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Canadian Army Reading List- 11+ Years Of Suggestions and Ideas

CDN Aviator said:
Pretty much anyone here who has had the pleasure of doing the OPDP or OPME.........
or taken courses in Mil History  ;D
 
Just picked up "In the name of Rome" by Adrian Goldsworthy. The book is a study on the Roman art of command, by examining specific commanders during the Republic, the Principate and the Empire.

Very good so far.



SB
 
The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence
By Tony Geraghty

For anyone interested in looking at the way the intelligence services and terrorists interact during COIN Ops, this is a good read if you can get beyond the specifics related to Ireland. There's stuff in here that went on all the time behind the scenes that I was only vaguely aware of, and that we were NEVER supposed to talk about, which is obviously why the MoD took the author to court.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780801864568&z=y

Online book:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=azR_Rav_OMYC&dq=tony+geraghty&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=AEKzqEsfAb&sig=l5lxIjWdcBWnz7n9zSLw-frSeF4#PPR5,M1


Synopsis

Geraghty, a British subject, an Irish citizen, a writer and a military advisor, explores the roots of the civil war in Northern Ireland since the Battle of the Boyne (1690), paying particular attention to the last 30 years of violence. Drawing on public and classified sources, as well as interviews with members of British intelligence, British military sources, Unionist paramilitaries, and the IRA, the book reveals the conflict to have expanded to include convert operations, surveillance, and brutal interrogation techniques. The author was arrested in 1998 for violating Britain's Official Secrets Act because he wrote in this book about computer programs used by British security to profile suspected terrorists. The case was dismissed a year later. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Publishers Weekly

The former chief reporter of the London Sunday Times, Geraghty (Who Dares Wins; The Bullet Catchers) here assesses "Irish identity," which he sees as "the true source" of the continuing troubles in Northern Ireland. The IRA, he says, has hijacked Irish identity and created something that "owes little to real Celtic culture." What the IRA "peddles" as Irish identity, Geraghty contends, is "a powerful, dynamic force which politicizes the natural culture and envenoms it through an obsession not with Ireland but with England." The book's first three sections present a highly opinionated look at the last 30 years of "Troubles," while the last section is a satisfying survey of 300 years of the relationship between Ireland and England in 100 pages. Geraghty uses a patchwork of sources, including interviews with British intelligence and IRA officials and his firsthand reporting of the fighting in Northern Ireland in 1969-1971 as a Times reporter. The author, who served with the British Red Berets and as a liaison officer in the Persian Gulf War, was arrested in 1998 after this book's British publication and accused of violating Britain's Official Secrets Act by mentioning sensitive software. The case was highly publicized in Britain. The book's strengths are its attention to detail and its direct, potent writing. While the revelations pertaining to spy methodology and guerrilla fighting might not strike readers on these shores with the same force as they did those on the other side of the pond, the book makes a compelling introduction to a painful struggle. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Biography

Tony Geraghty is a British subject and an Irish citizen. He is a veteran of the British Red Berets and served as a military liaison officer with U.S. forces during the Gulf War, for which he was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for Military Merit with a citation signed by General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Geraghty has also worked in the United States as a writer for the Boston Globe.



 
I've read most of Geraghty's works including his history of the SAS and the Legion. Presuming this one is as well writen and researched it may be worth keeping an eye out for.
 
A good piece of fiction (with a  smidge of factual details) thats quick and easy to read is Timothy Findley's 'The Wars'.
It's a fictional story of a young Canadian Soldier in WWI.
Pretty easy to find too.
 
Reading through the thread, it seems most works tend to be army focused, at least from my limited perspective. I was wondering if someone could reccomend something on the Air element of the CF?
 
KJL said:
Reading through the thread, it seems most works tend to be army focused, at least from my limited perspective. I was wondering if someone could reccomend something on the Air element of the CF?

A Fodor's 4-star hotel guide?  >:D

Actually, there are a significant number of books written on the history of the Avro Arrow, which is inseparable from the RCAF history of the period (mid 50s through early 60s), and a good introduction to the politics of Canadian defence spending.
 
"Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser.  Fraser was the author of the acclaimed "Flashman" series.  However, in "Quartered" he recounts his experiences as a rifleman in a battalion of the Border Regiment fighting in Burma in WW2.  An excellent account of being a rifleman, how a section works and the Burma war.  Highly recommended.

