Canadian Military History

Volume 22 Issue 4 Article 8

2013

From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

Bill McAndrew

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Recommended Citation Bill McAndrew "From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey." Canadian Military History 22, 4 (2013)

This Feature is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

Bill McAndrew

“And so while the great ones depart for their dinner. The secretary stays getting thinner and thinner. Racking his brains to record and report. What he thinks that they think that they ought to have thought.” Anon

ne should be properly wary the military. Besides the Oof the fragility of memories. Abstract: Bill McAndrew’s varied was on and adventure loomed. Thomas Hobbes is said to have career saw him become a leader in So after a summer as a sailor, both war and society studies and the commented that “Imagination practical application of those studies and a voyage on HMCS Swansea to and memory are but one thing to military professionalism. After Britain at the time of the Festival which for divers considerations service as an officer in the Canadian of Britain, I made my way across hath divers names.” Recollections Army, 1951-1963, that included duty and was lucky when I went of recent let alone distant events in Korea, , and Ghana, Bill, into Vancouver’s No. 11 Personnel a high school dropout, studied at and happenings have a way of York University’s Glendon College Depot. The recruiting sergeant, undergoing modification, change, (BA), and the University of British Smokey Smith whose Victoria Cross distortion as they filter through Columbia (PhD). He taught Canadian ribbon was unmistakeable, asked time. The following meanderings and US history at the University of me if I wanted to go to Officer through my past are of course subject Maine Orono, 1969-1975, where he Candidate School. I didn’t know earned tenure. Deciding to return to to all of the above. Things that Canada, he accepted a position at the what that entailed but said sure and may seem clear now perhaps were Directorate of History in Ottawa. He assured him that I was eighteen, in fact more nuanced when they contributed to the official history of really seventeen, and had grade 12, occurred, and vice versa. An instance. the RCAF, developed the battlefield which I hadn’t. He completed the I have consulted our unit’s war studies programme for the Canadian paperwork, I was sworn in and in a Forces, and served as an historical diary for some years to compare advisor on leadership studies for the few days was off by train for Camp with my recall of events. For some armed forces. Borden. Many years later I learned specifics both can’t be correct. This the cause of the casual recruiting; is a sobering thought as I have been the farther downstream you go.” each depot had a monthly OCS quota taken over the years with veterans’ (William Gladstone, in Fred Stenson, to fill and at the end of October No. memories of their wars. Did they The Trade (Vancouver: Douglas and 11 needed bodies. recall inaccurately or were written MacIntyre, 2000)). So it goes. The train took me to , records fallible? Some of each, no I joined the army in October 1951. then a local went north to Angus near doubt. One memoirist commented to My motivation was not unusual, Camp Borden and knee deep in snow. his editor who doubted the accuracy I expect, in those days. I spent my A truck met the train and dropped of his memories: “I thought you adolescence in wartime Halifax and me and the small cardboard suitcase might start disputing what I say Charlottetown where I had been an holding my worldly possessions at sooner or later,” he wrote. “But I’ll army cadet and both a reserve soldier the Orderly Room where my army tell you one thing, if the history books and sailor. But the primary drive was career began with a bang. Sergeants are right and the people who told me need; there were few opportunities pounced and I was on a non-stop are wrong, that makes history the for a high school drop-out on the run for several days until the course only kind of water that gets cleaner Island short of Toronto factories or started. Run to the quartermaster

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stores, run to quarters, run to meals, We were in the midst of drill I was strangely influenced by Charles run to nowhere and back again. training for our passing out parade McDonald’s, Company Commander, The training programme to towards the end of December when his memoir of the awful operations in produce a was I was told to report to the CO’s the Huertrgan Forest and an account two months at OCS, three months at office. This was scary as he was a that should have driven anyone but a a corps school, three months with a godlike figure totally remote from naive romantic to a safer job. In any regular army unit as an understudy, my experience. The RSM, Mickey case that two month course was a and a final three months back at Austin who wore a MC ribbon from snap compared to OCS. We learned the corps school. The initial OCS his time with the Royal Winnipeg minor tactics, fired a variety of phase was to select out – the failure Rifles, marched me in and the CO, weapons, threw grenades, choked on rate was around 70 percent – and Mike Dare, asked about my age gas, drove several types of vehicles gauge suitability. For me it was also and education. I told him the truth, including bren gun carriers which basic army training that most of the fortunately, as he had a background we jumped over high embankments others had not only completed but check on his desk. He gave me two making sure to keep the tracks instructed. The tenor was to push choices: be discharged, or revert back moving quickly to ease the drops. In us as far as possible, physically, to the next course when I would be early May I was posted to 3 RCR in psychologically, emotionally, to see eighteen and of age. The thought of Wainwright where it was preparing how we reacted and if we persevered. repeating the course was not exactly to go to Korea. There was only one other direct entry welcome but the alternative of being Wainwright was at that time young guy like myself in the course turned loose in the middle of a very very basic, a few buildings and lots the rest being veteran NCOs going rough winter was even less so. So of bush. The battalion was trying for a commission. Failures could I chose to repeat the course and to organize itself despite the chaos be voluntary, for example, an RCR he gave me a few days leave over at that time that left hundreds of warrant officer who left because he Christmas. recruits unaccounted for, some preferred being a company sergeant My new roommate, Pat Paterson, coming in and leaving at will after major to a second lieutenant platoon had fought in Normandy with the getting clothing and a few meals. commander, or by decree as when Sherbrooke Regiment. During a I was supposed to understudy an the other direct entry wasn’t there Staff College battlefield study in experienced officer but there were one morning. Normandy a few incarnations later none around so I got my own platoon I managed to survive. My one of the veterans on the study, Syd of brand new recruits. Soon after roommate was Jack Hanley an RCR Radley Walters, told me that Pat had getting kitted out we joined the rest of sergeant and tough veteran who commanded a Firefly 17-pounder the battalion for a lengthy exercise in adopted me and guided me through gun Sherman tank in his squadron the bush starting with a twenty mile bad patches. It helped that I had near Cintheaux on the road between march. With no NCO’s I had a Second hunted deer and rabbits and birds as a Caen and Falaise on the morning War vet among them act as platoon kid so was familiar with weapons and of 8 August 1944. This was at the sergeant. It was a rough beginning the woods. Several group leadership end of the first phase of Operation for unconditioned troops with new exercises that seemed pointless were Totalize when four German Tiger boots but we survived to reach a lake duly noted by strange officers with tanks counter-attacked. All four out there somewhere where I had the notepads. For the rest I just did what were destroyed, one of which was platoon strip and marched them into seemed needed. One obstacle course commanded by the German ace, the water for a swim. I recall had three tunnels running off Michael Wittman, who earlier had We scrambled through the a covered hole in the ground. You single-handedly stopped a British summer, me learning an awful lot dropped in, were told to find a way Armoured Brigade. One claimant for from the innumerable mistakes I out, and the hole was covered. Two the hit was a rocket-firing Typhoon, was bound to make. We made one of the holes led nowhere. The third and another a British tank squadron long compass march across trackless arced downhill into water that rose on the east side of the road, but Rad country towards another lake that felt the further you went. There was light was convinced that it was Patterson like a real accomplishment when we further on but the last few metres to who got him. made it within a couple of hundred the outlet were almost completely The second course went more yards of our aiming point. The CO, under water. I reckoned that they easily than the first. My birthday Ken Campbell, visited and must wouldn’t want to fish out a corpse so duly came, I graduated soon after and have been highly relieved that this kept going. I imagine its purpose was moved down the road to the School of novice had not killed someone or to test for claustrophobia. Infantry. Why infantry I now wonder. become hopelessly lost. That night https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/878 2 : From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

