatre of the Mediterranean campaign. Windsor revisits the claims of Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, the Commander of Allied Armies, Italy (AAI), who maintained that the dreadful fighting in the spring of 1944 at Cassino and Anzio kept large numbers of German formations from transferring to France in advance of the cross-Channel invasion. He argues that historians should consider the role the Allied soldiers who fought in the Mediterranean played - with limited resources against a well-entrenched enemy - as vital to defeating the German armies in the west.
12

A Sharp Tool Blunted: The First Special Service Force in the Breakout from Anzio

James A. Wood

Wood's study focuses on the First Special Service Force (FSSF) a Canadian-American commando unit raised in 1942. He details how its training in Montana to fight in the mountains of Europe paid off during the unit's perilous capture of Monte la Difensa in December 1943. He also shows that the reputation of the "Devil's Brigade" could not overcome the administrative hurdles put up by the two national armies from which it sprung.
13

La culture tactique canadienne: le cas de l’opération Chesterfield, 23 mai 1944

Yves Tremblay

Tremblay's wide-ranging work focuses on the "lessons learned" from Operation Chesterfield, 1 Canadian Division's attack in the Liri Valley in May 1944. For him, this costly engagement reveals a persistent Canadian "tactical culture" that drew from the legacy of the First World War as well as the pervasive influences of the British Army. He argues  that Canadian generals in the Mediterranean theatre after July 1943 drew more from the experiences of the Western Front than from the lessons of the recent desert campaign. Tremblay's close reading of the "lessons learned" from Operation Chesterfield suggests that Canadian generals still had much to learn about operational tempo, reliable communications, and close infantry-tank cooperation.
14

Knowing Enough Not to Interfere: Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes at the Lamone River, December 1944

Douglas E. Delaney

Delaney's work affirms the view that, with the exception of perhaps Andy McNaughton and Bert Hoffmeister, Canada's generals were not a very inspiring lot. He specifically looks at Charles Foulkes in his analysis.
15

No Ambush, No Defeat: The Advance of the Vanguard of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 7 June 1944

Marc Milner

Milner's chapter is a study of 9 Infantry Brigade Group on 7 June 1944 (D-Day + 1) challenges Colonel Stacey's assessment that it had "come off second-best" when its leading elements were "over-run" by the infamous 12 SS Panzer Division northwest of Caen. Milner's detailed and complex picture maintains that the Canadians gave a good account of themselves in a pitched battle against elements of three German divisions. But with no British support on the left flank, and with too few FOOs (Forward Observation Officers), who could not bring guns to bear through most of the day, the Canadians withdrew to the only ground they could defend, Villons-les-Buissons.
16

Defending the Normandy Bridgehead: The Battles for Putot-en-Bessin, 7–9 June 1944

Mike Bechthold

Bechthold focuses on the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, which lost over a quarter of its fighting strength storming "strongpoint Courseulles" on 6 June 1944. He refutes the argument that the Canadians were "put to flight," for on the evening of 8 June, the Canadian Scottish Regiment retook Putot and held it against more German counterattacks the next day. He concludes that the Canadians showed careful leadership, planning, and coordination to retake an important position. In contrast, the attacks by 12 SS Panzer Division were badly coordinated, poorly led, and brutal.
17

Operation Smash and 4 Canadian Armoured Division’s Drive to Trun

Angelo Caravaggio

Caravaggio's study takes us to mid-August 1944, when Allied forces converged on the ground east of Falaise that overlooked the final escape route of two German armies. He suggests that the Canadians did not face difficulties of their own making as they fought to close the Falaise "gap" from the north, looking at the dismissal of Major-General George Kitching as evidence. In opposition, Caravaggio details the workings of an inexperienced formation that faced three weeks of almost constant fighting. Kitching's plan to move his armoured division through the winding countryside northeast of Falaise towards the town of Trun, was complex, but Caravaggio argues that it was extremely well conceived and executed. However, the battles that ended the Normandy campaign went beyond Trun.
18

A History of Lieutenant Jones

Geoffrey Hayes

Hayes' chapter is a telling of Lieutenant Jones' story, an anonymous young reinforcement officer through his personnel files while also drawing heavily upon Terry Copp's work. This chapter considers his service against several questions: By what assumptions were young Canadian men chosen as leaders? How well prepared were they for the battlefields on which they fought? And how well do we understand the experience of men like Lieutenant Jones?
19

