34th CANADIAN MILITARY HISTORY COLLOQUIUM
3-4 may 2024
PROGRAMME
friday may 3rd, 2024
8:00 – 8:45 | CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
Lobby outside Senate & Board Chamber
8:45 – 9:00 | OPENING REMARKS
Senate & Board Chamber
9:00 – 10:00 | c.p. stacey plentary address
Senate & Board Chamber
Irish Revolutionaries, Canadian Detectives and the Politics of Espionage
David A. Wilson, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto
10:00 – 10:15 | COFFEE BREAK
10:15 – 11:45 | Session 1
Session 1A | The Second World War in the Skies
Senate & Board Chamber | Chair: Paul Johnston, RCAF History and Heritage
- The RCAF and the Battle of the Atlantic: Why Did it Take So Long to Acquire the VLR Liberators? | Christopher M. Bell, Dalhousie University
- Through the Eyes of a Young Officer: Aerial Reconnaissance in the Mediterranean | Richard Goette, Canadian Forces College
- “Border Line Pilots”: RCAF Aircrew and No.22 OUT | Wes Cross, McGill Remembers
Session 1B | The RCAF and the Cold War
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: Isabel Campbell, Directorate of History and Heritage
- The Post-War RCAF Auxiliary | Sandy Babcock, Independent Scholar
- “So How Well Did We Do?” An Assessment of the St. Laurent Government’s Air Defence Policy, June 1950 to June 1957 | Matthew Trudgen, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary
- Mushrooms of Intelligence: The RCAF and Canada’s Nuclear Cloud Sampling Program in the Cold War | Matthew Wiseman, University of Waterloo
Session 1C | Bomber Command
Arts 1C17 | Chair: Geoff Hayes, University of Waterloo Randall Wakelam, Royal Military College
- Bomber Command: The RCAF’s Greatest Triumph | Roddy Mackenzie
- Flight Sergeant Peter Dutchak: A Case Study in Hard Luck | Patrick Dennis
- Operation MARATHON and Code Name ‘Sherwood’: Memoirs from Those That Lived It | Robert Chapman, WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society
11:45 – 12:30 | LUNCH
Lobby outside Senate & Board Chamber
12:30 – 2:00 | Session 2
Session 2A | Roundtable: Remembering Their Faces: Outlining Ethical AI Use at NAFMC To Build Public Engagement
Senate & Board Chamber | Chair: Valerie Wood, Ingenium Canada – Canada Aviation and Space Museum
- Stephen Adams, Mohawk College
- Jennifer Dunn, National Air Force Museum of Canada
- Hailey Graham, National Air Force Museum of Canada
Session 2B | The RCAF in the Early Cold War
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: Sean Maloney, Royal Military College
- Louis St. Laurent and the RCAF: Canadian Defence Policy Objectives in the Early Cold War | Joanne Archibald, Queen’s University/Livy Consulting
- Sitting Ducks: The F104G Nuclear-Only Role in Europe in the Early 1960s | Isabel Campbell, Directorate of History and Heritage
- Flying on Ice: Hockey in Northern RCAF Stations During the Cold War | Adam Coombs, Department of National Defence
Session 2C | The Second World War from Mobilization to the Front
Arts 2C17 | Chair: Tarah Brookfield, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Flames on the Leopold: The Attack of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade Over the Leopold Canal and Into Occupied Netherlands 6 – 13 October 1944 | Arthur Gullachsen, Royal Military College of Canada
- The Dashed Hopes of the 26th Army Tank Regiment: “The Grey and Simcoe Foresters Are No More” | Dave Alexander, Independent Researcher
- Canadian Battalion Commanders of the Second World War | Matthew Barrett, Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada
2:00 – 2:15 | COFFEE BREAK
2:15 – 3:45 | Session 3
Session 3A | RCAF Planning and Strategy in the Early Cold War
Senate & Board Chamber | Chair: Matthew Wiseman, University of Waterloo
- The RCAF Returns to Britain, Postwar | Carl A. Christie, CAC Historical Research and Writing
- First Steps to Atomic Partnership: Canadian Support to Strategic Air Command in the Early Cold War: 1946-1952 | Sean Maloney, Royal Military College of Canada
- Canada, the Paris Plan, and an Air Division: NATO Commitments 1950-1953 | Paul Johnston, RCAF History and Heritage
Session 3B | Personal Experiences in the Second World War
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: Matthew Barrett, Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada
- Sailing Through Shadows: A History of Emotions of Sailors in Convoy Operations, 1939 – 1945 | John McConnell, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Exploring Morale in First Canadian Army | Geoffrey Hayes, University of Waterloo & Elizabeth Spence, Wilfrid Laurier University
- The Conscientious Objector Experience in the RCAMC and CDC, 1943-45 | Rosemary Giles, Western University
4:00 – 5:00 | Session 4
Session 4A | Museum Representations of the RCAF
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: Richard Mayne, RCAF History and Heritage
- Rising to the Challenge: The RCAF in the Second World War | Alex Fitzgerald-Black, Juno Beach Centre Association