we bivouacked on the shore and were awakened by a yowling that turned out to be a band of coyotes running through us. Later in the summer we went up to Jasper where a training camp had been set up in hills and mountains that resembled those in Korea. It was a valuable experience in preparing us for moving with full kit through the rough terrain we did find in Korea. It was, for me, a productive time. I’m not as sure for the platoon. They were in the 3 RCR company that fought the last unit action in Korea when they were hit one night by a large Chinese attack. Several were killed, more wounded and others taken prisoner. I can’t help wondering about the training for which I had been responsible. I duly went back to Camp Borden for the last training phase, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to the 2nd Canadian Rifle Battalion. The unit was a new one, formed during that massive expansion of the Army for Korea and the NATO commitment in Europe. From a peacetime brigade the army expanded in a year or so to five brigades of fifteen battalions. The 1st Rifles went to Hannover in Germany in 1951 and the 2nd was meant to relieve them in due course. It formed in Valcartier in the summer of 1952 and moved to Ipperwash in western Ontario in the autumn where I joined it. The battalion was The author in 1956. made up of companies from several militia units: “A” Company from the Montrealer from Pointe St. Charles, There were some real characters Victoria Rifles from Montreal, “B” Jake Burton, a wonderful guide to a among the lot. One was fond of sliced the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, young bugger like me and the other onions covered with black pepper “C” the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, platoon commanders, Ian Gilmour and strolling through the hallway of “D” the Regina Rifles, and Support and Ted Ball. Ted introduced me our H-hut quarters firing his 9-mm Company the Queens Own Rifles of to the wonders of Stan Kenton who pistol at the lights. We ducked. Vip Canada from Toronto. The CO was was pretty far out in those days. In Vipond had an unfortunate habit of Bill Matthews who had been awarded the unit, two subalterns, the only falling to sleep before putting out two Military Crosses while serving two university graduates, were his cigarette, a habit that later killed with the Canadian Scottish in Europe. lieutenants, the rest of us second him. Robbie Robinson was a fine I went to “A” Company commanded lieutenants. A few were married, the woodsman, a Second War vet who by Bob Firlotte, a veteran of the families living nearby, but most of had not been overseas likely because 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. us lived in quarters. There were two he was such a superb survival Our CSM was a small, tough cars among us. instructor. He showed me how to

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fry eggs on a shovel, among other through Saturday mornings and on former lineman with the Montreal useful things. Another Robbie, Mark Sundays there was almost always a Alouettes, who hustled the cooks out 2, was a likeable guy and a natural church parade in the nearby towns of bed expeditiously. I boiled eggs Pioneer Platoon commander. Later where the battalion was led by and Al and I helped serve breakfast he was mayor of Petticodiac, New the bugles and Deucehorn, our when it eventually appeared. Brunswick. Howie Traynor, Derrick Great Dane regimental mascot who The battalion was initially slated Bamford, and Neil Anderson were invariably chose to throw up or to relieve the 1st Rifle Battalion in buddies in “B” Company under Tom exercise his bowels en route. Far Hannover but this was changed and MacDonald, a former Hamilton cop distant Army Headquarters decreed now we were to replace my old unit, with a big heart, a sense of humour that the low level of education 3RCR, in Korea. In the spring of 1953 and a Military Medal. Boom Marsaw standards had to be raised so on we headed back to Wainwright to later became an evangelical minister, two nights a week this high school train at the company and battalion John Saunders was a former sailor, drop-out taught arithmetic and levels, which we couldn’t do at Ron Werry an imaginative instructor, English barely half a page ahead of Ipperwash. En route we went by and Bill Crew held the record of most my less than enthusiastic soldier- train to Ottawa where we paraded sneezes after taking the obligatory students. I was also sports officer with other units on Parliament Hill snuff at mess dinners. Paul Zmean, and organized inter-company for the Queen’s coronation. In those Charlie Belzile, and I hung around a competitions in volleyball, basketball days troop trains could be lively. lot together. Jack Hanley, from OCS and other sports, hugely assisted by Troops always managed to stow arrived, also Johnny Moad another Harry Warren, an ex-British Army drink in their kit and sometimes ex NCO. Con Bissett, from out west, physical training instructor who booze got out of hand. Tighter and later transferred to the RCN’s Fleet carried in his pocket a copy of Freud’s tighter restrictions followed to keep Air Arm and killed himself flying a Interpretation of Dreams, and Denny the trains from being wrecked but Banshee into the ground. They were Stahl, then a corporal soon to be soldiers quickly found ways to get all solid companions. sergeant. Tuesdays and Thursdays around them. We junior officers had A second lieutenant in those were doubling days when all ranks to inspect everyone beforehand, days made $150. a month, with room had to double everywhere when including ensuring that water bottles and board, the same salary as half a outdoors and we did a lot of PT rifle contained only water. Initiative and century before at the time of the Boer exercises using our Lee Enfield .303s ingenuity invariably won out. A War. The Mess was the centre of our as props. They were very effective, tied condom filled with rum topped social lives and mess bills were the both for arm strength and for getting with a bit of water foxed the most first and biggest claim on our limited to know our rifles. conscientious taster. finances. Bill Matthews insisted on Routine was from six in the Three COTC cadets joined the having a formal dinner every Friday, morning six days a week, with two battalion that summer for their no matter where we happened to be evenings educational instruction, at summer training. All did moderately at the time, and this ensured there least one other on officer training, well in life. Charlie Belzile became was little money left. We single guys and every Friday was a Mess Dinner. commander of the Army; Lonnie didn’t mind as we were having a Pay nights were lively. The wet Holland is a very successful grand time but how those who were canteen was always a scene of, to investment manager. Lonnie tells me married managed is a mystery. We understate, boisterous activity. It that the third, Robert Mundell, whom received an issue of work clothing was an educational experience for an I don’t recall directly, was awarded and kit and got a small initial clothing eighteen year old like me to be duty the Nobel Prize for economics. allowance which gave us a start for officer and responsible for ensuring Training continued when we dress uniforms. The price in those that damage was limited. One had returned to Ipperwash and towards days for dress greens was $47.50, to tread carefully through beer laden the end of the year I was told I would with a $15.00 deposit. For the rest we minefields. Another delicate time be part of the unit advance party for arranged credit with a tailor and that on duty was one morning when the Korea, first to Vancouver for final was the next priority charge on our civilian cooks who were on contract medical checks then to Tokyo via five daily dollars. for food preparation slept in after a the the Aleutians and next day to Ipperwash was chaotic as the hard night. When the troops arrived Seoul in a USAF Globemaster, more battalion was just getting organized, for breakfast nothing was ready and commonly, Crashmaster, where the and our company was made up of they were understandably displeased. RCR met us. recruits, so we were doing basic The duty sergeant that morning, Korea was not a pleasant place training. The training schedule went fortunately, was Al Stevenson, a at that time. Seoul was almost https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/880 4 : From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

