Book Review Supplement Spring 2007

Canadian Military History

Volume 16 Issue 2 Article 8

2007

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Recommended Citation "Book Review Supplement Spring 2007." Canadian Military History 16, 2 (2007)

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CANADIAN MILITARY HISTORY BOOK REVIEW SUPPLEMENT

Spring 2007 Issue 19

Wayne Ralph, Aces, Warriors and after the war. But even so, Ralph gathered together dozens of differ- Wingmen: Firsthand Accounts of changes things up by starting with ent memories and woven them into Canada’s Fighter Pilots in the J.F. “Stocky” Edwards’ exploits in a powerful and effective book that Second World War (Toronto: John the Western Desert and Canadians is “more about people than cam- Wiley & Sons, 2005), $34.99, 272 in the siege of Malta, returning later paigns, about humanity rather than pages, ISBN 0-470-83590-7. to the fall of France and the Battle fighter aircraft, about sociology of Britain. rather than technology” (xiii). Norm Shannon, From Baddeck to The effect is to create something Norm Shannon, a veteran of the Yalu: Stories of Canada’s Air- rather like a scrapbook. The reader fifty-two B-25 Mitchell operations men at War (Ottawa: Esprit de can go through it cover to cover, or during the Second World War, takes Corps Books, 2005), $21.99 paper, randomly flip through the bio- a more traditional approach with 224 pages, ISBN 1-895896-30-4. graphical sketches, each of which his narrative history of Canadian contains a personal profile, wartime military aviation. He begins at the Cynthia J. Faryon, Unsung Heroes and recent photographs, reminis- very beginning, with the refusal in of the Royal Canadian Air Force: cences, and excerpts from other 1910 of Canada’s Militia Council to Incredible Tales of Courage and historical accounts. Scattered consider the airplane as a possible Daring during World War II throughout are other items of spe- weapon of war. From that point, he (Canmore, AB: Altitude Publishing, cial interest, such as portions of the takes us through three wars (and 2003), $9.95 paper, 126 pages, letters of Battle of Britain veteran two periods of peacetime reduction ISBN 1-55153-977-2. Willie McKnight. in the strength of the air force) in The clue to Wayne Ralph’s ap- prose that could perhaps only have ne of Canada’s best aviation his- proach can be found in his pro- been written by one who had flown Otorians has done it again with logue, which will strike a chord in combat himself. Well illustrated this fascinating account of Canadi- with anyone who has done oral his- (in colour as well as black and ans in aerial fighting during the tory interviews. Memory is a curi- white), it covers much familiar Second World War. What makes ous thing, sometimes muddled and ground but will provide a good read Aces, Warriors and Wingmen so confused, sometimes frighteningly for the non-specialist looking for a effective is that it’s not a traditional sharp. In interviewing airmen over good survey history. narrative that attempts to follow the the years, Ralph came into contact Younger readers will find equal course of the war in chronological with many types of memories, from interest in Faryon’s Unsung Heroes order. Instead, Ralph builds the the man who was determined that of the Royal Canadian Air Force, book around a number of biographi- only he could set the historical a collection of twelve accounts of cal sketches that cover the breadth record straight to the man who said Canadians in the air war. They are of the war experience, from Cana- “I think I got the Croix de Guerre. well written and engaging, and the dians in the Royal Air Force in 1939 But I don’t remember.” In Aces, only complaint one can make about to their readjustment to civilian life Warriors and Wingmen, Ralph has the book is its balance. Despite the

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title and the photograph of an ech- She served at various hospitals, ior lieutenant-colonel, a graduate of elon of Spitfires on the front cover, including No. 4 British General West Point, and now he was in the ten of the twelve chapters deal with Hospital in France, No. 3 Canadian bag after firing only a few shots in men in Bomber Command, the Stationary Hospital on Lemnos Is- anger. But his war was far from other two are about fighter pilots, land in the Mediterranean, and No. over. When X Organization began and there is no mention of Trans- 44 Casualty Clearing Station in the operation to construct the three port Command, Coastal Command, France. In the latter hospital, she tunnels that would eventually cul- the British Commonwealth Air illustrated her experiences of at- minate in the Great Escape, Clark Training Plan, or air operations in tending to the wounded men, in- was made head of security, in the the Far East (all of which produced cluding a young German prisoner. inner circle of the escape leader- their fair share of unsung heroes, At first she detested the very idea ship. He continued to play a lead- courage, and daring). The book is of helping the enemy but, upon ership role after the USAAF POWs a good start, but perhaps a second looking at his terrified face, she were moved to a new camp in Sep- volume is in order. realized that “he was no longer a tember 1943, and when the prison- DR hated Hun, just a small wounded ers were marched away from the * * * * * boy without a friend on any side” advancing Russians in January (129). Eventually, the reality of nurs- 1945. Liberated in May 1945, Clark Katherine Wilson-Simmie, Lights ing sick, wounded, and shell- remained in the service, eventually Out!: The Memoir of Nursing Sis- shocked men took its toll on retiring as a lieutenant-general in ter Kate Wilson, Canadian Army Wilson, as her mental health started 1974. Medical Corps, 1915-1917 (Ot- to be affected by this environment Clark’s memoirs will be of in- tawa: CEF Books, 2004 [1981]), of death. Nevertheless, the book is terest to anyone who has followed $19.95 paper, 199 pages, ISBN 0- about Wilson’s life rather than the the story of the Great Escape, for 896979-27-0. death that surrounded her, and she he is one of the last survivors of X tends to focus on positive nostalgic Organization’s inner ring of top ndividual accounts of women at memories rather than the devasta- decision-makers. He has some Iwar are rare. This book by tion of war. unique insights into the personali- Katherine Wilson-Simmie on her LI ties involved and the plan that even- active duty during the First World * * * * * tually resulted in the escape of sev- War as a Canadian Nursing Sister enty-six Allied airmen, and relates in England, France, and Greece is Albert P. Clark, 33 Months as a them with the mixture of a fine addition to military literature. POW in Stalag Luft III: A World commonsense and cockiness for Following her discharge from the War II Airman Tells His Story which he was known in the camp. army, Wilson-Simmie used her di- (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, Perhaps more importantly, it ary to write a book for her chil- 2005), $17.95 US paper, 207 pages, should put to rest the hoary old dren as a souvenir. Upon learning ISBN 1-55591-536-1. myth that film-makers did violence that no books had been written by to the history by inserting Ameri- her fellow Nursing Sisters, in her There has long been a fiction that cans into the story of the Great own way she attempted to “provide Hollywood “Americanized” the story Escape. a clear picture of the life of a Cana- of the Great Escape to make it JFV dian Army Nursing Sister during more attractive to cinema-goers in the 1914-1918 World War” (7). the United States. In fact, as “Bub” * * * * * Lights Out! is the memoir of an Clark’s new autobiography makes Russell A. Hart, Clash of Arms: educated, strong-willed, deter- clear, American airmen were in- How the Allies Won in Normandy mined, and proud Anglican women. volved in every aspect of the escape (Norman: University of Oklahoma The book, written with an air of organization, some in senior posi- Press, 2004), $24.95 US paper, 488 confidence and formality, describes tions, and it was only their trans- pages, ISBN 0-8061-360-5-7. the Nursing Sisters’ wartime im- fer to a separate camp that kept pressions of hospitals, soldiers, the them from taking part in the escape. n excellent example of the “new environment in which they worked, Clark was one of the first mem- Amilitary history,” Clash of and their recreational activities. bers of the US Army Air Force to Arms: How the Allies Won in Nor- Bursting with patriotic pride reach Stalag Luft 3, downed on 22 mandy places an operational analy- and affected by the fervor of the July 1942 over the coast of France. sis of the campaign within the cul- time, Wilson enlisted in her home- He recalls being terribly embar- tural, economic, and political con- town of Owen Sound, Ontario. rassed by the situation: “Here I was, text of its combatant nations. The Proudly dressed in her Canadian the second most senior and expe- book is divided according to coun- Army Medical Corps uniform, she rienced pilot in our group, respon- try and chronology. By tracing the was ready to serve her nation and sible for the training of our young development of the German, Ameri- left Halifax on the troop ship pilots, and I had become the first can, British, and Canadian armies Hesperian, which carried her to battle casualty” (26). He was a sen- within context of the interwar years Liverpool. 2 © Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 2007 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol16/iss2/8 2 et al.: Book Review Supplement Spring 2007

and early phases of the Second bilitation of the tactical acumen of War, and how they saw that conflict World War, Hart provides the the United States Army (with the as a way to prove their courage and reader with a superb historical un- concomitant dispelling of the myth loyalty to Canada in order to gain derstanding of how the armies of the German “super-soldier”), and civil rights when they returned fought the way that they did, and, emphasis on the impact of Nazism from the front. If the goal was to perhaps more importantly, why. on the German forces place his prove bravery during the war, Hart argues that the benchmark analysis at the forefront of the new Francis Pegahmagabow clearly for success in Normandy was an wave of Second World War qualified as an outstanding warrior army’s ability to adapt both doctri- historiography. From the perspec- by receiving a Military Medal and nally and operationally to the chal- tive of the Canadianist, Hart’s work two bars. Canada, the Department lenges of the battlefield. The United is further refreshing and reward- of Indian Affairs, the press, and the States Army, which emphasized ing in that it, unlike almost all gen- aboriginal community received him “bottom-up” operational research, eral analyses of the campaign, treats with honour upon his return, but was the best at adapting, a process the Canadian Army in Normandy as that did not last. that entailed not only observing and a separate entity from the British. The second part of analyzing combat operations in This is likely reflective of the Art Pegahmagabow’s life in Canada Normandy, but also ensuring that of War series in which Clash of would be as hard as that in the the appropriate lessons were effec- Arms was originally published by trenches of the Western Front. His tively disseminated. Although en- Lynne Rienner Publishers. John sacrifices, medals, and courage in joying a wealth of combat experi- English, author of The Canadian the past would not prove to be good ence and capable of exhibiting sub- Army and the Normandy Cam- enough to win the respect of the lime tactical skill and flexibility (es- paign: A Study in the Failure of Canadian government and to erase pecially in the defence), the German High Command, the most compre- some of the selfishness among lo- forces in Normandy were prevented hensive and erudite dedicated op- cal Indians. Pegahmagabow’s return from strategically and operationally erational study of the Canadian Ar- marked the beginning of a new set adapting to the battle as well as the my’s performance in Normandy, is of struggles in a still difficult eco- Americans by the inculcation of a an editor of The Art of War series. nomic situation on Parry Island, stifling Nazi political doctrine that Together, they represent two of the where he had to work with the In- discouraged experiment and varia- best studies of the Canadian Army’s dian agents at Parry Sound, who tion. As a result, US forces were performance in the seminal battle seemed to be obstacles to the na- able to outfight gradually the Ger- of the campaign for north-west Eu- tives’ material progress. mans in their sector and force a rope. One of Hayes’ main theses is breakout after the success of Op- BD that Pegahmagabow became one of eration COBRA. * * * * * the most important native leaders However, despite their inher- who fought for native self-govern- ent weaknesses the Wehrmacht and Adrian Hayes, Pegahmagabow: ment in the postwar years and that Waffen SS were still superior to Legendary Warrior, Forgotten native political activism in Canada the Canadian and British forces. Hero (Huntsville, ON: Fox Meadow was not an extension of the Ameri- Both Commonwealth armies con- Creations, 2003), $19.95 paper, 96 can civil rights movement of the sistently utilized obsolete or inap- pages, ISBN 0-9681452-8-0. 1960s. On the contrary, in 1943 propriate tactics and could be pain- Pegahmagabow was “a member of a fully slow to adapt to the realities upported by a wide variety of national delegation that demon- of the Normandy battlefield. These Ssources, including Pegah- strated on Parliament Hill in Ottawa failings, along with the effects of magabow’s personal papers, photo- for the exemption of natives from interwar neglect, a strong desire to graphs, archival documents, maga- income tax and conscription,” avoid casualties, and an over-em- zines, and published accounts, writes Hayes, and “he later became phasis on tradition, contributed to Adrian Hayes delivers a short, a member of the National Indian the repeated failure of the Anglo- clear, and interesting analysis of Government after it was formed in Canadian offensives designed to one of Canada’s forgotten heroes. Ottawa in June 1945 and served two penetrate the German lines in the Through the life story of terms as supreme chief” (10). eastern half of the battlefield. Al- Pegahmagabow, Hayes successfully The legacy of Pegahmagabow is though Hart notes that the Canadi- pulls together details that connect clear and should be recognized to- ans, less laden with tradition, gen- local, national, and international day by Canadians. Since the 1960s, erally learned more quickly than history during the First World War aboriginal associations have been the British, they could not over- and after. The author describes the encouraged as partners in the gov- come earlier deficiencies in time to difficult social and physical envi- erning process and today, the As- prevent fully the German “escape” ronment in which the people of the sembly of First Nations receives at Falaise. Parry Island band – now the about $6 million a year from Indian Hart’s melding of operational Wasauksing First Nation – were liv- Affairs. All this accomplishment and non-military factors, the reha- ing before the outbreak of the Great was in part due to the efforts of a

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great warrior who survived the war, Besides providing new insights tions as a whole, noting that other and helped others to survive it, a to re-examine old arguments, this accounts have treated these battles restless warrior who returned collection is also significant for its chronologically but in separated home to continue the fight. attempts to provide historical con- frameworks. The advantage, and HGM text. Especially noteworthy are es- creativity, to this is that Willmott * * * * * says by Terry Copp and John Eng- outlines where events in one action lish. Copp examines the events of influenced another event, a dimen- David Mackenzie, ed., Canada and 1914-1918 and states that while sion often missing from previous the First World War: Essays in Canadians may have supported the accounts. Willmott re-conceptual- Honour of Robert Craig Brown war for different reasons, they were izes the Battle of Leyte Gulf as “a (Toronto: University of Toronto well aware of the possible conse- series of actions, not a single bat- Press, 2005), $35.00 paper, 452 quences. John English looks at the tle” (2), gives greater focus to the pages, ISBN 0-8020-8445-1. issue of political leadership, ask- preliminaries and follow-up ac- ing “What did leadership mean to tions, and attempts a relatively con- obert Craig Brown was an his- [Prime Minister Robert] Borden in cise account of the event. Rtorian at the University of To- his own times?” (78). In a fascinat- Leyte Gulf is deserving of this ronto who made significant contri- ing article that provides both clar- historical attention for two reasons: butions to the study of the Cana- ity and context, English notes that its unusual character, and because dian experience in the First World while Borden’s political leadership it was the last fleet action. With re- War. Canada and the First World and language may be considered spect to the latter, the oddity is that War, edited by David Mackenzie, “traditional,” it was a political style the battle was fought even though is a collection of essays offered up that was well-suited to Canada at the strategic turning point of the war in recognition of Brown’s contribu- the time. had long passed. This relates to tion and as a tribute to the eminent Overall, this is a collection of Willmott’s larger discussions, what teacher and historian. essays that both stand on their own, he titles “The Nature of War and of Canada and the First World and provide a unified portrait of Victory” and “To Pause and Con- War offers a unified collection of the Canadian experience in the First sider: Blame, Responsibility, and essays by friends, colleagues, and World War. Arranged in sections the Verdict of History.” These sec- former students of Brown. These entitled “Fighting the War,” “The War tions are more thought-provoking articles re-examine how Canada at Home,” and “The Aftermath,” and than the discussion of the battle. may, or in some cases may not, have including essays by some of today’s The major concern is with been affected by the Great War, and most prominent Canadian histori- Willmott’s vague promotion of the the authors approach the question ans including J.L. Granatstein, conventional brute-force theory: by examining factors as diverse as Margaret MacMillan, and Jonathan “the outcome of operations was gender, ethnicity, class, and region. F. Vance, this is an essential collec- never in question” (3), “Age of Mass” In many of these essays, tradition- tion for both students and enthusi- (7), “massive superior American ally accepted arguments are revised. asts of Canadian and military his- power” (8), “American forces moved For example, Douglas McCalla ar- tory. to overwhelm Japanese forces” (9), gues that the war was not the great TI and so on. This theory sits uncom- transformer of the Canadian * * * * * fortably because it ignores the com- economy as many previous histori- plexities and contributions of land ans have claimed. Rather, McCalla H.P. Willmott, The Battle of Leyte battles. Indeed, the least desirable argues that the war was more of a Gulf: The Last Fleet Action conceptualization here is that “the disruption than a transformation to (Bloomington: Indiana University basis of American success lay pri- the Canadian economy. By the same Press, 2005), $35.00 US, 398 pages, marily in sea and air power” (239), token, Joan Sangster believes that ISBN 0-253-34528-6. an assertion that is not necessarily the credit attributed to the Great incorrect, but far too simplistic. War for transforming the lives of .P. Willmott’s newest book is a Note, Guadalcanal saw inferior women has been largely over-exag- Hdetailed account primarily con- numbers of emaciated US troops – gerated. Sangster provides insights cerning the October 1944 naval bat- with inadequate naval support – vic- into the actual number of women tles fought between American and torious. Peleliu saw the 14th Regi- employed in the munitions indus- Japanese forces in and near the ment break the tough 1st Marine try, noting that familiar photos of Philippine Archipelago. The text fea- Division. And Iwo Jima’s battle women in the factories were taken tures factual material interwoven casualty ratio was four Americans mostly for purposes of propaganda. with substantive analysis. This book dead, missing, and wounded for Sangster notes that increasing num- divides roughly into two conceptual every five Japanese killed or taken bers of women in the workforce was elements: the battle itself, and two prisoner. Naval and air can do only simply a pre-war trend that contin- larger discursive sections. so much until an individual must ued through the war years and be- Willmott introduces a chrono- pull a trigger and settle the issue yond. metric approach to the various ac- permanently – brute-force theory

