Military history of Canada during World War II - Essay Example

Military history of Canada during World War II This papers goal is to proof that world war two contributed to the growth of Canadian independent from its military, politics and cultural point of view. (Secondary Sources) Granatstein, Jack L. Canada’s Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002, pp. 175-309. I choose this book because it concentrates on military matters, and on the army in particular, although Air Force, Navy and home defence forces are also mentioned. Granatstein sees World War 2 as a turning point Canada’s history because it occasioned a very rapid development of armed forces which were deployed at home and then increasingly abroad, according to Canadian priorities and initiatives, and not simply British defence needs. The Ogdensburg agreement of August 1940 freed up homeland defences to join the war, but also set relations between Canada and the US on a completely new footing. Britain, too, came to respect the new military competence of the Canadians, especially since the Canadian forces excelled themselves on the battlefield at the end of the war. Granatstein believes that the cost of the war, both economically and in terms of Canadian lives lost, was severe, but that the war brought a much more significant benefit of allowing Canada escape British domination and take its rightful place as nation free to make its own military and political choices. Closer collaboration with America was, in Granatstein’s view, a useful by-product of this process. Morton, Dennis. Working People. Montreal and Quebec: McGill-Queen’s Press, 1998. I choose this book focuses on the left in Canadian politics and explains how the sudden need for increased production in Canadian factories led to a new focus on industrial relations. Furthermore, the unions helped to increase production of military goods, including aircraft, and some, notably in the aircraft industry achieved major gains for their workers. In general, Morton states, the government did not turn its pro-union statements into action and in fact in the early 1940s when inflation threatened to damage the growing economy, price and wage controls were imposed. This strategy worked, bringing price stability and full employment. This in turn gave workers more bargaining power and the unions achieved greater benefits for them. The Atlantic Charter of 1941 with its aims to achieve “freedom from want” , “social security” and “fair labour standards”, was a direct result of Canadian-British wartime co-operation and had a long term effect far beyond the immediate wartime situation. Morton describes the strikes of the immediate post war years as a “testing of strength” between unions and managers and a demonstration that systems and processes laid down in the war years were an effective framework for the future. Sherbert Gérin, G., Petty, A. Canadian Cultural Poesis: An Introduction. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005. This book takes a look at Canada from the cultural point of view. It shows many different writers talking about ideas and events in Canadian history but not so much in a factual way. There are poems and pictures which can reveal how people feel about important things that have happened in the past. In one poem by Frances Dorsey, for example, the poet claims to be “singed by the flames of war, yet protected from the burn marks”. It talks about children and grandchildren of a World War 2 soldier traveling to Germany and learning more about what the war did to that war generation. The family had an old German violin, and the soldier fought in woods where probably the violin was made. This shows in a story how the war interrupted Canada’s relationship with the old world in Europe, and some of the connections broke down. The poem ends with a positive note saying “Where there was war there is now peace” which shows that modern Canadians are at last getting over the damage that was done to people in the second World War. Smith, Allen. Canada - An American Nation? Essays on Continentalism, Identity and The Canadian Frame of Mind. Montreal and Quebec: McGill-Queens University Press, 1994. This is quite a difficult book to read because it presents a whole lot of different points of view and tries to focus them all on the one idea that Canada is in some way leaning on America for its own identity. There is a comparison of the “mosaic” idea of Canada, with many little pieces fitting together to make one whole country, and the “melting pot” idea of America where everybody just melts into one big piece. Before World War 2 the identity of Canada was based on two things: colonial rule from Britain, and heavy influences from the huge powerful neighbour, America. The image was mainly white, with not much room for black or oriental groups, and some difficulty in integrating native Canadian groups. The second World War brought a new factor, which was to show in horrible detail what the consequences of racism could be, both in terms of Nazi crimes, and the major wars that happened as a response to them. This showed Canada that it was better to avoid racism, and also keep out of major wars, and defend itself against too much nationalism. Canada has worked towards this goal since World War 2. Stacey, C. P. “Twenty-one Years of CanadianAmerican Military Co-operation, 1940- 1961” in David R. Deener (ed.) Canada-United States Treaty Relations. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1963, pp. 102-122. Print. In this book chapter C. P. Stacey, like Granatstein, sees the second World War as a catalyst which enabled Canada to move away from isolationist policies of “no commitment” and towards a new era of “collective defense” first with the U.S. and then later with other allies in the formation of NATO with the involvement of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. It would have been inconceivable for Canada to send troops to Korea (for combat purposes) and Europe (for peacekeeping purposes) without the groundwork which was done in 1939-45. Stacey credits the veteran Prime Minister MacKenzie King with political skill in carrying public opinion to resist conscription at the start of World War 2, and then to build up military forces without recourse to this tool. In so doing he managed to keep the Francophone anti-conscription and the Anglophone pro-conscription factions in balance, and pursue a clever strategy to play Churchill against Roosevelt. The British argued that Australia and Canada were minor players, under British control, with no decision-making role in the War, but MacKenzie King successfully overturned that view. He set up formal military relations with the U.S. independently of Britain, which demonstrated that Canada was no longer a colony, dependent on Britain. In relation to America Canada became “an ally, and a candid friend, not a satellite”. (Primary Sources) The Ogdensburg Declaration. Canada Treaties Series 1940, no. 14. This short agreement was drawn up in a meeting between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister MacKenzie King to meet joint objectives of both governments in the face of the clear and imminent threat of attack from the allies of Britain in World War 2. A key phrase in the document is “the north half of the Western Hemisphere” which in effect lays claim to the defense of a quarter of the World’s surface, including, incidentally the whole of Western Europe. This shifts responsibility for Canada’s defence quite firmly away from Britain, which had its hands more than full in the trenches of the war, and into the joint hands of Canada and the US. It also establishes common ground between Canada and the U.S. in the phrase “mutual problems”, suggesting that in any future difference of opinion between Britain and the Canadians, the Americans might find it advantageous to side with Canada because of geographical considerations. There is no detail of implementation in the declaration, which is no doubt a deliberate intention, since the idea is so novel that it might raise objections on either side. The setting up of this Permanent Joint Board proved to be a lasting institution which was supported both by Canada and the U.S. by successive government and also at popular levels, suggesting that it was exactly what was required in an unsettled world. (Primary Sources) “The First Officially Canadian Citizens”. Photograph Number 129262 at the National Archives of Canada. Taken in Ottawa on January 1st, 1947. This source is a famous formal photograph of a group of Canadian people were the first ones to claim the new citizenship rights which were created by the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1947. The people are formally dressed, and standing outside an official building in Ottawa, waiting to take part in the ceremony which will give them this historic new status. The event and the photograph were set up by the government and used to publicize what progress Canada had made in breaking free from colonial power. The people are chosen from many of the different ethnic groups that made up Canada’s population such as Jewish, Polish, Scottish, German, Norwegian etc. and the picture commemorates an important milestone of Canada’s new position just after the end of World War 2. It was circulated round the world in newspapers too, and served as an example for other countries to follow and also as a sign of hope for people in Europe who had suffered during the war and were looking for a new place to go to. Canadian Citizenship Act, 1947. Up until the passing of this act in 1947, people living in Canada had been defined as British citizens just like all other citizens in the British Commonwealth. Canada was the first commonwealth country to assert the citizenship of its own people as a demonstration of its escape from the history of colonial rule. The experience of many Canadians fighting in the second World War alongside nationals of Britain, France and America brought and returning to Canada afterwards brought a new and more international attitude home. The Act provides for this new status for existing Canadians, it defines the terms for clarifying who deserves this label, and how to achieve it for those who fall outside the definition. There are also quite far reaching implications in its granting of citizenship rights of women on equal terms with men, and on an express intention to welcome many refugees from a devastated and overcrowded Europe into Canada with the promise of citizenship