Description from the Canadian War Museum’s website here.

“Explore the lives of New Brunswickers during the First and Second World Wars, at sea, on land, in the air and at home. New Brunswickers in Wartime, 1914-1946 is an adaptation of the highly successful exhibition created by the New Brunswick Museum. Through a rich selection of artifacts, images, artwork and interactive components, this exhibition illuminates how wartime profoundly affected not only the communities of New Brunswick, but the rest of Canada as well. An exhibition from the New Brunswick Museum.

Several individual stories in New Brunswickers in Wartime, 1914–1946 focus on New Brunswickers who served in the conflicts and survived. The War Museum did some additional research into the lives of seven individuals to complete the stories originally included in the exhibition. This research has helped to highlight how war has subsequently shaped their lives.”

Read the third story in the series on the Canadian War Museum’s Facebook page which focuses on Sergeant Medric LeBlanc of Rogersville, New Brunswick, who served in 2nd Battalion Headquarters, Third Regiment of the First Special Service Force as a communications technician.

If You’re Reading This – Last Letters from the Front Line is a book that had its origins in a BBC radio documentary I produced more than three years ago. Working with a colleague called Siobhan McClelland,  whose uncle had penned a farewell letter, it became a topic that developed into much more than a single programme. It sparked off a global journey for me as I spent more than three years of research across the world, looking for farewell letters and the stories behind them. Military farewell letters fulfilled my passion not only for military history (sparked by visits to the rows and rows of identical headstones in the immaculately manicured graveyards on the Somme) but also my fascination with the human story behind war. Behind every person felled in action is a story, a family and, overwhelmingly, there are letters.

One imagines that soldiers have been writing farewell letters since they’ve been literate and these final missives are incredibly moving. Upon reading these letters, one becomes privy to intensely private thoughts and emotions, poured out under the most unimaginable and difficult of circumstances. Over three years I’ve read more than ten thousand – dating from the mid eighteenth century through to very recent farewells from those in Afghanistan.  All have moved me and all provide a captivating snapshot into the mind of men staring death squarely in the face. Amid these diverse voices, there is a surprising commonality to be found. Be it an epitaph dictated on a Napoleonic battlefield, a staunch, unsentimental letter written by a Victorian officer, or an email from a soldier in modern day Afghanistan, these voices speak eloquently and forcefully of the tragedy of war and answer that fundamental human need to say goodbye.

I wanted to paint a more rounded picture of warfare in the book rather than approach things from a solely British or Western perspective. There are more than seventy letters reproduced in their entirety in the book, covering the Napoleonic Wars, American Civil War, Zulu War, Boer War, WW1, WW2, The Falklands Conflict and Iraq and Afghanistan. Farewell letters are perhaps the one patent leveller when it comes to war – regardless of rank, nationality or sex, every single farewell was unified by a message of love. When telling people about the book I like to quote four letters and ask people if they can guess who may have authored them:

“Even though I cannot see you, I will always be watching you…Both of you study hard and help out your mother with work. I cannot be your horse to ride. I am a Godly person”

“Never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name….I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours…and when the soft breeze fans your cheeks, it shall be my breath”

“I extinguish the lamp of my existence on the eve of this terrible battle. I cut myself out of the circle of which I have formed a beloved part….Until your last days remember me, I beg you, with tender love. Honour my memory without gilding it, and cherish me in your loving, faithful hearts”

“You are the beat of my heart, the soul in my body; you are me because without you I am nothing…I really did love you with all that I had, you were everything to me….Never forget I will always be looking over you. I love you”

In order they were written by Masanobu Kuno (a Japanese Kamikaze pilot killed during WW2), Major Sullivan Ballou (Killed during the American Civil War), Otto Heinebach (a German soldier killed during WW1) and Gunner Lee Thornton (a British 22 year old, killed in Iraq). Each are beautiful letters and each are a snapshot into the emotions that consume men in battle – regardless of the side on which they are fighting.

There is something incredibly beautiful about reading the intimate thoughts of men who knew they might die. Contemplating the possibility of not making it through has forced them to say things they might not normally express in their wildest dreams. The hardest ones to read are the ones written by young men – full of exuberance and a feeling that ‘it won’t happen to me’.  In writing the book I wanted to shine a light behind the grim statistics of warfare and bring human stories to the foreground.  I also wanted to give a voice to those left behind, so they could articulate just how crucial these letters are in coping with death, but also in celebrating the life of their loved ones. They become treasured family heirlooms, passed through generations or bequeathed to archives to serve as valuable reminders to us all of the painful ripples caused by the bloodshed of battle.

Hosted by the The Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Department of History, King’s University College at The University of Western Ontario

We invite proposals for papers to be presented at the 23rd Military History Colloquium, to be held at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario, on May 3rd to 5th, 2012. Papers are invited on all periods of Canadian military history: pre-1914, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and post- 1945 developments including peacekeeping and Afghanistan. Proposals advancing new and innovative perspectives and approaches will receive first consideration. Topics of special interest for 2012 include the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 and the 70th Anniversary of Dieppe. The conference is open to scholars at all stages in their careers, but graduate students and recent PhDs are especially encouraged to apply.

