Dig a hole in your back yard

Up Front, Bill Mauldin, 1945

Dig a hole in your back yard while it is raining. Sit in the hole until the water climbs up around your ankles. Pour cold mud down your shirt collar. Sit there for forty-eight hours, and, so there is no danger of your dozing off, imagine that a guy is sneaking around waiting for a chance to club you on the head or set your house on fire.

Get out of the hole, fill a suitcase with rocks, pick it up, put a shotgun in your other hand, and walk on the muddiest road you can find. Fall flat on your face every few minutes as you imagine big meteors streaking down to sock you.

After ten or twelve miles (remember, you are still carrying the shotgun and suitcase) start sneaking through the wet brush. Imagine that somebody has booby-trapped your route with rattlesnakes which will bite you if you step on them. Give some friend a rifle and have him blast in your direction once in a while.

Snoop around until you find a bull. Try to figure out a way to sneak around him without letting him see you. When he does see you, run like hell all the way back to your hole in the back yard, drop the suitcase and shotgun, and get in.

If you repeat this performance every three days for several months you may begin to understand why an infantryman sometimes gets out of breath. But you still won't understand how he feels when things get tough.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 4 May 2014 5:52 PM EDT

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Facts About Our Troops and The Enemy (1942)

Canadian Army Training Memorandum, No 21, December 1942

Facts About Our Own Troops

General Montgomery, Commander 8th Army in Libya, says that training is not satisfactory until every C.O. can ask himself the following questions and satisfy himself as to the answers:

(a)     Are my men 100% fit and anxious to kill Germans and Japs?

(b)     Is every man in the Battalion master of his weapons?

(c)     Do all officers understand the technique of Battle Procedure?

(d)     Can every Platoon and Company carry out an efficient Platoon or Company attack?

(e)     Do all my Platoon and Section commanders understand the Platoon locality in defence?

(f)     Do all ranks understand the practical application of concealment?

(g)     Do all officers, N.C.Os. and men understand the technique of M.T. moves?

(h)     Do all ranks understand the offensive use of Infantry V Tank by day or night?

(i)     Can the Battalion carry out a night attack under all conditions?

(j)     Has the Battalion practised patrolling and recce and do they understand their value?

(k)     Does the Battalion understand the technique of River Crossing by day and night and have they practised it?

(l)     Is the Man Management good in my Battalion?

And finally, the essentials of a Commander are: Enthusiasm, Cheerfulness, and the will to work like hell.

YOU!

What have you done during the past month to increase the efficiency of your men? Individually? Collectively?

Have you received all the new Military Training Pamphlets to which you are entitled according to notifications appearing in Routine and Army Orders? Have you studied them?

If a man is backward, do you try to bring him along so that he may reach the same standard as the other men, or do you just detail him for P.K.F. (permanent kitchen fatigue)?

Nothing Matters Now but WAR!

Facts About The Enemy

Our enemies are NOT "push-overs." If you still have such ideas in your heads at this stage of the game, get rid of them.

The German soldier has had army life and discipline drilled into him from early boyhood. He was in the "Jungvolk" at 10, and from then on his training was directed along military lines with constantly increasing and awe-inspiring efficiency. He knows what he is fighting for today (Goebbels tells him continually!)-to wipe out all stigma of the 1918 defeat and to give the German race its rightful place-world dominations. He is determined, ruthless and skilled in the use of his weapons. He will stop at nothing until success is achieved or he is destroyed!

The Japanese soldier is a sly, resourceful and cunning enemy. He will not surrender. Death in war for his god-like Emperor is an honour-the greatest possible honour for a Japanese soldier. In the field he will not hesitate to draw our fire, sacrificing his own life to reveal our positions to his comrades. For months during his training Reveille is at 0130 hours (not a typographical error), and he averages three hours sleep a night. Daily he swims at least 100 metres in full kit. He is tough, determined, well trained. His skin may be yellow but his nature is not.

With our enemies only one thing counts — GAINING THE OBJECTIVE. No sacrifice of human life is too great! No barbarism is too cruel! No human effort is too exhausting I Only the final ACHIEVEMENT matters.

Can we afford to do less? Anything but our best is courting defeat-treason to our cause of Freedom, justice, Right. The enemy can and will be destroyed by a brand of cool courage, fearlessness, determination, and skill greater than his own. We have it-let's use it! They asked for it—let's give it to them!

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 4 May 2014 4:54 PM EDT

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Canadian Infantry Regiments: Divisional Affiliations

On 9 Jul, 2013, the Canadian Minister of National Defence announced that the Canadian Army would return to an organization based on "Divisions," to be accomplished by renaming the existing Area commands as follows:

• 1st Canadian Divisional Headquarters to be at Canadian Force Base Kingston (this division has no permanent subordinate brigades).
• Secteur du Québec de la Force terrestre to become the 2nd Canadian Division.
• Land Force Western Area to become the 3rd Canadian Division.
• Land Force Central Area to become the 4th Canadian Division.
• Land Force Atlantic Area to become the 5th Canadian Division.

In 2014, the Divisions will receive new coloured shoulder patches for wear on dress uniforms and they will also receive traditional flags.

While contemplating one of the justifying points supporting this change, which was to connect to the past achievenments of the Canadian Army, I wondered which units would be in the same divisions that they were in during past conflicts. Soldiers build great pride in their regiment's battle honours and achievements, but they seldom associate those successes with the Divisions (or Brigade) the unit belonged to at the time.

