Studies in Canadian Military History
2 total works
This landmark book dispels the idea that the period between the Second World War and the unification of the armed services in 1968 constituted the Canadian Army's "golden age." Drawing on recently declassified documents, Peter Kasurak depicts an era clouded by the military leadership's failure to loosen the grasp of British army culture, produce its own doctrine, and advise political leaders effectively. The discrepancy between the army's goals and the Canadian state's aspirations as a peacemaker in the postwar world resulted in a series of civilian-military crises that ended only when the scandal of the Somalia Affair in 1993 forced reform.
Canada's Mechanized Infantry explores the development of the Canadian Army's infantry after the First World War. Modern studies of technology and war have tended to focus on tanks and armour, but soldiers discovered that military success really depends on the combination of infantry, armour, and artillery. Peter Kasurak demonstrates how the Canadian army implemented successful infantry vehicles and doctrine to further its military goals during the Second World War until organizational constraints took hold in the postwar period. This book reveals the challenges of transforming the infantry into a twenty-first-century combat force by integrating soldiers, vehicles, weapons, and electronics.