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and its reliance on vague national also some pretty grisly descriptions Christ-like figures in white – all of economics is not sufficient to ex- of the consequences of a diet of which were said to have appeared plain military victory. Another read- poor food – his account of what at various places and times on the ing would argue that Willmott is happens when the eggs in worm-in- battlefield to lift the spirits of Brit- stimulating discussion, and admit- fested rice hatch in a person’s stom- ish soldiers when all seemed lost. ting that brute force has “some aca- ach is not to be read near meal time. According to Clarke, much of demic antiseptic” (9). His work is Later in the war, MacCarthy this myth can be traced to one man, quite advanced, but drawing con- was moved to Japan, and eventu- Arthur Machen, who published a clusions about the Pacific War as a ally to a camp in Nagasaki. The short story called The Bowmen whole from naval and naval/air bat- prisoners could tell from the de- (reprinted in an appendix to the tles alone is problematic. meanour of their guards that the book), about a ghostly rank of arch- Overall, however, this book is war was drawing to an end. Then, ers that materialized on the battle- superb. The anglophile tone in Pa- one day in early August, two bomb- field during the retreat of the Brit- cific War history is irksome, and ers passed overhead and dropped ish Expeditionary Force in 1914 to Willmott uses “shoulds” too often. what looked like small parachutes. help stem the German offensive. But the research included satisfac- “There then followed a blue flash, From the very beginning, Machen tory American archival sources accompanied by a very bright mag- insisted that his story was pure fic- (even allowing for the problematic nesium-type flare ... Then came a tion, but his protestations were ig- The Barrier and the Javelin, frighteningly loud but rather flat nored by virtually everyone. Over 1983) and the charge of extensive explosion which was followed by a time, his original story was embel- detailing that has dogged Willmott blast of hot air” (125). They looked lished, adapted, and transformed for many previous monographs is, out of their dugout to a scene of by journalists, ministers, and sol- thankfully, not warranted here. He absolute devastation in an eerie at- diers, to the point that, if one were writes solidly, with strong flow and mosphere – “Most frightening of all to believe all the various sightings captivating narration. A must for was a lack of sunlight – in contrast that were reported, it would have naval and Pacific War historians. to the bright August sunshine that to be conceded that there were DAC we had left a few minutes earlier, more ghostly apparitions on the * * * * * there was now a kind of twilight” – Western Front than soldiers. and MacCarthy’s description of Clarke does an excellent job of Aidan MacCarthy, A Doctor’s War travelling around Nagasaki over the tracing the growth of these myths, (Cork, Ireland: Collins Press, next few days is powerful and har- all of which were based on hear- 2005), £9.99 paper, 160 pages, rowing: “We all genuinely thought, say. As Machen wrote, “Someone ISBN 1-903464-70-6. for some time, that this was the end (unknown) has met a nurse (unof the world” (126). named) who has talked to a soldier hen Aidan MacCarthy gradu- Originally published in 1979, (anonymous) who has seen angels. Wated from medical school in this reprint is long overdue, for But THAT is not evidence” (162). Ireland in 1938, he faced a situa- MacCarthy’s is one of the best ac- But the absence of evidence was tion that is unheard of in twenty- counts of captivity in the Far East. irrelevant. People desperately first-century Canada: there were too It is a remarkable testament to a wanted to believe that supernatural many doctors and not enough po- man who never lost his humanity forces had intervened on Britain’s sitions for them. After working at in the most inhuman of situations. behalf, and would accept no argu- various part-time jobs, he took the DR ment to the contrary. route that many of his contempo- * * * * * The author would have ben- raries did – he joined the peace- efited from casting his net a little time Royal Air Force. Like many David Clarke, The Angel of Mons: more widely. Horne and Kramer’s men in the same position, he got Phantom Soldiers and Ghostly book on German atrocities in Bel- much more than he bargained for. Guardians (Etobicoke, ON: John gium in 1914 has much valuable MacCarthy served first in the Wiley & Sons, 2004), $35.99, 278 information on the extreme psycho- campaign in France in 1940, then, pages, ISBN 0-470-86277-7. logical stresses experienced by sol- after a short stint in England, was diers in battle and the ability of transferred to the Far East, only to n this fascinating piece of histori- those stresses to create delusional be captured at the fall of Java. As a Ical detective work, David Clarke states in which normally rational medical officer, he watched the deconstructs the legends of ghostly soldiers might see visions. He men- physical deterioration of the men interventions on the battlefields tions Sir Oliver Lodge’s foray into under his command due to the lack during the First World War, of the debate, but hasn’t consulted of food, especially vitamins. He was which the Angel of Mons is only the Rene Koller’s Searching for astonished at how quickly they de- best known example. There were Raymond, which examines the clined, and also at how rapidly they legions of archers, figures of St. Church of England’s official re- could improve with fairly basic George, clouds of ethereal mist, sponse to the popularity of occult- foods and medicines. There are lines of medieval cavalrymen, ism after the First World War. And

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regrettably, there is no mention of placement for his very popular the terror in the trenches are gen- Katharine Hale’s very influential predecessor (who went on to be- erally well known, but Bert’s ac- poem “The White Comrade” or come the top Warrant Officer in the count of his years in France and Cecil Francis Whitehouse’s poem 1st Canadian Army). Belgium provide much more than “The Archers of Mons,” which Born Lucky (the title refers to just these details. Despite the hard- brought these legends to Canada. Fox’s many brushes with death, ships he had to endure, Bert main- Still, this is a fine book. perhaps more than the average in- tained a curiosity about the people Clarke’s analysis is judicious and fantryman would have encountered) he met in the towns in which he and fair-minded – he concludes that intersperses narratives of battles his company were billeted, felt pity there is not a single piece of first- and patrols with thematic sections for those who had lost their homes hand evidence to support the exist- dealing with combat stress, the and livelihood, questioned the logic ence of any of these apparitions, and treatment of POWs, relations with of war, and, above all, did not makes a convincing case for how Italian civilians, and the troops’ waver in his sense of duty or the and why they became so deeply in- opinion of prime minister Macken- responsibilities that came with it. grained in the public consciousness zie King. Hand-drawn maps com- Bert kept a written record of of many nations. Ultimately, he ar- plement the battle narratives, but his experiences so that his family gues, people believed what they the book is more about the men who would know how he had managed wanted to believe, and the facts fought than the battles they fought. during the difficult years he served weren’t allowed to get in the way. And by the end of the war, after his in the CEF. Fortunately, his diary JFV unit had been moved to north-west has been published as part of the * * * * * Europe, Fox admits that he was Vanwell Voices of War series, and getting close to the end of his rope. it provides a valuable account of the Craig B. Cameron, ed., Born But on 23 April 1945, the regiment war as seen through the eyes of one Lucky: RSM Harry Fox, MBE, fired its last shots of the war and man. The Great War has been thor- One D-Day Dodger’s Story (St. by October Fox and the unit were oughly studied and analyzed, but Catharines, ON: Vanwell, 2005), back in Ontario. For anyone inter- the publication of Private Bert $18.95 paper, 216 pages, ISBN 1- ested in the Italian campaign or the Cooke’s diary reveals that there is 55125-102-7. experiences of a regimental ser- still much to be gained from first- geant-major in a front-line unit, hand accounts of the war. lthough the cover of this book Born Lucky will be a real treat. SV Ashows the cap badge of the DR Queen’s Own Rifles, Fox spent most * * * * * of the war with the Hastings and * * * * * John Boileau, Half-Hearted En- Prince Edward Regiment, a situa- Milly Walsh and John Callan, eds., emies: Nova Scotia, New England tion that wasn’t entirely his own We’re Not Dead Yet: The First and the War of 1812 (Halifax: choice. He had responded to a call World War Diary of Private Bert Formac, 2005), $19.95 paper, 176 for volunteers for key soldiers to Cooke (St. Catharines, ON: pages, ISBN 0-88780-657-0. transfer to front-line units, gain Vanwell, 2006), $18.95 paper, 184 combat experience, and then return pages, ISBN 1-55125-087-X. he War of 1812 lasted for thirty to their units to take part in the in- Tmonths. As John Boileau puts vasion of France. When Fox left the t is difficult to appreciate fully it in his aptly titled book, “if the QOR on such a posting on 3 Octo- Ihow the First World War affected United States and Great Britain had ber 1943, he had no idea he would the lives of the soldiers who directly only been the half-hearted enemies spend the entire war with the Hasty experienced its horrors. The daily that Nova Scotia and New England Ps. struggle to stay dry, get rest, and were, it would not have been nec- Fox’s memoir is not so much a find provisions was a large part of essary to go to war at all.” chronological narrative as a series that experience, but it is rarely con- The introduction to the book of short vignettes that are strung veyed in secondary sources with the outlines the causes of the War of together in mostly chronological same amount of detail or insight 1812 and five chapters deal with order. That he always considered that a first-hand account can offer. incidents related to it. At first, Nova himself a member of the Queen’s Private Bert Cooke of the 75th Bat- Scotians saw no reason to stop Own doesn’t mean that he failed to talion, Canadian Expeditionary trading with New Englanders just fit in with the Plough Jockeys; on Force, kept a written record of his because the United States and Brit- the contrary, Fox seems to have been experiences in the First World War, ain were at war. As the conflict ac- an immensely effective RSM almost and it is through his diary and let- celerated, Nova Scotian privateers from the day that he joined the unit ters that the reader can come closer took American prizes and British in Italy on 14 January 1944. Not to appreciating the day-to-day life troops invaded Maine. Boileau puts quite the typical fire-and-brimstone of a soldier. Stories of days spent a fine edge on some well told tales, RSM, Fox knew he had to tread marching in knee-deep mud, shiv- such as the encounter between the carefully to be accepted as a re- ering nights sleeping in barns, and Royal Navy’s Shannon and the

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American Chesapeake off Boston logical record of the Canadian ex- and suffering experienced by those harbour in June 1813. perience in the First World War. In who fought, both through their Half-Hearted Enemies re- a mere 198 pages, Granatstein words and through their faces. It veals, in detail, how battles were traces Canadian involvement in the is Granatstein’s masterful use of fought and prisoners treated dur- Great War from the outbreak of the soldiers’ stories and images that ing the War of 1812. As a former conflict to its conclusion and the makes Hell’s Corner a valuable Canadian military officer, Boileau eventual demobilization of Canadian addition to the national narrative. is particularly good at describing soldiers. Although Granatstein does JC how commanders disposed their not provide the student of Canadian * * * * * troops. He has a neat way of sum- history with any new information, ming up events with short, insight- he successfully and concisely de- Erik Somers and René Kok, eds., ful observations. Captain Philip scribes the transformation of Ca- Jewish Displaced Persons in Broke won sea battles because “he nadian troops from untrained and Camp Bergen-Belsen, 1945- was ... a rarity among British naval ill-disciplined recruits into elite 1950: The Unique Photo Album officers: he believed in continuous soldiers who could hold their own of Zippy Orlin (Seattle: University gunnery and constant practice.” against professionals, enhancing of Washington Press [distributed in Boileau notes that the Chesapeake the reading experience with a total Canada by UBC Press], 2004), sailed under a banner proclaiming of 135 images illustrating the Ca- $44.95 paper, 232 pages, ISBN 0- “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights,” nadian experience. 295-98420-1. and writes of the plight of black Through the first two chapters, slaves who moved to Nova Scotia Granatstein describes the misman- ergen-Belsen is best known as during the war. Some fought agement and scandal surrounding Bthe concentration camp in bravely with the British, but had a Sam Hughes’ mobilization strategy which the Nazis committed unim- hard time making a living in their and choice of suppliers of equip- aginable atrocities against its pri- new home; Boileau draws on the ment to the “ill-disciplined” Cana- marily Jewish inmates, but the work of Robin Winks to explain the dian troops. It is in the opening camp had a double life. After its reasons, which included racism. He chapters that the reader is re- liberation in 1945, it was converted links the past to the present, tell- minded of Hughes’ practice of into a holding facility for Jewish ing how the White House in Wash- awarding lucrative contracts to his Displaced Persons, most of whom ington got its name, how Deadman’s cronies and of the ill-fated Ross were waiting for transport to their Island, on Halifax’s Northwest Arm, rifle. Furthermore, the author dis- new home, the soon-to-be state of became a memorial site for Ameri- cusses the superior equipment and Israel. While they waited, aid work- can prisoners and others who died training of the German forces, leav- ers from a variety of organizations in nearby Melville Island military ing the reader to question how the were in the camp to provide insti- prison, and where the money to poorly equipped, rag-tag Canadian tutional, administrative, practical, launch Dalhousie University origi- contingent was able to achieve ulti- and psychological support. One of nated. mate victory. However, despite a those people was Cecillia “Zippy” This lively, readable book vali- “brutal introduction to the Western Orlin, a social worker with the dates the claim of the French econo- Front in 1915,” in the following American Jewish Joint Distribution mist Frédéric Bastiat: “Where chapters, Granatstein recounts the Committee. The daughter of a goods do not cross frontiers, ar- Canadian Corps’ ability to overcome Lithuanian Jewish family that had mies will.” the various obstacles and realize a emigrated to South Africa in 1928, JL number of stunning victories at Zippy left Johannesburg in May 1946, reaching Bergen-Belsen in * * * * * Vimy, Passchendaele, and Hill 70. Throughout this survey account of July. J.L. Granatstein, Hell’s Corner: An Canada’s involvement in the First One of the things she took along Illustrated History of Canada’s World War, Granatstein provides with her was a camera and while Great War, 1914-1918 (Vancou- the reader with effective descrip- she was in the camp, she took over ver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004), tions of individual battles and their a thousand pictures of anything and $50.00, 198 pages, ISBN 1-55365- outcomes. Although he does not everything she encountered in her 047-6. provide a detailed account of strat- work. The photographs provide a egy that may be lost upon those with- remarkable record of Holocaust t had been a long, bloody road out a strong background or inter- survivors as they played sports, “Ifor the Canadians from the out- est in military history, he does put did their laundry, underwent medi- break of war in August 1914, and a human face on Canada’s defeats cal examinations, took vocational the Canadian Corps’ road past Vimy and victories. The use of soldiers’ training, and raised memorials to was destined to be bloodier still.” personal accounts and the judicious the dead. Her album, which con- In this 2004 publication, one of use of images supplied by the Ca- tained some 1100 photographs, was Canada’s most respected historians nadian War Museum allow the donated to the Netherlands Insti- provides the reader with a chrono- reader to understand the horrors tute for War Documentation in Am-