The following chart provides a visual depiction of the Divisional affiliations for each of Canada's infantry regiments through the First and Second World Wars, and today.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 13 July 2014 10:03 PM EDT

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Image from the Canadian Forces magazine Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 2, February, 1970

Elite Starfighter Pilots take Pride in Flying Dangerous Jet

Ottawa Citizen, 26 May 1983
Hugh Adami, Citizen Staff Writer

"If I have to go, that's the way I want to go." — Canadian Forces Capt. David Owen, a few months before his death in a CF-104 Starfighter crash last December [1982].

To Owen's father, Glyn , there is no doubt his son meant those words as they talked one day last year about the perils of being a Starfighter pilot.

Since his boyhood days, the Ponoka, Alta., native had always wanted to fly. And the Starfighter became his ultimate flying machine once he joined the military.

Like many other Starfighter pilots, some of Owen's best friends had died in CF-104 crashes. But the pilot would never criticize the aircraft.

"He used to say most (crashes) were the result of pilot error," his father recalled Wednesday.

The crash involving Owen was just that.

Military investigators determined that Owen and fellow pilot, Capt. Andrew Tremblay, flying in another Starfighter, collided in mid-air while on a test mission near Cold Lake, Alta. Tremblay was also killed.

But the military won't tell the pilots' relatives which airman was at fault.

Said Owen's father: "It doesn't want to create any bad feelings."

Had David been alive to hear about Sunday's crash in West Germany involving a Canadian Forces Starfighter that killed five people, Owen said his son would be appalled by the controversy surrounding the safety record of the aircraft.

"(Starfighter pilots) are a breed apart."

Lyle Misselbrook of Saskatchewan, who lost his brother Donald as a result of a Starfighter crash in 1967, agrees.

Relatives of men who fly the Starfighter do worry about them, Misselbrook said, but they soon come to the realization that "what will be will be."

"The role of the service creates hazards. But the men who join know exactly what they are getting into."

James Stephenson, father of the pilot who safely bailed out of his Starfighter moments before its fiery crash on a West German highway Sunday, said he knows there's no point trying to tell his son to quit.

His son, Capt Al Stephenson of 439 Tactical Fighter Squadron in Baden-Solingen, West Germany, was a "close buddy" of Capt. Scott Ritchie, the Ottawa native who died last week after his Starfighter went down near Cold lake, Alta.

Ritchie's mother Betty knows why Stephenson could never be persuaded to stop flying the Starfighter. Starfighter pilots, she said, work so hard to get to fly the Starfighter.

"It's separating the men from the boys," she said.

Sunday's crash brought the total of Canadian Forces Starfighters lost to 100. Less than 100 of the original 239 purchased in the early 1960s by the Canadian military remain. Sunday's crash and the crash involving Ritchie are still being investigated.

Defence Minister Gilles Lamontagne has refused to ground the airplane.

Image from the Canadian Forces magazine Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 2, February, 1970

Nicknamed the "widowmaker" by Canadian airmen and a "rocket with a man in it" by the Americans, about 40 Canadian Forces pilots have died in Starfighter crashes.

The U.S. Air Force, which phased out the Starfighter over the last few years, lost 167 of the 275 it purchased from Lockheed Corp. in the mid-1950s. Of 643,500 hours air time for the entire U.S. Starfighter fleet, 25.2 planes were lost for every 100,000 hours of flying.

Experts, including those in the military, say part of the reason for the high crash rate of the Canadian Starfighter is due to its role as a ground-attack aircraft — a function for which the CF-104 was not primarily designed. The aircraft was originally built as a high altitude interceptor.

Experts say pilots who lose control in low-altitude flying — whether it is due to environmental conditions or pilot error — simply don't have the time to regain control.

The single-engine, narrow winged aircraft can travel up to 2,400 kilometres an hour — twice the speed of sound.

Col. Herb Sievert said it is imperative that the Canadian Forces through its role in NATO — continue to use the Starfighter as a ground-attack aircraft since it is believed the only effective way to get to the enemy. The tactic has been widely used in the Middle east wars by the Israelis, said Sievert.

If the Starfighter was to be used as a high-altitude attacker, military officials believe the enemy would have the better hand.

But Seivert said the ground-attack method will be less hazardous as the forces begin the switch to the new F-18 Hornet, a twin-engine jet fighter suited for both high- and low-altitude warfare.

The Starfighter will be gradually phased out by the F-18. Sievert said the first squadron to change of to the F-18 will be at CFB Cold Lake, where pilot training will start next January [1984].

The three remaining squadrons using the Starfighter — all stationed in West Germany — will change to the F-18 over three, six-month periods starting in 1985.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 27 April 2014 12:46 PM EDT

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Loot in Arras

Charles Yale Harrison; quoted in Vain Glory; A miscellany of the Great War 1914-1918, Guy Chapman, OBE, MC (Ed), 1937/1968

We halt. We are in one of the main streets. On both sides of the street are stores—grocery stores, tobacco shops, clothing stores, wine-shops.…

We ask our captain—a fidgety, middle-aged man by the name of Penny—why the town is deserted. He explains that the Germans dropped a few long-range shells into the city a few days ago, and the inhabitants, thinking that Heinie was about to enter, fled leaving the city as we now see it.…

As I stand talking to Broadbent a man in the company ahead of us idly kicks a cobble-stone loose from its bed. He picks it up and crashes it through a wide, gleaming shop window. … The soldier steps through the window and comes out with a basketful of cigarettes. He tosses packages to his comrades.

Another crash!

More men stream through the gaping windows.

Officers run here and there trying to pacify the men.