- Evolving Representations of the Royal Canadian Air Force During the Cold War at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum | Valerie Wood, Ingenium Canada – Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Session 4B | Depictions of the Air War
Arts 1C17 | Chair: Jeff Noakes, Canadian War Museum
- Remembering the Forgotten Ace: The RCAF’s Commemoration of William Barker | Brad St. Croix, RCAF Foundation
- Canvas in the Clouds: Visual and Material Documentation of the RCAF | Sarafina Pagnotta, Carleton University
6:00 – 7:00 | Book Launches & Cash Bar
Lobby outside Senate & Board Chamber; bar opens at 5:45
7:00 | banquet & keynote address
Senate & Board Chamber
Richard Mayne, Chief Historian and Director of RCAF History and Heritage
saturday may 4th, 2024
8:30 – 9:00 | Conference Registration
Lobby outside Senate & Board Chamber
9:00 – 10:30 | Session 5
Session 5A | The RCAF and Peacekeeping Operations
Senate & Board Chamber | Chair: Mathias Joost, RCAF Centennial Committee
- On the Wings of Hope: The RCAF and Humanitarian Peacekeeping Operations, 1945-1967 | William March
- Herald to the Inconvenient Realities of Peacekeeping, Attack on RCAF Buffalo Flight 51 (116 Air Transport Unit) on August 9, 1974 | Robert Smol, University of New Brunswick
- “It Was Like Nothing Anyone Had Ever Experienced”: The RCAF and the Kabul Evacuation, Aug-Sep 2021 | Mike Bechthold, Wilfrid Laurier University
Session 5B | Perspectives on the First World War
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: Brittany Dunn, Canadian War Museum
- “Those Wild Women Are Making a Man of Me”: Borderlines of the Military Masculine Identity During the First World War | Aly Firth, Wilfrid Laurier University
- The War Diary of Leslie Miller: One Soldier as Tourist on the Western Front | Graham Broad, King’s University College
- What To Do About William Rankin: Industrial Accidents and the Trial of Henry Paquette | Kyle Pritchard, Wilfrid Laurier University
Session 5C | Individuals in the Second World War
Arts 1C17 | Chair: Kevin Spooner, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Wilf and Rocky: Flying and Combat Stress in Two World Wars | Jeff Noakes, Canadian War Museum
- Canadian Zelig: The Curious Life and Decorated Career of Lawrence Cosgrove | Michael B. Pass, University of Ottawa
- Campbell Clouston and Operation Dynamo | Nicholas Herten-Greaven, Independent Researcher
10:30 – 10:45 | COFFEE BREAK
10:45 – 12:15 | Session 6
Session 6A | The Ever-Relevant Past
Senate & Board Chamber | Chair: Richard Goette, Canadian Forces College
- “The Ground as a Primary Source”: Battlefields and Education | Howard G. Coombs, Royal Military College of Canada
- Technology and War – Ends, Ways, and Means of Learning | Mike Hennessy, Canadian Forces College
- Historical War Games and the Classroom: Some Considerations For Their Use | Craig Mantle, Canadian Forces College
Session 6B | RCAF Operations: Preparation to Execution
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: William March
- The RCAF’s Inter-War Warrant Officers Class 1 – More Than Just Warrant Officers | Mathias Joost, RCAF Centennial Committee
- The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same – 100+ Years of Aircraft Engineering and Maintenance in the Canadian Military | Terrence Leversedge, Kestrel Publications
- Determined to Deliver: 435 Squadron in Burma 1944 – 45 | Norma Graham
Session 6C | (Re)Fighting the First World War
Arts 1C17 | Chair: Graham Broad, King’s University College
- Representation in Education: Arthur Currie, Julian Byng, and Technology | Colton Enslen, University of British Columbia
- A Self-Contained Military Force: The Story of the Canadian Corps Tramway Companies on the Western Front | Bradley Shoebottom, University of New Brunswick
12:15 – 1:00 | LUNCH
Lobby outside Senate & Board Chamber
1:00 – 2:30 | Session 7
Session 7A | Effects of War on Communities and the Environment
Senate & Board Chamber | Chair: Adam Coombs, Department of National Defence
- St. Vincent’s Iron Harvest: The History of the Meaford Tank Range | Bram Fookes, University of Guelph
- Mobilizing Military History? Fighting Climate Change With the Second World War Metaphor | Alex Souchen, University of Guelph
- A Great Wounding: The Socio-Environmental Trauma of Fighter Jets on First Nations Land in Cold Lake, Alberta | Tamara Lorincz, Wilfrid Laurier University
Session 7B | The World Wars in Western Canada
Paul Martin Centre | Chair: Eric Story, Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada
- Shell-Shocked the Film: A Historical Film’s Rebirth | Cam Telch, Mount Saint Vincent University
- A Vested Interest: British Columbia Great War Veterans’ Communities in the Second World War | Scott Sheffield, University of the Fraser Valley
- Wartime Censorship of the BC Federationist: An Experiment in a Cubist Analysis of Liberal Hegemony and Press Censorship | Curtis B. Robinson, Brandon University
2:30 – 2:45 | COFFEE BREAK
2:45 – 3:45 | Closing Plenary
Senate & Board Chamber
Air Power and the Normandy Beachhead
Terry Copp, Wilfrid Laurier University