Another book that is strongly recommended is "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield.  A fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae it goes over how the Spartans were trained, their doctrine and the battle itself in stark, vivid prose.
 
KJL said:
Reading through the thread, it seems most works tend to be army focused, at least from my limited perspective. I was wondering if someone could reccomend something on the Air element of the CF?
Terror in the Starboard Seat by Dave McIntosh
Unsafe for Aircrew by Eric Stofer

Both are autobiographies, Terror is the story of a Mosquito Navigator in the RCAF, Unsafe is about a fitter who remustered to Flt Engneer on Halibags (self published in victoria)

WrenchBender
 
greentoblue said:
"Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser.  Fraser was the author of the acclaimed "Flashman" series.  However, in "Quartered" he recounts his experiences as a rifleman in a battalion of the Border Regiment fighting in Burma in WW2.  An excellent account of being a rifleman, how a section works and the Burma war.  Highly recommended.

I agree. It took me a long time to find a copy of this and it was well worth the wait. You can also see where some of the ideas for the MacAuslan series came from. 8)
 
Anything by Terry Copp is absolutely first class. I took his books along on a battlefield tour of Belgium and Holland a few years ago and they are right on the money. I especially like how he talks about the personality clashes between leaders and other 'SNAFUs' at all levels that always cause problems for the troops - the reality of any conflict.

http://www.wlu.ca/lcmsds/our%20associates/associates/copp.html
 
Spearin said:
Black Hawk Down is an alright book to read about American screw ups and how much they rely on technology!
:rage: Think you might have read it, but you sure didn't understood it. :rage:

Michael O`Leary said:
Clausewitz, Carl von.  On War.Edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-691-05657-9
Yes a real good read, especially for officers or those who want to become officers. If possible I would read the original version "Vom Kriege", as well as "Der Feldzug von 1796 in Italien", "Die Feldzüge von 1799 in Italien und der Schweiz" and "Der Feldzug von 1812 in Russland, der Feldzug von 1813 bis zum Waffenstillstand und der Feldzug von 1814 in Frankreich".

"Green Eyes & Black Rifles: The Warriors Guide to the Combat Carbine" by Retired SGM Kyle E. Lamb. For the M4/16 user who want to improve his skills.

 
A lot of good books mentioned in this thread already. Here are a couple more to add:

Values for a New Millennium: Activating the Natural Law To: Reduce Violence, Revitelize Our Schools, Promote Cross-Cultural Harmony

http://www.amazon.ca/Values-New-Millennium-Activating-Cross-Cultural/dp/0915761041/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216507716&sr=8-4

and,

W.I.N.: Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors Volume 1

http://www.warriorspiritbooks.com/books.html
 
I was a little surprised to not see this one on the list:

If the Gods are Good
(The epic sacrifice of the HMS Jervis Bay)

by Gerald l. Duskin and Ralph Segman

I first heard about the Jervis Bay from an older brother who served on the Restigouche in the 70's. It's quite the story and one that the British, for some reason, seem to downplay.
The book in question is written by a couple of Americans (hence the reference to "the HMS") but they did a pretty good job of it, IMHO and the book has plenty of background information on the ships and parties involved, as well as a compelling account of the actual battle (including a few photo's taken from the Admiral Scheer at the time of the fight).

If I'm not mistaken, there were some thirty Canadians serving on the Jervis Bay at the time of her sinking. But Canadian connection or not, the story is well worth knowing and these two American gentlemen managed to do it the justice it deserves.
 
For those who are still looking for books about the Canadian military, here is a reading list of books written by professional Canadian historians.  It was my bibliography for a masters level historiographical article on Canada's participation in both world wars.  The list is army heavy.  This is a result of the army being the only branch to properly publish official histories following the Second World War.  The Navy finally got its official history published earlier in this decade as did the Air Force so the work done by scholars in this area is not as well developed, but I know there are a few historians currently working in these areas so stay tuned.

Excellent authors to follow are Jack Granatstein (Canada's leading military historian), Tim Cook and Terry Copp.  For the Navy look for books by Roger Sarty and Marc Milner.