As far as I can see, men are hurling stones through windows and clambering in for supplies.

The street is a mass of scurrying soldiers.

Discipline has disappeared. …

"Do you know that this is looting a town?" Broadbent says.

"Of course it is."

"There will be merry hell to pay for this."

…A detachment of mounted English Military Police approach the town.

The police are our traditional enemies.

We organize a volunteer defence corps.

We post ourselves on the roofs of houses which overlook the road which leads into the city. We are armed with rifles, machineguns, hand-grenades.

As the police canter close to the town they are met with a burst of rifle-fire.

Two horses are hit and rear madly into the air. The M.P's draw rein and about face.

This is our first victory over the police. The retreat is greeted with cheers.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Infantrymen of Lieutenant D.S. Barrie's platoon of The Highland Light Infantry of Canada relaxing during a rest period, France, 20 June 1944. Location: France. Date: June 20, 1944.
Photographer: Ken Bell. Mikan Number: 3205673.
From the Library and Archives Canada virtual exhibit "Faces of War."

Character and Leadership

Canadian Army Training Memorandum, No 32, November 1943

1.     Leadership is a combination of qualities, inherent and acquired, which evoke respect, confidence, and a "will to do" from one's fellow men. A leader must know his work, be self-confident, determined and forceful display initiative, and think rapidly in critical and unexpected situations.

2.     Your men must instinctively look to you. To achieve this end, you must earn their respect, for your knowledge, for your assumption of responsibility, and for your decisiveness of action. If you know what you are doing, your self confidence will inspire the confidence and respect of your men and be mirrored in their actions.

3.     The strength of our army depends upon the calibre of its officers - they must be true Leaders. Assume the role of leader. Be definite, forceful, direct, be self-confident, resourceful, assume responsibility at all times, Look, Act, and be the Leader.

4.     An officer sets the example for his troops to follow; his clothes fit are neat and clean; his shoes are shined; his hair cut and combed; he is shaved; and in general, he presents an appearance which can well provide an example for others.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Last Mess Dinner of the Canadian Mounted Rifles

Officers gathered at Windsor Hotel to Honour Lt. Col. Rhoades
Tribute to Fallen
Ex-Commanding Officer Said Total casualties had been
107 Officers and 2,943 Men

The Montreal Gazette, 5 April, 1919

Many decorated heroes foregathered last evening at a dinner given at the Windsor Hotel by the returned officers of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles in honour of their ex-commanding officer, Lieut.-Col. W. Rhoades, D.S.O. (with bar), M.C., Croix de Guerre and Mons Star, also wearing the Queen's South Africa medal and the Coronation decoration.

The dinner was arranged as a reunion for the returned officers of the 5th C.M.R., and as a send-off to Lieut.-Col. Rhoades, who is leaving in a few days to take an appointment at the Royal Military College, Kingston.

The function took the form of a regulation mess dinner, and Major J.S.E. Todd, M.C., was mess president, with Lieut. J.J. Harold, M.C., as vice-president. Among those present were Major J. Hawson, M.C., Capt. Lelanne, M.C., Capt. H.S. Cox, M.C., Capt. H. Daubney, M.C., Capt. C.J. Hanratty, Capt, H.R. Gifford, M.C., Lieut. B. Porter, M.C., Lieut. L.A. Atto, M.C., and Lieuts. J.S. Gifford, R. Eberis, Dunning, and R. Poley, M.C. Amongst other guests were Lieut.-Col. G. Munroe of the 8th C.M.R., Ottawa; Lieut.-Col. Vipond, D.S.O., Brigade Major Campbell, D.S.O., M.C., Ottawa, Major Wilcox, Magog, and Lieut.-Col. Bradley, Sherbrooke.

Many Casualties

A warm reception was given Lieut.-Col. Rhoades when he rose to speak of the history of the Mounted Rifles and the splendid work they had done overseas. He remarked that the C.M.R. Had always worked together at the front as a happy family, officers and men always being willing to take their share of the hard work and hard knocks.

Lieut.-Col. Rhoades paid tribute to the memory of the late Lieut.-Col. Harry Baker, who organized the regiment, and died at its head, and the many other who had given their lives from the 5th C.M.R. During the war. He said that the regiment had lost 18 officers and 467 other ranks killed in action, while four officers and 150 other ranks had died of wounds. In addition to this the records showed missing or prisoners of war, four officers and 221 other ranks; wounded, 81 officers and 2,000 other ranks, making a total casualty list for the regiment during the war of 107 officers and 2,943 other ranks.

After giving these details, Lieut.-Col. Rhoades led a silent toast to the departed officers and men of the 5th C.M.R.

Following this brief speeches were given by Lieut.-Col. Vipond and Lieut.-Col. Munroe, who paid tribute to the late Major D'Arcy Smith, who was killed during a particularly daring raid on the enemy trenches.

• Wikipedia - 5th Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF
• 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles at Mount Sorrel
• War diaries of the 5th C.M.R. (Library and Archives Canada):
  • 29 July 1915 – 28 February 1917
  • 01 March 1917 – 31 March 1918
  • 01 April 1918 – 17 March 1919
• The 5th C.M.R. Association
• Casualties of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles (Quebec Regiment)
• Guide to Sources Relating to Units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force – Canadian Mounted Rifles (Library and Archives Canada)
• 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles, Nominal Roll 1915 (July 18, 1915)

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Armour Doctrine, 1916

Colonel Ernest Swinton, as presented in The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare, Colonel T.N. Dupuy, 1980

Seven months before the commitment of British tanks, Colonel Ernest Swinton, one of the early protagonists of the tank, had proposed a doctrine for the employment of armor. In it he made these points.

