New articles are available from Canadian Military History!

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The fate of soldiers captured during the Hundred Days, Canada’s Faustian Bargain to Save Civilians in the Western Netherlands, the Evacuation of Canadian Personnel in Libya in 2014, plus seven book reviews.
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New articles are available from Canadian Military History!

Vol. 31, No. 2, Summer / Autumn 2022

Pursuit to Valenciennes 1918

BRIAN PASCAS
Abstract: This article tracks the Canadian Corps’ pursuit of the retreating German army in the last weeks of the First World War. As French hamlets, villages and towns were liberated, the war-weary troops—nursing grudges after almost four years of war—encountered civilians who had endured poor and sometimes brutal treatment under the yoke of the cruel invader. During the Battle of Valenciennes hundreds of German soldiers were killed; the vast majority perished under immense artillery barrages. But a number who survived the onslaught of shells and bullets succumbed to Canadians’ rifles while or after surrendering. Motives are identified that drove frontline soldiers to kill surrendering opponents on the battlefield. This article contends that one strong motive for killing surrendering soldiers in the heat of battle was revenge for the untold civilian suffering in previously enemy-occupied territory.

Crossing the Grebbe Line

NATHAN DYCK
Abstract: Beginning at the military-political level and ending at the regimental level, this paper will explore the growth of Canadian responsibility within a failing Allied relief framework throughout the Dutch Hunger Winter 1944-1945. Beginning in early April 1945, I Canadian Corps experienced a growing responsibility to secure an independently negotiated and effective ceasefire on the Grebbe Line to enable transport of food prior to broader German surrender. Under the name of Operation Faust, I Corps utilised targeted medical and food relief practices to address gaps in Allied relief capacity, following what Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ) referred to as a “hastily improvised” planning process. The objective of this article is to explore how an unheralded Canada exerted such great humanitarian influence while acting independently of the broader Allied command framework.

Op LOBE and the Evacuation of Canadian Personnel from Libya, 2014

ANDREW BURTCH
Abstract: In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Libya and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s intervention that overturned Muammar Gaddafi’s government amid fears of reprisals against civilians, Canada and other countries re-established a diplomatic presence. The region was still unstable with many competing militias in a tentative truce following Gaddafi’s downfall. Canada’s embassy required a military presence to secure the compound and the safety of Canadian VIPs. In July 2014, the men and women of Operation LOBE were forced to evacuate from Libya amid a diplomatic exodus during a resurgence of civil war. This piece, based largely on a Canadian War Museum oral history interview with Op LOBE’s Roto 6 Task Force Commander Major Doug Henderson, revisits the mission’s purpose, its deployment, the challenges faced in country and the successful evacuation of Canadian personnel to Tunisia in the summer of 2014.

BOOK REVIEWS

January 11th @7:00pm ET

PUBLIC LECTURE:

Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory

with
TED BARRIS

For more information CLICK HERE.
Canadian Military History is a partnership between the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada and the Canadian War Museum – Musée canadien de la guerre.
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