Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War

First published in 1993, The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders In The Second World War is the award-winning, classic collective biography of the Canadian army's leaders during the second World War, and the only book of its kind to date. Written by Canadian military history expert J. L. Granatstein, The Generals scrutinizes the nature of the Canadian army over fifty years ago and tells the life stories of McNaughton, Crerar, Tommy Burns, Simonds, Matthews and Hoffmeister, and Pope and Stuart. A penultimate section discusses the absence of francophone generals. An extensively researched and scholarly history, now in a new edition with an introduction by University of Calgary Director of the Center for Military and Strategic Studies Dr. David J. Bercuson, The Generals is a keenly written, pinpoint accurate scrutiny of the personality traits of powerful men, and their contributions to Canadian and world military history.

A great look at the political workings at the top of the Canadian Army, with insightful comments about the gulf between the PF (regular army) and the NPAM (reserve army) and how some things never change!Only criticism would be the use of terminology such as GSO II, Brigade Major etc. for officers, but no explanation of what their duties are - Granatstein presumes we know what these positions are for.That is a minor detail, however, and the meat of the text is in its profiles - professional and personal - of Canada's war time generals. The book could easily have been twice as long and retained interest, even so, the focus on the top few generals is well worth the price asked for this book. Granatstein is in his element discussing with conviction the experience of the senior officers.

When the western democracies went to war they all lacked anything close to reasonable numbers of professional officers. Canada had only one basic officer school, Royal Military College in Kingston. This graduated only a handful each year, and post graduate studies had to be completed in Britain. For an Army that was to number two thirds of a million and command an Army Group of 400,000 in Europe, qualified leadership was in short supply.Jack Granatstein has been a respected historian and curator of the Canadian War Museum for some time. By writing a reasonably detailed overview of WW 2 Canadian Generals he provides a very readable outline. Grouping his subjects by chronology, a comparison of strengths and weaknesses is revealed. The effects of WW 1 and the changing nature of Canadian life is evident.No punches are pulled in this book. Generals were fired or never deployed due to age, infirmity, incompetence and inexperience. A comparison of German training shows how superior their leadership was, not at the highest 'one on one' level, but at the battalion, brigade and division level, where wars are fought and won.Any student of Canadian history or military history in general would find this a valued addition.