Reluctant Warriors

Canadian Conscripts and the Great War

Patrick M. Dennis (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

332 Seiten

2019
University of British Columbia Press (Verlag)
978-0-7748-3598-5 (ISBN)

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During the "Hundred Days" campaign of the First World War, over 30 percent of conscripts who served in the Canadian Corps became casualties. Yet, they were generally considered slackers for not having volunteered to fight. Reluctant Warriors is the first examination of the pivotal role played by Canadian conscripts in the final campaign of the Great War on the Western Front. Challenging long-standing myths about conscripts, Patrick Dennis examines whether these men arrived at the right moment, and in sufficient numbers, to make any significant difference to the success of the Canadian Corps. He examines the conscripts themselves, their journey to war, the battles in which they fought, and their largely undocumented sacrifice and heroism. Reluctant Warriors sheds new light on the success of the Military Service Act and provides fresh evidence that conscripts were good soldiers who fought valiantly and made a crucial contribution to the war effort.

Patrick M. Dennis is a retired Canadian Air Force colonel who served abroad for over twenty-two years, including tours as Canada's deputy military representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium, and as the Canadian defence attaché to Israel. He is a graduate of the United States Armed Forces Staff College and the NATO Defence College and holds a master's degree in communication from the University of Northern Colorado. In 1986, he was invested by Governor-General Jeanne Sauvé as an Officer in the Order of Military Merit. After leaving the military, he lectured on global political-military affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University and was a part-time instructor with the Canadian Forces College, Toronto, specializing in command and management and the law of armed conflict. Currently, he is an adjunct associate with the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies.

Foreword / By J.L. Granatstein

Introduction: Slackers, Shirkers, and Malingerers

1 "The Blood Dimmed Tide"

2 Canada's New Fighting Forces

3 The First Canadian Conscripts in Combat

4 Conspicuous Gallantry at Amiens

5 "Draft Men" and the Battle of the Scarpe, 1918

6 The Hardest Single Battle: The Drocourt-Quéant Line

7 Canal du Nord and the Brotherhood of Arms

8 A Dangerous Advance Continued

9 Cambrai and Iwuy: "For a time hell was loose"

10 Honour and Duty in the Pursuit to Mons

11 The Equal of the Best

Conclusion: Evidence has a Way of Dissolving Theories

Appendices

Notes; Bibliography; Index

Erscheinungsdatum	19.07.2019
Reihe/Serie	Studies in Canadian Military History
Zusatzinfo	7 maps, 33 photos, 4 tables
Verlagsort	Vancouver
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	480 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	0-7748-3598-2 / 0774835982
ISBN-13	978-0-7748-3598-5 / 9780774835985
Zustand	Neuware