1.     Some means of communication from commanders to tanks — other than through the telephone lines of accompanying infantry — should be worked out. (Swinton clearly envisaged radio. which was not yet sufficiently sophisticated to be installed in tanks.)

2.     Artillery and mines were most to be reared. The former should be attacked by support1ng aircraft and also taken under counter-battery fire.

3.     These machines "should not be used in driblets" (emphasis Swinton's). in order to keep their existence secret until sufficient were ready and their crews trained for "one great combined operation" (He vigorously protested the September 15 attack as premature. but was over-ruled. )

4.     The sector of attack should be carefully chosen to minimize the tank's limitations and enhance its capabilities.

5.     Approach to the line of departure should be at night from assembly areas not more than two miles back. The attack should start just before dawn.

6.     The tanks should precede the infantry by a distance sufficient to allow the enemy's rifle and machine-gun fire to be concentrated on the tanks when the infantry reached its attack objectives.

7.     Once the infantry arrived. the tanks should move onto the next trench line, bringing it under enfilade fire and attacking enemy reserves and bombing parties moving up.

8.     The tank attack should be in such Force that it could continue. without halting, through the enemy's arti1Iery positions (about l2 kilometers).

9.     The momentum necessary to achieve deep penetration in a single attack would require carefully planned logistical support to assure a continuing. adequate supply of fuel, ammunition, and other necessities.

10.     Smoke should be used to conceal the tank attack to the maximum extent possible.

To an armor officer today these concepts would seem elemental. But in l9l6, and for a long time thereafter. they seemed radical, based on undemonstrated theory, and inconsistent with the realities of contemporary warfare. As a matter of fact, Swinton somewhat overestimated the capabilities of the contemporary tank.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Ada Andrews Kemp, Nursing Sister

A Nurse's First World War Photo Album

Ada Andrews Kemp was born in Essex Co., England on 2 June 1895. She emigrated to Canada in 1903 as a Bernardo foster child, i.e,, an orphan, where she lived in Port Hope, Ontario, as a domestic servant to the family of Alexander Walsh.

Having trained as a nurse, Ada Kemp attested for overseas suervice in the First World War on 11 April, 1917, at the age of 21. She was sorn in as a nursing officer at the Toronto Base Hospital.

Throughout the war, Ada Kemp maintained a photo album. Containing over 200 photographs, the majority of them smal images taken with a personal camera, it shows glimpses of her experiences during the war and the people around her in the Hospitals where she served.

Although a detailed look at Ada's military service would require a copy of her service record, we can glean a few details from online searches of the London and Canada Gazettes:

• Ada Andrews kemp was appointed to the rank of Nursing Sister on 11 April 1917 (Canada Gazette 23 Jun 1917)
• Ada Kemp was awarded the Royal Red Cross, Second Class (London Gazette 23 Feb 1917)
• In the post war Canadian Army, Ada was again appointed to the rank of Nursing Sister on 12 June 1919. (Canada Gazette 4 Oct 1919)

• 

  

  

  

  Ada Kemp's Attestation Paper

  

  Ada Kemp's Entry in the Soldiers of the First World War Database at Library and Archives Canada:

  • Name: KEMP, ADA ANDREWS
  • Rank: NS
  • Date of Birth: 02/06/1895
  • Reference: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5069 - 5

  Nursing sisters from Port Hope (source)

  • Miss Emma Frances Elliott – Four years' Service - 1915 Star
  • Miss Harriet Gertrude Hudspeth – Four years' Service - Mons Ribbon
  • Miss Ada Kemp – Four years' Service
  • Miss Etta McLean – One year's Service
  • Miss Myrtle McMillan – Four years' Service
  • Miss Mary McNaughton – Four years' Service
  • Miss Edith Elgin McNaughton – Served with American Army
  • Miss Pansy Eva Roberts – Four years' Service
  • Miss Pearl Edna Wood – Four years' Service

  

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Advanced Driving and Maintenance School, Woodstock, ON

Over the next few years, Canada will be recognizing a variety of military anniversaries, including those of the First and Second World War. When many Canadian think of the conflicts of the 20th Century, their minds invariably turn to operations overseas, whether that be the trenches of France and Flanders, the hills of Sicily or the beaches of Normandy. Few, unless they have a direct connection, also think of the intense and widespread military efforts that took place in Canada during each war.

Ranging from Sam Hughes and the CEF building Camp Valcartier in 1914, to the many airfields of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan airfields all over the country, to the many temporary schools of instruction, camps sprung up all over Canada during the world wars to suport Canada's forces overseas (and on the seas). Many of these camps were dismantled as quickly as the returning forces were demobilized. Sold back to municipalities, or turned to other purposes, in short years the remaining buildings disappeared one by one, along with the memory of what had been there and what training took place in those camps.

In many cases, the last remaining vestiges of these camps are a few old news stories and photos, and the occasional discovery of a piece of evidence that they existed. The following images represent one such clue; during the Second World War, Woodstock, Ontario, was the home of No. 11 Advanced Driving and Maintenance School (A.D. & M.S.). On property now occupied by the racetrack, with perhaps the original structures of one or two buildings remaining under new exteriors, the Canadian Army trained officers and soldiers in the skills to keep Canada's mechanized army in the field and ready to fight.

No. 11 Advanced Driving and Maintenance School

Click for larger version.