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sterdam in 1986, and then became around the world from Florida to experiences behind the front lines part of a congress on Jewish Dis- Australia. Then, rather than return- in such battles as Vimy Ridge and placed Persons convened in Wash- ing to the United States, he and his Passchendaele. ington in 2000. Somers and Kok crew were assigned to an airfield Johnston initially joined the then selected a small portion of the in Java, where their B17 flew bomb- 145th Battalion of the Canadian Ex- collection for publication, and also ing raids against Japanese forces peditionary Force (CEF) at commissioned a series of essays on massing in Sumatra, Borneo, and Moncton, New Brunswick. The bat- Jewish Displaced Persons, the aid the Celebes. But in February 1942, talion was absorbed into the 9th effort, the movement to Israel, and his aircraft was shot down, killing Reserve Battalion and used to re- Orlin herself. everyone but Rentz and one plenish the front lines in France. What comes through most crewmate. Both were terribly Johnston was assigned to the 26th clearly in the photographs is the wounded, and only the care of Battalion (also known as “The Fight- indomitable spirit on the camp resi- Dutch doctors kept them alive, if ing 26th”), and soon after volun- dents. There are few of the haggard, only to go from the frying pan to teered for machine-gun training; he drawn faces that one would expect; the fire: as he was recovering, was then sent to the 14th Canadian instead, the pages are filled with Rentz’s hospital was overrun by the Machine Gun Corps (CMGC) which pictures of smiling children, reso- Japanese. later joined with other companies lute and determined men and For the next three years, Rentz to become the 2nd CMG Battalion. women, and an overall air of opti- lived the grimmest of existences. Rather than operating the guns, mism. Orlin’s photographs remind Not yet fully recovered from his however, he was relegated to the us that, although the Nazis extin- wounds, he was put on a series of position of transport driver. Such guished many lives at Bergen- brutal work details, including cut- a position entailed supplying am- Belsen, they were unable to extin- ting seaweed in shark-infested wa- munition and other materials to the guish hope. ters and building a railway for the front via mules and horses. SL Japanese army. By the end of the Johnston spends considerable * * * * * war, tuberculosis, beri beri, pleu- time explaining his powerful rela- risy, dysentery, and the injuries tionship with these animals. The Ralph M. Rentz and Peter Hrisko, from his crash had taken their toll. depth of his trust and respect for They Can’t Take That Away From One lung ruined, he would never his horses is touching and at the Me: The Odyssey of an American have the musical career he so same time emphasizes the extent to POW (East Lansing: Michigan State dreamed of; a doctor told him af- which these men relied on their University Press [distributed in ter the war that it would be five years teams. Indeed, the intuition of Canada by UBC Press], 2003), before his body healed to the point Johnston’s two favourite $38.95, 236 pages, ISBN 0-87013- at which he could do simple activi- horses,“Split Ear” and “Tuppence,” 672-0. ties, yet he had to fight hard for a saved lives on many occasions. 100% disability pension from the Johnston goes so far as to argue he title of Rentz’s memoir is a US government. Perhaps it’s a sign that a horse “was of more value to Tlittle misleading, for during his of Rentz’s inherent optimism that the army than a man” (13). In a sense, time as a prisoner of the Japanese, he chose the title he did for his then, this memoir serves as a tes- his captors did take much away memoirs. tament to the role played by the from him – his future career plans, JFV transport horse during the Great his physical health, his mental sta- * * * * * War. bility, even, at times, his essential It is hard to imagine the diffi- humanity. But unlike so many of his James Robert Johnston, Riding culty of driving a team of horses comrades, at least he survived. into War: The Memoir of a Horse through a rain of enemy fire, or Rentz enlisted in the National Transport Driver, 1916-1919 “silent death” as Johnston calls it, Guard before Pearl Harbor, under (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions and to do so unscathed. But the mistaken belief that, if war and The New Brunswick Military Johnston faced these near impos- came, he would be able to stay Heritage Project, 2004), $14.95 pa- sible odds continually for most of safely in college, where he could per, 103 pages, ISBN 0-86492-412-7. his three years of active duty. This pursue his dream of becoming a unique memoir is largely episodic musician. But instead of a comfort- riginally written in 1964, Rid- in nature and recounts not only able college dorm, he found him- Oing into War: The Memoir of events that the author experienced self almost immediately in basic a Horse Transport Driver, 1916- in the First World War but also the training. A few weeks of that con- 1919 tells the exceptional story of inspiration and drive that sustained vinced him that, if he had to be in James Robert Johnston (1897- him during his mission. the service, the army air corps was 1976), a Canadian horse-transport DH a more congenial option. His first driver during the First World War. mission after training as a radio The book provides a detailed * * * * * operator was a flight half-way memoir of Johnston’s harrowing

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John M. “Jack” Roberts, Es- had finally cleared, soon to be filled filling up with water, mud, and cape!!!: The True Story of a World with the Allied aircraft that would dead bodies. War II P.O.W. The Germans quickly blunt the German attack. If Cane entitles Deward’s war di- Couldn’t Hold (Binghamton, NY: a little rough around the edges (for ary collection It Made You Think Brundage Publishing, 2003), $29.95 example, he follows the American of Home because Deward wrote paper, 237 pages, ISBN 1-892451- tendency, apparently pioneered by these words in his journals several 11-5. Eisenhower, of incorrectly refer- times, usually after mentioning a ring to the port of Le Havre as Le particularly heavy enemy barrage. his is one of those books whose Harve), it is still an excellent ac- Cane explains how nerve-wracking Ttitle is a little misleading. It count of a young soldier’s baptism trench warfare could be, and so a conjures up images of an intrepid of fire. soldier might long for his home escaper, held for years behind DR after experiencing an intense fire- barbed, and all the while making * * * * * fight. Though not as haunting as the breakout after breakout in a kind title would suggest, Cane’s book on one-man war against his captors. Bruce Cane, ed., It Made You includes intriguing background in- In fact Roberts, who served with a Think Of Home: The Haunting formation and photographs not only field artillery battalion of the 106th Journal of Deward Barnes, Cana- about Deward Barnes, but also of Infantry Division during the Battle dian Expeditionary Force: 1916- the people, places, and events that of the Bulge, was a prisoner for just 1919 (Toronto: Dundurn Group, Barnes wrote about in his diaries. a few hours, and escaped only when 2004), $35.00, 318 pages, ISBN 1- It is this in-depth analysis of the the remnants of an American cav- 55002-512-0. nuances and exact wording that alry unit scared away the two Ger- Barnes used that makes this book man guards that were escorting the lthough published diaries from a fascinating study of the physical captives to a rear-area prison camp. Athe First World War are not par- and psychological impact of war. These were some tense hours to be ticularly difficult to come by, there SF are some that stand out from the sure, but perhaps not quite deserv- * * * * * ing of three exclamation points. other volumes. Deward Barnes’ That criticism aside, Roberts diary of his war experiences from Dan McCaffery, Dad’s War: The has written a fascinating memoir of 26 February 1916 to 7 March 1919 Story of a Courageous Canadian a soldier who didn’t get into the is remarkable, not simply because Youth Who Flew With Bomber front lines until just before the Ger- of the content, but for the amount Command (Toronto: James man offensive in the Ardennes. A of secondary research provided by Lorimer & Company, 2004), native of Hamilton, Ohio, he was editor Bruce Cane. After several $34.95, 239 pages, ISBN 1-55028- drafted in February 1943, sailed entries, which have all had proper 866-0. for the United Kingdom in Novem- punctuation added for clarity, Cane ber 1944, and went into positions inserts a paragraph that explains an McCaffery is well known for on the 10th of December 1944. Six some of the background or terms Dhis many books on aviation his- days later, on the way to a forward that Barnes uses in an entry that tory, including Billy Bishop: Ca- observation post, Roberts and his the reader may not be familiar with. nadian Hero and Battlefields in party were ambushed and captured. Cane’s information comes from a the Air, but this one is a little closer After his escape, he found his way wide range of historical sources, but to home. It represents his quest to back to his unit, eventually won a particularly the official history of find out more about the war that battlefield commission, and fin- the 19th Battalion in which Deward his father rarely talked about. ished the war with the American served. For example, on 1 April Jim McCaffrey joined the RCAF occupying forces in Austria. 1918, Barnes wrote: “‘April Fools on 15 November 1943, the same Roberts writes evocatively of Day.’ Rain. Up at 6:00 a.m. nearly day he turned nineteen – although the shock of going from the rela- all on fatigue. Had roast meat, ho he could easily have passed for a tively comfortable barracks in Eng- ho. Left supports for the front line. few years younger, as the author land to the back of a truck headed Had to stop on account of shelling. writes of one photograph of his fa- towards the front lines, where Arrived 12:30 a.m. Rain.” In what ther: “Above his top lip was some sleep, food, and warmth were only could have otherwise been a rather peach fuzz that he was trying to pass a memory. He captures well the uninteresting entry, Cane notes that off as a moustache” (11). He trained confusion that reigned behind Deward is likely showing sarcasm as a tail gunner and was eventually American lines during the Ardennes about his morning meal, and points posted to 90 Squadron, reaching its offensive – after his escape, he trav- out that Deward’s entire company base at Tuddenham on Christmas elled around for days, trying to lo- probably had poor rations. Moreo- Eve 1944. His first operation, on 5 cate his unit, or even someone who ver, by mentioning the rain twice in January 1945, was a wash-out when knew where his unit might be. And one account, Deward is subtly ex- an engine caught fire over England, he recalls the joy at waking up one pressing the horrendous trench but the crew got their chance to morning and seeing that the skies conditions, as they would have been complete their first operation the

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next day. Twenty more sorties fol- way for a soldier’s life to end if vic- The Anguish of Surrender, lowed, to Berlin, Cologne, Dres- tory was not possible. then, is a valuable corrective to what den, and elsewhere, the last one And yet there were enough we thought we knew about Japanese coming on 20 April 1945. The fol- Japanese POWs – starting with Pris- POWs, written by a man who lived lowing month, McCaffery and his oner #1, a naval ensign captured for twenty-one years in Japan, both crew were involved in Operation when his midget submarine mal- before and during the war, and who Manna, dropping food to starving functioned during its suicide attack is better able than most historians Dutch civilians. He was back in on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to understand the mentality of the Canada before the end of 1945, only – for the US forces to devote con- Japanese POW. a couple of years older in age but siderable efforts to utilizing them JFV many years older in experience. as intelligence sources. Rick * * * * * McCaffery writes sensitively of Straus’ book covers these two di- his father’s exploits, particularly the mensions: the experience of POWs John McKendrick Hughes, The psychological impact they had on whose training had told them that Unwanted: Great War Letters him over the long term. It is en- to surrender was the ultimate dis- from the Field (Edmonton: Univer- tirely fitting, too, that the son’s honour; and the operation set in sity of Alberta Press, 2005), $32.95 pride in his father comes out train to interrogate them. paper, 395 pages, ISBN 0-88864- clearly. The elder McCaffery was, In both instances, the reader is 436-1. after all, regarded as one of the in for a few surprises. Japanese most keen-eyed, and therefore one servicemen, whose training con- f a history student were asked to of the best, tail gunners in his sisted of large dollops of physical Isubmit a list of typical items that squadron. But, like many other fine and verbal abuse from superiors, could have been found on the bat- gunners, he never fired a shot in and even subordinates in rank, were tlefields of Europe during the First anger: the key was spotting the en- astonished to encounter captors World War, it is unlikely that pota- emy aircraft at a distance and keep- who treated them humanely, de- toes would top that list. Yet, as early ing away from it, rather than firing cently, and respectfully. The small- as 1915, millions of potatoes and in the full knowledge that you might est kindness shown by an Ameri- other vegetables were cultivated on possibly hit it but you would cer- can soldier often went a long way army farms as food for soldiers. It tainly draw the attention of the en- to convincing them that the “surren- is from the perspective of an Agri- emy to the bomber stream. As der is not an option” doctrine in cultural Officer tasked with grow- McCaffery well knew, the bomber’s which they had been trained was ing foodstuffs for the British 2nd best defence was not its machine perhaps not quite right. Of course, Army that John McKendrick guns, but its ability to avoid being there remained a good number of Hughes writes this refreshing seen. hardcores – the gyokusai mounted memoir. JFV in a number of prison camps attest A young farmer from the western Canadian prairies, Hughes did * * * * * to that – but the majority of Japa- nese captives soon reconciled them- not falter under the weight of the Ulrich Straus, The Anguish of selves to their incarceration, and immense task – he embraced it. He Surrender: Japanese POWs of ceased to believe that they had dis- chronicles his disillusionment as a World War II (Seattle: University honoured themselves, their fami- lieutenant in the Canadian Expedi- of Washington Press [distributed in lies, and their nation by being taken tionary Force, lost within a bur- Canada by UBC Press] 2003), prisoner. geoning officer cadre that found few $24.95 US paper, 282 pages, ISBN Furthermore, American inter- openings in Britain because the of- 0-295-98508-9. rogators (either Nisei or Caucasians ficers lacked combat experience. who had received language training) Hughes and his fellow officers were, he statistics regarding Japanese found that some prisoners were so in effect, unwanted. When opportu- TPOWs during the Second keen to please their captors that they nity knocked in 1917 for a posi- World War have always had the would tell them anything they could tion to command a farming opera- power to shock: of the 5000 defend- of military value. Because most of tion for the British Army, Hughes ers of Tarawa in late 1943, only sev- the prisoners were grunts who had jumped at the chance. enteen survived as prisoners; of the little useful information, there were He recounts his experiences by 21,000 Japanese troops on Iwo limits to what could be learned, but drawing heavily on letters that he Jima in early 1945, just 216 al- there were enough success stories had written to his wife while he was lowed themselves to be captured; – valuable intelligence that captured stationed overseas. Hughes’ narra- the defense of Bougainville resulted NCOs or officers were only too tive is intermingled with excerpts in 16,497 Japanese dead and only happy to share – to justify the time from these letters, which provide 233 POWs. In each case, many of and effort that went into training an interesting and unique perspec- the dead were killed in the interrogators in the Japanese lan- tive on army life as a noncombat- gyokusai, or suicide charges, that guage and customs. ant soldier. The memoir also com- were deemed the only honourable prises several appendices, which

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include a biography of Hughes, His photos are fascinating, reveals the fears, hopes, and inter- scanned images of his letters, and funny, grisly, and wrenching in mittent banality of life at the front. further information on wartime ag- about equal proportion. One strik- The terrible losses at ricultural work. The appendices, ing fact that emerges from them is Passchendaele had caused the bat- coupled with an extensive notes sec- the extraordinary breadth of Cana- tery to replace English-, Scottish-, tion, add more body to this already da’s war effort. We see infantry and Irish-born troops with Cana- well-developed story. down in the mud and blood in Nor- dian recruits, and Kerr described Anyone with an avid interest in mandy, bombers in flames over the “heightened Canadianism” felt the First World War will heartily Germany, corvettes on the North by the battery in the summer of embrace The Unwanted. Although Atlantic (you can feel the cold 1918, a sentiment that would be a tad confusing to read because it spray), but also Chinese-Canadians strengthened during the final en- is written in first-person plural, who would fight in Burma, sailors gagements of the war. Hughes’ lively recollections of the in New York City, airmen posing for Kerr does not hesitate, how- challenges he faced to help grow photos in front of the Sphinx in ever, to express a general distaste food for one million soldiers will Egypt, CWACs in Southern Eng- for the military caste system, and no doubt satisfy any reader. land. revealed the cynical reaction of the DG Some readers may find rank and file to Arthur Currie’s * * * * * Heathcote’s accompanying text rallying call of 10 July. He reveals rather parsimonious, but I think his a Canadianism forged not through Blake Heathcote, A Soldier’s View: decision to keep the commentary patriotic rhetoric or individual The Personal Photographs of Ca- to a minimum was a good one. Pho- heroism, but through rank-and-file nadians at War, 1939-1945 (To- tographs, he says, “don’t answer solidarity and camaraderie. It was ronto: Doubleday Canada, 2005), our questions; they show us why a sentiment strengthened in the fi- $45.00, 340 pages, ISBN 0-385- questions should be asked.” Look- nal weeks of the war, as the battery 66000-6. ing at them in 2007, they remind moved through towns recently aban- me of how grateful I am that my doned by the Germans, to be always flip to the pictures first generation has been spared all that. greeted as liberators by French vil- Ianyway, so I’m naturally drawn GB lagers. He skillfully reveals the to photographic histories. Blake * * * * * unique psychology of the front dur- Heathcote’s A Soldier’s View is an ing that period: the fear replaced excellent collection of personal pho- Wilfred Brenton Kerr, Arms and by boredom, the joy by sorrow, and tographs of Canadians in the Sec- The Maple Leaf: The Memoir of despair by optimism and hope. ond World War. Readers of Cana- Wilfred Kerr, Canadian Field Ar- Kerr’s balanced, sober, and dian Military History are probably tillery, Canadian Expeditionary honest recollection of life at the familiar with the standard collec- Force, 1918 (Ottawa: CEF Books, front in 1918 provides the modern tion of Canadian wartime photo- 2005 [1943]), $22.95 paper, 147 reader with a revealing glimpse into graphs that one sees in most books pages, ISBN 1-896979-52-1. the final year of the war, and is a and television documentaries about valuable contribution to our under- the war: the wrecked Churchill s the number of living veterans standing of the Canadian experience tanks at Dieppe, the bicycle-carry- Aof the Great War dwindles to a in the Great War. ing troops wading ashore at Juno, mere handful worldwide, the AC the column of infantry threading its memoir becomes an increasingly way through rubble at Caen, and so important window into the personal * * * * * forth. What distinguishes this col- attitudes, experiences, and emo- G.B. McKean, Scouting Thrills: lection is that Heathcote has se- tions of the conflict. A fine example The Memoir of a Scout Officer in lected them from their hiding is Wilfred Brenton Kerr’s Arms the Great War (Ottawa: CEF Books, places in the scrapbooks of veter- and the Maple Leaf. Compiled 2003 [1919]), $20.00 paper, 128 ans (including, it would seem, some from letters and notes at the end of pages, ISBN 1-896979-37-8. veterans from the other side: there 1918, it chronicles Kerr’s experi- is an extraordinary photograph ences in the 11th Battery, Canadian couting Thrills by George B. here of Canadians going down be- Field Artillery, in the last year of SMcKean is an insightful, de- fore a German machine gun). the war. The book served as a se- scriptive, and engaging story of the Heathcote, director of the Testa- quel to Kerr’s Shrieks and life and adventures of a scout dur- ments of Honor project that has Crashes, in which he included an ing the First World War. McKean’s been recording veterans’ stories account of the experience of the memoir is appropriately titled, since the late 1990s, selected the battery in the Battle of since he dedicates each chapter to photographs “by the simple method Passchendaele. Arms and the Ma- a different adventure that he and of taking ones that elicited the most ple Leaf recounts the experiences his scouts participated in, such as powerful memories from their own- of a battery that had come through traveling through No Man’s Land in ers.” the darkest days of the war, and an attempt to locate German posts,

