The End

It is with much disappointment that I must make this my final post on The Cannon's Mouth.  Researching and writing this blog has been a great experience for me.  However, increasing work and family committments and responsibilities make it obvious that I no longer have the time available to give to this blog.  I truly wish it were otherwise.  Thank you for reading.

New Books at Library and Archives Canada (November and December 2008)

Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.ca) has released its new books lists for November and December 2008. The lists includes the following items of interest (including some not yet released for sale and some which seem to have been out for sale for a while now) with respect to Canadian military history:

Benn, Carl, Mohawks on the Niles: Natives Among the Canadian Voyageurs in Egypt, 1884-1885 (Toronto, 2009);

Duff, R.L. Duane, Waskesiu: Canada's First Frigate (Surrey, BC, 2008);

Mark C. Hunter, To Employ and Uplift Them: The Newfoundland Naval Reserve, 1899-1926 (St. John's, NL, 2009);

McGeer, Eric, The Canadian Battlefields in Italy: Sicily & Southern Italy (Waterloo, ON, 2008);

Tibbs, Brian, They Did Not Return [war dead of St. Catharines, ON] (St. Catharines, ON, 2008); and

Wyse, Robert, Bamboo Cage: The POW Diary of Flight Lieutenant Robert Wyse, 1942-1943 (Fredericton, NB, 2009).

MA theses and PhD dissertations - part 29

More results from the Library and Archives Canada theses portal - MAs and PhDs with specific reference to Canadian military history (some have direct links to their PDFed versions):

 

Dean Andrew Chappelle, "The most brilliant of successes: The Planning and Implementation of the Battle of Amiens, 8-11 August, 1918", MA thesis, University of New Brunswick, 1992;

 

Robert Douglas Day, "The British Army and Sport in Canada: Case Studies of the Garrisons at Halifax, Montreal and Kingston to 1871", PhD dissertation, University of Alberta, 1981;

 

Douglas Edward Delaney, "The Soldiers' General: Bert Hoffmeister as Military Commander", PhD dissertation, The Royal Military College of Canada, 2003;

 

Monique Delaney, "Le Canada est un pais de Bois: Forest Resources and Shipbuilding in New France, 1660-1760", PhD dissertation, McGill University, 2004;

 

Patrick J. Delaney, "The Canadian Decision to Enter NATO: A Case-Study in Bureaucratic Politics", MA thesis, Dalhousie University, 1984;

 

Robert Scott Demill, "The 1928 Cobourg Libel Trial of Sir Arthur Currie and the Port Hope Evening Guide: The Rehabilitation of the Reputation of a Corps Commander", MA thesis, University of Ottawa, 1989;

 

Dean Frederick Oliver, "When the Battle's Won: Military Demobilization in Canada, 1939-1946", PhD dissertation, York University, 1996;

 

Deidré Rowe-Brown, "Public Attitudes towards Canadian Women during and immediately after World War Two", MA thesis, University of Toronto, 1992;

 

Dean C. Ruffilli, "Operational Research and the Royal Canadian Air Force Eastern Air Command's Search for Efficiency in Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare, 1942-1945", MA thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2001 [direct PDF link]; and

 

Amy Dawn George Wheaton, "Canadian-Irish Relations during the Second World War: The Ascension of Canadian Middle Power Diplomacy", MA thesis, University of New Brunswick, 2005.

Latest issue of War in History

The latest issue of the journal War in History - vol.16, no.1 (2009) - is out and includes the following item of interest to readers of Canadian military history: Erica M. Charters, "Disease, Wilderness Warfare, and Imperial Relations: The Battle for Quebec, 1759-1760". The abstract for the article reads as follows:

"During the siege at Quebec, 1759—60, which followed the battle on the Plains of Abraham, high rates of disease contributed to the British defeat by French forces in April 1760. While historians have not previously discussed military medical preventative measures, a detailed examination of the siege demonstrates sophisticated attempts to adapt to a foreign environment and its disease, as well as how disease contributed to the development of American provincial and British antagonism and perceptions of difference."

My Return

I went back to work today after nearly three weeks on post-deployment leave and thought it's also about time I resumed posting on The Cannon's Mouth. While on leave I finished a couple of books on Canadian military history - both on First World War subjects, which I freely admit is my favourite period of study.

The first book I finished was Mark Zuehlke's Brave Battalion: The Remarkable Saga of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) in the First World War (Mississauga, ON, 2008). Although a useful introduction to the story of the 16th Battalion, CEF, during the war - and a well written text to boot (as Zuehlke's books are) - I came away wondering what it actually added to the story of the 16th Battalion not already covered in more detail in H.M. Urquhart's The History of the 16th Battalion (The Canadian Scottish), Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War, 1914-1919 (Toronto, 1932).

Next, I finished reading Andrew Iarocci's Shoestring Soldiers: The 1st Canadian Division at War, 1914-1915 (Toronto, 2008). I found this to be a very fresh view of the subject (based on his doctoral dissertation), the author openly wondering whether there was more to the 1st Canadian Division than traditionally it has been credited with during the first year of its existence. The text reflects indepth research and many newer approaches to the study of military history. I'd like to see Iarocci continue with his study of the division, carrying its story forward from late 1915 through to the end of the war.