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The ninth book in the Canadian Battle Series, Breakout from Juno, is the first dramatic chronicling of Canada's pivotal role throughout the entire Normandy Campaign following the D-Day landings. On July 4, 1944, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division won the village of Carpiquet but not the adjacent airfield. Instead of a speedy victory, the men faced a bloody fight. The Canadians advanced relentlessly at a great cost in bloodshed. Within 2 weeks the 2nd Infantry and 4th Armoured divisions joined coming together as the First Canadian Army. The soldiers fought within a narrow landscape extending a mere 21 miles from Caen to Falaise. They won a two-day battle for Verrières Ridge starting on July 21, after 1,500 casualties. More bloody battles followed, until finally, on August 21, the narrowing gap that had been developing at Falaise closed when American and Canadian troops shook hands. The German army in Normandy had been destroyed, only 18,000 of about 400,000 men escaping. The Allies suffered 206,000 casualties, of which 18,444 were Canadians. Breakout from Juno is a story of uncommon heroism, endurance and sacrifice by Canada's World War II volunteer army and pays tribute to Canada's veterans.
Mark Zuehlke is an expert at narrating the history of life on the battlefield for the Canadian army during World War II. In Terrible Victory, he provides a soldiers-eye-view account of Canada's bloody liberation of western Holland. Readers are there as soldiers fight in the muddy quagmire, enduring a battle that lasted three weeks and in which 6,000 soldiers perished. Terrible Victory is a powerful story of courage, survival, and skill.
"Except for a brief period during the Rhineland battle, the First Canadian Army was the smallest to serve under Eisenhower's command. The Canadian component never totalled more than 185,000 of the four million Allied troops serving in Northwest Europe. It is evident, however, that the divisions of 2nd Canadian Corps played a role disproportionate to their numbers. Their contribution to operations designed to secure the channel ports and open the approaches to Antwerp together with the battles in the Rhineland place them among the most heavily committed and sorely tried divisions in the Allied armies. By the end of 1944 3rd Canadian Division had suffered the highest number of casualties in 21 Army Group with 2nd Canadian Division ranking a close second. In the armoured divisions, 4th Canadian was at the top of the list as was 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade among the independent tank brigades. Overall Canadian casualties were 20 per cent higher than in comparable British formations. This was a direct result of the much greater number of days that Canadian units were involved in close combat."--Jacket.
Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson's Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 was first published by the Department of National Defence in 1962 as the official history of the Canadian Army’s involvement in the First World War. Immediately after the war ended Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid made a first attempt to write an official history of the war, but the ill-fated project produced only the first of an anticipated eight volumes. Decades later, G.W.L. Nicholson - already the author of an official history of the Second World War - was commissioned to write a new official history of the First. Illustrated with numerous photographs and full-colour maps, Nicholson’s text offers an authoritative account of the war effort, while also discussing politics on the home front, including debates around conscription in 1917. With a new critical introduction by Mark Osborne Humphries that traces the development of Nicholson’s text and analyzes its legacy, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 is an essential resource for both professional historians and military history enthusiasts.
It's rare for a book to capture your attention from the very first sentence, but kudos to the authors of First Canadian Army for doing just that... I, too, feel that Canada's contributions to victory in both world wars have unfortunately been downplayed or ignored over the decades by the country's allies. -- Canada's History Magazine A pictorial history of the decisive role played by Canada in the final year of World War II. After Dunkirk, as the tattered remnants of Britain's best troops returned home without their heavy weapons, Canadian troops moved in to defend northwest Europe, sending in virtually all of its disposable weapon resources and 368,000 soldiers. The majority of these were to be part of the First Canadian Army, which would play a key role leading to the unconditional surrender by Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945. This book is a pictorial history of the First Canadian Army in northwest Europe during the final year of the war. It concentrates not just on the events of 75 years ago but also what can be seen on the ground today. The illustrations, over 350 of them, include battle, landing and assault maps; photographs of soldiers in action and resting, aerial photographs of key sites of action then and now; battlefield survivors such as Sherman tanks; memorials to individuals and units; and, of course, the cemeteries of Canadian, Polish and British soldiers. In 10 parts and 60 chapters featuring 350 illustrations and maps, the book covers: The Bridgehead The Battles Around Caen Clearing the Coast Clearing the Scheldt Winter on the Maas The Rhineland Advance to the Sea I Corps in the West Netherlands The German Surrender. Military history buffs will enjoy this book for its focus on a specific battalion and its actions at a decisive moment in the war. The archival photographs are important records and reminders of this watershed moment in World War II's European theater.
General Bernard Law Montgomery, affectionately known as "Monty," exerted an influence on the Canadian Army more lasting than that of any other Second World War commander. In 1942 he assumed responsibility for the exercise and training of Canadian formations in England, and by the end of the war Canada’s field army was second to none in the practical exercise of combined arms. In Monty and the Canadian Army, John A. English analyses the way Montgomery’s operational influence continued to permeate the Canadian Army. For years, the Canadian Army remained a highly professional force largely because it was commanded at almost every lower level by "Monty men" steeped in the Montgomery method. The era of the Canadian Army headed by such men ceased with the integration and unification of Canada’s armed forces in 1964. The embrace of Montgomery by Canadian soldiers stands in marked contrast to largely negative perceptions held by Americans. Monty and the Canadian Army aims to correct such perceptions, which are mostly superficial and more often than not wrong, and addresses the anomaly of how this gifted general, one of the greatest field commanders of the Second World War, managed to win over other North American troops.
General H.D.G. 'Harry' Crerar (1888-1965) was involved in or directly responsible for many of the defining moments of Canadian military history in the twentieth century. In the First World War, Crerar was nearly killed at the second battle of Ypres, was a gunner who helped to secure victory at Vimy Ridge, and was a senior staff officer during the pivotal battles of the last Hundred Days. During the Second World War, he occupied and often defined the Canadian army's senior staff and operational appointments, including his tenure as commander of First Canadian Army through the northwest European campaign. Despite his pivotal role in shaping the Canadian army, however, General Crerar has been long overlooked as a subject of biography. In A Thoroughly Canadian General, Paul Douglas Dickson examines the man and his controversial place in Canadian military history, arguing that Crerar was a nationalist who saw the army as an instrument to promote Canadian identity and civic responsibility. From his days as a student at the Royal Military College in Kingston, to his role as primary architect of First Canadian Army, the career of General H.D.G. Crerar is thoroughly examined with a view to considering and reinforcing his place in the history of Canada and its armed forces.
In wartime, capturing the hearts and minds of the citizenry is arguably as important as victory on the battlefield. The Information Front explores the Canadian military’s use of public relations units to manage news during the Second World War. These specialized units were responsible for providing sufficient and positive news coverage to Canadians at home. This fascinating study traces the transformation of an emergent PR organization into an efficient publicity machine. It also scrutinizes news coverage and PR activities during major Canadian operations at Dieppe, Sicily, and Normandy to reveal how the military used censorship and propaganda to rally support for the war effort.
During the winter of 1944-45, the western Allies desperately sought a strategy that would lead to Germany's quick defeat. After much rancorous debate, the Allied high command decided that First Canadian Army would launch the pivotal offensive to win the war--an attack against the Rhineland, an area of Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. Winning this land would give them a launching point for crossing the river and driving into Germany's heartland. This was considered the road to victory. For those who fought, the names of battlegrounds such as Moyland Wood and the Hochwald Gap would forever call up memories of uncommon heroism, endurance and tragic sacrifice. Their story is one largely lost to the common national history of World War II. Forgotten Victory gives this important legacy back to Canadians.