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saving wounded scouts, attacking Desmond Morton, Fight or Pay: government. There were also diffi- villages occupied by German Soldiers’ Families in the Great culties in defining exactly what con- troops, blowing up “mysterious” War (Vancouver: UBC Press and the stituted a “disability” (145). Morton tunnels, rescuing prisoners, charg- Canadian War Museum, 2004), $39.95, highlights the plight of many disa- ing German trenches with bayonets, 326 pages, ISBN 0-7748-1108-0. bled soldiers and their families and, above all else, being lost in No who often lacked the leverage to get Man’s Land. esmond Morton’s Fight or Pay: results. McKean was born in England DSoldiers’ Families in the In Fight or Pay, Morton does in 1888 and emigrated to Canada Great War outlines the popular re- an excellent job of assessing the role in 1902. After Britain declared war sponse of Canadians to the First of the CPF in the lives of the wives, in 1914, he enlisted for service in World War. Morton argues that, mothers, and families who re- January the following year. Once through the Canadian Patriotic mained in Canada during the war. overseas, he quickly moved up in Fund (CPF), Canadians who could Not only is the book a comprehen- the ranks until he eventually became not fight had a responsibility to pay sive and revealing account of the a lieutenant. His story emphasizes in order to contribute to the war successes and failures of the CPF, the role of scouts in war on a daily effort. He analyzes the effectiveness but it also highlights the impact of basis. The reader is quickly made of the CPF in its fund-raising ef- the Great War on Canadian fami- aware of how critical a scout was forts, administration, and distribu- lies, their day-to-day survival in the to the Allied war effort. Whether tion of funds to the families of sol- face of low income, high rates of they were gathering intelligence on diers fighting overseas. In doing so, inflation, and the absence of a fa- enemy movements, locating posts, Morton provides a voice to the sol- ther, husband, and breadwinner. or participating in reconnaissance diers’ families. AS missions, the information that Morton offers a detailed ac- * * * * * scouts gathered was crucial to the count of the CPF and its activities Allies’ success in battle. across Canada. For the most part, Jeffery Williams, Far From Home: McKean’s memoir also reveals it was left up to the organization of A Memoir of a 20th Century Sol- numerous themes about scouts and the CPF, and its private donors dier (Calgary: University of Calgary their involvement in the war. Com- across the country, to support the Press, 2003), $24.95 paper, 373 radeship among scouts is most evi- soldiers’ families. Because the CPF pages, ISBN 1-55238-119-6. dent. For example, it was the scouts’ was a private charity, it was com- honour not to leave an injured or pelled to defend its donors’ inter- lthough he never ceased to re- dead scout behind, as McKean dra- ests and, as a result, it was believed Agret that he had not seen battle matically demonstrates in one of that some form of discrimination during the Second World War – his chapters. Moreover, the scouts’ and tact was necessary. Generally, “Until you’ve had your hair parted enthusiasm for missions is another those people who were not French, by a bullet, you don’t know whether theme that is evident throughout the Belgian, or British in origin stood you’re a soldier or not,” one vet- memoir. McKean does not fail to much less chance of receiving aid eran told him – Jeffery Williams mention how enthusiastic many of from the CPF. There were certain surely had one of the most varied his scouts were as the war pro- restrictions that dictated who re- careers of anyone to serve in Cana- gressed. Often, they were eager to ceived money, as well as investiga- dian uniform during the war. A pre- charge into battle or volunteer for tions into the personal lives of the 1939 member of the Calgary High- a reconnaissance mission. Lastly, soldiers’ wives, in order to assess landers and a platoon commander McKean discusses a youthful and and determine need. Morton as- early in the war, Williams was soon playful atmosphere among the serts that this discrimination was tabbed as being potential material scouts. This jovial atmosphere not hidden and that the CPF felt no for staff duties. He must surely have helped to keep the morale of these need to explain it. been sent on every training course brave men high. The book goes on to discuss and duty that the Canadian military McKean’s adventure story is a the physical and mental disabilities had to offer (including running a great first-hand account of the life that plagued soldiers, as well as three-week course for officer ca- and duties of a scout during the their families, when they returned dets of the Canadian Women’s Army First World War. Its dramatic de- home unable to function normally Corps and attending the 9th Cana- scriptions, attention to detail, and or make a living. As Morton points dian War Staff course at Kingston enthusiasm make it a vivid and en- out, “wives and children bore the in early 1944). When one consid- joyable story that does not depict brunt of men’s adjustment and for ers his temporary postings to vari- the gruesome horrors of war that the most part, they bore it silently” ous units (for example, he learned many other studies have a tendency (163). The CPF extended support to drive a Ram tank while on tem- to do. to some disabled soldiers but de- porary secondment to the Canadian BR bates quickly emerged as to Grenadier Guards) and the fact that he spent many of his leaves on op- * * * * * whether pensions were the responsibility of the CPF or the federal erational patrols on Royal Navy ves-

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sels, it’s hard to imagine that many farms; they surely made a signifi- Island farm couple that could have people had as much familiarity with cant difference in a nation that, become straight from the pages of a the inner workings of the Allied fore the war, had relied on imports Frederick Philip Grove novel, forces than Williams. for 70% of its food. made little attempt to disguise their As one would expect, he is an Snelling joined up in April loathing of her and regarded her engaging and fair-minded memoir- 1941, and worked on farms in as something of a slave; her ist, lauding those who deserve it Norfolk, on England’s east coast. mother-in-law, particularly, never and not hesitating to be honest about It was a difficult transition for her seemed to get over the belief that the deadwood under which he – she was not a country girl, but a Olive had stolen her son from her. served. His anecdote about a cer- city girl whose family had left Olive’s husband eventually joined tain commander’s insistence that London to escape the bombing – but the air force, and for the next few securing a replacement for the through hard work and a willing- decades they moved from base to brigadier’s personal caravan was ness to take on any task, she even- base, not always in the happiest of more important than re-equipping tually gained the respect of the male circumstances. a fighting unit with armoured cars farm workers who hadn’t been Shattered Dreams is also a speaks volumes about the priori- called up. candid memoir, perhaps a little too ties of some officers in the Cana- Her memoir is candid and candid – indeed, one often wonders dian army. genuine, and she willingly admits why Olive didn’t chuck the whole After writing so many fine the difficulties involved – it’s not thing and return to her family in books about other aspects of mili- easy to learn to drive a variety of England. We’ve always known that tary history (including his ac- tractors all at once. But she is also the war-bride experience wasn’t claimed biography of Byng of clear about the value of their work. necessarily a happy one, but rarely Vimy), it’s high time that Jeffery To cite just one example, in prewar has it been described with such Williams told his own story, and Britain sugar was manufactured honesty. he does it here with refreshing from imported sugar cane but with Gwen Haskell’s experiences verve, insight, and frankness. that supply cut off by German were a little more positive than JFV submarine operations and the need Olive Fisher’s. Unable to join the * * * * * to divert shipping space to war Women’s Land Army because of materials, another source had to be chronic asthma, she instead took a Joan Snelling, A Land Girl’s War found. The answer was sugar beets, volunteer position as a clerk at the (Ipswich, UK: Old Pond Publishing, planted and harvested by the Air Ministry in London. In 2004), £4.95 paper, 94 pages, ISBN women of the Land Army. So, the November 1943, she met Larry 1-903366-67-4. fact that Britain remained able to Cramer, a Canadian pilot officer feed itself was due in large part to who hailed from Arborfield, Olive Fisher Campbell, Shattered the girls of the Land Army. Saskatchewan. Eleven weeks later Dreams (Renfrew, ON: General Olive Fisher, too, joined the they were married and in May 1945 Store Publishing, 2005), $19.95 Land Army, working as a tractor their first son was born, a month paper, 129 pages, ISBN 1-897113- driver on farms around Stratford- after Larry had been discharged 12-9. on-Avon from May 1944 until after home to Canada. It was almost the end of the war. But her memoir another year before Gwen was able Cynthia J. Faryon, A War Bride’s is focused much more on the to follow him. There followed a Story: Risking it all for Love After personal tragedies of war, in similar experience of unrealized World War II (Canmore, AB: particular her experiences as a war expectations. Their first stop upon Altitude Publishing, 2004), $9.95 bride. Her family lived in reaching Arborfield was a trim, well paper, 112 pages, ISBN 1-55153- Birmingham, a target of German kept bungalow with all the modern 959-4. bombing raids that forced them conveniences, and Gwen was from their home and killed a pleased that she would be living in uring the Second World War, number of family friends. Her civilized circumstances. Soon after, Dthe British government reacti- brothers both enlisted and, though, she discovered that Larry’s vated the Women’s Land Army, first although they survived the war, both family home was a dilapidated created in 1917, to free up male ag- lost childhood friends in action. farmhouse six miles from town with ricultural labourers for military And Olive herself lost her first no running water, a wood stove, service and to ensure the contin- suitor, killed in action while flying and an outhouse to boot. It was a ued production of food in a coun- with the Royal Air Force. She far cry from Gwen’s relatively try that had seen its imports of eventually married a Canadian affluent home in England. foodstuffs drastically reduced by soldier and emigrated to Canada, But she persevered, even after the German submarine campaign. hoping that she might find a better admitting that she could never The Land Army peaked in size in life there. Sadly, it turned out to be become a farm wife and despite all July 1943, when 87,000 young the war-bride-experience-from-hell. of the awkwardness of getting used women were employed on Britain’s Her new in-laws, a Prince Edward to the social customs of the rural

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west, and the family, which eventu- patriotism as the war dragged on, gotten and neglected by successive ally grew to include five children) the conscription issue, the role of generations. He believed that his moved to the more civilized sur- women both at home and abroad, personal memoir can endure as a roundings of Edmonton. Not all of and finally the trials and way of explaining and preserving the roughly 48,000 war brides who tribulations of the returning the essence of what the First World came to Canada after 1945 suffered soldiers. Within each of these facets War was to so many young men like the same tribulations as Fisher and of the war at home, Rutherdale himself. He also hoped that his Haskell, but their stories reveal the paints a colourful comparative pic- memoir would prompt other sol- clash of cultures that even wartime ture of how each community re- diers to make records of their own love had trouble conquering. sponded and contributed by using personal experiences. The book, he SL specific examples of people or or- claims, represents “… an attempt * * * * * ganizations. to describe the experiences of one Overall, Rutherdale’s book is soldier, in so far as they were typi- Robert Rutherdale, Hometown important in the uniqueness of its cal, … against a background of the Horizons: Local Responses to localized approach. It offers a story of the Corps, its vicissitudes, Canada’s Great War (Vancouver: wealth of information and the depth its feelings and its thoughts during UBC Press, 2004), $29.95 paper, of the author’s research is 1917” (foreword). 331 pages, ISBN 0-7748-1014-9. impressive. Individuals from each Kerr enlisted in 1916 in the community are brought to life and Canadian Field Artillery, and raditionally, historians of the this work goes a long way in served as a signaler during the TFirst World War in Canada have highlighting the importance of the course of his service. His job pri- looked at the struggle mainly from local response to the Great War. marily involved observing what was a military or international relations Hometown Horizons is useful not taking place on the front using a perspective. However, Robert only within the historiography of the telescope or field glasses; this kept Rutherdale’s Hometown Horizons: First World War but also within the him in constant telephone contact Local Responses to Canada’s study of French-English relations, with the brigade. He also served at Great War is an important work gender history, and rural and urban a series of observation posts and that contributes to a social and cul- history in Canada. as a liaison at the infantry headquar- tural understanding of the war. BB ters. Kerr was responsible for lay- Rutherdale’s book examines how * * * * * ing and repairing phone lines, the war impacted the home front which was absolutely critical to through an analysis of gender, race, Wilfred Brenton Kerr, Shrieks military communications. Despite religion, and class. These para- and Crashes: The Memoir of these crucial duties, he recognized digms are intertwined to create a Wilfred B. Kerr, Canadian Field that his job, though important, en- picture of the popular response to Artillery, 1917 (Ottawa: CEF tailed less danger than men in the the Great War at the local level. This Books, 2005 [1929]), $22.95 paper, front lines experienced; it was they book stands out in the literature by 157 pages, ISBN 1-896979-50-5. who bore the brunt of the casual- offering a microcosmic view of the ties. He vividly recalls the deplor- struggle. hrieks and Crashes is a rivet- able existence of a soldier residing Rutherdale has chosen three Sing personal memoir of the in the trenches, overwhelmed by smaller Canadian cities – First World War, written in 1929 death, carnage, disease, and de- Lethbridge, Alberta, Guelph, as both a personal testament and a struction. He presents a clear por- Ontario, and Trois Rivières, Québec historical record for future genera- trayal of trench life from its lulls – to illustrate how their specific tions. It vividly documents the life and times of boredom to its dan- “hometown horizons” constructed of Canadian soldiers in the Great gers and unsanitary conditions. similar yet unique responses to the War, particularly at the Battle of As the war progressed, many outbreak of war in 1914. The Vimy Ridge, using as its foundation soldiers like Kerr began to ques- geographical, industrial, political, Kerr’s personal letters, diaries, and tion the conflict. He sees the Battle social, and ethnic composition of recollections of his service. of Passchendaele as a turning point each of these communities creates The title Shrieks and Crashes in soldiers’ morale. The gain of a a diverse sampling of the local is evocative of the daily life of an mere ridge cost more than 16,000 response, thereby allowing for a artilleryman stationed on the front. Canadian servicemen their lives, broader and even a national Soldiers had to cope with the tre- and the deaths of so many men ap- examination of the issues at hand. mendous noise of continuous bom- peared unproductive and senseless. These issues are covered in eight bardments and the constant and This book represents the di- chapters, including the initial overwhelming fear of a shell land- chotomy between initial feelings of response to the call to arms, the ing on their position. As Kerr him- enthusiasm for the war to later feel- enlistment and organization of self attests, it was his personal fear ings of despair and disillusion- troops, the ensuing fluctuation in that the sacrifices and horrors of ment. Soldiers began to question enlistment numbers, the waning in the First World War might be for- what it was all about. Men in com-