Broadfoot, Barry. Six War Years, 1939-1945: Memories of Canadians at Home and Abroad. 1st ed. Toronto: Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Canada; Doubleday, 1974.
Brown, Robert Craig and Ramsay Cook. Canada, 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed. Canadian Centenary Series; v. 1. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974.
Canada. Dept. of National Defence. Gerald W. L. Nicholson, and C. C. J. Bond. Canadians in Italy, 1943-1945. Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War; v. 2nd printing (corrected) ed.E. Cloutier, Queen's Printer, 1957.
Canada. Dept. of National Defence. C. P. (Charles Perry) Stacey, and C. C. J. Bond. Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, 1944-1945. Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War; v. Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1960.
Canada. Dept. of National Defence and C. P. (Charles Perry) Stacey. Canadian Army, 1939-1945 - an Official Historical Summary. 1948: 1948.
CANADA. MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE, C. P. (Charles Perry) Stacey, and C. FOULKES. CANADA'S BATTLE IN NORMANDY.1946.
Canadian War Museum and A. M. J. Hyatt. General Sir Arthur Currie: A Military Biography. Canadian War Museum Historical Publication. 2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.
Canadian War Museum and John Swettenham. Canada and the First World War. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1969.
Clark, Alan,1928-. The Donkeys. --.
Cook, Tim. Clio's Warriors: Canadian Historians and the Writing of the World Wars. Studies in Canadian Military History, 1499-6251; 1. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006.
———. "'A Proper Slaughter': The March 1917 Gas Raid at Vimy Ridge." Canadian Military History 8, no. 2 (1999): 7-23.
Cook, Tim. No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1999.
Copp, J. T. and Robert Vogel. Maple Leaf Route, Scheldt. Alma, Ont.: Maple Leaf Route, 1985.
———. Maple Leaf Route, Antwerp. Alma, Ont.: Maple Leaf Route, 1984.
———. Maple Leaf Route: Caen. Alma, Ont.: Maple Leaf Route, 1983.
———. Maple Leaf Route, Falaise. Alma, Ont.: Maple Leaf Route, 1983.
Copp, J. T., Robert Vogel, and Walter Bean. Maple Leaf Route: Victory. Alma, Ont.: Maple Leaf Route, 1988.
Copp, Terry. Guy Simonds and the Art of Command. Kingston, Ont.: Canadian Defence Academy Press, 2007.
———. Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe 1944-1945. Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
———. Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy. The Joanne Goodman Lectures; 199; Joanne Goodman Lectures; 1998. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.
Douglas, W. A. B. (William Alexander Binny). No Higher Purpose. Official Operational History of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War, 1939-1943; v. 2, Pt. 1. 1st ed. St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell Pub., 2002.
Douglas, William A. B. and Brereton Greenhous. Out of the Shadows: Canada in the Second World War. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Eayrs, James George. In Defence of Canada. Studies in the Structure of Power: Decision-Making in Canada, 1,3,6. (Toronto) University of Toronto Press (Pref. 1964: 1964.
English, John A. (John Alan). Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign : A Study of Failure in High Command. New York: Praeger, 1991.
Goodspeed, D. J. (Donald James). Road Past Vimy : The Canadian Corps 1914-1918. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1969.
Granatstein, J. L. Hell's Corner : An Illustrated History of Canada's Great War, 1914-1918. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.
———. Canada's Army : Waging War and Keeping the Peace. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
———. Normandy 1944. Ottawa, Ont.: Government of Canada, Veterans Affairs, 1999.
———. Generals : The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War. Toronto: Stoddart, 1995, 1995.
———. Canada's War : The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939-1945. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Granatstein, J. L. and Norman Hillmer. Battle Lines : Eyewitness Accounts from Canada's Military History. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2004.
Granatstein, J. L. and J. Mackay Hitsman. Broken Promises : A History of Conscription in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Granatstein, J. L. and Desmon Morton. Bloody Victory : Canadians and the D-Day Campaign 1944. Toronto: L. & D. Dennys, 1984.
Granatstein, J. L. and Desmond Morton. Nation Forged in Fire : Canadians and the Second World War, 1939-1945. 1st ed. - ed. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1989.
Greenhous, Brereton. "C" Force to Hong Kong : A Canadian Catastrophe, 1941-1945. Canadian War Museum Historical Publication ; no. 3. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1997.
Greenhous, Brereton and Stephen John Harris. Canada and the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9-12 April 1917. Ottawa: Dept. of National Defence, Directorate of History, 1992.
