CANADIANS UNDER FIRE This page intentionally left blank C A N A D I A N S U N D E R F I R E Infantry Effectiveness in the Second World War R O B E R T E N G E N Mc G I L L - Q U E E N ’S U N I V E R S I TY P R E S S Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca ©McGill-Queen’sUniversityPress2009 isbn978-0-7735-3626-5 Legaldepositfourthquarter2009 BibliothèquenationaleduQuébec PrintedinCanadaonacid-freepaperthatis100%ancientforestfree(100%post-consumerrecycled), processedchlorinefree. ThisbookhasbeenpublishedwiththehelpofagrantfromtheCanadianFederationfortheHumanities andSocialSciences,throughtheAidtoScholarlyPublicationsProgramme,usingfundsprovidedbythe SocialSciencesandHumanitiesResearchCouncilofCanada.Fundinghasalsobeenprovidedbythe CanadianDefenceAcademyoftheDepartmentofNationalDefence. McGill-Queen’sUniversityPressacknowledgesthesupportoftheCanadaCouncilfortheArtsforour publishingprogram.WealsoacknowledgethefinancialsupportoftheGovernmentofCanadathrough theBookPublishingIndustryDevelopmentProgram(bpidp)forourpublishingactivities. LibraryandArchivesCanadaCataloguinginPublication Engen,RobertC.(RobertCharles) Canadiansunderfire:infantryeffectivenessintheSecondWorldWar/RobertC.Engen. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn978-0-7735-3626-5 1.Canada.CanadianArmy–Infantry–Operationalreadiness.2.Canada.CanadianArmy–History– WorldWar,1939–1945.3.Marshall,S.L.A.(SamuelLymanAtwood),1900–1977.I.Title. d768.15.e5452009 940.540971 c2009-903662-2 ThisbookwasdesignedandtypesetbystudiooneononeinGaramond11/14 Formypartner,Claire. …inperpetuity. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments | ix Introduction | 3 ONE HistoryAgainstFire | 11 TWO TheBattleExperienceQuestionnaires | 28 THREE TheOfficerRespondents | 49 FOUR TheCombined-ArmsTeam | 72 FIVE CanadianInfantryEffectiveness | 103 Conclusion | 144 AppendixA:SampleQuestionnaires | 150 AppendixB:SelectedQuestionnaireStatistics | 166 AppendixC:ListofOfficerRespondents | 186 Notes | 195 Bibliography | 229 Index | 241 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing Canadians Under Fire, my first book, has been a challenging, sobering, and delightful experience, and has been made possible by the assistanceofanumberofindividualstowhomIoweagreatdeal. This book has its origins as a graduate thesis at Queen’s University, Kingston,andIowethankstoallthemembersofmydefencecommittee: DrJeffreyMcNairn,DrJeffreyBrison,DrRandallWakelam,andDrAlan Okros.Their suggestions for improvement and revision of the text were vitalinrewritingitasamanuscript.MysupervisoratQueen’s,DrAllan English, deserves all the credit and gratitude in the world, as it was his encouragementandinsistenceuponthemeritofthisprojectthatinitially gavemetheimpetustoseekpublicationandhaskeptmeworkingtoward thisgoaleversince.IalsoneedtothanktwoofmyfellowPhDcandidates atQueen’s,HowardCoombsandMatthewTrudgen,for,respectively,orig- inally informing me about the existence of the battle experience ques- tionnairecollection,andforhospitalityduringmymanytripstoOttawa. My good friend Shen-wei MarkLim alsodid a masterfuljob oftabulat- ing my research into an incredibly convenient spreadsheet, something I knowIcouldnothavedonemyself.TheHistoryDepartmentatQueen’s Universityhasprovidedawelcomingandintellectuallystimulatingenvi- ronmentformyresearchfromthebeginning.And,mostimportantly,my partner,ClaireCookson-Hills,hasbeenbothaninspirationandatireless editor,reader,andcommentatoronmywork.