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mand seemingly played with their Canadian contingent of the Force As the book proceeds, Pyke, the lives like they were pawns on a was designated the 1st Canadian Norwegians, Mountbatten, and chess board, and some in the Poor Special Service Battalion, but in Churchill gradually disappear from Bloody Infantry may have ques- practice Canadians soldiers were the story as the Canadians take up tioned their authority. The book completely integrated with their a combat role in the reorganized stands as a testament to the hor- American counterparts. When the First Special Service Force, fight- rors of war and what daily life en- original PLOUGH scheme was can- ing in the war-torn hills of Italy tailed as a Canadian soldier fight- celled, the Force was retained by alongside their American coming in the First World War. the United States as an elite light rades. AO infantry formation – one that ulti- Joyce’s work goes beyond ear- * * * * * mately became renowned for its lier accounts to reveal a new “truth” fighting spirit in a series of sus- about the Force. When compared Kenneth H. Joyce, Snow Plough tained combat operations under the to the existing literature, most no- and the Jupiter Deception: The most difficult circumstances. tably Robert D. Burhans’s The First Story of the 1st Special Service Both Library and Archives Special Service Force: A War His- Force and the 1st Canadian Spe- Canada cataloguing information and tory of the North Americans cial Service Battalion, 1942- pre-publication advertising for (1947), Joyce’s new history owes a 1945 (St. Catharines, ON: Vanwell, Joyce’s book cite its original great deal to his use of government 2006), $49.95, 320 pages, ISBN 1- subtitle as “The true story of the documents that have only recently 55125-094-2. 1st Special Service Force” [italics become available to historians. Per- mine]. This leads the reader to sonal correspondence between the s suggested by the title, Kenneth contemplate what was “untrue” author and retired Canadian Lieu- AJoyce’s new history of the First about earlier renditions of the unit’s tenant-Colonel Jack Akehurst adds Special Service Force emphasizes history. Introductory comments on valuable commentary and further a connection between plans for an the book jacket provide a partial dimension to the author’s excellent Allied invasion of Norway – Opera- answer: “Author Ken Joyce reveals coverage of operational detail. Be- tion JUPITER – and the formation the truth behind the enigmatic 1st yond his account of operations at of this combined US-Canadian com- Special Service Force. Although it the front, the unique esprit de corps mando unit. Anxious to relieve is commonly believed that the of the unit, the frustration of Cana- pressure on the Soviet Union in its formation of the 1st SSF was al- dian soldiers over matters of pay bitter war on the Eastern Front, in most an entirely United States- and decorations, and a slowly de- late 1941 Winston Churchill helped Canada venture, in fact the Force veloping impression on their part to promote the idea of a landing in continued to be monitored, and to that they had been abandoned by Norway by an international force of a certain extent controlled, by Brit- the Canadian military authorities, paratroopers, specially trained in ain.” Indeed, while most coverage all come through in Joyce’s account. winter warfare and equipped with of the Force to date has considered Another area in which Joyce armoured snow vehicles. Originally the unit within the context of the departs from the established truth designated Operation SNOW United States or Canadian war ef- is in his chapter on “Hill 720 and PLOUGH, a codename that was later fort, Joyce’s work skillfully por- the Unhappy Fate of Colonel shortened to PLOUGH, Churchill trays the extent of British political Williamson.” In reference to the alternately envisioned the raid as engineering that led to the creation dismissal of the senior Canadian an elaborate diversionary scheme of the Force. He outlines the roles officer of the Force following or as the initial phase of a larger played by Geoffrey Pike, an eccen- shortly upon the unit’s entry into Allied effort to “roll-up the map of tric British scientist, diminishing combat, Joyce argues that “there is Hitler’s Europe,” beginning with an interest in the plan by Lord Louis no doubt that Williamson was de- invasion at the top. Either way, Mountbatten, Winston Churchill’s nied due process when he was re- Churchill viewed the creation of an characteristic enthusiasm for com- turned to Canada without a proper international raiding force as essen- mando forces, and the British military inquiry into the accusations tial. He appointed Lord Louis prime minister’s long fight to re- made against him” (180). Reading Mountbatten to plan the raid and tain the Force for another task af- Joyce’s account, one could easily to the design the snow vehicle, an ter Operation PLOUGH fell through. be left with a strong impression effort that led ultimately to Ameri- While early stages of the planning that Williamson was a victim of can, Norwegian, and Canadian in- also involved the Norwegian gov- Colonel Robert T. Frederick’s “one volvement in the scheme. In the ernment-in-exile, the hesitation of man show” (179), particularly if we summer of 1942, the raiding ele- its leaders to support an operation accept the author’s claim that affi- ment of Operation PLOUGH devel- aimed at the destruction of their davits signed against him were de- oped into the First Special Service country’s economy and infrastruc- cidedly “nasty” in tone, as well as Force, its formation being the re- ture led them to withdraw support the author’s hints that jealousy on sult of a tangled web of interna- for the plan at roughly the same the part of Williamson’s subordi- tional negotiations. On paper, the time that Canada became involved. nates played a role in his dismissal.

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While Joyce is correct in his ception revives celebrated aspects Selected War Memories assertion that the affair was swept of the First Special Service Force, (Wallaceburg, ON: Mann Historical under the carpet and that a careful including the uniqueness of its bi- Files, 2002), $22.95, 280 pages, assessment of the incident is long national composition and the hard- ISBN 0-9694304-4-2. overdue, a more balanced treatment fought victories it achieved during would also have noted that when the Winter Line campaign, along the n 1997, the eminent historian Jay Williamson’s predecessor left the Mussolini Canal at Anzio, during IWinter called for more local his- Force owing to injuries sustained the breakout to Rome, and in the tories as a way to understand bet- in training, he expressed serious invasion of Southern France. The ter the impact of war upon socie- misgivings regarding “Windy” narrative is complemented by the ties. Academics have not yet taken Williamson’s suitability for com- author’s use of historical artifacts, up the challenge in any great num- mand, pointing to his lack of “level- a product of his studies at the bers, but amateur historians cer- headedness” and refusing to recom- Algonquin College of Museum Tech- tainly have. mend his promotion as senior Ca- nology from 1992-95, as well as his Sometimes their work has nadian officer of the Force.ˆ It use of previously unpublished pho- taken the form of a simple honour needs also to be borne in mind that tos and interviews with surviving roll, of the kind that was published the First Special Service Force was Force members or their families. widely in the years after the First an elite unit from which officers and He employs archival material from World War. An Honourable Sacri- men were dismissed for only the the United Kingdom, Stanford Uni- fice consists of short biographical slightest failure to measure up to versity’s Hoover Institution and sketches of the twenty-nine men of its exacting standards. Williamson Archives, the Library and Archives Centenary-Queen Street United may have been denied “due proc- Canada, and the Directorate of His- Church in Saint John, New Bruns- ess” in a unit that was notorious for tory and Heritage in Ottawa, all of wick, who died in the two world its lack of concern for the finer which provide a richness of detail wars, and was published in re- points of bureaucratic process, but on the unit’s formation, training, sponse to the desire of parishion- charges that he behaved erratically operations in the field, and the ad- ers to learn more about the men during the advance on Monte la ministrative jumbles which contrib- whose names were read out before Difensa, becoming “spooked” and uted to its disbandment at the end the congregation every 11th of No- firing in the darkness at unseen of 1944. Overall, Joyce helps to vember. As one would expect, there snipers (and uncomfortably close keep the “Black Devil legend” alive are more than twice as many names to his own men), may indeed have and deepens our understanding of from the First World War as the led subordinates to lose confidence this unique product of the North Second. In the list of burial places in him. As the American com- Atlantic Triangle – a combined ef- for the latter, we see the breadth of mander of the Force, Frederick fort arising from the wartime co- the Canadian war effort: Northern could hardly have subjected the operation of Canada, the United Ireland, Halifax, Sierre Leone, Lab- matter to a full inquiry without el- States, and Great Britain. rador, England, Ortona. evating something that he probably JW The histories of Gananoque and viewed as a case of severe anxiety * * * * * Wallaceburg are much wider in and nervousness to the status of an scope, and also deal with a larger international incident. Joyce Graeme F. Somerville, An Honour- number of casualties. Chase and presents the details of Williamson’s able Sacrifice (Saint John, NB: Beswetherick have provided the dismissal and is convinced that privately published [available from same kind of short biographies that accusations made against him were Centenary-Queen Street United appear in Somerville’s booklet, but “disingenuous” (180), but the fact Church, 215 Wentworth St., Saint have added photographs, excerpts remains that officers and men of John, NB, E2L 2T4], 2005), $10.00 from letters and newspaper arti- the Force could be – and often were paper, 12 pages, ISBN 0-9681649- cles, and poetry. It makes for a very – sent home for less than the 6-X. moving combination and an excel- charges brought against lent tribute to the eighty-three men Williamson. No hidden conspiracy Geraldine Chase and Bill whose names are listed on the is necessary to account for his dis- Beswetherick, Gananoque Re- Gananoque cenotaph, including Pri- missal. This is not to say conclu- members: A Tribute to the Men vate W.E. Dailey, killed in action on sively that none existed, only that Who Gave Their Lives for Free- the Somme in September 1916 at proving one will require more evi- dom (Gananoque, ON: privately age fifteen and Flying Officer W.H. dence than is presented here – published [available from Thompson, who was forty-six years something that Joyce appears to [email protected]], 2005), $28.00 old when the Lockheed Hudson he have recognized when he omitted paper, 176 pages, ISBN 0-936469- was flying in went down near reference to the “true” story of the 0-X. Dartmouth airport. Force from the subtitle of the book. Alan Mann has gone a step fur- On a less controversial note, Alan Mann, “No Return Ticket”: ther, beginning with the names on Snow Plough and the Jupiter De- Wallaceburg’s War Casualties and the Wallaceburg cenotaph but add-

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ing an impressive range of other The sheer destructive power of scribes larger issues present at the material: reproduced articles from Bomber Command and the Eighth time, namely the inquiry into the the Wallaceburg News, documents, Air Force is evident, and it is in- explosion and the numerous con- letters, advertisements, hundreds teresting to see it from ground level spiracy theories, he does not stray of photographs, and a month-by- instead of from the air. from the true focus of his story, the month diary of the war in Willi’s main weakness is that experience of the average Wallaceburg, again taken from the it is not a first-person memoir, and Haligonian. The final chapter re- Wallaceburg News. One particu- so it lacks the immediacy and au- veals Flemming’s attempt, and per- larly interesting element concerns thority of other Eastern Front ac- haps purpose of the book itself, to the men who enlisted for service counts, such as J.M. Bauer’s As Far identify the legacy of this event. In from the Walpole Island reserve As My Feet Will Carry Me. Still, his own words, the author con- during the First World War. Of the because of the paucity of personal cludes that “People helping people, natives who died in uniform, it is accounts (from either side) of the neighbours caring for neighbours, worth noting that the majority of campaigns in Russian, Willi is a this is probably the lasting legacy them died of disease rather than in very useful contribution to the lit- of the disaster” (89). action, a sad commentary on the erature. The illustrations are also note- state of aboriginal health in early WT worthy because they complement twentieth-century Canada. * * * * * Flemming’s descriptive account of Even if the reader is not from the explosion and its consequences. Saint John, Gananoque, or David B. Flemming, Explosion in Using photographs and graphic Wallaceburg, these books will still Halifax Harbour: The Illustrated images of Halifax’s North End be- be of interest. In some ways, each Account of a Disaster That fore, during, and after the explo- of them tells of men and women Shook the World (Halifax: Formac, sion, Flemming is able to embed who were entirely typical; at the 2004), $24.95 paper, 96 pages, ISBN the reader into every facet of this same time, their stories are unique. 0-88780-632-5. tragedy. The final pages of the book WT are devoted to a map and descrip- xplosion in Halifax Harbour * * * * * tion of historic sites relevant to the Eprovides a vivid account of life Halifax explosion, the implication Michelle Kaiser, Willi: Diary of a on the shores of Canada’s east coast being that a visit to these sites is Young Lieutenant (London, ON: port before, during, and in the af- perhaps the only way to understand Valhalla Publishing, 2006), $40.00 termath of 6 December 1917. Since the human story Flemming so pow- paper, 201 pg, ISBN 0-9739574-0-9. 1989, however, 6 December has erfully articulates in this work. become familiar to many Canadi- JEW f one can overlook the fact that ans as the anniversary of the Mon- Ithe subtitle is misleading (this treal Massacre. In this very man- * * * * * isn’t in fact a diary, but a third-per- ageable read, Flemming does an Sandy Antal and Kevin R. son narrative based on a diary), outstanding job by recounting the Shackleton, Duty Nobly Done: Willi is an interesting account of a human story behind the explosion, The Official History of The Essex young man’s journey through the thereby restoring the earlier mean- and Kent Scottish Regiment Second World War. A native of ing of 6 December not only in Hali- (Windsor, ON: Walkerville Publish- Hamburg, Willi Kaiser was called fax, but in the Canadian narrative ing, 2006), $59.00, 828 pages, ISBN up in December 1940 and was even- as well. 0-9731834-8-9. tually transferred to an assault ar- Divided chronologically into tillery unit. The narrative picks up six chapters, Explosion in Halifax anadian military historians in July 1941, with Kaiser’s unit Harbour depicts the devastation, Chave done themselves proud deep inside Russia, and his serv- rescue, reconstruction, and legacy recently in the compilation of unit ice on the Eastern Front continued of the collision between the French histories, both in terms of the con- until September 1942, when he was vessel Mont-Blanc and the Norwe- tent and the presentation. Robert seriously wounded in the fighting gian ship Imo on that fateful Decem- Fraser’s Black Yesterdays (the Ar- around Stalingrad and sent back to ber morning. In the opening chap- gyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Germany to recuperate. This sec- ter, “Setting the Scene,” Flemming Canada) and Gordon Brown and tion of Willi offers some fascinat- describes the industrial growth and Terry Copp’s Look To Your Front ing insights into conditions on the potential in Halifax’s North End (the Regina Rifles) are two exam- Eastern Front, such as the psycho- prior to the outbreak of the First ples of chronicles that combine logical impact of facing apparently World War. The next three chapters solid scholarship with high-quality unlimited numbers of Soviet recount the horrors of the explo- production. Duty Nobly Done, the troops. sion, in which more than 1500 peo- new history of the Essex Scottish, The other valuable portion of ple perished, as well as the imme- follows in that tradition. the book deals with the bombing of diate rescue and recovery efforts. Sandy Antal, author of the Hamburg in July 1943, something Although Flemming briefly de- award-winning A Wampum Denied: that Kaiser experienced first-hand. Procter’s War of 1812, and Kevin © Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 2007 17

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Shackleton, whose most recent ume. Perhaps even more surpris- While rarely going below battalion work is the history of the 58th Bat- ing is the very reasonable price for level descriptions of battle, talion, Canadian Expeditionary such a book. It definitely belongs Schreiber reveals a vivid picture of Force, have joined forces to tell the on the shelf of every serious stu- command structure in battle. story of the regiment from its ear- dent of Canadian military history. The last hundred days of the liest roots as a French militia unit SL First World War were perhaps the in 1749 to its current incarnation * * * * * most intense period of fighting in as The Essex and Kent Scottish Canadian military history. Regiment, the name it took in 1954. Shane B. Schreiber, Shock Army Schreiber successfully crafts a Antal handles the regiment’s of the British Empire: The Cana- thorough and well documented early years, from the French regime dian Army in the Last 100 Days study that remains extremely read- through the War of 1812 and after. of the Great War (St. Catharines, able for both the amateur and pro- Both of these themes have been well ON: Vanwell, 2004 [1997]), $29.95 fessional historian. His analysis of covered by other historians, but paper, 159 pages, ISBN 1-55125- command and military structure in Antal adds a fascinating chapter on 096-9. war should find its way into the li- the Patriot War of 1838, when rebels brary of any serious historian of the launched four separate attacks on hane Schreiber examines the Great War. south-western Ontario (at Scorps and divisional levels of JR command to understand the deci- Amherstburg, Fighting Island, Pelee * * * * * Island, and Windsor). Overshad- sive advances made by the Canadian owed by the more well known inci- army on the ground over the last Susan Mann, Margaret dents at York and in Lower Canada, hundred days of the Great War. Macdonald: Imperial Daughter the Patriot War is a fascinating yet During this time, the Canadian (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Univer- little known episode in which the forces punched through the formi- sity Press, 2005), $39.95, 304 Essex and Kent militia, “despite dable German defensive positions pages, ISBN 0773-5299-93. their wretched state of prepared- at Amiens, the Drocourt-Quéant ness” (137), Antal notes, beat back Line, the Canal du Nord, and Mount usan Mann, editor of the ac- the invaders. Just as interesting as Huoy. Schreiber demonstrates how Sclaimed The War Diary of the actual engagements is his ac- the organizational structure of the Clare Gass, 1915-1918, revisits the count of the aftermath of the Battle Canadian Corps, refined through the topic of Canada’s military nursing of Windsor, when a number of the battles of 1915-1917, allowed for sisters in Margaret Macdonald, rebels were summarily executed, an consistent and sustained major at- Imperial Daughter. Born in Pictou, action that caused considerable tacks that were a decisive part of Nova Scotia, Margaret was ambi- controversy in the area. the Allied advance on Germany. tiously drawn to the profession of Kevin Shackleton takes care of Using the analogy of a sym- nursing in a combat environment, the rest of the unit’s history, from phony, which at times does become participating as a field nurse in the the Union of the Canadas to the tedious, he notes that the Canadian Spanish-American and South Afri- present day. In this, he covers all Corps had amassed the instru- can Wars, and becoming the first the ground that one would expect ments of war but still required pre- to occupy the position of Matron- him to (the 18th Battalion in the cise coordination to sustain a con- in-Chief to Canada’s military nurses First World War, the Dieppe raid, certed attack on the German lines; during the First World War. By the campaign in north-west Eu- the enemy could not simply be over- drawing on Macdonald’s devoted rope), but also finds some new an- whelmed and worn down by an service to the British Empire, gles to address. There is an excel- advantage in men and material. Pre- Mann argues throughout this unof- lent chapter on the First World War cision and coordination, centered ficial biography that her life story reinforcement battalions linked to on the command structure and broadens our understanding of the the Essex Scottish (the 99th, 186th, corps commander Arthur Currie, evolution of imperialism, the mili- and 241st Battalions), and another were required to target effectively tary, and the role of women in Ca- that deals with the militia unit’s the entrenched German defenders. nadian society, as well as the ten- work on the home front during the Schreiber pays particular tribute to sions surrounding these issues. Second World War. In all cases, “the various levels of staffs, those Mann creates a chronological Shackleton has taken the standard invisible minions so often over- narrative of Margaret’s professional unit narrative and enlivened it with looked by military historians be- and private life based on her per- compelling and illuminating ac- cause of the dull nature of their sonal papers, memories of family counts from the sharp end. tasks, must be give a good deal of and friends, and a variety of mili- This fine book is also notable credit” (58). Increased coordination tary documents. As the author re- for its quality; heavy paper stock, slowly helped bring the early stages lates, the Macdonald family has excellent illustrations, and a full- of battle back under the control of been secretive about the details of colour map section make for a sub- the Canadian army through a com- Margaret’s personal life. Conse- stantial, durable, and valuable vol- plex but flexible chain of command. quently, Mann has to draw conclu-