totally destroyed. The road north decided to concentrate them all in fortunate that the shooting war was was not much more than a track one company in which I was to have in remission as active operations with thick dust that made anyone a platoon. Commanding Koreans would have been disastrous, another unrecognizable after a kilometre or was an educational experience. Nick Hong Kong. The constant turnover of so. The smell of human feces that Fritz was my platoon sergeant and soldiers in the months before leaving Korean farmers used for fertilizer we also had a Korean sergeant to Canada never allowed our battalion enveloped us. The few small towns pass along our gestured instructions to complete the company and unit and villages on the way, Uijongbu to the troops. The first morning when training that would have prepared comes to mind, had ramshackle I spoke to one soldier about his kit us adequately for operations. dwellings cobbled together from the Korean sergeant stepped up and Within a week of the battalion’s flattened tins. Hills were formidable, punched him in the face. Nick and I arrival we were in the middle of but seemed familiar; whoever chose looked at each other wondering what our weekly dinner when the CO the area of the Jasper training camp we had got ourselves into; clearly we got a phone message with the code had done well. The RCR battalion had much to learn about the culture of word SCRAM. This was an exercise was based north of the Imjin River the Korean Army. Things smoothed triggered without notice by Eighth just south of the DMZ that had out in time and we got along pretty Army for all formations and units to been established at the Armistice. well. The soldiers could conveniently man their main defensive positions. Companies were scattered around use our linguistic inadequacies to We never knew for sure whether the in tented camps sited below battle ignore whatever they chose, but they SCRAM was an exercise or the real positions in the hills. were good in the field and knew the thing, but the drill was the same; Colonel Campbell was very countryside around. gather the troops, issue ammunition gracious in remembering me from The actual shooting war in Korea and head for our designated positions my previous time with the unit and had ended the previous summer in the hills. Fortunately we never did said he had tried, unsuccessfully, to with the Armistice that still prevails have to fight off a real attack. have me back. I was “A” Company’s uneasily more than half a century That summer I was sent to representative on the advance later. The battalion was part of the Brigade Headquarters, commanded party and worked with my RCR 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade by Jean-Victor Allard, as a liaison counterpart to prepare quarters, which, in turn, was part of the 1st officer. This was one of a few outside stores and all and, as sports officer, Commonwealth Division. One of the jobs for junior officers. Neil Anderson saw what the RCR was doing for other brigades was British, the other went on one at around the same sports and recreation. One event that had Australian and British battalions. time, as an observer with a USAF stayed with me was checking out the There were also New Zealand squadron, and was killed when divisional detention barracks near gunners, Indian medical units, and his airplane crashed a few months Seoul. The Canadian Provost Corps others. The division reported in turn later. I was there just a few weeks ran that foreboding place. Prisoners to the US Army’s I Corps and Eighth when I was sent on to Divisional lived a more than spartan life on the Army. Our division’s task was to Headquarters as the Canadian LO. premise that it had to be sufficiently secure a large sector of our side of The COMWEL Div Hq was a unpleasant so soldiers wouldn’t the demilitarized line. 25 Brigade was unique organization. The commander willingly choose it over the front the divisional screen while the other was British, initially Major- lines. The solitary cell was carved into brigades manned fixed defences in Horatio Murray, and his chief staff a hillside with a barred heavy door; the Kansas Line. Our battalion task officer was a Canadian, Mike Dare, winters were cold, summers hot. I was to patrol the DMZ. Each rifle my old CO at OCS. Under him were later had a New Zealand driver who company in turn spent a week in the two majors, a Canadian intelligence spent a month in detention and he line sending nightly reconnaissance officer and a British operations officer, seriously commented that he would patrols to intercept line crossers and Peter Willcocks. Peter had three go north to the other side rather than anyone else. It was a very effective captains; an Australian, Mac Grant, return for another sentence. patrol school, a good way to learn a New Zealander, Max Tebbutt, Each battalion in the Canadian that dangerous trade. and a Canadian, Chuck Spencer. brigade had around 125 Korean Besides patrolling we spent our Finally were three LOs; a Brit, George Army soldiers, KATCOMS, attached time training. The battalion had not Whittaker, an Australian, Alec to it. The RCR had scattered them completed unit level training before Reynolds, and me. This was likely the throughout their rifle companies but arriving so we did platoon, company last of the old British Commonwealth when we met the unit on its arrival and battalion exercises pretty much military organizations and a fine one by ship at Inchon Bill Matthews had continuously. In retrospect we were that worked seamlessly, at least so

