Canadians do not celebrate their military history. Perhaps, it is because we do not have a "showbiz" background in this country. Perhaps Canadian military history stirs up too much French-English animosity. Or perhaps a celebration of our military exploits goes against our modern self-image of "Canadians as United Nations peace keepers". Whatever the reason, Canadians see their military history as unimportant, unexciting and serving only as a footnote to the more significant British and American military narratives.
Like most Canadians, I had only the vaguest notion of Canada's involvement in the Second World War before I started the research on this book. I knew of the disasters at Hong Kong and Dieppe, and of the Canadian landings on D-Day, but beyond that, the thread of the Canadian story got lost in the mass of popular literature and film documenting American and British actions.
In my research, I hoped to find a number of small Canadian actions suitable for designing platoon level wargaming scenarios. Scenarios suitable for GDW's Command Decision, or Avalon Hill's Panzer Leader.
What I found was that the Canadian Army did not play merely a supporting role to the British or American troops. They functioned as an independent Corps, under Eisenhower and Montgomery - as independent as any Corps in that united command. Further, I found that Canadian battles of the Second World War were not uninteresting and insignificant. Canadians were entrusted to close the Falaise Pocket, open the port of Antwerp, and crack the Siegfried Line. All were of central importance to the Allied cause. Finally, I found that the battles, in which the Canadians took part, were not small. Command Decision and Panzer Leader, would not offer a large enough scale to handle the numbers and scope of the Canadian actions. A whole new miniatures rules system would have to be developed - one that could easily handle the scale of a Corps level wargame.
The Canadian experience mirrored that of their British and American allies. Inexperienced and under-gunned, Canadian soldiers had to develop a style of combat which took advantage of superior air power and artillery. The resulting Allied doctrine of combined arms has dominated the military thinking of western powers for the rest of this century. In this respect a study of the Canadian army in World War Two is of interest to any student of modern warfare.
Besides discovering something about the history of my own country, I feel I have found a topic for fascinating wargaming. The list of Canadian battles looks like an index of the types of battles fought by the Western Allies. Amphibious assaults, grinding advances through inhospitable terrain, armoured breakthroughs, and even desperate defensive actions will all be found within these pages. Furthermore, since the Canadian Corps was confined to specific battlefields, a miniatures table does not feel artificial. The table's edge is not the "edge of the world", but natural Corps boundaries, over which Montgomery or Eisenhower would not allow the Canadian commanders to trespass.
Finally, the nature and duration of the battles gives most of the scenarios the distinct feel of a mini-campaign - which historically they were. The scenarios span five to ten days of fighting. In between, players will have to make campaign decisions - which units to rest, how much artillery to employ, which offensives to launch and so on. Together, these scenarios provide unique lessons, not only about the Canadian army, but about the nature of the conflict throughout the Western theatre.
In the final analysis, I am pleased to have produced a miniatures booklet not only attractive to those interested in wargaming an interesting part of Canadian history, but also engaging to anyone interested in exploring a whole new scale of World War Two wargaming.