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sions regarding certain aspects of in 1933. Twelve years later, Ger- stance, he judges that the campaign Macdonald’s personality and rela- many was indeed unrecognizable, had a significant impact in hasten- tionships by piecing together details but not in the way that the Führer ing the German collapse. from these materials, leaving the had imagined it would be. Its great The men who flew with Bomber reader to decide whether or not to cities lay in ruins, its population was Command took a hit some years ago agree with these inferences. devastated. To paraphrase the in the execrable documentary The Macdonald is portrayed as an American journalist Walter Valour and the Horror, which efficient and talented field nurse Cronkite, the Nazi state had sown painted them in a distinctly unfa- who travelled the world to pursue the wind with its air attacks on ci- vourable light. On the contrary, as opportunities in military medicine, vilian targets early in the war; by David Bashow argues, theirs is a and who later became an exacting 1945, it had well and truly reaped story of which they can be justifi- but fair administrator during the the whirlwind. ably proud. First World War. Her Catholic Scot- No Prouder Place bears some WT tish upbringing and thorough edu- resemblance to the official history * * * * * cation compelled Macdonald to of the Royal Canadian Air Force: strive for excellence, and she ex- the same high standard of research, Donald D. Tansley, Growing Up pected no less from her own Cana- breadth of sources, and complete- and Going to War, 1925-1945 dian nurses both on and off duty. ness of coverage. But Bashow gives (Waterloo, ON: Laurier Centre for Despite her utmost respect for mili- far more room to the voice of the Military Strategic and Disarmament tary protocol and discipline, she individual, whether he (or she) Studies, 2005), $19.95 paper, 117 was also known for her sincere served in the air or on the ground. pages, ISBN 0-9688759-9-2. concern for the safety, well being, His historical narrative is filled with and professional status of her long, often compelling recollections on Tansley was a child of the nurses. of members of Bomber Command, DDepression, born in 1925 in Margaret Macdonald, Impe- some from well known memoirs Regina. As he writes, sociologists rial Daughter aptly traces the birth but many more from difficult-to-find would have considered his family and development of the field of veterans’ magazines or unpublished to be lower middle class, but his military nursing in Canada, and accounts: Jack Watts’ thoughts memories of the time are generally how women progressed through the about trying to bomb the Tirpitz in positive; after all, he recalls, “Eve- ranks when this field was still in 1942 (81); Jim Northrup’s fascinat- rybody was in the same boat” (5). its infancy. It also conveys the chal- ing insights into the performance A teenager when the war began, lenges faced by pioneering nursing of the Halifax (280); and Clifford he spent time in the Regina Sea administrators of the Canadian Black’s recollection of a raid in Cadets and the Reserve Battalion military during the First World War September 1944 when a wayward of the Regina Rifles, had a clash of as they dealt with shortages of re- B-17 joined his bomber stream and personalities with a Chief Petty Of- sources, as well as the tug of war bombed his target, because the pi- ficer when he enquired about en- for power between British and Ca- lot had become separated from his listing in the Royal Canadian Navy, nadian authorities. As a pioneer in own formation and didn’t want to and ultimately joined the army on her field who helped pave the way waste his bomb load (375). his eighteenth birthday, in May for women to participate in the Ca- One of the book’s most inter- 1943. The personnel selection proc- nadian military, Margaret esting segments is the appendix that ess directed him into the Royal Macdonald’s story is one worth provides a succinct and judicious Canadian Artillery, but after arriv- reading. summary of the positives and nega- ing in England he was re-mustered CM tives of the strategic bombing cam- as infantry, passing through the Royal Montreal Regiment before * * * * * paign. Bashow notes that only the U-boat arm of the Kriegsmarine being transferred to his old unit, David L. Bashow, No Prouder suffered a higher overall casualty the Regina Rifles, in December Place: Canadians and the rate on a sustained basis, but that 1944. Over the next six months, Bomber Command Experience Canadians in Bomber Command, Tansley was transformed from a (St. Catharines, ON: Vanwell, 2005), because they missed many of the greenhorn rifleman into one of the $60.00, 480 pages, ISBN 1-55125- high-casualty raids early in the war, old sweats of the regiment. He was 098-5. suffered somewhat lower losses not yet twenty-one when he got back than the British. In discussing what to Regina, but the photographs re- avid Bashow’s fine new account the campaign achieved, Bashow dis- veal how much he had matured Dof Canadians in Bomber Com- tinguishes between direct effects (the during the war, an experience he mand begins with a quotation whose reduction in production capacity of calls “the most defining, the most irony would only become apparent certain key industries) and indirect intense, the most unforgettable, and years after the fact: “Give me five effects (for example, the 800,000 perhaps the most satisfying experi- years and you will not recognize workers engaged in repairing bomb ence of my life” (23). Germany again,” said Adolf Hitler damage in 1944 alone). In both in-

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Tansley writes in plain and sim- questions as it provides answers. in the few gaps in the diary, fully ple language, with a modesty that Was Richard Motkaluk celebrating fleshing out some of the comments is refreshing. He was at the sharp VE-Day before the fact when he made by Steele. This is especially end as Canadian troops drove to died of alcohol poisoning on 2 May important in what ended up being the Rhine, and describes the expe- 1945? What drove Theodore Gerigs Steele’s last days, when he wit- rience vividly and without exaggera- to throw himself under a truck in nessed the slaughter of his regiment tion. His memoir makes an excel- February 1945? Could anything have while he was held back as part of lent companion to the two pub- been done to reduce the alarming the reserve at the battle of Beaumont lished histories of his unit, Stewart number of motorcycle accidents Hamel, part of the massive Somme Main’s Up the Johns! (1993) and that claimed the lives of Canadians offensive. Steele possessed great Gordon Brown and Terry Copp’s in the armed forces? Behind each insight before the battle, as he notes Look to Your Front (2001). name, to be sure, is a story that is that the Germans appeared as if they SL worth telling. were preparing for their attack. Yet * * * * * SL he still expresses great confidence * * * * * that the ensuing battle would be the Bruce Thornley, Index to Overseas greatest the world had seen, and Deaths of Ontario Servicemen David R. Facey-Crowther, ed., Lieu- would result in everyone being and Servicewomen, 1939-1947, tenant Owen William Steele of home by Christmas. A few days af- ed. Clifford Collier, 2 vols. (To- the Newfoundland Regiment: Di- ter the battle while away from the ronto: Ontario Genealogical Soci- ary and Letters (Montreal: McGill- front line, Steele was hit by a ran- ety, 2006), $82.36 paper, 416 pages, Queen’s University Press, 2002), dom shell and died the following ISBN 0-7779-0225-7 (volumes may $44.95, 253 pages, ISBN 0-7735- day. This is an excellent collection, also be purchased individually). 2428-2. well edited, and a thoroughly en- joyable story of the last two years he invaluable reference guide s the title suggests, this is the of one of Newfoundland’s finest and Tbegan with one man’s search Adiary and letters of Lieutenant brightest young men. for his family’s history. While Owen William Steele, a proud mem- MG searching the microfilm rolls at the ber of the Royal Newfoundland Archives of Ontario that list over- Regiment during the First World * * * * * seas deaths, Bruce Thornley dis- War, who fought valiantly at Gallipoli Walter W. Igersheimer, Blatant In- covered that it was impossible to and on the Western Front. Quickly justice: The Story of a Jewish search them by name, because the promoted until he was commis- Refugee from Nazi Germany Im- death certificates were registered sioned as a lieutenant in April 1915, prisoned in Britain and Canada according to year of death. So, he he experienced countless near during World War II (Montreal: set about compiling an alphabetical misses and lucky coincidences at McGill-Queen’s University Press, listing of the more than 15,000 Gallipoli before taking part in the 2005), $39.95, 232 pages, ISBN 0- Ontarians who died overseas from dramatic evacuation of the last sol- 7735-2841-5. 1939 to 1947, so that researchers diers; he was the last one off the could easily locate a name, find the beach, arriving at the ship just as it hen Winston Churchill uttered relevant microfilm reel, and bor- was about to set sail. After a brief Wthe famous phrase “Collar the row it from the Archives of Ontario period of rest, Steele and the New- lot!” and ordered his officials to to consult the death certificate. foundland Regiment were shipped complete the internment of thou- Thornley’s labour of love wasn’t fin- to the Western Front, where all too sands of German and Italian immi- ished by the time he died in 2001, many of them met their end. grants to and refugees in Britain, so it was taken over by Clifford Steele served in the same com- one of the innocents who was swept Collier, who saw the project through pany as his younger brother James, up was Walter Igersheimer, a Jew- to completion. as well as many others he knew ish medical student who had es- Space restrictions prevented from back home. His attachment to caped to Britain from Germany. He the inclusion of all the information his home, family, and friends shine had enormous motivation and de- contained on the death certificates; through in his letters home which sire to serve the Allied cause, but Thornley had to confine himself to often mention the activities of other instead found himself interned first name, service, hometown, and date Newfoundlanders. He also ex- in Britain and then in Canada. His and cause of death. But the refer- presses great pride at the New- memoir is interesting on two lev- ence numbers make it easy for the foundland contingent receiving els. First, Igersheimer is a very keen user to borrow the microfilmed praise for working better and faster and interested observer and effec- death certificates, which often con- than other regiments, and expresses tively describes the roller coaster tain more information for the his- dismay at being confused for Cana- of emotions experienced by these torian or the genealogist. dians while in Europe. young men as they alternated be- As with any such reference The editor, David Facey- tween despair at their treatment book, this one provokes as many Crowther, does a fine job of filling and hope that their release might

20 © Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 2007 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol16/iss2/8 20 et al.: Book Review Supplement Spring 2007

be imminent. On another level, he based uncovers some interesting the author includes a great deal of tries to make sense of the catch-22 information on these men. interesting material on matters such in which they found themselves. The Most of the book deals with as the difference between American Canadian government insisted it was First World War. The author tells and British aircraft carriers, the merely a custodian, with no author- of the battles and the background impact of Mauser bullets on human ity to release the men. The United to the award of the VC, showing the flesh, the award of the VC by bal- States wouldn’t accept them be- winners as very human beings, not lot, the fate of some of the VC win- cause they had crossed the ocean just as the heroes they were. Pri- ners (seventeen committed suicide), as internees; their only option in vate John Croak, a terrible soldier and the performance of the Corsair that regard was to return to Brit- in the barracks, always being fined fighter-bomber. The book has many ain, obtain an official release, and for misdemeanours, came into his excellent in-text photos and a com- travel to the US on a civilian own in battle. Lieutenant-Colonel prehensive index. It lacks maps; steamer. But Britain wasn’t sure Cyrus Peck led his men from the one of Flanders would have added what to do with them; some were front and had earned a DSO and value to this fine book. released unconditionally, while oth- bar before winning his VC at Ar- JL ers were returned to Britain only ras. Lieutenant Milton Gregg, a * * * * * after they agreed to join the Pioneer modest man, gained his medal for Corps. Igersheimer’s route to free- showing leadership over a four-day Gary Campbell, The Road to dom was even more unusual. De- period. Canada: The Grand Communica- spite the fact that his parents were Boileau, a former Canadian tions Route from Saint John to living in Boston, just a day’s drive Army officer, writes of the enor- Quebec (Fredericton: Goose Lane from where he was interned, the mous casualties in the First World Editions / The New Brunswick Mili- only way he could gain his freedom War. The 27th Battalion “regener- tary History Project, 2005), $14.95 was to secure travel papers to Cuba; ated itself five times ... Only 147 paper, 115 pages, ISBN 0-86492- it was April 1943 before he could remained from the original one 426-7. wangle his way into the US. thousand” at the end of the war. The Blatant Injustice is part diary, Ypres Salient cost the Allies n 1885, it was the recently com- part memoir, and it works well on 570,000 casualties, 160,000 of Ipleted Canadian Pacific Railway both counts. The only fault in Ian them fatal. that allowed central Canadian mili- Darragh’s otherwise excellent intro- Four VC winners from the Sec- tia units to reach the site of the duction is his claim that this story ond World War appear in the book, North-West Rebellion and put down “remains largely unknown to the only one of whom was born in the the uprising. But before that, the general public to this day” (vii). In region. Captain Frederick Peters, Grand Communications Route fact, the story has been the subject born on Prince Edward Island, served the same strategic purpose, of dozens of monographs and mem- earned the medal for leading a sui- enabling troops and supplies to oirs since the 1970s, and the gen- cidal mission into Oran harbour on move, with relative ease given the eral public is no more ignorant of 8 November 1942. Flight Lieuten- time, between the Maritimes and it that they are of any other histori- ant Bud Hornell trained on the Is- Quebec. cal event. But that minor criticism land and flew out of Yarmouth, Nova Not surprisingly, it was based doesn’t lessen the impact of Scotia, and Lieutenant “Hammy” on a route that had been used by Igersheimer’s very powerful Gray, the last VC winner of the war, the aboriginal peoples of the region, memoir. spent time in this province. The who paddled, portaged, and DR armed cruiser Jervis Bay, after trekked along it for centuries before the Europeans arrived. Dur- * * * * * refitting at Saint John, went down defending convoy HX84 against the ing the era of the French regime, it John Boileau, Valiant Hearts: At- German battleshipAdmiral Scheer became an important means of lantic Canada and the Victoria on 5 November 1940. Her captain, maintaining contact between the Cross (Halifax: Nimbus, 2005), Fogarty Fegen, VC, and his gallant scattered settlement of New France $24.95, 276 pages, ISBN 1- crew are remembered with a monu- during the winter, when ice closed 55109548-3. ment in a city park. the St. Lawrence River to shipping. Valiant Hearts has a passion- The centrepiece of Campbell’s t least four other books have ate intensity to it, so it’s a book to fascinating narrative is the march, Abeen written on Canadian VC be sipped rather than swallowed in early 1813, of the 104th Regi- winners but this one offers a dif- whole. It contains a great deal of ment of Foot from Fredericton to ferent perspective on Britain’s high- useful information on the medal and Kingston to deal with the US threat est award for gallantry. It details its winners (William Hall, the black during the War of 1812. By any the lives of twenty-one men who Nova Scotia sailor who won his VC yardstick, it was a remarkable were born in Atlantic Canada or at Lucknow, was a powerful ath- achievement: fifty-two days and spent time there. The meticulous lete), including details of where the 1128 kilometres through the dead research on which the book is Canadian VCs can be viewed. And of winter, without a single loss of

