Annotated Bibliography: The Last Good War

The United States entered World War Two in late 1941, and right away they were thrown into a conflict that involved making important decisions that would affect generations of people, in the United States and elsewhere, for years to come. A most notable decision by the Allies, namely the United States and Great Britain, was the combining of the American and British military chiefs of staff. This joint collaboration was appropriately titled the “Combined Chiefs of Staff”. They worked together as one body, and made war planning decisions and strategized together. This type of alliance was an innovation in war planning for the time, and the decisions made collaboratively by the two powers contributed greatly to the Allied victory in 1945. The relationships involved and the disputes that came up are worth noting, specifically the question of the Allies opening up a second front in the west, particularly titled “Operation Sledgehammer”. The relationship between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, as well as General George Marshall of the United States and General Sir Alan Brooke of Great Britain were the main actors involved in this undertaking, and they will be the main individuals discussed and analyzed for the purposes of this paper. Ultimately Operation Sledgehammer was delayed and no action was taken upon it. Even though it caused rifts between the USSR, for reasons that will be explained, and the Allies far into the future, in retrospect they may have been

As time goes on, some countries become more relevant in the global sphere while others start to fade away. Canada is a country that only becomes more relevant as time goes on. Since being granted full sovereignty, Canada has had a growing role as a major world player. Much of their international growth has to do with its close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the country has also undergone huge change and refocusing on a domestic level. With influence from both Europe and the United States, Canada has a very unique system of governing. This paper will focus on a few major areas of Canada. It will look into the history of Canada, the structure of its government, its politics, and many of the major issues it faces today.

The Canadian foreign policy of the 1930s has been a subject of scholarly inquiry for quite some time .In this paper, we compare the readings of Norman Hillmer,"Defence and Ideology: The Anglo-Canadian Military Alliance in the 1930's "Eayrs, James " A low Dishonest Decade" : Aspects of Canadian External Policy, 1931-1939.

Canadians pride themselves on being a “peacekeeping country” and many believe that peacekeeping represents a defining aspect of Canadian identity because it reflects fundamental values, beliefs and interests. Canada has been a leader in peace operations since its development that spearheaded by a Canadian. In fact, Canada’s role as peacekeeper remains the main focus of the Canadian military after its invention around 60 years ago, originally started by a Canadian. Their efforts have gained an international reputation for Canada as a significant contributor to international peace and stability. While Canada has an exemplary history in UN peacekeeping, the current extent of its contribution, both in terms of peacekeeping personnel and percentage of funds to peacekeeping missions, are on a clear decline. The belief that Canada is a peacekeeping country is misguided because recent Canadian commitment shows a sharp decline in Canadian participation in UN peacekeeping. Surprisingly, as of March 2007, Canada ranked 59th out of 114 countries in terms of military and police contributions to UN operations. Despite Canadian declined involvement in peacekeeping during the last decade, it still remains a valuable and important mission that greatly deserves Canadian resources including monetary support, resources and personnel.

Canada’s contribution in the Allied war effort did not only come from Canadian soldiers, but also from regular, everyday citizens who never saw battle, such as those involved in the Canadian war industry, BCATP, and the Corps of Canadian Firefighters. The Canadian industry supplied a great deal of war materials for the Allies, producing “more than 800,000 military transport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field, naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000 small arms.”6 Canada’s strong war industry was required to produce as much ammunition, weapons, and vehicles as they could in order to defeat Germany, who had great industrial power at the time. In 1939, Canada became the home for major recruiting and training for pilots during the Second World War in an organization called the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Throughout the war, Canada had graduated 131,533 airmen, including pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators, air gunners and flight engineers.7 These men would later become involved in the war in the air, and their numbers would greatly contribute to the Allied air superiority.  During the Battle of Britain, German air forces relentlessly bombarded London and

“Our first duty is to win, at any cost!” Sir Robert Borden played an important role as Canadian Prime Minister during World War I, and while he is to be praised, he also to be held accountable for his actions; especially in the passing of Bills through parliament. Sir Robert Borden had not a great vision but more so a motto to live up to (to strive for), a country to lead in a worldwide war, and decisions that if not taken in a certain light, would have disrupted the newly forming “peaceful” dominion into a divided house.

