A Thoroughly Canadian General: A Biography of General H.D.G. Crerar, and: Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13–November 6, 1944 (review)

The year 2007 has seen the publication of the above two works on the Canadian Army’s participation in the Second World War. The Canadian Army’s contribution culminated with First Canadian Army, led by General H.D.G. Crerar, taking part in the 1944–45 North-West Europe campaign, where it advanced along the ‘Long Left Flank’ through western Belgium and Holland and into northwestern Germany. Incredibly, even though Crerar is the only Canadian soldier ever to command an army in the field, his role is largely forgotten in the historiography of the Second World War. Up to now he has had no full biography, but Paul Douglas Dickson’s work has finally put this right. This is a mighty tome, divided into twenty-five chapters, in which the author takes a steady chronological march through Crerar’s military career. Dickson ably portrays Crerar as a hard-working yet cold and remote figure, whose methodical and stodgy persona helped obscure the overweening ambition that drove him – an ambition that sat uneasily with a public face that espoused selfless civic virtue. The author analyzes Crerar through an examination of the interaction of his character and personality, set within the twin contexts of the evolution of the Canadian army and the precise situation of that moment. In so doing, Dickson evaluates Crerar’s generalship by exploring the themes of his practical patriotism, professionalism, and ambition, as well as the Canadian army’s position within Canadian society and the manifold problems of Coalition warfare.

Chapter 1 outlines Crerar’s childhood and family environment in Hamilton, where – thanks to the influence of his forceful mother – he imbibed the principles of practical patriotism and selfless civic service, reconciling his ambition with duty by directing it, or convincing himself it was directed, towards the common good. After commissioning he went into business while serving in the Militia as an artillery officer. On the outbreak of war in 1914, as detailed in chapter 2, Crerar volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force and during 1915 experienced the full horrors of the Western Front. Chapter 3 recounts Crerar’s remaining Great War experiences, culminating in his role, in the rank of Lt-Col., as a key artillery staff officer in the Canadian Corps Headquarters during the successful 1918 Allied Hundred Days campaign. The next three chapters explore Crerar’s joining the Canadian Permanent Force and his career progression during the 1920s and early 1930s, which culminated in his becoming director of military operations and intelligence in 1935; the ensuing chapter analyzes his work in this position.

The bulk of the remainder of the book examines Crerar’s career during the Second World War. On the outbreak of war, Crerar ensured he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces deployment to Great Britain, where he played a key role in the creation of Canadian Military Headquarters (cmhq). The next chapter examines Crerar’s return to Ottawa as chief of the general staff, where he laboured to strengthen the field army overseas in the face of fierce political opposition. In this appointment Crerar was, as Dickson notes, ‘very hands-on and detail oriented’ (152). The next chapter examines the furore that erupted when the Canadian forces that had been dispatched to Hong Kong (a decision that Crerar supported) were overrun by the Japanese. In chapter 10 Dickson describes how, despite being appointed to command a division in November 1941, he never actually experienced divisional command as he was soon thereafter promoted acting commander of I Canadian Corps.

In the next two chapters Dickson investigates Crerar’s efforts to improve I Corps’ training and his advocacy for Canadian participation in Allied raiding operations, a position that led...