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life, even though temperatures cated with long and detailed ac- when a Japanese shell made a di- plunged to -32 degrees Celsius (it counts (as detailed as censorship rect hit on a crater where a handful is worth noting that three of permitted) of his experiences for of Marine had taken cover. In a Campbell’s ancestors took part in Cora. third, the moment is frozen as five the march). As The Road to Pollock, Martin’s grand-daugh- USMC rocket trucks let loose a Canada rightly points out, it was ter, has added photos, postcards, salvo of rockets against enemy po- only one of many such troop move- newspaper clippings, and Angus’ sitions. And in the final photograph, ments along the Grand Communi- little sketches to the book, and has a haggard-looking Marine lights up cations Route, but it demonstrated supplementing the details in the let- his pipe while cradling his flame- beyond a shadow of a doubt the ters with entries from the 52nd Bat- thrower. With this many fine illus- route’s necessity to the security of talion’s war diary. Taken together, trations, Hammel’s compelling nar- British North America. it makes for a collection that is so rative is a bonus; Iwo Jima can be SL powerful because it is at once very read, or looked at, or both. Either * * * * * personal, but also universal. way, this coffee-table book is one JFV of the best around on the battle. J.P. Pollock, ed., Letters from An- TG gus, 1915-1916 (Victoria: * * * * * Trafford Publishing, 2005), $22.50 Eric Hammel, Iwo Jima: Portrait * * * * * paper, 156 pages, ISBN 1-4120- of a Battle (St. Paul, MN: Zenith Irishmen in War From the Cru- 5780-9. Press, 2006), $52.00 US, 256 pages, sades to 1798: Essays from The ISBN 0-7603-2520-0. Irish Sword, vol. I, introduction by t thirty-four years of age, An- Harman Murtagh and foreword by Agus Martin was older than most here are few historians as quali- Tom Bartlett (Portland, OR: Irish of his fellow volunteers when he Tfied to write about the United Academic Press / The Military His- joined the 74th Battalion in Toronto States Marine Corps (USMC) as tory Society of Ireland [distributed in October 1915. A well known city Hammel, and probably none who in North America by International athlete and a man whose views had can spin as compelling a story. Specialized Book Services], 2006), tended towards conscientious ob- Here, he tackles a well documented $67.50 US, 274 pages, ISBN 07165- jection, he had a change of heart subject, the battle for Iwo Jima in 28169. when two of his brothers-in-law 1945, but brings a fresh and new joined up and his best friend was perspective. One of the bloodiest he main aim of this volume, killed in action. Angus left his job engagements of the Second World Tand of its companion, Irishmen as a compositor for Saturday War, the landing was preceded by a in War 1800-2000: Essays from Night, and joined the infantry. He seventy-four day air and naval bom- The Irish Sword, volume 2, is a was eventually transferred to the bardment that should have pulver- worthy one: to put before a wider 52nd Battalion, and was killed by ized the defenders; instead, the public a representative sample of the concussion of a shell-burst in Marines faced a thirty-four day bat- articles published by The Military the summer of 1916. tle that turned the tiny island into a History Society of Ireland in its bi- Martin’s letters reveal him to charnel-house. annual journal, The Irish Sword. be a keen observer with an artistic Hammel’s narrative is fact- As Harman Murtagh points out in eye (included are a number of po- paced, succinct, and gripping – one his Introduction (ix) the Society, ems he wrote at the front and sent would expect nothing less from the from its foundation in 1949 at a home to his wife), but also a father author of classics such as time when the tensions of the 1922- who doted on his three small chil- Guadalcanal: Starvation Island 23 civil had far from dissipated dren. His letters to Flora, Fergus, and 76 Hours: The Invasion of and anti-British feelings ran high, and Elinore are deeply moving, and Tarawa. But what really sets the has always “sought to attract sol- show him trying his hardest to be a book apart is Hammel’s choice of diers, scholars and those with a father figure from an ocean away; illustrations. This is a story that is general interest in the subject,” their letters back to him (including really told through the photographs, whatever their political or military a number that were sent after his and there are some astonishing ones loyalties; Murtagh cites the journal’s death and were returned to his wife here. Most are from official founding editor, G.A. Hayes-McCoy, Cora with his personal possessions) sources, but few have ever been to the effect that “no country as are almost painful to read in their published before. They cover every small as Ireland has achieved such innocence. Angus lived for letters element of the battle, from run-up a reputation as a home of soldiers” from home (on 7 June 1916, he to clean-up. In one striking se- (a judgement that the Scots might wrote “Another big Canadian mail quence, two Marines search for the query). to-day but nary a thing for Martin. Japanese gunner who has set alight The nineteen articles are ar- So I guess nobody loves him and a nearby Sherman, find their tar- ranged chronologically. Several fo- we’re going over to Flanders tomor- get, and then open fire. Another cus on particular military engage- row to eat worms”), and recipro- photograph captures the aftermath ments, such as the Battle of

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Dungan’s Hill in 1647 (Padraig rived without cows” (55). Three fur- ters of a page foreword that it has. Lenihan), Cromwell’s famous – or ther papers round out the collec- No doubt it was cheaper to present infamous – siege of Drogheda (J.G. tion: a study of the first guns in Ire- simple facsimiles of the original Simms), and the Battle of Castlebar land by Siobhan de h-Äir, a beguil- articles (with unfortunate conse- in 1798 (Richard Hayes). Two other ing personality sketch of the famous quences, however, for the quality of pieces, by Paul M. Kerrigan and sixteenth-century rebel Hugh O’Neill any illustrations) but this makes it Hayes-McCoy, also focus on the the Great by Cyril Falls, and Peter difficult to justify the high price of 1798 rebellion; all were originally, Smyth’s valuable analysis, in what the book. An editor, or individual presumably, part of a special issue is arguably the best paper in the authors, if extant, could have pro- celebrating the 200th anniversary of book, of the late eighteenth-century vided a paragraph or two contain- the event. Other papers are con- Irish Volunteers, a national armed ing an abstract of the argument and cerned with the composition, tac- force outside government control. a context for what follows. tics, and equipment of various ar- The introduction (xii) suggests We are told (xii) that the “mod- mies: see, for example, Hayes- that the main focus of the Military ern theme” of war and society and McCoy’s study of the Ulster army History Society of Ireland is closer areas such as military art and in the late sixteenth century, to the traditional than the revision- women in Irish warfare are not ne- Kenneth Ferguson on King ist view of Irish History. Certainly glected in the pages of The Irish William’s army in Ireland after the we have here much old-school mili- Sword but that “space limitations” Glorious Revolution, and Diarmuid tary history, with several of the pa- preclude inclusion here. It is, how- and Harman Murtagh on the Irish pers of mainly antiquarian interest. ever, people who make decisions. Jacobite army it faced. Two further Of course it can be argued that a The title of the book, also, Irish- pieces on this period (doubtless, selection from a span of some fifty men in War, is hardly inclusive. The again, the subject of a commemo- years is bound to reflect the pre- wider public which the Irish Mili- rative issue) focus, respectively, on vailing preoccupations of the pe- tary History Society wishes to reach the topography of the Battle of the riod. Why, then, is the reader not is not well-served by this book. Boyne (Donal O’Connell, in an es- provided with the apparatus that BCM say lacking, alas, any clarificatory would enable solid judgements to * * * * * maps) and on the rôle of the French be made on that basis? Nowhere is navy in the Jacobite war in Ireland there the slightest indication of the Clifton J. Cate and Charles J. Cate, (Sheila Mulloy). The importance of volume number, pagination, and Notes: A Soldier’s Memoir of World French and Spanish connections date of publication of the issue of War I (Victoria: Trafford, 2005), with Ireland is also emphasized in The Irish Sword from which a par- $22.00 paper, 177 pages, ISBN 1- Caoimhin O Danachair’s analysis of ticular article is taken. This is an 41205355-2. Armada losses on the Spanish coast, elementary error of omission. Care- Sir Charles Petrie’s study of the ful noting of dates and footnotes can Gordon S. Glen, A Memoriam to strategy of these two powers in re- give the reader some sense of pe- the Life of James Alpheus Glen, lation to Ireland, and Micheline riod of composition, but that as- D.S.C. and Bar, Croix de Guerre Kenney Walsh’s wide-ranging dis- sumes some references are made avec Palme, Royal Naval Air Serv- cussion of the service of Irish sol- to secondary literature – not always ice, Royal Air Force, Canadian Air diers abroad (this last including the case – and that there are some Force (Saskatoon: privately pub- references to areas beyond France footnotes (there are none in Falls’s lished [available from the author at and Spain and covering, as does essay). Nor is there anywhere a two- [email protected]], 2004), Petrie’s article, a period of several or three-line sketch of the contribu- $26.50 paper, 46 pages, no ISBN. centuries). For the mediaeval pe- tors, an indispensable part of a col- riod we have Con Costello on Ire- lection of this sort. Brief allusion Gordon S. Glen, A Memoriam to land and the Crusades, Randall to the death dates of various Soci- the Life of David Kenneth Glen, Rogers on the late twelfth-century ety luminaries, who turn out also 2nd Regiment, Canadian invasion of Ireland by the Anglo- to be contributors, is not enough. Mounted Rifles, (B.C. Horse), Normans and the adaptation of Moreover, some of the papers as- Canadian Over-Seas Expedition- their relatively meagre resources to sume a thorough familiarity with ary Force, Royal Naval Air Serv- meet the challenges they faced, and the frequently very specialized or ice and RAF (Saskatoon: privately Katharine Simms on warfare in the limited chronological periods and published [available from the au- mediaeval Gaelic lordships, domi- geographical areas being discussed; thor at [email protected]], nated as it was by harrying, plun- perhaps this was possible at the 2004), 46 pages, no ISBN. dering, particularly of cattle, and time of original publication but it exacting hostages and submission. is not so now, and certainly not for he boom in desktop publishing As the paper neatly concludes, the a general audience. This volume T(either commercial or per- High King of Ireland was therefore cries out for some heavy editorial sonal) has been a boon for histori- baffled by the appearance of Henry work, not just the three-and-a-half ans, for it has often been the means II and his knights: “Strongbow ar- page introduction and three-quar- for rescuing from obscurity stories

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that might otherwise have remained Enderby, British Columbia, when over the last century: the Halifax untold. The biographies of Clifton Jim was eighteen, and it was there Explosion. Cate and the Glen brothers repre- that he finished school. He joined In Curse of the Narrows, sent a case in point. the Canadian Engineers in 1915, Laura MacDonald weaves a detailed In the late summer of 1917, but later enrolled at the Curtiss narrative account of the explosion when voluntary enlistments had Flying School in Toronto as prepa- that nearly encompasses the entire been reduced to a trickle, a young ration for entering the Royal Naval community affected by “the most Massachusetts man names Clifton Air Service. He started on bomb- powerful bomb the war and the Cate was just what the CEF was ers, but his DSC was awarded for world had ever produced.” The looking for: someone with a pulse. the twenty-odd aerial victories he result of the explosion – 9,000 Cate, who had joined up in the US scored while on fighter operations. homeless, 6,000 injured, and 2,000 but had been discharged because After the war and his short stint in dead out of a total population be- of his bad teeth, promptly headed the CAF, Glen returned to the RAF, tween Halifax and Dartmouth of to New Brunswick, where he was from which he retired in 1928. 60,000 – is testament to the impor- immediately taken into the 8th Gordon Glen has pulled this tance of the event to Halifax, and Field Ambulance at Saint John. But story (and the separately published Canadian, history. Curse of the Cate was destined for a combatant biography of Jim’s brother Ken, Narrows provides insight into the role, and within a few months was who served in the 2nd Canadian immediate effects on those in and transferred to the artillery (the re- Mounted Rifles and the RNAS) to- around the city, the relief efforts cruiting officer, when shown his gether from a variety of sources in from the local and international American discharge papers, re- Canada, Britain, and the United communities, the rehabilitation sponded, “Do they think you’re go- States. He admits that both biogra- work that followed, and a short ing over there to EAT the Ger- phies represent starting points, to summary of the court proceedings mans?”). He eventually ended up be added to as further information investigating the incident. with the 12th Siege Battery, arriv- becomes available, but they show MacDonald vividly recon- ing in France in early 1918 and how much can be learned even if structs the awesome power of the fighting through the Hundred Days. one starts with almost nothing. Par- blast. Her ability to describe in His memoir, written in 1927 ticularly interesting is the collec- vivid, sometimes gruesome detail and intended to be read only by his tions of family and service photo- the minutiae of a phenomenon that family, covers his experiences in graphs that Gordon Glen has as- few people have ever seen – and battle and in occupation (indeed, sembled. All in all, one can only be fewer still have lived to tell about – one of the most interesting parts of grateful that technology has allowed is a tremendous feat. On recount- the book recounts Cate’s time in the stories of these men to reach a ing the story of an ophthalmologist Belgium and Germany, a subject wider audience. inspecting injured eyes, she tells us that has received all too little atten- TG that upon pressing the eye socket, tion from historians). Cate had a * * * * * “It was as if the ball had been laid wry wit, a gift for spinning a good opened and then stuffed with pieces yarn, and a fondness for the absurd. Laura M. MacDonald, Curse of the of glass or sometimes crockery, He was also a fine draughtsman, and Narrows: The Halifax Explosion brick splinters, and, on palpitation, filled his memoir with small 1917 (Toronto: HarperCollins, they would clink.” This passage, sketches of places and things he saw 2006), $21.95 paper, 368 pages, along with numerous others within in his travels. It is a gem of a book, ISBN 0-0063-948-92. the book, almost made me physi- from a soldier who, were it not for cally ill, a tribute, I think, to the work of his son Charles Cate, elative to most other North MacDonald’s skill as a writer and would have remained in obscurity. RAmerican cities, Halifax has a storyteller. Gordon Glen’s biography of his long past. In recent years, however, There is very little about which uncle Jim Glen is rather different. some might argue that the city has to complain in this fascinating Glen, who had a distinguished avia- faced more than its fair share of book, with one notable exception. tion career during the First World problems. Recently, the Rolling As an historian, I was disappointed War and in the short-lived Canadian Stones descended upon the city, to find that there were no in-text Air Force afterwards, is the sort of and before that it was the two Juans numerical citations to correspond person who should have left a rich – Hurricane and White – in 2003 with her endnotes. MacDonald has paper trail for historians to follow. and 2004. In 1917, however, two done her homework, but it seems Instead, his nephew has had to piece ships – the Imo, a Belgian relief an error somewhere in the publish- together his life from a scattering vessel, and the Mont Blanc, a ing process makes that work now of sources, and even then there are French vessel loaded to the gills difficult to trace. many holes to fill. Jim Glen was with munitions – collided in the More a social than military his- one of eight children born in harbour narrows. The result was tory, Curse of the Narrows tells the Boissevain, Manitoba; his parents the biggest disaster faced by the city story of how civilians, outside vol- and younger brothers moved to unteers, civil servants, and the

24 © Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 2007 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol16/iss2/8 24 et al.: Book Review Supplement Spring 2007

armed forces all came together in server better aim, which eventually spected pilot with the Royal Flying a unified effort to bring relief to the became standard military issue. Corps, but he does not attempt to injured and homeless. It is an in- However, Libby does not dwell on persuade or delude anyone, includ- teresting and important story, and these achievements as he consist- ing himself, of his importance: in a perhaps the book’s most compel- ently underrated his own successes. most unassuming and unashamed ling feature is that MacDonald tells Instead, he praises others for their manner, Libby leaves it to his it so well. If anything, historians accomplishments and teachings, reader to pass judgement upon his will benefit most from the book by including Albert Ball, a great Brit- legacy. paying attention to the nuances in ish ace of the First World War with RC MacDonald’s writing that demon- forty-three confirmed kills, and * * * * * strate how history need not confine Captain Price, Libby’s instructor itself to the formulaic writing so and pilot in 11 Squadron. Kenneth Radley, We Lead, Others often found in academia. Nevertheless, Libby passes an Follow: First Canadian Division, BA unfair judgement upon one man in 1914-1918 (St. Catharines: Vanwell, 2006), $34.95, 415 pages, * * * * * particular. Normally introducing people by their full name (or rank), ISBN 1-5512-510-00. Frederick Libby, Horses Don’t Fly: Libby refused to give the same cour- A Memoir of World War I (New tesy to William Avery “Billy” e Lead, Others Follow is York: Arcade Publishing, 2006), Bishop. He then endeavoured to WKenneth Radley’s (Lieutenant- $38.95, 274 pages, ISBN 1-55970- sully Bishop’s claim of an early Colonel, retired) self-proclaimed at- 526-4. morning raid on a German airfield. tempt to pierce the shroud of “Ca- It is alleged that Bishop single- nadian Amnesia” that he feels cloaks n 1961, more than four decades handedly shot down four enemy the exploits of the Canadian Expe- Iafter the Treaty of Versailles was aircraft (Libby incorrectly recalls ditionary Force [CEF] in the First signed by the Great War belligerents eight aircraft) before limping back World War. He opens the volume in Paris, Frederick Libby finally home to be decorated with the Vic- by bemoaning the relative dearth of added his experiences to the annals toria Cross for his daring and brav- Canadian divisional histories in of First World War historiography. ery. In Libby’s own words, “God comparison to other nations such Based solely on his memories of Almighty! Excuse me while I vomit.” as Australia or Britain and goes on the war, Libby provides a captivat- This was a major point of conten- to state his intention to pay the First ing, highly detailed, and often tion for a pilot who still considered Canadian Division the historical amusing outlook on the first twenty- air warfare a gentlemanly affair attention that it merits. Indeed, six years of his life. After becom- where a kill was recorded only af- Radley closes his preface with a ing a pre-eminent horse trainer and ter it was confirmed by another pi- virtual disclaimer for his approach, working as a cow puncher in small lot. declaring that “some of what I say town Colorado, Libby sought out Finally, unlike the war litera- in this start on the history of the other worldly experiences. Intend- ture of Siegfried Sassoon, Erich Great War Canadian Divisions may ing to head to South America in Maria Remarque, or Charles Yale well be contentious, but then I have 1914, Libby ultimately sailed north Harrison, Libby does not dwell on sought to speak directly as befits a and made his way to Alberta, the ghastly or horrific events of the soldier.” However, despite this dis- Canada. It was at this juncture that war. Rather, he recounts his time claimer, We Lead, Others Follow a recruiter attempted to enlist Libby in the RFC with an air of sentimen- presents a balanced and exhaus- into the CEF. Like so many young tality as an almost golden age of tively researched examination of Canadians he was promised a free history (which speaks to Libby’s the early evolution of the division trip to Europe with good pay as well elderly age of sixty-nine). Life was that became known as “Old Red as the prospect of being home by good in the RFC. Disillusionment Patch,” from its disorganized birth Christmas. Libby unhesitatingly only came when he transferred to on a field outside Valcartier to its joined. the US air service: not only did the position of honour in the vanguard After briefly serving in the United States lack a credible air of the British Expeditionary Force trenches of France, Libby joined the force, but the government and poli- during the early months of 1918. Royal Flying Corps because it was ticians were to be faulted for de- In particular, Radley is seeking to “a nice way out of [the] damn rain.” laying American involvement in the draw attention to the general offic- It was here that he flourished. In war, the damning implication being, ers, not just the divisional com- just over one year of service, Libby of course, that the United States did manders such as Macdonell and successfully shot down several not win the First World War. Currie, who are already the subject German planes (fourteen confirmed Horses Don’t Fly was an hon- of scholarly research in their own kills) to become America’s first est attempt by Frederick Libby to right. This top-down approach to fighter ace of the war. He also in- retell a vital moment in world his- examining the evolution of First vented the butt-stock for a Lewis tory through his own eyes. He was Division is reflected in the central gun on his F.E.2b to give an ob- certainly a very able and well re- premise of Radley’s book, which

