Leadership and Professionalism Reading List: Canadian Military History

After more than ten years of effort by Canada and many other states to control and redress conflicts in the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere, Canadian political and military leaders are still struggling to adjust defence policies and to build armed forces relevant to the international security situation Canada faces today. But the unending demand of what on the surface seem to be disparate operations and the absence of any overarching description of strategic reality confounds these efforts. Policies drawn from theories appropriate to the cold war era and classic peacekeeping missions are out of step with the demands of the past ten years and the future and make it difficult to develop new ways of thinking about defence policy and force development to deal with the world we live in. emerging from ten years of experience and seemingly different operations. The post-cold war era has been superceded by the stability campaign - a continuous diplomatic and military endeavour by states in various types of coalitions to halt conflicts, disarm belligerents, and police lawless regions around the world to bring peace, order and good government to international affairs. Armed force, and sometimes deadly force, is the central and necessary component of this campaign, but what type of force and what type of policies are appropriate to this new era? The authors address this question in a discussion of defence policy and management in Canada since 1989 and their relation to the needs of the stability campaign. They describe policy making in a Canadian context, political and other domestic factors that shape Canada's military capabilities, and the influence of the defence budgeting process on policy choices. and transforming both policy and the Canadian Armed Forces over the next ten years to meet the challenges of the stability campaign.

Throughout the Second World War, Canada played a vital role in contributing manpower and escorting supply convoys to the European theater of war. The Royal Canadian Navy was called upon to participate in virtually every phase of war at sea. This is the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. This impressive book chronicles how the RCN expanded more rapidly and played a greater part in Allied operations, than could possibly have been foreseen when the war broke out. Over a period of six years, the RCN's contribution to the Allied war effort fundamentally transformed the RCN's nature. In 1939, the RCN was a small coastal defense force with 'blue water' aspirations. Our Navy was modeled on the British Navy and formed an important part of the Empire Navy, a worldwide network of British naval communications, intelligence and trade defense. RCN officers and a large number of ratings served in RN training ships and establishments. Political, financial and material constraints limited the RCN's horizons, with the exception of annual exercises in the Caribbean. Yet, by 1945, the RCN had a record of service in the North Atlantic, the waters of northwest Europe, the Arctic, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In short, the RCN had achieved the status of a 'blue water' Navy! As a result, tens of thousands of Canadians who had served in the Navy during the war formed a national constituency that had never before existed. No Higher Purpose was written by a team of professional historians and has been in preparation for fifteen years. Veterans of the RCN, current sailors and naval officers, and students of military and naval history in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany have eagerly awaited it. This book is a fitting testimonial to the men and women of Canada's Navy.

English describes the development of a uniquely Canadian selection system that attempted to match the aptitudes of aircrew candidates to the duties they would perform and the evolution of the RCAF's training program from a haphazard system with enormous attrition to one that became the model for many modern systems. He traces the development of aviation psychology and the treatment of psychological casualties of air combat. English pays particular attention to the LMF controversy and the RCAF's response as well as the effect of morale and leadership on the psychological well-being of, and casualty rates among, Royal Air Force and RCAF bomber squadrons. In exploring the human dimension of air warfare, an issue that has been widely overlooked in military literature, English demonstrates that personnel considerations have at least as much influence on the effectiveness of air forces as material and technological factors.

The reverses experienced by Canadian troops during the late stages of World War II continue to be the subject of intensive inquiry among military historians. Going beyond the obvious immediate causes of theses setbacks, the author presents a deatiled hsitorical examination of the role of the Canadian army in Normandy and of the organization, training, and fighting-style that the Canadian brought tot he battlefield in 1944.

The first edition of Canada's Army quickly became the definitive history of the Canadian army. The intervening years, though, have seen major changes to how Canadians think about their military, especially in the context of the Afghan War and increased federal funding for the Canadian Forces. In this second edition of Canada's Army, J.L. Granatstein--one of the country's leading historians--brings his work up to date with fresh material on the evolving role of the military in Canadian society, along with updated sources and illustrations. Canada's Army traces the full three-hundred year history of the Canadian military from its origins in New France to the Conquest, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812; from South Africa and the two World Wars to the Korean War and contemporary peacekeeping efforts, and the War in Afghanistan. Granatstein points to the inevitable continuation of armed conflict around the world and makes a compelling case for Canada to maintain properly equipped and professional armed forces. Canada's Army offers a rich analysis of the political context for the battles and events that shaped our understanding of the nation's military. Masterfully written and passionately argued, this book has been lauded as 'belong[ing] on all concerned citizens' bookshelves.'

"This book is the first history published to examine Canada’s secret peacekeeping strategy. It presents, using formerly classified material for the first time, the real reasons for Canada’s involvement in UN peacekeeping during the Cold War. It deconstructs the national “peacekeeping myth” which has emerged over the years, a myth which continues to detrimentally affect the formation of Canada’s current national security policy. Sean Maloney discusses how each government from William Lyon Mackenzie King to Pierre Trudeau has viewed peacekeeping, through a close examination of specific Canadian peacekeeping operations conducted from 1947 to 1967. The reasons for Canada’s involvement in each mission is carefully placed in a wider context of the struggle to defend Western interests throughout the early Cold War period." - Backcover

Updated to 2007, including Canada’s war on terrorism. Is Canada really “a peaceable kingdom” with “an unmilitary people”? Nonsense, says Desmond Morton. This is a country that has been shaped, divided, and transformed by war — there is no greater influence in Canadian history, recent or remote. From the shrewd tactics of Canada’s First Nations to our troubled involvement in Somalia, from the Plains of Abraham to the deserts of Afghanistan, Morton examines our centuries-old relationship to war and its consequences. This updated edition also includes a new chapter on Canada’s place in the war on terrorism. A Military History of Canada is an engaging and informative chronicle of Canada at war, from one of the country’s finest historians.

This book is an operational history of the Canadian Corps in the battles of the final 100 days of World War I, beginning with the battle of Amiens, August 8, 1918, and culminating in the retaking of Mons on November 11, 1918, only hours before the war ended. During the late summer and autumn of 1918, the Canadian Corps, under Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Currie, played a crucial role in the defeat of the German Army on the Western Front. This work examines the operational, organizational, and tactical innovations developed by the Corps during this campaign and their subsequent effect on military thought. Six battles are examined for their planning, conduct, and lessons: the Battle of Amiens, the breaking of the Drocourt-Queant line, the Canal du Nord and Cambrai, the pursuit to Valenciennes, the storming of Mount Huoy, and the return to Mons.

In British Generals in the War of 1812 Wesley Turner takes a fresh look at five British Generals - Sir George Prevost, Isaac Brock, Roger Sheaffe, Baron Francis de Rottenburg, and Gordon Drummond - who held the highest civil and military command in the Canadas. He considers their formative experiences in the British Army and on active service in European and West Indian theatres and evaluates their roles in the context of North American conditions, which were very different from those of Europe. Turner answers questions about the quality of each general's leadership, particularly that of Isaac Brock, the best known of these five generals. He argues that Brock's charge up Queenston Heights - the basis for his heroic stature - was brave but hardly a demonstration of competent leadership. Turner also shows us that while the other generals displayed courage in combat, they had to face problems raised by American military successes and by the strains of warfare on the civilian population. British Generals in the War of 1812 explores why these commanders succeeded or failed and why, except for Brock, they are all but forgotten.