Canadian Military History in Perspective
The Roar Of The Meteor: Air Force, Part 37
Although the first flights of German and British jet engine test beds occurred 21 months apart, the two nations introduced jet fighters into service at almost the same time—July 1944. But both the Me.262 and the Gloster Meteor commenced by making only a modest splash.
The prototype Meteor was so underpowered that it barely staggered into the air on July 22, 1942, in a hop that was so brief it was not even considered a flight, something that was achieved with more powerful Rover engines on March 5, 1943. Development went forward using a bewildering array of engines, and one lesson [...]
February 21, 2010, by Hugh A. Halliday
The Stuff Of Victory: Navy, Part 37
Naval historians tend to focus on action at sea, and in the early period of the Second World War they typically find much that is wrong with Canada’s burgeoning wartime navy. There is ample evidence—as we have seen in this series—that the fleet was unprepared for war, and that the operations of Newfoundland Escort Force left a legacy of bungling ineptitude that haunted the Canadian navy for generations.
February 14, 2010, by Marc Milner
Cold October Rain: Army, Part 86
After the capture of Rimini, Italy, on Sept. 21, 1944, 1st Canadian Division was withdrawn into 8th Army reserve to rest, reorganize and retrain while absorbing hundreds of replacements. Since Operation Olive, the battles for the Gothic Line had begun and the division had suffered 2,511 battle casualties, including 626 killed in action. More than 1,000 other men had been evacuated as “sick,” including over 400 evacuated for “battle exhaustion.”
These psychiatric casualties had proved to be a major issue in all of the Allied armies, accounting for 20 to 25 per cent of casualties. The Canadians had long since [...]
February 7, 2010, by Terry Copp
Fighting German Jets: Air Force, Part 36
The original concepts of jet engines go back to 1910, but practical development only began about 1928 when a young Royal Air Force officer, Frank Whittle, began working on one; his first patent was filed in 1930 and his first test-bed engine was run in 1937, although it was too large to fit in any aircraft. Meanwhile, a German engineer, Hans von Ohain, was embarking on a similar project; his first test engine was also run in 1937.
The next step was to design an engine suitable for an aircraft and to test fly it. On Aug. 27, 1939, the first [...]
December 25, 2009, by Hugh A. Halliday
Cutthroat Careerism: Navy, Part 36
The first months of Newfoundland Escort Force operations were trying. The rapidly expanding Royal Canadian Navy was confronted with the harsh realities of both war and the brutal northwest Atlantic. NEF made the system of trans-Atlantic convoys possible, but it pushed the capabilities and stamina of the burgeoning escort fleet to the limit.
British and American sailors—only dimly aware of the larger strategic picture but mindful of the standards of performance which they expected at sea—watched the struggling Canadians with a critical gaze. As a result, the RCN earned a reputation as overzealous, bungling and incompetent that would haunt it [...]
December 18, 2009, by Marc Milner
Piercing The Heart Of The Mountains: Army, Part 85
While 1st Canadian Corps fought through the Gothic Line defences on the eastern side of Italy, 1st Cdn. Armoured Brigade, part of 13th British Corps, was committed to battle in the heart of the Apennine Mountains.
The brigade, composed of the Ontario Regt. (11th Cdn. Armd Regt.), the Three Rivers Regt. (12 CAR) and the Calgary Regt. (14 CAR), had been supporting the infantry battalions of 13th British Corps since the Liri Valley operations in May 1944, and had established excellent relations with their British and Indian Army counterparts. Lieutenant-General Sidney Kirkman, the corps commander, regarded Brigadier Bill Murphy and [...]
December 11, 2009, by Terry Copp
The Forest Watchers: Air Force, Part 35
The Royal Canadian Air Force’s interwar role in “aid to the civil power” is most often associated with aerial photography and mapping. There was, however, another task that preoccupied the air force between the first and second world wars: forestry protection.
The potential use of aircraft in fire patrols was in fact discussed even before the conclusion of the First World War, but it was a civilian firm—Laurentide Paper—that first used HS2L flying boats, based at Grand-Mère, Que., for forestry survey and fire spotting in 1919. That was the same year Parliament passed the Air Board Act, creating a body that [...]
October 20, 2009, by Hugh A. Halliday
The Cruellest Months: Navy, Part 35
The fall of 1941 was perhaps the toughest period of the war for the Royal Canadian Navy. It is hard to think of a time when the gap between the capability of the fleet and the demands placed on it was so large. Indeed, the RCN would have been stretched to the limit to meet its new obligation to escort slow convoys between Newfoundland and Iceland even if the weather and the enemy had co-operated.
Winter weather closed in on the northern convoy routes in the fall. With it came short days of thin, watery sunlight followed by long, bitterly [...]
October 15, 2009, by Marc Milner
Bad Weather, Tough Resistance: Army, Part 84
The battle for the town of Rimini and the San Fortunato Ridge, the last mountain barrier before the plains of northern Italy, ended on Sept. 21, 1944. With Canadian infantry established across the Marecchia River and the Greek Mountain Brigade clearing the last rearguards in the ruined streets of Rimini, Operation Olive, the most difficult and costly operation carried out by 8th Army in Italy, was finally over.
The Greeks asked for a Canadian flag to fly alongside theirs in the Rimini town square and a red ensign, borrowed from auxiliary services, was supplied. Messages of congratulation, friendship and mutual respect [...]
October 10, 2009, by Terry Copp
The West Coast Balloon Attack: Air Force, Part 34
Commencing Nov. 3, 1944, and continuing to mid-April 1945, Japan launched between 9,000 and 10,000 incendiary balloons from their home islands in an attempt to set North America’s forests alight from Alaska to California.
American and Canadian authorities imposed a news blackout on balloon arrivals to deny the enemy any intelligence about the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of the devices. This proved so successful that only one report of balloon landings filtered back to Japan, even though thousands of persons witnessed balloons passing overhead or saw balloon debris lodged in fence lines or treetops.
On May 5, 1945, six Oregon picnickers were [...]
