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Abstract
A mixed perception of the Canadian contribution to the North West Europe campaign exists in the body of the literature. Some refer to the Canadian Army as the ‘Cinderella Army’ relegated after Normandy to clearing up the Channel coast, fighting with limited resources and largely unsung. This paper critically analyses the Canadian Army’s role in the campaign and considers the influences over its generation and employment from a political and military perspective. Through a comprehensive historical analysis this paper concludes that, despite political neglect, Canadian fighting power increased significantly as the campaign progressed due primarily to the experience and confidence gained by the operational level commanders. This is emphatically illustrated by a case study comparison of Operation ‘Spring’and the operations to clear the Scheldt Estuary to open the strategically important port of Antwerp.
Notes
1 FM Montgomery 1 Feb. 1945, TAC HQ 21 Army Gp, quoted in R. Munro, Gauntlet to Overlord: The Story of the Canadian Army (Toronto: Macmillan 1945) p.vii.
2 A metaphor indicating relegation to inferior tasks; a reflection of the lack of resources and lack of acknowledgement of achievements. See T. Copp, Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe 1944--1945 (Univ.of Toronto Press 2006) p.ix. Many references are made to the ‘Cinderella Operation’ regarding the Scheldt clearance, see historiography section.
3 J. Williams, The Long Left Flank (London: Leo Cooper 1988) p.49.
4 See for example M. Hastings, Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944 (London: Michael Joseph 1984) pp.299--300; A. King, The Combat Soldier (Oxford: OUP2012/3 (forthcoming)), Chapter 7; C.P. Stacey Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume III: The Victory Campaign (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer 1966) pp.275--7.
5 B. Montgomery, Memoirs (London: Collins 1958) p.300.
6 T. Copp, Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy (Univ. of Toronto Press 2003) p.267.
7 United Kingdom, Developments, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, British Defence Doctrine, Joint Doctrine Publication 0-01 3rd ed. (Shrivenham: DCDC 2008) Chapter 4.
8 Hastings, Overlord (note 4) p.300.
9 Copp, Fields of Fire (note 6) p.13.
10 C.P. Stacey, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume 1: Six Years of War - the Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific (Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier 1955) p.3.
11 J. English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books 2009) p.xxi.
12 J.L. Granatstein, Canada’s War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939--1945 (Toronto: OUP 1975), vi.
13 Ibid. p.19.
14 I. Miller, ‘Toronto’s Response to the Outbreak of War, 1939’ , Canadian Military History 11/1, (2002) p.11.
15 The affectionate name for the Canadian solder in P. Simonds, Maple Leaf Up, Maple Leaf Down: The Story of the Canadians in the Second World War (New York: Island Press Cooperative 1947) p.2.
16 Stacey, Six Years of War, p.4.
17 The Constitution Act 1867, also known as the British North American Act, created Canada as a Dominion of the British Empire.
18 Miller, ‘Toronto’s Response to the Outbreak of War, 1939’ (note 14) p.7.
19 Granatstein, Canada’s War (note 12) p.19.
20 R. Hart, Clash of Arms: How the Allies Won in Normandy (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner 2001) p.166.
21 Stacey, Six Years of War (note 10) p.5.
22 C.P. Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939--1945 (Ottawa: The Queen’s Printer for Canada 1970) p.1.
23 Specifically 1939- 44. See Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) pp.165--87.
24 Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Canada and the World: A History 1939 - 1945: The World at War, <http://www.international.gc.ca/history-histoire/world-monde/1939-1945.aspx?lang=eng&view=d#junior> accessed 29 Feb. 2012.
25 Stacey, Six Years of War (note 10) p.72.
26 Granatstein, Canada’s War (note 12) p.294.
27 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.xx.
28 Granatstein, Canada’s War (note 12) p.320.
29 External Affairs Records, file 3265-A-40C, Wrong to Pearson, 3 Feb. 1942, quoted in Granatstein, Canada’s War (note 12) p.296.
30 Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments (note 22) p.94.
31 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.xx.
32 Granatstein, Canada’s War (note 12) p.vi.
33 Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) p.341.
34 J. Gooch in T.H. Place, Military Training in the British Army, 1940--1944: from Dunkirk to D-Day (London: Frank Cass 2000) p. vii.
35 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, 122.
36 D. French, Raising Churchill’s Army (Oxford: OUP 2000) p.12.
37 D. Bercuson, Maple Leaf against the Axis: Canada’s Second World War (Toronto: Stoddart 1995) p.64.
38 Place, Military Training in the British Army (note 34) p.168.
39 S. Hart, Montgomery and “Colossal Cracks”: The 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe 1944--45 (Westport, CT : Praeger 2000) p.36.
40 C. D’Este, Decision in Normandy: The Unwritten Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign (London: Collins 1983) p.297.
41 Place, Military Training in the British Army (note 41) p.170.
42 Ibid. p.167.
43 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.137.
44 Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) p.410.
45 Crerar took command of the First Canadian Army on 23 July 1944; prior to this Simonds as commander of the 2nd Corps was subordinate to Dempsey, GOC Second (British) Army. An account of the day that he assumed command can be found in English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11), p.149.
46 J. Olsen and M. van Creveld (eds.), The Evolution of Operational Art: From Napoleon to the Present (Oxford: OUP 2011)p.1. The British doctrinal definitions can be found in United Kingdom. Developments, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Campaigning. Joint Doctrine Publication 01 2nd ed. (Shrivenham: DCDC 2008) pp.2-1.
47 J. Kiszely, ‘Thinking about the Operational Level’, RUSI Journal, Dec. 2005.
48 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.238.
