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Although it has been overshadowed by other events of the Second World War, Canada's role in the Italian Campaign, from 1943 to 1945, was significant. Canadian forces played a major role in this campaign, whose goal was to open a second front in order to ease the pressure on Russian forces in the east. Canada fought under British command alongside British and American units, but our soldiers saw some of the fiercest fighting and achieved glory many times, including at the Battle of Ortona, one of...

The role of Canadian universities in selecting and training officers for the armed forces is an important yet overlooked chapter in the history of higher education in Canada. For more than fifty years, the University of Toronto supported the largest and most active contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps (COTC), which sent thousands of officer candidates into the regular and reserve forces. Based on the rich fund of documents housed in the university archives, Varsity's Soldiers o...

CO-WINNER OF THE C.P. STACEY AWARD The definitive account of Canadians fighting in the Second World War written by Canada's premier military historian. Tim Cook, Canada's leading war historian, ventures deep into the Second World War in this epic two-volume story of heroism and horror, loss and longing, and sacrifice and endurance. Written in Cook's compelling narrative style, this book shows in impressive detail how soldiers, airmen, and sailors fought—the evolving tactics, weapons of war, l...

Daniel MacMillan never saw the battlefields of Passchendaele or Vimy Ridge. A farmer in the tiny New Brunswick community of Williamsburg, he experienced the Great War entirely from the "home front." War on the Home Front: The Farm Diaries of Daniel MacMillan, 1914-1927 is a portrait of the other side of war from the perspective of a man who, like countless families across North America, had no choice but keep on going with his life as sons, nephews, brothers and fathers fought and died on battle...

Drawing from newspapers, journals, government reports, and archival records, Terry Copp - one of Canada's leading military historians - tells the story of how citizens in Canada's largest city responded to the challenges of the First World War. Montreal at War addresses responses to the outbreak of war in Europe and the process of raising an army for service overseas. It details the shock of intense combat and heavy casualties, studies the mobilization of volunteers, and follows the experience...

Shortlisted, 2018 Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical WritingSuggested Reading by the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative AssociationNear the end of October 1941, a few hundred soldiers from New Brunswick were among the 1,975 Canadian troops who set sail from Vancouver to reinforce the British Colony of Hong Kong. Within two short months, after a hard-fought but disastrous battle against the Imperial Japanese Army, the island fell to the invaders on Christmas Day, and its defenders wer...

The powerful story of over 5,700 brothers in arms.They fought at Ypres in the fall of 1915, on the Somme at Courcelette and Regina Trench in 1916. They carried on to Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Passchendaele in 1917. They were part of the battles at Amiens and the Hundred Days campaign of 1918. The 26th Battalion was the only infantry unit from New Brunswick (and one of only 24 from the rest of Canada) to serve continuously on the Western Front from 1915 until the Armistice in 1918. More than 5,700...

In 1943, the New Brunswick Rangers were sent to Britain, converted into a heavy weapons support unit, and shipped off to Normandy.Originating as a 19th century militia, the New Brunswick Rangers were placed on active service for the first time during the Second World War, serving first in the Maritimes and Newfoundland. In 1943, the Rangers were sent to Britain, where they were converted to a heavy weapons support unit, armed with machine guns and mortars in preparation for the invasion of Norma...

As summer turned to fall in 1812, two armies watched each other warily across the turbulent Niagara River that formed the border between the United States and British Canada. On the American side regular soldiers and state militia trained under the inexperienced, politically-appointed General Stephen Van Rensselaer, while on the British side General Isaac Brock worried about defending his long frontier with a meagre force of regulars and militia and a group of native warriors about whom he held...

This book is based on the public career of a highly controversial Canadian, Sam Hughes 1885 - 1916. He is one of the most colourful, even bizarre, figures in Canadian history. Though he died in 1921, his name can still conjure up controversy and not a little misunderstanding. His long career - in so many respects the quintessential story of a poor backwoods Ontario farm boy who made good by his own efforts - continues to exert a fascination that few other Canadian political figures could dupli...

Cultures, Communities, and Conflict offers provocative, cutting-edge perspectives on the history of English-Canadian universities and war in the twentieth century. The contributors explore how universities contributed not only to Canadian war efforts, but to forging multiple understandings of intellectualism, academia, and community within an evolving Canadian nation. Contributing to the social, intellectual, and academic history of universities, the collection provides rich approaches to integ...

Canada's involvement in Afghanistan is the longest martial conflict in its history precipitated literally overnight by a world changing event in the 2001 9/11 attack in New York City. In 2010, the Afghan "Mission" remains front page news for Canadians, even threatening to undermine the Federal Government due to the so-called "Detainee Scandal." The human cost (Canadian and Afghan), financial burdens and impact on the self-perception of Canadians as a peace keeping "Middle-Power" are immense and...

The year 1755 saw the rivalry between Britain and France in North America escalate into open warfare as both sides sought to overcome the other's forts and trading posts. Lord Loudoun and the Marquis de Montcalm were sent out to lead their forces and Montcalm was soon tasked with capturing the formidable Anglo-American post at Oswego. Montcalm's 3,000-strong force surrounded the forts at Oswego and soon forced the defenders to surrender - an outstanding French success. Featuring specially commis...

The third in a series of unique surveys of the battles in the War of 1812.

On the tenth anniversary of Canada's involvement, a leading journalist offers a fascinating assessment of Canada's past and present role in the Afghan war Of the 33,000 troops under NATO command in Afghanistan in October 2006, 12,000 were Americans and 2,500 were Canadians. Deployed to southern Afghanistan, the Canadian forces were charged with ending the violent insurgency in Kandahar Province. The Savage War offers a compelling look at how the war has been conducted by Canada and its allies...