after a suitable period of acculturation. Declaration by the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States of America regarding the establishing of a permanent joint board on defence made on august 18, 1940  (Known as the Ogdensburg Declaration) The Prime Minister and the President have discussed the mutual problems of defence in relation to the safety of Canada and the United States. It has been agreed that a Permanent Joint Board on Defence shall be set up at once by the two countries. This Permanent Joint Board on Defence shall commence immediate studies relating to sea, land, and air problems including personnel and material. It will consider in the broad sense the defence of the north half of the Western Hemisphere. The Permanent Joint Board on Defence will consist of four or five members from each country, most of them from the services. It will meet shortly. Source: Canada Treaty Series 1940, No. 14 (Secondary Sources) Granatstein, Jack L. The Generals: The Canadian Army’s Senior Commanders in The Second World War. Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 2005. I choose this book because it presents a series of portraits of key leaders of Canadian forces during the second World War. The stories of the individuals reflect a largely English speaking officer elite which was not representative of the mix of Anglophone and Francophone citizens at home in Canada. Although some claimed that this was because of a government conspiracy, and others hinted at cowardly attitudes in the Francophone members of society, Granatstein reveals that in fact this uneven distribution was largely due to the bitter conscription issue that had so upset Francophone citizens during the first World War and some Anglophone bias in the recruitment, management and promotion systems of the Canadian military. Those few Francophone soldiers who did rise in the ranks conducted themselves with exemplary valor in the war and some, like Vanier, went on to take up diplomatic roles in Europe after the war was over, assisting Canada in its newfound non-colonial future. Unfortunately, however, these were the exception to the rule, and Granatstein notes that it took until the 1960s for the Canadian military to fully appreciate and value its French speaking members. Dickson, Paul Douglas. A Thoroughly Canadian General: A Biography of General H.D.G. Crerar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Print. This biography presents through the life of one outstanding military man a way of understanding the first half of the twentieth century as preparation for Canada’s full independence which was achieved in the second half. This second generation Scottish immigrant to Canada was typical of middle class, hardworking and modest citizens. He fought in both World Wars and achieved high rank in the second World War. This was a man who saw himself as a British subject, and a Canadian national labels which to him contained no contradiction. He faced the difficult decisions regarding deployment of Canadian troops in dangerous missions in Europe with gravity and courage, and it is largely due to his leadership that the Canadian forces achieved the successes they did. The main message of the book is that this man changed and adapted to World War 1, the professional soldier’s role in the somewhat frustrating inter war years, to World War 2, and to a wholly new multicultural situation in the post war years, and through it all retained his commitment to Canadian national identity. This is what makes him such a good representative of twentieth century Canadian themes and issues lived out in an exemplary life before, during, and after the second World War. Vance, Jonathan F. “Canadian Relief Agencies and Prisoners of War 1939-45.” Journal of Canadian Studies 31/2 (1996): 133ff. Print. Available online at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199607/ai_n8756247/?tag=content;col1 I choose this article because it discusses the efforts made by various agencies in Canada throughout World War 2 to look after Canadian citizens who had been captured in Europe and held prisoner by the enemy. Although the Geneva convention was supposed to ensure that such captives were treated decently, in practice many Canadian prisoners of war suffered horrendous deprivation both in temporary holding camps and in proper prisoner of war camps. Furthermore, the government, the Red Cross, the YMCAs and various smaller voluntary groups at first operated chaotically often at cross purposes, and at times even with mutual recriminations. This created pressure for the government, who had many other priorities to deal with at the time. When 2000 Canadian soldiers were captured at Dieppe in August 1942 the Red Cross were the only agency allowed to send food parcels. Against advice from the British, and following the example of the Americans, the Canadian aid agencies successfully lobbied to have this changed, and Canadian food parcels became the gold standard throughout the latter half of the war in terms of both quantity and quality, saving many prisoners from starvation. This showed that strong leadership from voluntary organisations and individuals in Canadian society proved to be more effective even than government activity. Read More