The twenty-first century has brought the perfect storm of conditions to create substantive global instability. This contemporary operating environment (COE) is characterized by complexity, ambiguity, volatility, and constant danger. It is a human invention that requires a human solution. Special operations forces (SOF), a group comprised of highly trained personnel with the ability to deploy rapidly and apply special skills in a variety of envir ...
Fearing an American invasion of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe had Fort York built in 1793 as an emergency defensive measure. That act became the first step in the founding of modern Toronto. Twenty years later, the Fort was the scene of the bloody Battle of York in which the famous American explorer, Zebulon Pike, died leading U.S. forces against the Fort's outnumbered Canadian, British and Aboriginal defenders. The Americans won this ba ...
Clearly the favourite character of Canada’s overseas troops during World War II, «Herbie» had a penchant for getting into some of the most bizarre predicaments imaginable. With feet that generally led to trouble and a nose like a disillusioned banana, Herbie provided Canadian soldiers with a daily ration of laughter at a time when humour was often at a premium. No figure before or since boosted so effectively the spirit of Canadians overseas. A ...
They were the men who led our nation in war and peace. In world wars, they were the steady hands guiding our forces to victory; in peacekeeping, they helped to establish and preserve order. Over the years they have helped the Canadian Forces to become one of the proudest militaries in the world. Warrior Chiefs: Perspectives on Senior Canadian Military Leaders is the first book of a two-part series that examines the unique Canadian experience ...
Voices of the Left Behind contains the personal stories of nearly 50 Canadian war children who have been helped by Project Roots. It is filled with fascinating archival images and documents as well as original wartime correspondence between the mothers, the Canadian fathers, and the Department of National Defence, Veterans Affairs, and other Canadian institutions. Letters from the war children to the Military Personnel Records Unit of the Nati ...
In the midst of the Second World War, the Germans introduced a new kind of warfare that had never been seen before, featuring a new kind of soldier: the paratrooper. The public and military alike were astonished by the feats of daring and martial prowess displayed by the intrepid troops, who soon became the epitome of the modern combat soldier. The Allies countered by setting up their own airborne forces. In Canada, 1 Canadian Parachute Battali ...
The schooner Nancy , legendary vessel of Great Lakes and Canadian history, lived a thousand lives in a noted career that began in Detroit and ended in a fiery explosion in Nottawasaga River in the last year of the War of 1812. This dramatic, soundly researched narrative depicts the reality of the men who sailed her while fighting a gritty war. Carrying the war to the enemy in hazardous ways, they fought against a powerful American foe, using s ...
The discovery of a suspected homegrown Islamic terrorist cell in our own backyard last year shocked most Canadians. The question arose: Is this country next on Al Qaeda's hit list? But although terrorism in Canada did not begin with Al Qaeda, its fundamental dynamics are as unfamiliar to most of the public as the minutiae of quantum physics. How could such shocking developments happen in a nation of «peacekeepers» that opposed the American ...