See these images in the Woodstock Museum online collection:

•  Advanced Driving and Maintenance School - Parade
• Advanced Driving and Maintenance School at Fairgrounds (1943)

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 4 May 2014 5:07 PM EDT

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733146 Private William Tyler

A Canadian Soldier of the Great War

"Transferred to England for discharge as a MINOR."

Read the story of William Tyler's service on The Regimental Rogue.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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British Military Uniforms

British Military Uniforms, James Laver, 1948

We have now followed, in a necessarily abbreviated and inadequate fashion, the history of British Military Uniforms from their beginning, with the rise of professional armies, to their virtual extinction under the conditions of modern, mechanized warfare. What conclusions, if any, can we come to at the end of our enquiry?

An attempt has been made elsewhere to establish the fundamental principles governing the evolution of all costume. These would seem to be -

• The Seduction Principle
• The Hierarchical Principle
• The Utility Principle

The first attempts to make the wearer of clothes as attractive as possible to the opposite sex. It is, in general, the governing principle of female costume, but it is not without influence on men's, and particularly on soldiers' dress. It widens the military man's shoulders, narrows his hips, puffs out his chest, lengthens his leg and increases his apparent height. It plays, therefore, before the days of conscription, an important part in recruiting. Many a man who took the King's shilling did so in the firm conviction that there is nothing like a smart uniform to attract the girls; nor was he often mistaken. The heightening of masculine characteristics might also be considered of value, at least in early days, in intimidating the enemy, but such considerations have long been obsolete. The second principle establishes social position. It is the general principle governing male dress. In military costume it shrinks into a rigid ritualism of rank.

The utility principle has comparatively little influence on civilian costume. In modern male civilian dress it produces a succession of 'sports' clothes which gradually formalize themselves until they are too uncomfortable to be worn for any active pursuit and have to be replaced by something 'easier'. The same is true of military costume.

In considering military uniforms, therefore, we can (having made due note of the succession of stars and crowns and stripes on sleeve and shoulder) ignore the hierarchical principle. Military uniform is a tug of war between the seduction principle (in the sense of the heightening of masculinity, and 'martial' bearing) and the utility principle. Given a long peace, the seduction principle triumphs and soldiers become more and more gorgeous, but a war, especially a long war brings the utility principle once more into operation. The invention of long-range firearms and the raising of immense armies have enormously increased the weight of the utility principle until to-day we may say that the lone tug of war over, at least so far as fighting troops are concerned.

We may therefore attempt to tabulate the following conclusions:

1.     Military uniforms are the appurtenances of Kings' Bodyguards and the professional armies that developed from them. Their history is therefore very short – little more than than two hundred years.

2.     They are founded on contemporary civilian dress, somewhat modified in the direction of toughness by the utility principle, and nearly always modified in the direction of gorgeousness by the seduction principle.

3.     Once established they seem to develop a life of the own, exaggerating all their characteristics to a degree fantasy not known in male civilian dress since the time of Charles II (that is, precisely, the period when uniforms began to develop).

4.     Every war tends to drag uniforms back to the utility principle, expressing itself in looseness (for ease in battle) and in camouflage. Modifications, therefore, are likely to be first seen in the dress of Light Infantry and auxiliary troops generally, and in those engaged in colonial warfare.

5.     Every army engaged in actual fighting is compelled, sooner or later, to develop its own battle dress. The uniform which it has discarded then becomes 'walking-out' dress, that is a 'smartened ' version of the battle dress' of the previous war.

6.     Ceremonial uniform is often the battle dress (formalized and fantasticated) of the last war but one. In the days of huge conscript armies this is only retained by Household troops (that is by the King's Bodyguard).

7.     The general colour of national uniforms (red for Britain, white for Austria, etc.) seems to be determined by accidents of history. That soldiers ever wore red because it did not show blood' (it does show it very clearly as a black stain) is a vulgar error. Once the utility principle has triumphed the colour of all uniforms is an attempt at camouflage.

8.     Military fashions are extremely imitative. The dress of any successful troops will be copied, especially in unessentials, and any victorious nation tends to impose some detail of its uniform on the armies of the world.

9.     Military headgear has two purposes: to protect the soldier's head and to increase his apparent height. The second purpose ruled almost exclusively, from the abandonment of the Cromwellian 'pot' to the First World War. The protection of the head (that is the utility principle) has now triumphed completely (the steel helmet once again) and the only consideration about the soldier's 'hat' is: how quickly and easily can it be stowed away?

10.     Cavalry uniforms follow certain peculiar lines of their own. They strive always for gorgeousness and display, and frequently develop decorations which make it impossible for their wearers to function as cavalry.

11.     All cavalry tends to become 'Heavy' cavalry, and as 'Light' cavalry is always needed in war, recourse is had to the services of 'Auxiliaries'. These have, in the past, generally come from the less settled lands of Eastern Europe, and as their skill on horseback is admired their uniforms are copied, first slavishly and then with increasing fantastication (as, for example, in the astonishing history of the Hussar).

12.     Mounted troops other than cavalry (for instance horse artillery) tend to adopt cavalry uniforms, with a marked preference for that of the Hussar.

13.     Modern uniforms are vestigial in two senses of the term: they have become on the one hand a parade, or walking-out dress, and on the other have shrunk to mere insignia of rank or to miniature badges of territorial or regimental loyalty – a button and a pip. Before an actual assault even these are often discarded. In modern warfare, therefore, the utility principle has triumphed completely and the dress of commandos and tank crews is no more a 'uniform' in the proper sense of the term than are the dungarees of factory hands.