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it seemed to me looking from the to our left, to the west. I would take was hard to imagine that allegedly bottom up. dispatches over to them regularly and we all spoke the same language. When I learned that I would bring others back. It was an amusing With a Cockney, a Yorkshireman, a be moving, the first thing I did was experience as they seemed not quite to Scotsman, an Irishman, a Quebecois, consult the military staff bible of the know what to do with this uniformed an Australian and several others time, Staff Duties in the Field. It was kid who represented himself as the competing for dialect space the a very useful publication with all Comwel divisional commander’s radio network could be a shambles, matter of sound advice and good personal representative. They were confusing to the point of unworkable. sense. I wanted to find out what an much more seriously minded, at least I imagine that Chinese radio intercept LO was supposed to do and was formally so, than us, wearing helmets units listening to incessant “say taken aback to read that an LO should all the time and expecting the war to again all after” transmissions were be an older, experienced officer who break out next minute. as baffled as we were. knew his way around people and We LOs did regular shifts as Something new came up daily. affairs. I was barely twenty and duty officer manning the Divisional One day it was a flap when one looked perhaps sixteen. This may Operations Room. For routine work of the observation posts reported have led to an unspectacular start in the chief clerk, a British warrant hearing tanks across the DMZ. I my new job. A SCRAM alert came in officer, a kindly and efficient man asked for confirmation from others and Peter went round the Ops Room with a twinkle in his eye, patiently OPs and alerted Peter Wilcocks telling us which brigade to inform. guided me through the intricacies of who brought Mike Dare quickly I assumed that I should phone the the staff system, moving files to the to the Operations Room. He was Canadians and did so but missed his right people, filtering the important particularly interested in any report instruction to alert the Australians. from the trivial. The Brits had a of ominous tank movement but My mistake was noticed quickly simple but efficient system before fortunately it was a false alarm. when General Murray got a call from computers. A new letter would come Another day a USAF lieutenant the brigadier who was asking why all on the file, all the correspondence appeared in a radio jeep to conduct the transport had arrived in his area. held together by a string at the upper a close air support exercise, and I The transport unit had been informed left corner, to explain its context. I took him out in the mountains. He but not the brigade. I thought that would draft a response or channel it got radio contact with as yet unseen I would be packing my kitbag but appropriately and the chief did his airplanes, asked me to throw out a instead Peter quietly suggested that best to keep me from harming the smoke grenade and, sure enough, I pay closer attention to what I was war effort and myself. four fighters appeared overhead instructed to do. It was a fine lesson. The duty officer also manned the that he directed to the target area. My main job was liaison with divisional radio network and kept the Fortunately they hit the right hill not the 1st US Marine Division deployed logs. Radio traffic was a challenge. It ours. It was a striking exercise in joint operations: a Canadian soldier in the Commonwealth Division, going up channels to an American Army Corps and Army, and an American airman calling in US Marine Corps fighters flying off a US Navy aircraft carrier. The Officers’ Mess at the headquarters was British run and the meals were somewhat of a comedown from the unit where we had lavish US Army rations. In those days British catering was less than inspiring. The cooks did their best with what they

A trip to the 38th Parallel.

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had, but there was just so much one an inch of dust the shower was a floored the elderly jeep. Fortunately could do with custard powder which distant memory and the clothes as he was a bad shot. was on at least two daily meals. dirty as before. Iwakuni was on a In the autumn of 1954 the I scrounged welcome Canadian beautiful bay and the countryside Commonwealth military commitment supplies. On one memorable occasion unimaginably fresh, green and to Korea was scaled back, the division I was in Seoul and my New Zealand clean. I got a room at the Mess, a to a brigade and the Canadian brigade driver and I had milkshakes at a US Japanese orderly took my grimy to one battalion, ours. I was still at Army PX. It was a treat that I can clothes away, and I had the first real the headquarters and we had a new still taste. shower in months. An hour later he commander, Brigadier Geoffrey I got over to Japan on two R and brought back a uniform that I barely Musson. Our first task was moving to R (rest and recuperation) breaks. One recognized, clean, starched, like new. a new location to free up our present day out of the blue a signal came A beer on the deck looking over the one for the Koreans. Our new ground in for me – from my Dad, who was gorgeous scenery was a magical was at the base of Gloster Hill where on his way to Japan on a RCN ship, moment. the British Gloucestershire Regiment asking if I could get over to meet him. Next morning I caught a ferry had been very very badly beat up Peter Willcocks insisted I go, and I over the inland bay for an hour or so in a big Chinese assault a year or didn’t need much encouragement. to Kure. The ride was full of wonder, so before. Looking for something in I asked one of the artillery pilots at a traditional Japanese painting of our files one day I came across an the headquarters to fly me to Seoul water, mists shielding mountains and interrogation report that the Glosters’ where I could catch a flight to Japan gentle trees. So peaceful. I took a train adjutant, Tony Farrar Hockley, made with an Australian Air Force courier. to Tokyo next day and met my Dad. when he was repatriated as a POW. His artillery observation unit flew We had a nice reunion and spent the It was a fascinating document, so I light single-engine, two-seat Austers. day together looking around the city borrowed, it, climbed the hill and We got off alright and were still before he had to leave to get to his used it as a guide to the battle. It was climbing to get over Kamaksan, the ship in Yokahama. I stayed in the city still fresh, positions that the report largest mountain between us and for a couple of days and, among other described in detail dotted with slit Seoul, when the pilot turned around things, heard the Tokyo Philharmonic trenches and debris. I didn’t realize and shouted that our engine had lost Orchestra play Tchaikovsky’s violin it then but it was my first battlefield oil pressure and was likely to seize concerto. Then I caught a train study of which I did many more in up, so back we went and landed just going somewhere south, got off in later life. before the oil ran dry. He picked out a town whose name and location I Brigadier Musson was a kindly another airplane and off we went don’t remember, possibly around and tolerant man as I learned. I was this time without mishap. Out of the Hamamatsu, where I stayed for the still going back and forth with the Auster and into the Aussie Dakota, last few days of my leave. Somehow I Marines on our left and got to know an old twin-engine Dakota that had found a place to stay, wore a Kimono their commander’s ADC (later he won seen considerable service. We were and slippers the whole time, bowed a lot of money on a popular American half an hour into the flight when a lot, attended the communal baths, television programme, The $64,000 one propeller malfunctioned so back ate something somewhere, and didn’t Question that was subsequently found we went for repairs. Next morning meet anyone who spoke English to have been rigged). Through him we got away and made it to the while there. It was a most interesting their commander invited Brigadier Australian base at Iwakuni on the interlude. Musson over to watch a football inland sea between the main Island After I got back I was shot at for game. With draftees, the Americans and Shikoku not far from Hiroshima. the first and only time. I had to take had a league on a high level university I’ll never forget the incredible messages and instructions to units in level. They sent a helicopter over to difference between it and Korea. I the east of the country, on training pick up Musson and I drove over arrived absolutely filthy, covered in exercises at Nightmare Range. En in a staff car for the return trip. I Korean dirt that was impossible to get route my driver and I were stopped misbehaved at a following reception, rid of. Occasionally we could shower by a Korean soldier manning a drank far too much and was loaded in Korea at the Mobile Laundry and road block at the entrance of a long into the back of the car, the general Bath Unit: drop dirty uniforms, bridge. He waved his carbine at us in front with the driver. I assumed walk into a communal shower that while talking in Korean which we next morning that I was finished sometimes had water, and then pick didn’t understand, became heated but Brigadier Musson only seemed up clean clothes. After an hour’s so we took off over the bridge and highly amused when he asked after return jeep drive on dirt tracks with he started shooting. We ducked and my health.