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attributes the Division’s rapid pro- lution of the First Division from a summer of 1917. Allen pointed out gression to three primary factors: haphazardly organized and poorly that troops confined to reserve po- command and control, staff work, trained force into a highly efficient sitions still incurred heavy casual- and sound training. and potent unit whose strength was ties but gained none of the glory that Indeed, the body of this volume forged on the battlefields of the they so desired. He made an effort is broken down topically into a Western Front, he also examines to explain the risks that were taken chronological examination of the the ways in which this progression by those who did not participate in three factors outlined above. Begin- benefited those who came after, and battle, but were instead charged ning with command and control, highlights the dear price that was with supplying rations and ammu- Radley offers an analysis of the evo- paid for the efficiency and renown nition to men at the front. Allen also lution of the First Division’s capa- enjoyed by “Old Red Patch” in the effectively conveyed the confusion bilities, followed by an examination latter years of the war. Finally, when that troops experienced throughout of the ways in which this progres- Radley states that the inadequate the war. The 116th Battalion was sion manifested itself. He takes the historiography of the First Division typically unaware of which battle- same dual approach to his discus- is primarily due to the fact “one field they were being sent to, and sion of staff work and training. third of the people of this country… did not know what their assignment There are a number of recurring were either indifferent or hostile to would be until they arrived. Allen themes that run through all three the war effort,” one can’t help but also described the conditions the of these topics. In fact, the topical- wonder the degree to which current Battalion faced while participating chronological structure of Radley’s events have inspired Radley’s de- in battles and raids, often in heavy argument serves to highlight the sire to “pierce the Canadian Amnesia.” degree to which success in all three NH Book Review of these areas was an ongoing proc- * * * * * Supplement Editor ess of trial and error. According to Radley, the First Division’s success E.P.S. Allen, The 116th Battalion Jonathan F. Vance on the battlefield was due to the in France, 1914-18 (Ottawa: CEF virtually incessant efforts of its of- Books, 2005 [1921]), $22.95 paper, Contributing Reviewers ficers to adapt and refine both tac- 111 pages, ISBN 1-896979-41-6. Bryan Andrachuk tics and training, and the increas- Becky Beausaert ingly effective efforts of staff offic- riginally published shortly af- Graham Broad ers to communicate and coordinate Oter the Armistice, this reprint Adrian Ciani these refinements effectively. Simi- of E.P.S. Allen’s work details the Rob Cleveland larly, he repeatedly emphasizes the history of the 116th Battalion dur- Jeremy Cummings extent to which this process of “trial ing the Great War. The author re- Dylan A. Cyr and error” benefited not only fu- counted his own experience in the Brendan Dominick ture members of “Old Red Patch,” Ontario battalion, from his enlist- Sarah Fox but also the other Canadian divi- ment in October 1915 until his re- Matthew Gilbert sions in the CEF, and to a certain turn to Toronto in 1919, and ex- Ted Grainger degree the BEF as a whole. plained that he wrote this short Dorotea Gucciardo It should also be noted that volume for his comrades who Nathan Hall despite the author’s inherent bias served in the 116th, and for their Daniel Hambly (Radley was after all, an officer in families. As a result, his book re- Teresa Iacobelli the Canadian Armed Forces), he sembled a small scrapbook of the Leah Iszakovits does not fall prey to any of the more battalion’s experiences. By retelling Susan Lee pernicious vagaries of patriotic na- the history of his battalion, Allen Jim Lotz tionalism. Indeed, if anything, he produced a fascinating account of Christine Mathers goes out of his way to ensure that a Canadian experience on the West- Hugo Gonzales Murillo the reader is firmly aware of the ern Front. Barbara C. Murison fact that the exploits of the First Allen reveals the initial enthu- Allan O’Hagan Division were carried out under the siasm with which Canadian troops Stephanie Potter aegis of the British Expeditionary marched to war, their quest for Joel Ralph Force. Furthermore, We Lead, Oth- glory, and then the crushing reality Bryan Rosati ers Follow does much to accord the of their experience. Initially, the David Rozanski less glorious positions in the Divi- 116th Battalion demonstrated a Allison Smith sion their due. In particular, the keen desire to prove itself on the Will Toews examination of the increasing effi- battlefield to earn acceptance within Jonathan F. Vance ciency of staff duties poignantly the Canadian Corps, to which it had Shannon VanderWeerd emphasizes the integral role played been a late addition. However, the Jane E. Whalen by staff officers. Ultimately, Radley Battalion was often placed in sup- James Wood not only traces the successful evo- port or reserve positions until the

26 © Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 2007 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol16/iss2/8 26 et al.: Book Review Supplement Spring 2007

mud while under gas attack and the events being described; these torians and Great War enthusiasts artillery fire. He also detailed his include pictures of various compa- with a valuable record of the 116th battalion’s contribution to several nies, successive commanders, and Battalion’s service on the Western Canadian victories, including Vimy the landscapes in which the unit Front, and helps to bring a greater Ridge, Passchendaele, and fought. understanding of the soldier’s ex- Cambrai. Photographs and maps are The re-publication of Allen’s perience in a Canadian context. included in the book to illustrate out-of-print account provides his- SP Briefly Noted Gerald F. Holm and Anthony P. in the two world wars, Korea, and lives by using a parachute to escape Buchner, eds., A Place of Honour: the Gulf War. It is not a traditional from a disabled aircraft. John Neal Manitoba’s War Dead Commemo- narrative, but rather a collection of himself is a member, having been rated in its Geography (Winnipeg: photographs, poems, and brief ex- forced out of his wrecked aircraft Manitoba Conservation, n.d.), planatory notes, weighted heavily, in April 1944, and he has assem- $19.95 paper, 485 pages, ISBN 0- not surprisingly, on the Newfound- bled the stories of more than 24 of 7711-1523-7. land Regiment and the Royal Naval his fellow members from around Reserve, in which the majority of the world. Each short chapter tells fter the end of the Second these individuals served. Perhaps of a narrow escape, although some AWorld War, the Geographical most striking about the book is how do not, strictly speaking, qualify for Names Board of Canada estab- few surnames are represented – the book. There is, for example, the lished a policy of honouring deco- there were clearly a relatively small tale of Sergeant Nicholas rated war casualties by naming geo- number of large, extended families Alkemade, who tumbled out of his graphical features after them. In in these communities who gave Lancaster at 18,000 feet without a 1955, when the Board began run- freely to the armed forces over the parachute; he survived by falling ning out of names, it began to hon- 20th century. Indeed, the author’s through a thick fir tree to land in our all war dead – by 1992, about own surname can be found on many deep snow. Nevertheless, it is a fas- half of Manitoba’s casualties had occasions, in both world wars. cinating collection and one that al- been honoured, and the program The photographs, especially lows for an almost limitless number continues. It involves contacting the from the First World War, are also of sequels. relatives of the individuals con- haunting. Many of them have been * * * * * cerned, and to date provincial offi- culled from private collections, and cials have located 2,889 of the 4,246 may have been hanging on dining Desmond Morton, Billet pour le families, to present them with com- room or parlour walls for decades. front: Histoire sociale des memorative name certificates. There are not very many familiar volontaires canadiens (1914- During that process, officials names (one of the few is Victoria 1919) (Outrement: Athéna have collected photographs and Cross winner Tommy Ricketts, a Éditions, 2005), $27.95 paper, 384 anecdotes from the families, and legendary figure in Newfoundland pages, ISBN 2-922865-40-1. these have been assembled into this history), but the faces have a tragic commemorative volume. It is fas- similarity about them: two broth- n addition to publishing its own cinating just to browse through, to ers killed on the same day at Imonographs, Athéna Éditions has read the excerpts from small-town Beaumont Hamel in 1916; a group begun to issue French-language newspapers, letters of condolence of pals photographed before leav- translation of English-language clas- from commanding officers, remi- ing the island – half of them came sics in Canadian military history. niscences from siblings, widows, home, half didn’t. Taken together, A translation of Bill Rawling’s Sur- and children. Nothing is more ef- they all symbolize the magnitude of viving Trench Warfare appeared in fective as a reminder of the human the sacrifice made by these tiny vil- 2004, an edition that is now fol- cost of war. lages and outports over the century. lowed by a French version of Mor- ton’s When Your Number’s Up. With * * * * * * * * * * a new introduction and an updated Francis Patey, Veterans of the John A. Neal, Bless You, Brother bibliography, Billet pour le front North (St. John’s: Creative Publish- Irvin: The Caterpillar Club Story is a useful edition to the library of ers, 2003), $22.95 paper, 326 pages, (Renfrew, ON: General Store Pub- anyone who already owns When ISBN 1-894294-56-4. lishing, 2005), $19.95 paper, 124 Your Number’s Up. Now that Athéna pages, ISBN 1-894263-94-4. Éditions has taken this excellent n Veterans of the North, Francis initiative, is there an English pub- IPatey has compiled a tribute to here is an elite group known lisher out there that would take up the men and women of Newfound- Tas the Caterpillar Club, whose the challenge and issue English land’s Great Northern Peninsula membership is open only to men translations of Athéna’s French-lan- and coastal Labrador who served and women who have saved their guage monographs?

Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2007 27 Canadian Military History, Vol. 16 [2007], Iss. 2, Art. 8 Index of Books Reviewed

General Hometown Horizons: Local Responses to The Anguish of Surrender: Japanese Canada’s Great War by Robert POWs of World War II Rutherdale ...... 14 by Ulrich Straus ...... 10 Duty Nobly Done: The Official History of The Essex and Kent Scottish Horses Don’t Fly: A Memoir of World War I The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Regiment by Sandy Antal and by Frederick Libby ...... 25 Action by H.P. Willmott ...... 4 Kevin R. Shackleton ...... 17 It Made You Think Of Home: The Blatant Injustice: The Story of a Jewish Far From Home: A Memoir of a 20th Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes, Refugee from Nazi Germany Impris- Century Soldier Canadian Expeditionary Force: 1916- oned in Britain and Canada during by Jeffery Williams ...... 12 1919 by Bruce Cane ...... 9 World War II by Walter W. Igersheimer ...... 20 From Baddeck to the Yalu: Stories of Letters from Angus, 1915-1916 by J.P. Canada’s Airmen at War by Norm Pollock ...... 22 * Bless You, Brother Irvin: The Caterpillar Shannon ...... 1 Lieutenant Owen William Steele of the Club Story by John A. Neal ...... 27 Gananoque Remembers: A Tribute to the Newfoundland Regiment: Diary and Born Lucky: RSM Harry Fox, MBE, One D- Men Who Gave Their Lives for Letters by David R. Facey-Crowther .. 20 Day Dodger’s Story by Craig B. Freedom by Geraldine Chase Lights Out!: The Memoir of Nursing Sister Cameron ...... 6 and Bill Beswetherick ...... 16 Kate Wilson, Canadian Army Medical Clash of Arms: How the Allies Won in An Honourable Sacrifice by Graeme F. Corps, 1915-1917 by Katherine Normandy by Russell A. Hart ...... 2 Somerville ...... 16 Wilson-Simmie ...... 2 Dad’s War: The Story of a Courageous “No Return Ticket”: Wallaceburg’s War Margaret MacDonald: Imperial Daughter Canadian Youth Who Flew With Casualties and Selected War Memo- by Susan Mann ...... 18 Bomber Command ries by Alan Mann ...... 16 A Memoriam to the Life of David Kenneth by Dan McCaffery ...... 9 nd * A Place of Honour: Manitoba’s War Dead Glen, 2 Regiment, Canadian A Doctor’s War by Aidan MacCarthy Commemorated in its Geography by Mounted Rifles, (B.C. Horse), Escape!!!: The True Story of a World War Gerald F. Holm and Anthony P. Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary II P.O.W. The Germans Couldn’t Hold Buchner ...... 27 Force, Royal Naval Air Service and by John M. “Jack” Roberts...... 5 RAF by Gordon S. Glen ...... 23 Valiant Hearts: Atlantic Canada and the Growing Up and Going to War, 1925-1945 Victoria Cross by John Boileau ...... 21 A Memoriam to the Life of James Alpheus by Donald D. Tansley ...... 19 Glen, D.S.C. and Bar, Croix de Guerre * Veterans of the North Index to Overseas Deaths of Ontario by Francis Patey ...... 27 avec Palme, Royal Naval Air Service, Servicemen and Servicewomen, Royal Air Force, Canadian Air Force 1939-1947 by Bruce Thornley ...... 20 by Gordon S. Glen ...... 23 Iwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle Notes: A Soldier’s Memoir of World War I by Eric Hammel...... 22 Pre-1914 by Clifton J. and Charles J. Cate ...... 23 A Land Girl’s War by Joan Snelling ...... 13 The 116th Battalion in France, 1914- No Prouder Place: Canadians and the Half-Hearted Enemies: Nova Scotia, New 1918 by E.P.S. Allen ...... 26 England and the War of 1812 Bomber Command Experience by Pegahmagabow: Legendary Warrior, David L. Bashow ...... 19 by John Boileau ...... 6 Forgotten Hero by Adrian Hayes ...... 3 Irishmen in War From the Crusades to Shattered Dreams by Olive Fisher Riding into War: The Memoir of a Horse Campbell ...... 13 1798: Essays from The Transport Driver, 1916-1919 by Snow Plough and the Jupiter Deception: Irish Sword ...... 22 James Robert Johnston ...... 8 The Story of the 1st Special Service The Road to Canada: The Grand Commu- Scouting Thrills: The Memoir of a Scout Force and the 1st Canadian Special nications Route from Saint John to Officer in the Great War by G.B. Service Battalion, 1942-1945 by Quebec by Gary Campbell ...... 21 McKean11 Kenneth H. Joyce ...... 15 Shock Army of the British Empire: The A Soldier’s View: The Personal Photo- Canadian Army in the Last 100 Days graphs of Canadians at War 1939- 1914-1939 of the Great War 1945 by Blake Heathcote ...... 11 by Shane B. Schreiber ...... 18 They Can’t Take That Away From Me: The The Angel of Mons: Phantom Soldiers and Shrieks and Crashes: The Memoir of Odyssey of an American POW by Ghostly Guardians Wilfred B. Kerr, Canadian Field Ralph M. Rentz and Peter Hrisko ...... 8 by David Clarke ...... 5 Artillery, 1917 33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A by Wilfred Brenton Kerr ...... 14 Arms and The Maple Leaf: The Memoir of World War II Airman Tells His Story Wilfred Kerr, Canadian Field Artillery, The Unwanted: Great War Letters from by Albert P. Clark ...... 2 the Field Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1918 Unsung Heroes of the Royal Canadian Air by Wilfred Brenton Kerr ...... 11 by John McKendrick Hughes...... 10 Force: Incredible Tales of Courage and * Billet pour le front: Histoire sociale des We Lead, Others Follow: First Canadian Daring during World War II volontaires canadiens (1914-1919) by Division, 1914-1918 by Kenneth by Cynthia J. Faryon ...... 1 Desmond Morton ...... 27 Radley ...... 25 A War Bride’s Story: Risking it all for Canada and the First World War: Essays in We’re Not Dead Yet: The First World War Love After World War II Honour of Robert Craig Brown by Diary of Private Bert Cooke by Milly by Cynthia J. Faryon ...... 13 David Mackenzie ...... 4 Walsh and John Callan ...... 6 Willi: Diary of a Young Lieutenant by Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Michelle Kaiser ...... 17 Explosion 1917 by Laura M. MacDonald ...... 24 1939-1945 Explosion in Halifax Harbour: The Illustrated Account of a Disaster Aces, Warriors and Wingmen: Firsthand Post-1945 That Shook the World Accounts of Canada’s Fighter Pilots in Jewish Displaced Persons in Camp by David B. Flemming ...... 17 the Second World War Bergen-Belsen, 1945-1950: The Fight or Pay: Soldiers’ Families in the by Wayne Ralph...... 1 Great War by Desmond Morton ...... 12 Unique Photo Album of Zippy Orlin by Erik Somers and René Kok ...... 7 Hell’s Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Great War, 1914-1918 by * Briefly Noted J.L. Granatstein ...... 7 28 © Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 2007 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol16/iss2/8 28