14.     It is probable, however, that uniforms will continue to exist, paradoxically, as the costume of a soldier when he is not fighting.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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I am the Infantry

US Army Infantry Journal, July 1956

I am the Infantry—Queen of Battle! I meet the enemy face to face … close with him and destroy him. For two centuries, I have been the bulwark of our Nation's defense. I am the Infantry! Follow me!

Hardship … and glory, I have known. My bleeding feet stained the snow at Valley Forge. With Washington, I crossed the Delaware … tasted victory at Yorktown … and saw our Nation born. I am the Infantry! Follow me!

At New Orleans, I fought beyond the hostile hour … discovered the fury of my long rifle … and came of age. I am the Infantry!

Westward, I moved with the covered wagon … marched with the empire across the plains … to far-flung outposts on the wild frontier. Follow me!

I went with Scott to Vera Cruz … battled Santa Anna in the mountain passes … and climbed the high plateau. I planted my flag in the Plaza of Mexico City. I am the Infantry!

From Bull Run to Appomattox my blood ran red. I served two masters … the Blue and the Grey … and united again under my banner of blue. I am the Infantry! Follow me!

I left these shores with the sinking of the Maine … led the charge up San Juan Hill … fought the Moro— and disease—in the Philippines. Across the Rio Grande, I chased the wily villain. Follow me! I am the Infantry!

At Chateau-Thierry, I went over the top. I stood like a rock on the Marne … cracked the Hindenburg line … broke the back of the Hun in the Argonne … and I didn't come back until it was "over, over here." I am the Infantry! Follow me!

At Bataan and Corregidor, I took a beating … licked my wounds and fought back. I invaded Tunisia on the African shore … dug my nails into the sand at Anzio … and marched into Rome with a flower in my helmet. I am the Infantry!

The channel and the hedgerow could not hold me. I broke out of the "Bulge" … jumped the Rhine … and took the Heartland. Follow me!

From island to island, I hopped the Pacific … hit the beaches … and chopped my way through swamp and jungle. I walked into the face of the Rising Sun. I am the Infantry! Follow me!

In Pusan perimeter I gathered my strength … crossed the frozen Han … marched to the Yalu. Along the 38th parallel … and around the world, I make my stand. I am the Infantry!

Wherever brave men fight … and die, for freedom, you will find me. I am the bulwark of our Nation's defense. I am always ready … now, and forever. I am the Infantry—Queen of Battle!

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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H.M.C.S. St Laurent; 20 August 1941

Increase in Defence Spending (1937)

Reveal and Notable Increase in Amount for Defense

Ottawa Citizen, 19 January, 1937

Canada's national defence estimates brought down last night in the House of Commons have soared this year. The military, naval and air forces will need altogether $33,730,83. For these three services there is an increase over last year's main estimates of $14,363,434.

In the last fiscal year, however, the Defence Department continued to operate relief camps and controlled civil aviation. These two items cost $4,409,644 a year ago. Relief camps have been dropped, and civil aviation is now a branch of the Department of Transport, so that they do not now appear in the defence estimates.

The Royal Canadian Air Force will consume $11,391,650, which is considerably more than twice the sum expended last year when the total was $4,685,028.

The militia services appropriation is $17,850,428, an increase of $5,831,502, while the estimate for the naval service is $4,486,810, or $1,832,310 more than last year.

For civil government air operations, the Defence Department asks for $361,000, which is a drop of $153,987 from last year.

To Increase R.C.A.F.

In a memorandum accompanying the tabling of the estimates it is shown that the personnel of the R.C.A.F. Is to be increased by 48 officers and 565 airmen, to a strength of 195 officers and 1,498 airmen, while an increase in the non-permanent sir force is contemplated, from 97 officers and 666 airmen to 118 officers and 946 airmen.

Provision is made for the acquisition of 102 airplanes. These will be distributed as follows:

Fighter, 12; army co-operation, 3; flying boats, 7; bomber, 24; torpedo bombing, 11; coastal reconnaissance , 18; training, 27.

This will bring the number of aircraft up to 284, of which many, however, are obsolete.

Make Aircraft in Canada

"Special efforts have been and will continue to be made," says the memorandum, "to have any new aircraft required by the Department of National Defence made in Canada; and the question of producing aero engines in Canada will continue to receive most careful attention."

The number of flying hours provided for in the estimates is double that of 1936-37. The organization of the non-permanent squadrons of the R.C.A.F. Will be advanced, and better training and equipment will be provided them.

"Of great importance," says the memorandum, "will be the construction of buildings and works in Nova Scotia, at Ottawa, Trenton, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Prince Rupert, with minor additions or repairs at other points. Ground services are essential, and as much progress as possible will be made in this direction during the coming year.

"Some flying equipment, munitions, large stocks of tools, spare parts, as well as wireless telegraphy equipment, and mechanical transport will be obtained.

Increase in Navy

The Royal Canadian Navy will be increased by 373 men to 1,339 ranks and ratings. Other expenditures will embrace the increase in reserves of ammunition and torpedoes; harbor defence equipment, "particularly against submarines," at Halifax and Esquimalt; improved wireless equipment ashore; the constriction of four modern minesweepers, for which $750,000 is provided; naval share of joint service magazines at Esquimalt ($200,000).

"The department will continue to maintain four destroyers in commission," says the memorandum. "During the past year H.M.C.S. Champlain and Vancouver have been withdrawn and replaced by two efficient destroyers purchased from the government of the United Kingdom. These will be named H.M.C.S. Fraser and St Laurent.