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Lieutenant Bill McAndrew (centre) and Major Fred Swan (right) on parade with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in , 1957.

Early in December I returned only possessions in the world. Back sufficiently controversial to provoke to the battalion. By then we were to basics. Very strange. a fist fight in the Mess between those camped out in what had been the We were three weeks returning who approved of Canadians being Brigade Recreation Centre without to Seattle on an elderly American involved in a UN mission and those much to do. We were due to go home trooper and on to Gordon Head, who thought the country should early in the year, but the date was now the site of the University of have said “Ready, Aye Ready” to repeatedly delayed until March. In Victoria. After a leave I took a support the Brits. Our 1st Battalion in the meantime we did a bit of training demonstration platoon to the School Calgary was designated as the main and sports and packed up equipment. of Infantry at Camp Borden, and in Canadian component and a message Our quarters had been upgraded the fall of 1955 was posted to our went out for all QOR officers who from tents to quonset huts, six of us Regimental Depot, first in Edmonton were away from their units to return to a building in rooms partitioned then Calgary. Soon after it was back immediately. I was called from class, with plywood. One night I wakened to Camp Borden for a course on told to pack up, handed an airline to the smell of smoke and found the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical ticket to Calgary, and given a staff hallway engulfed in flames. I went Warfare, a basic introduction to that car to get me to Toronto. We had to out through the window, the last to complex topic – fifteen minutes being rush, with a police escort part of the get out and barely before the building allotted to the theory and practice of way, but they held the aircraft for me. went up. Vip Vipond didn’t make it nuclear physics. While there the Suez It was a bit of a fraud as I was with and we found his burned rib cage Canal war broke out when the UK , our Depot not the battalion that was next morning. It was an odd feeling France and Israel attacked Egypt to going and my job then was to wangle when the reality of the situation hit depose President Nasser who had a posting to the battalion. Luckily a home at daylight. I had got away nationalized the canal. Lester Pearson, newly married subaltern in the unit with just a few minutes to spare at the United Nations in New York, didn’t want to go and I got his spot. wearing the bottoms of my pyjamas hammered out the concept of a UN The RCAF flew us to Halifax in and those, along with my dog tags peace keeping force to separate the slow C119s where we were to board found in the ashes, were my sole and attackers and the attacked. This was HMCS Magnificent for the voyage. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/884 8 : From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

Maggie was undergoing major refit to camp near Hemer a couple of hours in two or three Canadian war crimes accommodate us so we were housed away. The Canadian Brigade was trials that gave death sentences to across the street in HMCS Stadacona. spread over quite a distance – Soest, Germans convicted of killing downed There wasn’t much for us to do Werl, Hemer, Iserlohn – and our RCAF airmen. It was a good lesson while waiting except some marching camp, Fort McLeod, was adjacent to to me of the hazards of being overly around and physical training, until another, Fort Prince of Wales, where categorical. Few historical events are we were put on 24 hours notice to the artillery regiment lived. We had not heavily nuanced. move and paraded, very proudly, good facilities; a rink, gym, squash The ambience of the Germany at through the streets of Halifax amidst courts, sports field, and officers, that time was distinctly old world. applauding crowds. The day’s notice sergeants, corporals’ and mens’ Village gasthofs were out of the 19th extended to two, then more before messes. The troop quarters were century. One Iserlohn café had an word came that we would not be basic barrack rooms, sergeants and afternoon string quartet, male of going after all. Two reasons were junior officers had private rooms with course and in tails, in this time of floated about in the press. One was common ablution facilities. Elvis. Waiters barely tolerated us that the Egyptians understandingly I wish I knew then what I do and patrons were distinctly cool to objected to our name, Queen’s now. I didn’t realize that the area had our casual presence. We represented Own, having just been invaded by a fervent Nazi past, where several the war’s victors and our informality soldiers of the same queen. The other notable SS formations had been clashed with the general reserve. was that the UN force being raised raised. Werl had a prison where a Moreover our relative wealth, at had enough infantry and needed number of war criminals were still 4.20 marks to the dollar, could cause logistical, communications and other incarcerated. One, Kurt Meyer, who understandable resentment. support units. I had an occasion not had spent prison time in Dorchester My job as intelligence officer long afterwards to meet Mr Pearson in New Brunswick before being was to learn about our operational who assured me that it was the returned to Werl, had been released commitments, locate our battle latter. What to do with us? For some not long before. One day I walked positions and prepare maps for the reason the RCAF couldn’t fly us back into the Mess with Danny Osborne, CO, Rod Mckay. We had two battle and as Christmas was approaching our battalion second-in-command, positions, the first on the Weser trains were fully booked. We busied where a German was holding forth. River to the east and the second on ourselves as we could, drinking duty It was Kurt Meyer who then was the the Rhine west bank at Koln. The free gin on Maggie, scuba diving sales representative of a brewery and Patricia commander, Tom DeFaye, with the navy in the less than pristine sold beer to the Mess. The last time who became a dear friend in my harbour and visiting a hospitable Danny had seen Meyer was when he Clio phase, took Rod on a recce of Olands brewery that welcomed the had escorted him at his war crimes the positions with me along to carry troops. The train that eventually trial. the maps. It was more than slightly materialized was an ancient steam Most of this went right over farcical. Security regulations said engine with arrows sticking out my head at the time and it was an that we had to wear civilian clothes from its last trip west. We got as far opportunity lost. Much later I got to but as we traveled in a jeep and a as Moncton the first day where the know Meyer’s chief of staff, Hubert staff car, and carried map boards and crew stopped to rebuild the engine Meyer, who participated in several binoculars, our cover would hardly fire. En route we were shunted off battlefield studies. An incarnation or have fooled the most incompetent tracks to make way for passenger so later, in my Clio phase, the Ottawa Smiley. It was here that I first trains, freights, cows and anything Citizen carried a review I wrote developed doubts of the competence else moving. of Tony Foster’s dual biography of those who had devised these That summer I managed a posting of Kurt Meyer and Tony’s father, operational commitments. We were back to my old battalion, the 2nd, that Harry who had fought each other supposed to delay a Soviet crossing of was leaving for Germany. Arriving in in Normandy and who was on the the Weser, which at that time could be Dusseldorf was a shock. In 1957 much court-martial that sentenced Meyer waded with barely damp feet, until of the city was still in desolate ruins to death. I commented in the review someone delivered a tactical nuclear from allied bombing, and I carried that Meyer was the only German weapon which, of course, would have the emotional baggage of growing up sentenced to death by a Canadian taken us out as well as them. We in wartime when all Germans were tribunal. A few days later I received didn’t have weapons with sufficient the bad guys. We were picked up at a telephone call from a former RCAF range to hit the river effectively from the airport by the battalion we were legal officer who informed me that I our battle positions and couldn’t replacing, 1 PPCLI, and driven to our was wrong. He had been involved delay anyone. It didn’t take a military