A Biography of Major Ronald Edmond Balfour

Michelle Fowler

Fowler traces the career of Ronald Balfour, a Cambridge-educated British officer attached to the First Canadian Army, as one of the "Monuments Men," a member of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Division at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). Some have dismissed the work of the Monuments Men as a propaganda exercise, but Fowler's portrait of Balfour reveals an extraordinary intellect who did all he could to save Europe's rich cultural legacy.
20

The Personality of Memory: The Process of Informal Commemoration in Normandy

Matt Symes

Symes is fascinated by the many kinds of informal commemorations he has come across throughout Normandy. In trying to understand these shifts of memory, Symes explores the different ways that French civilians have memorialized the three infantry units of 8 Canadian Infantry Brigade. He maintains that these memorials have curious histories of their own, driven less by a clear understanding of events and more by the strength of personal relationships.
21

An Open Door to a Better Future: The Memory of Canada’s Second World War

Jonathan F. Vance

Vance considers how Canadians remember the Second World War. Despite a country of 11 million people that had placed one million people in uniform and had suffered over 44,000 dead in the Second World War, Vance maintains that the memory of the Great War, when a country of 7 million people lost over 60,000 dead, overshadowed the Second. Vance seeks to answer the question as to why the Second World War is passed over in favour of language and symbols from the First by looking at the conditions of the peace and how unlike 1918, the victory of 1945 was unequivocal.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
  2. p. 1
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. 2-5
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-viii
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  1. Foreword
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. Acknowledgements
  2. pp. xi-xii
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  1. 1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-14
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  1. 2. Terry Copp’s Approach to History
  2. pp. 15-32
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  1. 3. “To Hold on High the Torch of Liberty”: Canadian Youth and the Second World War
  2. pp. 33-66
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  1. 4. Fighting a White Man’s War?: First Nations Participation in the Canadian War Effort, 1939–1945
  2. pp. 67-92
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  1. 5. Harnessing Journalists to the War Machine: Canada’s Domestic Press Censors in the Second World War
  2. pp. 93-114
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  1. 6. Dangerous Curves: Canadian Drivers and Mechanical Transport in Two World Wars
  2. pp. 115-138
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  1. 7. How C.P. Stacey Became the Army’s Official Historian: The Writing of The Military Problems of Canada, 1937–1940
  2. pp. 139-158
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  1. 8. “Strike Hard, Strike Sure”: Bomber Harris, Precision Bombing, and Decision Making in RAF Bomber Command
  2. pp. 159-172
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  1. 9. Leadership and Science at War: Colonel Omond Solandt and the British Army Operational Research Group, 1943–1945
  2. pp. 173-198
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  1. 10. Wartime Military Innovation and the Creation of Canada’s Defence Research Board
  2. pp. 199-218
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  1. 11. Overlord’s Long Right Flank: The Battles for Cassino and Anzio, January–June 1944
  2. pp. 219-238
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  1. 12. A Sharp Tool Blunted: The First Special Service Force in the Breakout from Anzio
  2. pp. 239-268
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  1. 13. La culture tactique canadienne: le cas de l’opération Chesterfield, 23 mai 1944
  2. pp. 269-316
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  1. 14. Knowing Enough Not to Interfere: Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes at the Lamone River, December 1944
  2. pp. 317-334
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  1. 15. No Ambush, No Defeat: The Advance of the Vanguard of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 7 June 1944
  2. pp. 335-366
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  1. 16. Defending the Normandy Bridgehead: The Battles for Putot-en-Bessin, 7–9 June 1944
  2. pp. 367-390
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  1. 17. Operation Smash and 4 Canadian Armoured Division’s Drive to Trun
  2. pp. 391-412
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  1. 18. A History of Lieutenant Jones
  2. pp. 413-430
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  1. 19. A Biography of Major Ronald Edmond Balfour
  2. pp. 431-442
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  1. 20. The Personality of Memory: The Process of Informal Commemoration in Normandy
  2. pp. 443-460
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  1. 21. An Open Door to a Better Future: The Memory of Canada’s Second World War
  2. pp. 461-478
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  1. Contributors
  2. pp. 479-484
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  1. Terry Copp: A Select Bibliography
  2. pp. 485-488
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