Militia personnel provided for includes 465 officers and 3,760 other ranks in the permanent force. In the non-permanent active militia, provision is made to train 46,340 all ranks for periods of 10, 12, or 14 days according to the arm of the service.

Cadet services will be maintained on much same footing as in previous years.

Building Program

The building program in addition to other projects, includes the following:

Petawawa Camp, Ont.—some small auxiliary buildings and facilities will be erected, and some work done on the roads in this camp area.

Barriefield, Ont.—further accommodation for married personnel, a garage and work-shop for technical vehicles will be built, as will be a central heating plant.

Valcartier, Que.—the filling group of Dominion arsenal at Valcartier will be completed, and three magazines with heating plants put up.

Quebec—the re-building of the fortification walls will be continued.

Pacific Coast defences—certain "necessary construction" will be commenced and carried out as quickly as possible as several points on the Pacific Coast. A new ordnance building will be put up at Esquimalt. An auxiliary magazine site will be obtained and some preliminary work carried out towards its development.

The estimates provided for acquisition of additional coastal defence batteries, and sites for their location," says the memorandum.

"In view of the recent reorganization of the militia, provision has been made for the purchase of certain specimen items of new equipment, for instruction and training in the new types of units."

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Friday, 25 April 2014 6:25 PM EDT

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Wangling, Scrounging, and Winning

R.H. Morrison; quoted in Vain Glory; A miscellany of the Great War 1914-1918, Guy Chapman, OBE, MC (Ed), 1937/1968

He was taught the three arts of war, so much more necessary than musketry, field engineering or tactics. Or were they, perhaps, part of tactics?

Wangling, Scrounging, and Winning. …

Wangling was the art of obtaining one's just due by unfair means. For instance, every officer and man of the B.E.F. had his allotted daily rations, his camp or billet, his turn for leave. In practice, to get these necessities, it was well to know the man who provided them and do him some small service—a bottle of whiskey, the loan of transport (if you had any) or of a fatigue party. Wangling extended to the lowest ranks. Men wangled from the N.C.O.s the better sorts of jam and extra turns off duty. …

Scrounging could be defined as obtaining that which one had not a shadow of a claim by unfair means. It was more insidious that as the Wangle, but just as necessary—men scrounged the best dug-outs off one another, or off neighbouring sections. N.C.O.s scrounged rum by keeping a thumb in the dipper while doling it out, Officers scrounged the best horse lines from other units. Colonials scrounged telephone wire to snare rabbits …

The Art of Winning. It may be defined as Stealing. More fully, it was the Art of obtaining that which one had no right to, for the sake of obtaining it, for the joy of possession. … Some say it was simply the primeval joy of loot, …

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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a poor broken-down commissariat mule

Voice from the Ranks; A Personal Narrative of the Crimean Campaign by a Sergeant of the Royal Fusiliers, Sergeant-Major Timothy Gowing, edited by Kenneth Fenwick, 1954

One day in March I was one of the sergeants with a party of men that had been sent to Balaclava to bring up supplies in the way of biscuit and pork, or salt junk (salt beef). We had a young officer with us, well mounted, who had but little compassion for poor fellows who were doing their best, trudging through the mud up to their ankles, with a heavy load upon their backs. The party were not going fast enough to suit the whim of our young and inexperienced commander, who called out to the writer.

The unfortunate man was doing his best to keep up, and he gave our young officer such a contemptuous look as I shall not forget as long as I live. Throwing his load of biscuit down in the mud, he exclaimed: 'Man indade! Soger indade! I'm only a poor broken-down commissariat mule!'

Here a light-hearted fellow burst out with 'There's a good time coming, boys !'

The poor fellow was made a prisoner of at once, for insubordination. But when I explained the case to our Colonel he took quite a different view of the matter, forgave the man, and presented him with a pair of good warm socks and a pair of new boots; for the poor fellow had nothing but uppers and no soles for his old ones. And in order to teach our smart young officer how to respect men who were trying to do their duty sentenced him to three extra fatigues to Balaclava—and to walk it, the same as any other man.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Tanks as a Product of the Pre-War Industrial Base

The Lonely Leader; Monty, 1944-1945, Alistaire Horne, 1994

It is a truism that, in a peace-orientated democracy, the panoply of war generally reflects the civilian industrial base rather than that which it requires ideally to win a war. But, as Correlli Barnett acidly notes, the pre-war British motor-vehicle industry 'had concentrated on small family cars and light vans, suitable for a sedate Sunday outing to the seaside and deliveries of groceries...'. Detroit was perhaps equally open to blame. The thirty-ton M-4 Sherman, whose surprise advent on the battlefield had helped turn the tide in the desert in 1942, had all the merits and defects of the US automobile industry such as Ralph Nader in the 1960s had savaged as 'Unsafe At Any Speed'. It could be mass-produced in vast numbers; it was fast (30 m.p.h.) and spaciously comfortable (until it 'brewed up') for crews, compared with the British Cromwells; but it had an uncomfortably high profile in battle. It had inadequate armour, easily caught fire and mounted a 75mm gun descended with little modification from the famous piece that had been the mainstay of the French Army in 1914 - though too light even then. Excellent in 1942, by 1944 it was totally outclassed, capable of penetrating only 68mm of armour, the German Panther, star of Normandy, boasted 100 mm of well-sloped frontal armour, while its long 75mm KwK 42 could penetrate 118mm of armour at 1000 yards - and the Sherman had only 68mm of frontal protection. The main fault of the Panther, and even more of the heavier (58 ton) Tiger, lay in the slow traverse of its turrets, so the best chance the Allied Shermans and Cromwells had in Normandy was when three or four could each take on one of the superior German Panzers - much as the three little British cruisers - Ajax, Achilles and Exeter - had worried to death the mighty Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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The March of the Lone Baptist

The Royal Canadian Regiment, 1883-1933, R.C. Fetherstonaugh, 1936

As the Headquarters' file of Regimental Orders for 1913 and most of 1914 was destroyed in the Halifax explosion in 1917, and as a prolonged search has failed to discover copies in Ottawa, or at any of the Regimental Depots, the exact sequence of events in this period is now difficult to ascertain, but, thanks to private diaries and similar memoranda, a record of some incidents has been preserved. There was, for example, the March of the Lone Baptist, an event unparalleled in the Regiment's, or perhaps any other regiment's, history.