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genius to notice that some emperor was delighted to see my name. We had no clothes. As we were there proceeded immediately to Camp supposedly as a deterrence and to Borden for briefing and orientation wave the flag in the bigger NATO and left shortly after for Accra. scheme of things it occurred to me Most of the team stayed in Accra that posting a senior civil servant on at the military academy or army the border, perhaps a deputy minister headquarters. Four of us continued or two, as a high ranking hostage on to Kumasi in the Ashanti rain would have been a more economical forest to the Ghana Armed Forces and equally efficient deterrent. Training Centre where we found My main memories of our time in that we were replacing a 20-30 Germany, aside from the wonderful man British unit that had been travel and cultural experiences, were recalled for political reasons. The training and sports. The battalion Army had evolved from the Gold was always on an exercise, cleaning Coast Regiment and the Royal West up after it , or preparing for the next. African Frontier Force with British Sennelager, Hohne, Putlos and other officers and with independence locations became familiar and there was becoming Ghanaian. Most of were always new areas to explore. We its officers trained in Britain and the did well, I think, with what we had Soviet Union until the academy was but the aura of unreality persisted. able to graduate sufficient numbers. Our equipment was lamentable, It was a commonplace that the the most striking example being to former came back socialists the pretend that our three-quarter ton latter capitalists. That was a touchy vehicles were armoured personnel The author in Ghana. point. Ghana was the first of the carriers. It was assumed that tactical British African colonies to gain its nuclear weapons were just another independence and the course of its weapon like the rest. This was, of of the swimming team, training politics was watched with interest course, before Chernobyl wakened at for a time in the Möhnesee dam, in the midst of the Cold War. Its least a few minds, but it was evident of Dambusters fame, for a NATO nationalism and anti-colonialism to most anyone that they weren’t long distance race in the Meuse were too easily seen as socialist, and that exploding nuclear weapons River in Belgium. We placed third, communist, and anti-West. on a fluid battlefield would harm us pretty well considering we were up To me, at least, in the Kumasi and the German population we were against Olympic swimmers from weeds, this was a somewhat esoteric supposed to be defending as much both the US and France. Our cross- matter. We had been briefed on the as the bad guys. We were all targets. country team also won the Brigade background but by people who had Sports were big in our lives. Jim championship. I had a harrowing no experience, little knowledge and Mitchell, who coached the basketball time, losing consciousness a few less empathy for a country newly team in Victoria, said off-hand that hundred metres from the finishing emerging from a colonial past. My we were going to be winners and gate which I somehow stumbled concerns on the ground were more we made it happen; the Canadian through to complete the team’s finish mundane and immediate, training Brigade title, then the British Army and woke up in hospital luckily with the very willing soldiers we had. I was of the Rhine, and finally the British no ill effects. first the School’s weapons training Army championship. One summer I In 1960 I returned to Canada, officer and then commanded two got involved in a team to participate now a captain, in luxury aboard the different companies. It was engaging, in a NATO Olympic Military liner SS Homeric, off-loaded my new challenging and rewarding work. Pentathalon in Athens. There was a Porsche at , and drove to our The day began soon after the tropical distance swim, a long cross-country battalion station in Calgary. One dawn, with breaks for breakfast and run, rifle shooting, and a couple evening the following summer I was lunch, a siesta to escape the heat and of other military-oriented events. duty officer at Brigade Headquarters then back for a couple of evening Unfortunately the Pentathalon was in Wainwright when a signal came hours. The training was basic; more cancelled but we were left with in listing the names of officers who interesting were the soldiers. Each solid swimming and cross-country were being posted to a training team day was different and we were left teams. I ended up swimmer-coach that was to be sent to Ghana and delightfully on our own to find our https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/886 10 : From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

The author on parade in Kumasi, Ghana for the 1961 visit of Queen Elizabeth II.

way. Our Ghanaian CO gave us full leeway and Canadian headquarters in Accra was too detached especially as the telephones seldom worked. Ghanaians found our informality a bit unusual at first but became used to it and we got along well. I was truly honoured when on leaving the unit, my soldiers enstooled me as a sub- chief of one of the clans in a formal traditional ceremony that included drinking several tots of distilled palm wine known accurately as “kill ‘em quick.” Tribal, clan and religious differences played a large part and there were marked differences between them, from the sub-Sahara north to the Atlantic south. As a company commander I had delegated authority to conduct summary trials for various infractions. When my company sergeant major marched in an alleged offender I had on my desk a Bible, a Koran, and a bayonet (for others) for swearing oaths but plausible stories were rare. My Muslim Imam was unfailingly helpful in sorting out conflicting tales. One of my extra jobs, we all had several, was recruiting officer for the crush and we had to summon three that he would back me up. It was an Ghana Armed Forces. Demand was police platoons to restore order admirable display of moral courage high for limited spaces in the army while processing around 1,000 in a and I can only hope that his career and we kept records of all who applied few days. In the midst of the chaos didn’t suffer. whom we called in order as training an MP marched up a group who, There was time for limited travel space allowed. After a quiet period he informed me, were from the around the country, to Accra, Cape of several months I was startled to president’s village and were to be Coast, Tamale, over to the Ivory read in the Ghana Times one Sunday given priority. I declined and sent Coast and I managed one lengthier morning that Army Headquarters in them to join the mob. A couple of trip, an attempt to reach Timbuktoo. Accra had announced that full scale hours later my CO called me to his I loaded up my VW Beetle with recruiting was to open the next day. office for an explanation as he was tinned food and beer and headed My staff of three dusted off our files to fly immediately to Accra and north for Ouagadougu, in what then of applications but they were quickly explain this apparent insubordination was Upper Volta, then east across the made redundant when on Monday personally to the president. I tried to Niger River on a raft to Niamey in morning between 3,000 and 5,000 persuade him to let me take the hit; I Niger. Perhaps fortunately the roads eager would-be recruits turned up could only be sent home but he had beyond through Mali were closed all trying at once to get through a a career in his army. To his lasting because that drive needed more small access gate in a strong metal credit he refused, said I had done the substantial transport as I found out fence. Several were injured in the right thing not to give preference, and on returning through game reserves

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The author in Ghana in 1961.