49 Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) p.170.
50 Ibid.
51 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.241.
52 Stacey, Six Years of War (note 10) p.415.
53 Hastings, Overlord (note 4) p.296.
54 Hart, Montgomery and “Colossal Cracks”(note 39) p.159.
55 Ibid. p.172.
56 Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments (note 22) 224.
57 T. Copp, Maple Leaf Route Antwerp quoted in Hart, Montgomery and “Colossal Cracks”(note 39) p.168.
58 Bercuson, Maple Leaf against the Axis (note 37) p.20.
59 P. Dickson, A Thoroughly Canadian General: A Biography of General H.D.G.Crerar (Univ. of Toronto Press 2007) p.404.
60 Stacey, Six Years of War (note 10) p.415.
61 Hart, Montgomery and “Colossal Cracks” (note 39) p.167.
62 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, 240.
63 J.L. Granatstein, The Generals: The Canadian Army’s Senior Commanders in the Second World War (Alberta: Univ.y of Calgary Press 2005) p.258.
64 “The Requirements of Canadian Defence: A Review of the Position as of 1 January 1937” by Maj.- Gen. Ashton. Mackenzie Papers, file X-4 quoted in: Stacey, Six Years of War (note 10) p.10.
65 Granatstein, The Generals (note 63) p.8.
66 Ibid. p.14.
67 Bercuson, Maple Leaf against the Axis (note 37) p.10.
68 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.242.
69 French, Raising Churchill’s Army (note 36) p.52.
70 Bercuson, Maple Leaf against the Axis (note 37) p.152.
71 Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments (note 22) p.48.
72 Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) p.170. A succinct summary of the Dieppe Raid can be found in J. Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin 1982) pp.120--5.
73 Granatstein, The Generals (note 63) p.228.
74 Hastings, Overlord (note 4) p.300.
75 Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments (note 22) p.440.
76 Stacey, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume III: The Victory Campaign (note 4) p.385.
77 W.D. Whitaker and S. Whitaker, The Battle of the Scheldt (London: Souvenir Press 1985) p.375.
78 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign(note 11) 168.
79 Ibid.
80 A. King, The Combat Soldier (Oxford: OUP 2012/13 (forthcoming)), Chapter 7.
81 Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) p.344.
82 Copp, Cinderella Army (note 2) p.289.
83 G. Simonds, ‘Operation Spring’, Canadian Military History 1/1-2 (1992) p.67.
84 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.237.
85 Hart, Clash of Arms (note 20) p.166.
86 English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, 160.
87 Crerar Papers, Vol. 3, Crocker to Dempsey, 5 July 1944, quoted in English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign (note 11) p.168.
88 Operation ‘Atlantic’ was the Canadian part of Operation ‘Goodwood’, the armoured thrust to the south and east of Caen masterminded by Montgomery.
89 Simonds, ‘Operation Spring’ (note 83) p.68.
90 Stacey, The Victory Campaign ( note 4) p.194.
91 At this point the 2nd Canadian Corps was under command of the Second British Army (Lt. Gen. Dempsey) subordinate to 21st Army Group.
92 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 46) p.187
93 Copp, Fields of Fire (note 6) pp.173--6.
94 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4) p.191.
95 Ibid. p.194.
96 Simonds, ‘Operation Spring’ (note 83), p.67.
97 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4 p. 191
98 T. Copp, ’Fifth Brigade at Verrières Ridge’,Canadian Military History 2/1-2 (1992) p.61.
99 Ibid.
100 Copp, of Fire (note 6) p.179.
101 Granatstein, The Generals (note 63) p.169.
102 Montgomery, Memoirs (note 5) p.279.
103 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 76) p.425.
104 Whitaker and Whitaker, The Battle of the Scheldt (note 77) p.373.
105 P. Delaforce, Smashing the Atlantic Wall: The Destruction of Hitler’s Coastal Fortresses (London: Cassell 2001) p.161.
106 Copp, Cinderella Army (note 2) p.21.
107 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4) p.425.
108 S. Hart, The Clearing of the Scheldt Estuary and the Liberation of Walcheren 2 October - 7 November 1944 (Unknown: COI 2005) p.5.
109 Copp, Cinderella Army (note 2) p.87.
110 Hart, The Clearing of the Scheldt Estuary (note 108) p.10.
111 Officially known as Landing Vehicles Tracked and manned by Engineers from 5thAssault Regiment RE.
112 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4) p.400.
113 Ibid. p.397.
114 War Diary, German CinC West, quoted in Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4) p.386.
115 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4)424.
116 Ibid. p.384.
117 Bercuson, Maple Leaf against the Axis (note 37) p.249.
118 Whitaker and Whitaker, The Battle of the Scheldt (note 77) p.373.
119 Address by General Eisenhower to Canada Club, Ottawa, 10 Jan. 1946 quoted in Canadian Military Headquarters, Report No.188: Canadian Operations to clear the Scheldt Estuary 1--8 October 1944 (Unknown: MLRS 2006) p.220.
120 Copp, Cinderella Army (note 2) p.222.
121 Stacey, The Victory Campaign (note 4) p.643.
122 Copp, Cinderella Army (note 2) 287.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Christopher Haw
Major Christopher Haw MC RM, Advanced Command and Staff Course No. 15, Joint Services Command and Staff College, UK Defence Academy. Email [email protected]
The author is a serving Royal Marines Officer whose father fought throughout the North West European Campaign as a member of the Canadian Army’s Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment and was involved in all of the major actions.