Strangers in Arms
eBook - ePub

Strangers in Arms

Combat Motivation in the Canadian Army, 1943-1945

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Strangers in Arms

Combat Motivation in the Canadian Army, 1943-1945

About this book

Why do soldiers fight? What keeps them going? What compels them to face death when their long-time comrades have fallen around them? Strangers in Arms addresses these questions in a groundbreaking study of the behaviour, morale, and motivations of Canadian infantrymen on the front lines of the Second World War.

Canada’s army has long faced intense criticism for its combat performance during the war, and Canada’s official history has presented Canadian soldiers as deficient, inexperienced, and unprepared in comparison with their enemies. Questioning entrenched views, Robert Engen explores a trove of contemporaneous documents to create a remarkable new portrait of Canadians at war. Rather than the popular "band of brothers" image of soldier cohesion in battle, he finds staggering casualty rates and personnel turmoil that left Canadian infantrymen often working with and fighting beside men they hardly knew. Yet these strangers in arms continued to fight - effectively and in good spirits - against a tenacious and deadly enemy, triumphing in the face of heartrending loss and sacrifice.

Challenging old narratives about the Canadian soldier and supported by cutting-edge empirical and qualitative research, Strangers in Arms crafts a new understanding of what happens at the sharp end of battle.

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Yes, you can access Strangers in Arms by Robert C. Engen in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Military & Maritime History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half title
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Figures and Tables
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Introduction
  10. 1 Myths and Realities of the Canadian Army
  11. 2 Building the Canadian Infantry
  12. 3 The Canadians in Sicily and Italy, 1943
  13. 4 The Canadians in Italy, 1944–1945
  14. 5 The Canadians in Normandy, 1944
  15. 6 The Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944–1945
  16. Conclusion: Strangers in Arms
  17. Appendices
  18. Notes
  19. Bibliography
  20. Index