Horn, Bernd and Stephen John Harris. Warrior Chiefs : Perspectives on Senior Canadian Military Leaders. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2001.
Hunter, T. Murray and C. P. (Charles Perry) Stacey. Canada at Dieppe. Canadian War Museum Historical Publication ; no. 17. [Ottawa]: Balmuir, 1982.
Hyatt, A. M. J. and Nancy Geddes Poole. Battle for Life : The History of no. 10 Canadian Stationary Hospital and no. 10 Canadian General Hospital in Two World Wars. Waterloo, Ont.: Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2004.
Milner, Marc. Battle of the Atlantic. Stroud [England] : St. Catherine's, Ont.: Tempus ; Vanwell Pub., 2003.
———. U-Boat Hunters : The Royal Canadian Navy and the Offensive Against Germany's Submarines. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.
———. North Atlantic Run : The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle for the Convoys. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985.
Morton, Desmond. When Your Number's Up : The Canadian Soldier in the First World War. Toronto: Random House of Canada, 1993.
Morton, Desmond. Fight Or Pay : Soldiers' Families in the Great War. Studies in Canadian Military History. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004.
———. Silent Battle : Canadian Prisoners of War in Germany, 1914-1919. Toronto: Lester Pub., 1992.
———. Military History of Canada. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1985.
———. Canada and War : A Military and Political History. Canadian Political Issues in their Historical Perspective. Toronto: Butterworths, 1981.
Morton, Desmond and J. L. Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon : Canadians and the Great War 1914-1919. 1st ed. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1989.
Rawling, Bill. Surviving Trench Warfare : Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Reid, Gordon. Poor Bloody Murder : Memoirs of the First World War. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1980.
Richardson, Gus and Daphne Read. Great War and Canadian Society : An Oral History. Toronto: New Hogtown Press, 1978.
Sarty, Roger F. (Roger Flynn). Canada and the Battle of the Atlantic. Montréal: Art global, 1998.
Schreiber, Shane B. Shock Army of the British Empire : The Canadian Corps in the Last 100 Days of the Great War. Praeger Series in War Studies, 1083-817. Westport, Conn. ; London: Praeger, 1997.
Stacey, C. P. (Charles Perry). Date with History : Memoirs of a Canadian Historian. Ottawa: Deneau, 1983.
———. Mackenzie King and the Atlantic Triangle. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada : Maclean-Hunter Press, 1976.
———. Introduction to the Study of Military History for Canadian Students. 6th ed., 3rd revision. - ed. [Ottawa]: Directorate of Training, Canadian Forces Headquarters, 1973.
Stacey, C. P. (Charles Perry) and Barbara M. Wilson. Half-Million : The Canadians in Britain, 1939-1946. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.
Swettenham, John Alexander. Evening of Chivalry. Canadian War Museum Historical Publication ; no. 6. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1972.
———. D-Day. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1970.
———. To Seize the Victory : The Canadian Corps in World War I. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1965.
Swettenham, John Alexander and Fred Gaffen. Canada's Atlantic War. Toronto: Samuel Stevens, 1979.
Taylor, A. J. P. (Alan John Percivale),1906-. The First World War : And Illustrated History1963.
Vance, Jonathan Franklin William. Death so Noble : Memory, Meaning, and the First World War. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997.
Vogel, Robert and Brian P. (Brian Padair) Farrell. Leadership and Responsibility in the Second World War : Essays in Honour of Robert Vogel. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.
Wolff, Leon. In Flanders Fields : The 1917 Campaign. London ; Toronto: Longmans,Green, 1959, 1959.
Wood, Herbert Fairlie and John Alexander Swettenham. Silent Witnesses. Canadian War Museum Historical Publication ; no. 10; Publication (Canada. Dept. of Veteran Affairs) ; no. 6. Toronto: Hakkert, 1974.
 
Vimy by Pierre Berton

This has to be required reading for any serious Canadian Army type.
 
This is a new release by the Rand Corporation that I began reading this week and it's chilled me to the bone. I place it here for anyone interested in reading about terrorism and terrorists and the roots thereof:

In Their Own Words: Voices of Jihad

Rand Corporation
Compilation and Commentary by David Aaron

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG602/


Quick Edit/Format
 
Col.C.P.Stacey and the three volume " The Canadian Army 1939-1945: A Historical Summary."
I particularly liked "Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume III. The Victory Campaign."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_History_of_the_Canadian_Army_in_the_Second_World_War
 
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