WWII was a defining moment in Canadian history, transforming a quiet country on the verge of global affairs into a crucial opponent in the 20th century's most tragic battle. Canada played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the air war over Germany, and sacrificed thousands of lives. Between 1939 and 1945 more than one million Canadian men and women served full-time in the armed services and more than 43,000 were killed (Stacey, July 15, 2013 ). In November 1944, after extreme losses in front-line units serving in Northwest Europe and Italy, Ottawa legitimized conscription, sending out 16,000 home defence men overseas (Canadian War Museum, N/A). This implement for Conscription was necessary for Canada based on the lack of Canadian volunteers, the

Canada’s influence in Europe allowed them to help to alter the course of World War II through their courage and bravery at many battles, including Juno Beach, Ortona, and the failure of Dieppe. Throughout the war they came alongside the British out of their own accord to protect their homeland

During the 1950s Canadian lives and history changed forever. The Suez Crisis was a political and military confrontation in Egypt that had a threat on the US and Great Britain. The Crisis brought Canadians together to help produce a large-scale peacemaking mission. Canada’s role in the Korean war was to protect South Korea as part of the United Nations and to work as peacekeepers after the war had ended. This war was the first time that women joined senior military ranks, a huge step for Canada and equal rights.

World War II was one of the most influential wars in history to date that lasted from 1939 - 1945 that included many of the worlds nations. World War II has shaped Canada’s economy, politics, and society drastically because the country was in a state of total war. Canada joined the Allies side, providing them with man-power and resources such as military vehicles and firearms. The war had a very significant effect on Canada as they had contributed early which made a crucial difference to the winning of the war. In this essay, I will exam how has World War II shaped Canada’s economy, politics, and society.

While The Great War may seem like a global effort it can largely still be considered as a forced war upon certain countries participation. A war that reinforces the idea of group efforts and strength in numbers highlights contribution of certain countries, focused on Canada’s encouraged aid. The Great War efforts of Canada may leave room for assumptions and questioning. A prominent theme through out the First World War chapter found in each of the readings, primary and secondary, is this idea of a lack of aid and support from the Canadians at the time the war, 1914 to 1918. Each source separately states a multitude of concerns seemingly all to do with Canada’s war efforts. The texts share the idea that Canada did not join the war with enough strength nor numbers in comparison to the great leading powers, such as Great Britain and France. The importance of these texts is to have an over view of just how extensive and difficult it is to gather troops and resources. The Great War also known as World War One is seemingly a war fought with great numbers of armed men. Nonetheless, having external assets is key to a strong combat and a lack there of causes chaos and a weaker front.

Division in Canada was deep: Nationalists battled imperialists, and French Canadians were at odds with Anglophones. The theoretical debate was quickly halted by the outbreak of World War I, and forced into a practical test. While Canadian land forces famously punched above their weight in battles like Vimy, Ypres and the Somme, Canadian naval forces offered a lackluster showing throughout the First World War. The vast sums of money required to pursue any naval course of action meant that parliamentary ideological debate would be fierce3, and that the House of Commons would ultimately determine the direction of Canada's naval future. In light of this, it should be asked what effect Canadian politics at the turn of the century had on the development and subsequent effectiveness of the Royal Canadian Navy? Likely, Canadian politics were complicit in quashing any aspirations for a competent and powerful navy. Pursuit of a policy of splendid isolation, absence of bipartisan cooperation or communication, culminating with a poor combat record during the First World War ending 1918 as a result support this hypothesis. The first two factors are the political causes, the combat record is the concrete proof of the consequences. Despite the fact that this opinion is not widely espoused today, especially through government or official websites, the evidence

Secondly, I want to discuss if the skepticism from the British and Americans had anything to do with Canada’s stationed positions away from combat. British 8th army division has a high reputation in the African campaign and had included two inexperienced Canadian divisions into Operation Husky. Even with Canada’s prior engagements, the British army did not exclude them from the operation. Canada’s participation changed the perspective of their allies and placed them as a center role in the invasion. There is still the skeptical premise I will address in my paper to explore how Canadian soldier’s role alongside its allies changed their views throughout the invasion.

When assessing the global strategic environment, the major changes between 1971 and now is the types of perceived threats to national and international security. In 1971, when the White Paper on Defence was released, the world was dominated by the United States and the USSR, and there was a consensus that the major threat Canada feared the most was a nuclear war

Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918 by Dr Bill Rawling is an enjoyable book to read to gain insight in the way that the Great War was fought in the early twentieth century. It is a valuable resource to learn about tactics and other parts of the Canadian involvement in World War One. While there is not a very clear thesis, Rawlings’ overall theme is that the Canadians did the best they could have done in the situation they were in.