Terry Copp - Böcker

In his controversial and award-winning 2003 book Fields of Fire, Terry Copp offered a stunning reversal of accepted military history, challenging the conventional view that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a failure. Cinderella Army continues the story of the operations carried out by the First Canadian Army in the last nine months of the war, and extends the argument developed in Fields of Fire that "the achievement of the Allied and especially the Canadian armies... has been greatly underrated while the effectiveness of the German army has been greatly exaggerated." Copp supports this argument with research conducted on numerous trips to the battlefields of France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. His detailed knowledge of the battlefield terrain, along with contemporary maps and air photos, allows Copp to explore the defensive positions that Canadian soldiers were required to overcome, and to illustrate how impressive their achievements truly were.Except for a brief period during the Rhineland battle, the First Canadian Army was the smallest to serve under Eisenhower's command. The Canadian component of that Army never totalled more that 185,000 of the four million Allied troops serving in Northwest Europe. It is, however, evident that the divisions of 2nd Canadian Corps played a role disproportionate to their numbers. Their contribution to operations designed to secure the Channel Ports and open the approaches to Antwerp together with the battles in the Rhineland place them among the most heavily committed and sorely tried divisions in the Allied armies. By the end of 1944 3rd Canadian Division had suffered the highest number of casualties in 21 Army Group with 2nd Canadian Division ranking a close second. Among armoured divisions, 4th Canadian was at the top of the list as was 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade among the independent tank brigades. Overall Canadian casualties were twenty percent higher than in comparable British formations. This was a direct result of the much greater number of days that Canadian units were involved in close combat. As passionately written and compellingly argued as its precursor, Cinderella Army is both an important bookend to Copp's earlier work, and stands on its own as a significant contribution to Canadian military history.

A Nation at War brings together a collection of sixty-two essays covering all aspects of the Canadian experience in the Second World War. It is a readable and authoritative introduction to both the historical narrative and the interpretive debates by the best selling author of Fields of Fire and Cinderella Army. Published by the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies and distributed by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

With Fields of Fire, Terry Copp challenges the conventional view that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a “failure” – that the allies won only through the use of brute force, and that the Canadian soldiers and commanding officers were essentially incompetent.  His detailed and impeccably researched analysis of what actually happened on the battlefield portrays a flexible, innovative army that made a major, and successful, contribution to the defeat of the German forces in just seventy-six days.Challenging both existing interpretations of the campaign and current approaches to military history, Copp examines the Battle of Normandy, tracking the soldiers over the battlefield terrain and providing an account of each operation carried out by the Canadian army. In so doing, he illustrates the valour, skill, and commitment of the Allied citizen-soldier in the face of a well-entrenched and well-equipped enemy army.This new edition of Copp’s best-selling, award-winning history includes a new introduction that examines the strategic background of the Battle of Normandy.

Drawing from newspapers, journals, government reports, and archival records, Terry Copp – one of Canada’s leading military historians – tells the story of how citizens in Canada’s largest city responded to the challenges of the First World War.Montreal at War addresses responses to the outbreak of war in Europe and the process of raising an army for service overseas. It details the shock of intense combat and heavy casualties, studies the mobilization of volunteers, and follows the experience of battalions from Montreal to the Battle of Vimy Ridge.Challenging long-held assumptions, Montreal at War aims to understand the war experience as it unfolded, approaching history from the perspective of those who lived through it.

From the Breskens Pocket and operations to open the port of Antwerp, through the Rhineland campaign and the battles to liberate the Netherlands in 1945, this book focuses on some of the most important but least-known campaigns of the Second World War.This guide to the Second World War battlefields of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany encourages Canadians to set out on their own journey to those places - not just the memorials and museums but the villages and fields where young Canadians fought with such bravery to liberate Northwest Europe from the yoke of Nazi tyranny.The Canadian Battlefields in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany is a companion to The Canadian Battlefields in Normandy and The Canadian Battlefields in Northern France: Dieppe and the Channel Ports.Published by the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies and distributed by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

For Canadians, the War of 1812 has held various meanings at different times. In the immediate aftermath, alongside the ""Loyalist"" narrative of fleeing from the defeat of the British at the hands of American rebels, the war was regarded as redemptive for those still loyal to British North America. From the American perspective, it is merely one in a host of small-scale wars in North America, and the events of 1812-1815 are mostly forgotten in the collective memory of the United States. The authors of 1812: A Guide to the War and Its Legacy believe that the War of 1812 was an important event in North American history with lasting consequences for Canadians, Americans, and First Nations. This guidebook, published by the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, uses modern satellite images, archival records, paintings, and contemporary photographs to help readers understand what happened during the war and why it happened that way.The book includes a historical section that seeks to place events in their strategic, operational, and human context. A tour section is designed to introduce and guide readers to key locations of war and memory and offer an explanation of the fluid memory that has evolved over the last two hundred years. The War of 1812 has been forgotten, reimagined, and invented anew many times, and the itineraries of the guide illustrate that ever-changing process of commemoration.

This revised guide to the Canadian battlefields of the First World War in France and Belgium offers a brief, critical history of the war and of Canada's contribution, drawing attention to the best recent books on the subject. It focuses on the Ypres Salient, Passchendaele, Vimy, and the ""Hundred Days"" battles and considers lesser-known battlefields as well. Battle maps, contemporary maps, photographs, war art, and tourist information enhance the reader experience. In addition to its new look, this second edition features new photographs, maps, and a more-detailed history section. A new ""Walking the Battlefields"" feature allows visitors to follow the path of Canadian troops as they fought at Ypres, the St. Eloi Craters, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Bourlon Wood through detailed maps and unit-level text. The tour sections and references have also been updated to reflect recent developments in writing about the Great War in Canada. The Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS) at Wilfrid Laurier University exists to foster research, education, and discussion of historical and contemporary conflict. This publication was generously funded by John and Pattie Cleghorn.