were powerful movers. I began to feel a need to put them and other random readings – Greene, Waugh, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Camus, Lewis, Thoreau, Conrad, Sassoon and others – in context so I wrote to several universities asking if they would consider a thirty- year-old high school drop out. A few replied including Glendon College at the new York University which accepted me as a mature student. Leaving the army wasn’t an easy decision. I had just gained the second highest marks in that year’s Staff College entrance exams (it amuses me now that my lowest mark was in military history, I assume because I raised some questions of that year’s text, Montgomery’s Normandy to the Baltic) and my Canadian commander, Roger Schjelderup, recommended me for the coming two-year staff course. But it seemed the right time; too many unanswered questions had pierced the institutional bubble that gave the army its internal logic, so I cut the cord and enrolled at Glendon in Dahomey and Togo where car restricted political awareness, finely in the fall of 1963. repairs were not easily arranged. channelled as it was by Cold War Glendon was a fortuitous choice I didn’t fully appreciate it at the truths, assumed that Labour Party with small classes and an eclectic time but I was growing uneasy with meant socialist, ergo communist, ergo inter-disciplinary array of courses. the gap between what I was told to the enemy we were gallantly resisting Open access to a library was sheer believe and what I was experiencing. in NATO. He seemed such a pleasant, luxury. I was somewhat an anomaly An earlier experience while in reasonable chap and far out-ranked among my decade-younger fellow Germany had caused me to question me. It occurred to me that perhaps students coming from a culture some of my assumptions. I was on a my political and ideological blinkers where short hair assumed an unlikely NATO air transport supply course at were a tad tight and caused me to importance to one where its opposite Old Sarum – where we tried to move begin thinking at least slightly about was similarly overemphasized. This troops and supplies around the world those given premises, a process that was the sixties, after all. Having matching infrastructure, aircraft is on-going half a century on. learned later about RCMP recruitment ranges and capacities, fuel supplies Ghana was certainly of informers of supposedly radical and other useful factors without demonstrating a diversity of ideas in universities I imagine that losing too many airplanes. At a mess experience well beyond my limited some students viewed me skeptically. dinner I was seated beside a British horizons and caused me to question Ironically, other than culturally, I was Army gunner lieutenant-colonel the premises underlying much of the likely more radical than most of them. who in the course of conversation received wisdom in the recommended My only army connection happened remarked that he was a Labour readings for young officers. Bernard when I invited General Party supporter. I was shocked, Fall’s Street without Joy on Vietnam to speak to our weekly residence completely taken aback. My woefully and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 on war lecture group. He graciously agreed https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/888 12 : From Mars to Clio A Personal Journey

and told us about the pressures of right either to change citizenship and My main interest, however, command, especially during the sea become actively involved or return was the army whose idiosyncratic approach to Sicily when as divisional to Canada. When I was offered a ways were more familiar. There was commander he had had to modify his job in Ottawa with the Directorate another, more personal, aspect. I had landing plans as updated intelligence of History at NDHQ I took it. It was not been in combat and couldn’t help trickled in. another huge, life-changing decision. wondering if battles actually went I had to adjust to university life I had done no academic studies like training exercises, straight as an in other ways as well. All incoming in military history so had to learn an arrow from start to successful finish. students had to present a book review altogether new field. My first task at Like all young officers, I expect, I on arrival. I was blown away with an the directorate was fact checking and also wondered how I would have A+ mark but then was taken down a other basic tasks for the first volume reacted and behaved under fire. I peg or six with my next one, a C-. My of the RCAF official history, on the have a sense that I would have not problem was that I didn’t know what First World War, then researching survived, because of some reckless made for the difference until a very and writing draft narratives on act, if a sensible sergeant-major was understanding John Conway, who the RCAF’s development in the not around to save me from lack of had lost a hand in the Liri Valley with years between the wars. These were discretion. the Seaforths, kindly explained the concerned primarily with policy and Opportunities to explore the vagaries of academic writing. I did the introduction of aviation to the conduct of operations, historically, well over the next four years, was on endless expanse of Canada. came about by happenstance. With the short list for Woodrow Wilson and Commonwealth fellowships as well as an H.R. MacMillan for UBC which I chose for my doctorate, in which I tried to explain the political and economic contexts of why Canada did not have a New Deal like that of Franklin Roosevelt down south in response to the Great Depression. I completed it a couple of years later while teaching at the University of Maine in Orono and running the university’s Canadian Studies programme. UMO was a broadening experience. I made a goal of persuading at least one student that there really was life beyond Houlton. I’m unsure if I succeeded but my Canadian history classes were full of students wanting to learn how to get north to escape the Vietnam draft, another long hair issue. It was an exciting time with Vietnam, Watergate, the civil rights movement, and after six years, and promotion to a tenured position it seemed only

The author (wearing glasses) writing the staff college entrance exam in Accra, Ghana in 1962. Colonel Roger Schjelderup, the author’s commanding officer, sits on the desk in the bottom photo.

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a colleague, Ben Greenhous, I got along to guide and inform us lent an Muhm as they talked with Contessa interested in the extraordinary incomparable dimension to those Guerrini-Maraldi who as a young military career of Major- General Bert battlefield studies. girl had watched their battle at Hoffmeister who had landed in Sicily Many unforgettable moments the Villa; yet another walking the in 1943 as a battalion commander come to mind. One was a fine spring trail where John Dougan led his and eight months later commanded morning at the Assoro castle in company to infiltrate beyond San 5th Canadian Armoured Division. central Sicily when Strome Galloway Fortunato, blowing a Tiger tank A projected book didn’t materialize, recited Siegfried Sassoon’s poem on the way. There was the Belgian fortunately, as I was able to pass that “The General,” an appropriate resistance leader, Eugene Colson, on to Doug Delaney who produced comment, he thought, on the battle he who described how his fighters his excellent biography. However, had fought below in the valley forty seized the Antwerp docks before the we did persuade the then army years earlier (“‘Good-morning; good- Germans could blow them; Johnnie commander, Charlie Belzile, my old morning!’ the General said/ When Johnson on commanding Canadians regimental mate, who was recreating we met him last week on our way to in Normandy; Lockie Fulton, Jamie a divisional structure in the army, to the line./ Now the soldiers he smiled Stewart, and Rad Walters detail take several of his senior commanders at are most of ‘em dead/ and we’re their unique experiences on D-Day; and staff officers to to refight cursing his staff for incompetent Denis Whitaker on Dieppe’s White the Canadian Corps battle of the swine./ ‘He’s a cheery old card,’ beach and Ron Beal on Blue. What a Gothic Line. Hoffmeister and three grunted Harry to Jack/ As they privilege it was to have shared such of his former commanders walked slogged up to Arras with rifle and company. us through the battle on the ground. pack./ But he did for them both by Talking to them and other One thing led to another and his plan of attack.”) veterans, and trying to write over the next several years I was There were others: one dodging about battles at Ortona, the Liri uncommonly fortunate to have been traffic on the Caen-Falaise road with Valley, Verrières Ridge and the rest able to refight Canadian battles in George Kitching and Hubert Meyer, impressed me upon me the sheer Italy and North-West Europe with old enemies, as they positioned impossibility of describing any students of the Army Staff College, the their Totalize tanks; another at military engagement adequately. Canadian staffs at CENTAG/4ATAF Villa Belvedere on San Fortunato They can be told on so many levels and and soldiers in other units. Having with Henri Tellier, Bill Milroy, Ted in all of them uncountable personal both Canadian and German veterans Brown, Hunter Dunn, and Gerhard realities intrude on historians trying

