Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour of Terry Copp

1. Introduction

1 1 Introduction This collection offers new and diverse interpretations of Canada’s Second World War experience. It draws from a diverse group of scholars: military, social,andculturalhistorians,aswellasworkingjournalists,graduatestudents, and serving military officers. Their articles are organized under five headings: The Home Front; The War of the Scientists; The Mediterranean Theatre; Northwest Europe; and the Aftermath. Most address Canadian topics. Some consider the complexity of operations. Others explore new topics, or they introduce readers to people most have never heard of before. Still others are instructive for what they tell us about decision making, leadership, and the construction of memory. Each is exciting for how they question “standard” interpretations through a new reading of the primary documents. The list of the contributors and the breadth of topics speak to the enthusiasm, curiosity, and energy of Professor Terry Copp. Terry Copp is well-known as a passionate educator and a remarkable scholar. He began his career in 1959 as a lecturer in history at Sir George Williams, now Concordia University in Montreal. After completing his MA at McGill (1962), he embarked upon a career as a teacher, research historian, and writer. As general editor of the Problems in Canadian History series, Copp was responsible for introducing a problem-solving approach to high school history students. In 1974 his book The Anatomy of Poverty: The Condition of the Working Class in Montreal 1887–1929 launched McClelland and Stewart’s Canadian Social History series. After working in the field of labour history, Terry, together with his mentor, the late Professor Robert Vogel of McGill University, embarked on his first foray into military history with the five-volume Maple Leaf Route series, published between 1983 and 1988. With Bill McAndrew, Terry wrote Battle Exhaustion: Soldiers and 2 Introduction Psychiatrists in the Canadian Army, 1939–1945, in 1990. The Brigade: The Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1939–1945 followed in 1992. Both these projects were awarded the C.P. Stacey Prize for the best book in Canadian military history. Never one to shy away from controversy, Terry submitted a brief to the Senate of Canada over the controversial NFB series The Valour and the Horror (1992) and later contributed to Richard Nielson’s book and film series No Price Too High: Canadians and the Second World War (1996), which came out in response. His collaborative works continued with Denis and Shelagh Whitaker in Victory at Falaise: The Soldiers’ Story, published in 2000. The following year he worked with another veteran, Gordon Brown, to write Look to Your Front … Regina Rifles: A Regiment at War, 1944–1945. Invited to the Joanne Goodman Lecture Series at the University of Western Ontario in 1998, Terry spoke on “A Citizen Army: The Canadians in Normandy, 1944,” in which he developed ideas that were published in 2003 as Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy. For this work, Terry won a Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Military History in 2004. The companion volume, Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944–1945, came out in 2006. Always curious about the role of operational research, Terry published Montgomery’s Scientists: Operational Research in Northwest Europe: The Work of No. 2 Operational Research Section with 21 Army Group, June 1944 to July 1945 in 2000. Terry published Guy Simonds and the Art of Command in 2007. His most recent book, Combat Stress in the 20th Century: The Commonwealth Perspective (2010) co-authored with Mark Humphries, revisits his interest in the human cost of war. It is no exaggeration to say that Professor Copp’s passion as a public historian has helped sustain the popularity of military history in Canada. In 1991, Terry and Marc Kilgour started the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. The following year, Terry and Mike Bechthold published the first issue of Canadian Military History, a journal that serves both an academic and a popular audience. In 1994, Terry and Mike began a series of battlefield guides for Canadians travelling to France and Northwest Europe. (Eric McGeer and Matt Symes have continued with volumes that explore the Canadian contribution to the Mediterranean Theatre.) In November 2010, with Matt Symes and Nick Lachance, Terry Copp co-authored Canadian Battlefields 1915–1918: A Visitor’s Guide. Terry contributed the first of an ongoing series of articles to 3 Introduction Legion Magazine’s “Canadian Military History in Perspective” in September 1995. All...