From the time when the unit assumed garrison duties in Halifax in 1905, it had been the custom of the band to march in the church parades of the Church of England, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic detachments in rotation, leaving the smaller denominations to proceed without musical accompaniment. On the complaint of certain Ministers in Halifax against what they considered unfair discrimination, the Honourable the Minister of Militia and Defence ruled that all denominations must be treated alike and that the band must accompany each detachment in turn. In accordance with these orders, Sunday, April 27 [1913], was allotted to the Baptist denomination. There were three Baptists serving in the Regiment in Halifax at the time, two of whom were on detached duty, but the orders were explicit. Accordingly, the lone Baptist was paraded, Lieut. H.T. Cock assumed command of the parade, the Regimental Sergeant-Major took his appointed post, two police joined the detachment as usual, the band of approximately 40 pieces struck up an appropriate air, and off the Baptist was marched to his place of worship more than a mile away. Flattering as the escort must have been, the service would have seemed to have displeased him. No exact explanation is now available, but it is on record that he paraded before the Commanding Officer and changed his religion on the following day, an example which the adherents of other minor denominations were prompt to follow.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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The March of the Lone Baptist

The Royal Canadian Regiment, 1883-1933, R.C. Fetherstonaugh, 1936

As the Headquarters' file of Regimental Orders for 1913 and most of 1914 was destroyed in the Halifax explosion in 1917, and as a prolonged search has failed to discover copies in Ottawa, or at any of the Regimental Depots, the exact sequence of events in this period is now difficult to ascertain, but, thanks to private diaries and similar memoranda, a record of some incidents has been preserved. There was, for example, the March of the Lone Baptist, an event unparalleled in the Regiment's, or perhaps any other regiment's, history.

From the time when the unit assumed garrison duties in Halifax in 1905, it had been the custom of the band to march in the church parades of the Church of England, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic detachments in rotation, leaving the smaller denominations to proceed without musical accompaniment. On the complaint of certain Ministers in Halifax against what they considered unfair discrimination, the Honourable the Minister of Militia and Defence ruled that all denominations must be treated alike and that the band must accompany each detachment in turn. In accordance with these orders, Sunday, April 27 [1913], was allotted to the Baptist denomination. There were three Baptists serving in the Regiment in Halifax at the time, two of whom were on detached duty, but the orders were explicit. Accordingly, the lone Baptist was paraded, Lieut. H.T. Cock assumed command of the parade, the Regimental Sergeant-Major took his appointed post, two police joined the detachment as usual, the band of approximately 40 pieces struck up an appropriate air, and off the Baptist was marched to his place of worship more than a mile away. Flattering as the escort must have been, the service would have seemed to have displeased him. No exact explanation is now available, but it is on record that he paraded before the Commanding Officer and changed his religion on the following day, an example which the adherents of other minor denominations were prompt to follow.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Bigger Canadian Army Urged to Patch Defence "Soft Spots"

Ottawa Citizen, 11 July 1963
By Charles Lynch, Southam News Service

The austerity-pinched Canadian army needs additional manpower it is it to fulfill its commitments in Europe and for home defence, Lt. Gen. Geoffrey Walsh, Chief of the General Staff, told the Commons defence committee today.

He gave the committee a picture of general army readiness, but pointed out several thin spots and dramatized the deficiencies by saying Canadian troops in Europe are "directly in the middle of the path" of any Soviet ground offensive.

He also described the peril of Soviet airborne troops establishing beachheads on Canadian soil, and the necessity of maintaining home defence forces to counter any such invasion.

General Walsh said the principle had now been established that two of the three army brigades now in Canada would be transported to Europe to "marry up" with the NATO army brigade.

Must Use Militia

But such a move, he said, would impose heavy drains on available manpower—and "to replace this manpower the only thing we can do is to avail ourselves of ex-Regulars and selected Militia personnel."

At no point did he mention the explosive topic of conscription, but he made it clear that when army force goals were cut from 59,000 to 50,000 in an austerity program last autumn, it left the army in a hard pressed condition to meet its commitments.

General Walsh outlines the army's equipment needs in addition to its manpower requirements, placing the emphasis on the Bobcat armoured personnel carrier as the item urgently needed.

Twenty prototype Bobcats are currently being produced for evaluation, following which a production order of 500 vehicles is expected.

NATO Force

General Walsh said the decision to deploy two additional brigades in NATO — even though they may not be moved into position immediately — involved detailed planning with the British War Office, since Canada's NATO troops are on the British supply system.

One of the brigade groups now in Canada could be move in a reasonably short time, he said and the second brigade group could be made available soon afterwards.

The question of stockpiling equipment for two reserve brigades in Europe had been looked at, he said, "but a preliminary study places the cost at approximately $135-million and a manpower requirements of at least 400 officers and men."

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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