“Your lads […] looked much like the reappearance of Jesus Christ to us”
Canada, the ICCS and the release of US Prisoners of War in Vietnam
JEAN-MICHEL TURCOTTE
Abstract:Between January and July 1973, 240 Canadian military personnel took part in the International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS), responsible for monitoring the Paris Peace Agreements ending the American war in Vietnam. Canadian military observers notably supervised the release of 595 Americans prisoners of war (POWs) as well as over 32,000 Vietnamese captives. This article suggests that the ICCS, often viewed in the historiography as ineffective because of the numerous violations of the agreements, was much more successful in terms of monitoring US POW releases. In addition, it argues that helping the ally was a priority for the Canadian peace observers.
Through the Eyes of a Guard
Watson Kirkconnell and Great War Internment in Canada
DANIEL R. MEISTER
Abstract: Histories of internment in Canada have paid much attention to internees’ experiences but far less to those of the guards. Correcting this trend, this article offers a detailed case study of one soldier, Watson Kirkconnell, who worked at the Fort Henry and Kapuskasing internment camps. Drawing on his valuable but heretofore unutilised archive of material, this article provides a vivid social history of the camps through Kirkconnell’s eyes. Nuancing the historiography of wartime internment, this article demonstrates how commandants determined the experiences of both internees and guards alike and, at the same time, that staff could sometimes mitigate their superior’s cruelty.
“Border Line Pilots”
RCAF Aircrew, Crash Investigations and No. 22 OTU
WES CROSS
Abstract: In 1941, RAF Bomber Command Operational Training Units (OTU) in the United Kingdom were created to produce crews for the bomber offensive from graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Of the 4,000 RCAF deaths attributed to non-operational accidents, 1,498 occurred in this OTU phase. A study of No. 22 OTU accident reports, where the largest number of RCAF training fatalities occurred, provides insight into the stated official causes and underlying issues of the high accident rate. Of more recent interest is how one No. 22 OTU 1944 aircraft crash site decades later became a center of commemoration in Wales.
Combat Motivation and Swift Trust in Canada’s Battle of Hong Kong, 1941
ROBERT C. ENGEN & MAXWELL PUTNAM
Abstract: In December 1941, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong was the site of a doomed last stand, when the Imperial Japanese Army assaulted the British enclave near-simultaneously with the strike on Pearl Harbor. Among Hong Kong’s multinational defenders were two battalions of Canadian infantry, designated “C Force.” They held out for a significant period and inflicted heavy casualties upon the Japanese, despite the fact that the Canadians were under-trained, under-equipped and fighting a battle that could not be won. This article is the first major study of combat motivation in the Battle of Hong Kong, taking the Canadian C Force as a case study. It explores the training, morale, cohesion and behaviour of the Canadians who fought this hopeless battle. This article argues that the concept of “swift trust” cohesion can explain how the Canadians fought so well against impossible odds at Hong Kong, even when primary group cohesion became impossible to sustain during battle.
CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM – MUSÉE CANADIEN DE LA GUERRE
The Fear of Being Unknown
First World War Identifications Discs in the Canadian War Museum’s Collection
BRITTANY DUNN
Abstract: The Canadian War Museum holds nearly 250 identification discs from Canadian soldiers and nurses of the First World War. Identification discs were objects of bureaucracy, designed to ensure accurate record keeping of the dead and their places of burial. But these discs were more than just an administrative tool, they represented the hopes and fears of soldiers and their loved ones—the hope of being identified in death and the fear of being one of the missing. Military authorities understood the importance of a known grave to soldiers and their families so burial policy evolved over the war to address these concerns. Although the conditions of the Western Front made the consistent application of policy difficult, the identification discs in the museum’s collection represent how military bureaucracy and individual soldiers adapted to life in the trenches.
Sommaire: Le Musée canadien de la guerre possède environ 250 plaques d’identité canadiennes ayant appartenu à des soldats et à des membres du personnel infirmier qui ont servi pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Les plaques d’identité étaient des objets bureaucratiques qui permettaient d’identifier les militaires qui mouraient et de répertorier les endroits où se trouvaient leurs sépultures, contribuant ainsi à la bonne tenue des dossiers. Mais ces plaques étaient plus qu’un outil administratif, car elles représentaient les espoirs et les craintes des militaires et de leurs proches – l’espoir de l’identification en cas de décès et la crainte de figurer parmi les personnes disparues. Puisque les autorités militaires comprenaient l’importance d’une sépulture connue pour les militaires et leurs familles, la politique d’inhumation a évolué au cours de la guerre pour tenir compte de ces préoccupations. Bien que les conditions sur le front de l’Ouest aient rendu l’application de la politique difficile, les plaques d’identité dans la collection du Musée témoignent de l’adaptation de la bureaucratie militaire et de chaque militaire à la vie dans les tranchées.
Book Reviews
Review of Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers in Civil War Camps, Courts, and Prisons by Jonathan Lande
Matthew Barrett
Review of From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne by Norman S. Poser
Matthew Barrett
Review of Graphic War Navy: The Secret Naval Drawings and Illustrations of World War II by Donald Nijboer
Matthew Barrett
Review of Horses, Howitzers, and Hymns: The Story of Lieut. Skey, MC, and his Father in the Great War by Marianne S. Goodfellow
Matthew Barrett
Review of Sir John A. Macdonald & the Apocalyptic Year 1885 by Patrice Dutil
Tim Cook
Review of Scandalous Conduct: Canadian Officer Courts Martial, 1914-45 by Matthew Barrett
Daniel German
Review of Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada’s Involvement in the First World War by David Roberts
Bradley Shoebottom
Review of Blue Helmet Bureaucrats: United Nations Peacekeeping and the Reinvention of Colonialism, 1945-1971 by Margot Tudor
Jean-Michel Turcotte
Review of The Hidden Victims: Civilian Casualties of Two World Wars by Cormac Ó Gráda
Jean-Michel Turcotte
Review of Pathway to The Stars: 100 Years of the Royal Canadian Air Force by Michael Hood and Tom Jenkins
Randall Wakelam