The author with some Second World War veterans on a battlefield staff ride in Normandy in the 1980s. Here the group poses in front of the Churchill AVRE on Juno Beach: (l. to r.) unknown, Jamie Stewart (19th Field Regiment), Lockie Fulton (Royal Winnipeg Rifles), McAndrew, Sydney Radley-Walters (Sherbrooke Fusiliers), Hans Siegel (12th SS Panzer Division), Peter Kremer, Alan Darch.

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Above: Re-fighting the Gothic Line with Army Staff College students. Lieutenant-General Henri Tellier seated at the right. Left: Some veterans of that battle with others members of the tour group near Rimini in May 1991: (l. to r.) Lieutenant-General Bill Milroy, Colonel Tom De Faye, Amedeo Montemaggi, Contessa Guerrini-Maraldi, Oberst Gerhard Muhm, Count Guerrini-Maraldi, Lieutenant- General Henri Tellier, Bill McAndrew, Brigadier-General Ted Brown, Colonel Serge Labbé.

to participate vicariously in them. When I checked, the company had usually found in official or regimental There is history and there is historical taken fifteen casualties. Where were histories, in the process shaking my writing: national narratives, official the other forty? What did they do? naive assumptions to the core. accounts, personal descriptions, Where did they go? What happened They persuaded me that morale memoirs, fiction, all attempting to them? I began to explore some of was the core of military effectiveness, to approach some version of the the possibilities. hardly a new discovery but one truth. Some, of course, are more A fortuitous opportunity came frequently taken for granted both reliable than others. As E.B. White when, around the same time, some by commanders and historians. The has cautioned, “All writing is slanted. army units and formations became Napoleonic aphorism that the moral Writers can’t be perpendicular but interested in soldierly behaviour. 4 is to the material as three is to one is they should aspire to be upright.” Brigade in Lahr asked the directorate to cited more frequently than observed. Some historical writers approach the have someone develop a presentation Moreover, generalized statements vertical more closely than others, but to a brigade study week on the topic on collective morale, especially even they can go only so far in their of battle exhaustion. Soon after the those from higher headquarters depictions of combat. Army Staff College made a similar remote from front line soldiers, The dimension that especially request. I involved myself and this can often be taken with a few kilos caught my interest was the human, led me to some intensely interesting of salt. Was it really so, as a corps the personal experiences of soldiers. explorations in Second World War commander stated, that his worn out, How did they actually behave in documents that hadn’t been opened badly bruised units were keen to get battle as opposed to how we think since being deposited at its end: back into action? Morale can vary they should have behaved? I recall medical records and war diaries of randomly, daily, hourly depending one veteran company commander unusual units like No. 2 Canadian on timing and circumstances. It also standing at the foot of a hill that Exhaustion Unit and No. 1 Non- became clear from questionnaires had been his objective many years Effective Transit Depot, as well as that junior officers completed and earlier saying that he had started files of military police units, detention from lessons learned reports that at the bottom with seventy-five barracks and others. They revealed a morale was directly affected by how men and at the top he had twenty. wide range of soldierly behaviour not soldiers were deployed in battle,

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Left: The author (left) poses with Hubert Meyer (centre – 12th SS) and Syd Radley-Walters (right – Sherbrooke Fusiliers) in front of the Tiger tank at Vimoutiers, France. Inset: On another tour Major-General George Kitching poses with Meyer at the same tank.

sixties, globalism, the Internet era, the Canadian transformation, and climate change? Above all is the need for a thinking education in the humanities. This need not be at a university, after all there are countless educated fools and many wise illiterates, but we ignore the experience of the ages at our collective peril. A thinking education can reveal the arrogance of the categorical, demonstrate the that is, their tactical doctrine. Many insight of nuance, and stimulate a commented on how top-down plans healthy skepticism of ideologues of would be given units to implement, whatever stripe; political, economic, often too late for battle procedures religious, philosophical, whatever. and when the few properly briefed It can provide an escape from officers became casualties movement the necessarily limited bonds of stopped. They noted how too often individual experience to peer into too few troops would be sent to attack the vastness of human diversity too strong a position, how attacks over time and in space and provide were invariably directed against the understanding of how the other enemy’s strongest positions rather guy thought and lived, thinks and than outflanking or bypassing them, lives. A thinking education can, and that higher commanders insisted should, must lead one to penetrate that a circle on a map be occupied the cant and doublespeak of much despite it being an enemy registered discourse, question the premises and target that could be dominated from supposed Revolutions in Military assumptions of any assertion and nearby. This way of conducting Affairs, are soldiers. Although assess its veracity accordingly. This operations inevitably produced technologies have materially changed especially applies to those who want soldiery verse: “Let’s throw in over the years, soldiers haven’t: to send others to war. another battalion/ The Brigadier their bodies bleed and their minds cried with glee/ Let’s throw in break like those of their fathers and Bill McAndrew joined the army at age 17, was commissioned the following another battalion/ or maybe two or grandfathers. The human factor year and served the next eleven years three/ We’ve got the money, we’ve remains central, even in this day as an infantry officer in Canada, Korea, got the time/ Another battalion when the sole strategic problem Germany and Ghana. On leaving the army, a high school dropout, he attended won›t cost us a dime/ Let›s throw has to be climate change, all other Glendon College, York University as a in another battalion/ or maybe the political and military dimensions mature student and gained his doctorate old LAD.” being just messy operational and at the University of British Columbia. McAndrew taught at the University The search for the origins and tactical distractions. If we lose the of Maine at Orono and directed assumptions of this way of war, basis of our human existence, air and that university’s Canadian Studies tactical doctrine, and its relationship water, other concerns fade away. programme before joining the Directorate of History in Ottawa from which he to how soldiers reacted to the stress What can I conclude from this retired in 1996. His particular interest of battle, is a timeless theme. Beyond long, varied and fortunate life that has been in the battlefield behaviour of soldiers. McAndrew may be reached at: ever-changing theories of attrition has seen the Great Depression, [email protected] and manoeuvre, operational art and World War II, the Cold War, the https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/892 16