Please submit a one-page proposal (via e-mail) to:

Prof. Graham Broad
Department of History
King’s University College at The
University of Western Ontario
519-433-3491 x4462
E-Mail: cmhistory2012@gmail.com

The deadline for proposals is February 29th, 2012

Whitney Lackenbauer is a Research Fellow of the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute and associate professor and chair of the department of history at St. Jerome’s University (University of Waterloo), Ontario, Canada. He is also a fellow with the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and the Arctic Institute of North America. Dr. Lackenbauer specializes in Arctic security and sovereignty issues, modern Canadian military and diplomatic history, and Aboriginal-military relations.

The Arctic Council has become the premier forum for regional dialogue to promote co-operation, co-ordination and interaction amongst the Arctic states and Northern indigenous peoples. The plethora of challenges facing the 21st century Arctic – from climate change, to resource development and increased shipping, to security concerns related to developments both within and external to the region – have promoted some commentators to insist that the Council now be enhanced (or even fundamentally reformed) to remain relevant.

When the Arctic Council was created in 1996, security questions were explicitly excluded from its mandate at the United States’ insistence. Since then, definitions of security have expanded to include concepts such as human, environmental and food security. Given that the Arctic Council already broaches many of these areas through its current activities, should its mandate be extended to include security issues writ large, as Canadian commentators such as Mary Simon, Tom Axworthy, and Rob Huebert urge?

While this suggestion is theoretically attractive, it raises as many questions as it solves. Popular audiences still equate security with “hard” national security and defence, however much academics and some political figures would like to see the concept expanded to include “softer” human and environmental aspects. Ironically, the Arctic states and Permanent Participants have unanimously downplayed the probability of armed conflict in the region. Does an insistence on the supposed “need” to broaden the Arctic Council’s mandate to include security not signal that defence and security issues are more central than many commentators allege?

Furthermore, do the Arctic states really want defence issues debated in the Council? Canada is averse to even NATO engaging Arctic security questions more fully, a stance consistent with our approach to continental defence since the end of the Second World War. We have been willing to contribute to European defences in the high north (the Canadian Air-Sea Transportable Brigade Group assigned to reinforce Norway was a prime Cold War example), but we prefer to work with the Americans to defend North America. Why would we want other states, particularly non-NATO members, involved through the Arctic Council? More significantly, what would security questions at the Council mean for Russia? Given Russia’s fears of NATO encirclement, security deliberations would be an ongoing reminder that it stands apart from the majority of Arctic states (and all of the other Arctic coastal states) in the defence realm. This would undoubtedly affect behaviour around the Council table.

© 2012 iPolitics Inc.

James Robert Johnston, Riding into War: The Memoir of a Horse Transport Driver, 1916-1919 (Goose Lane Editions and The New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, 2004). 103 Pages.

Reviewed by Andrew McEwen (University of Calgary)

The human cost of the Great War is well known. 60,000 Canadians gave their lives in the conflict. Their sacrifices are commemorated through monuments and memorials in every city, town and village that contributed men to the war effort. Less well known, however, is the toll the war exacted on non-human animals. A lack of widespread motorized transport throughout the course of the war meant that much of the supplies necessary to reach the front – whether ammunition, rations or other equipment – needed to be moved by horses or mules. Quadripedal transport was so integral to the war effort that by January 1918, over 23,000 horses and mules were serving with Canadian units. These animals were routinely exposed to the same hardships as men, including gas attacks, shelling, and the cloying muck of the Western Front. Curiously, however, the plight of horses and mules remains a significantly overlooked component of Great War literature in Canada and abroad.

Canadian Transport Driver with horse in captured trench, September 1918 (Canadian War Museum)

James Robert Johnston’s memoir Riding into War helps fill this gap. Johnston spent nearly two years serving on the Western Front as a horse transport driver for Canadian machine gun units. His memoir offers a candid recollection of his service from enlistment to demobilization, but the key emotion and flavour of this comparatively short memoir is contained in Johnston’s interaction with the horses of his transport team. His work is indispensable in helping both professional scholars and history enthusiasts alike understand the plight of transport animals in the Great War.

The memoir is prefaced with a brief introduction by University of New Brunswick historian Brent Wilson which helps contextualize Johnston’s recollections. As Wilson notes, the core of the memoir is formed by a series of recollections recorded by Johnston in the 1960s following a pilgrimage to the Western Front. Johnston exudes a keen appreciation for the dates and locations of his experiences, but as Wilson points out, can be very spotty with his coverage. For example, Johnston provides extensive detail on the Passchendaele campaign, but almost none whatsoever on the Battle of Amiens in August 1918. To counterbalance these oversights, Wilson provides useful commentary on these battles and the general progression of the war. Such an extensive consultation with the historical record leads Wilson to conclude that Johnston’s recollections on the whole depicted the war with “astonishing” accuracy (p. 14). Indeed, aside from attributing the gaps in campaign discussions to the hectic pace of the war’s final advances, Wilson refrains from voicing any criticisms of Johnston’s memories.

1st Divisional Train - Transport wagons, July 1916 (Canadian War Museum)

Johnston’s account begins with his decision to enlist in April 1916 into the predominately New Brunswick 145^th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). Like many other volunteers, Johnston had no prior military experience, confessing that he did not know the distinction between infantry and artillery when he first signed up, recalling “what a green bunch we all were…I really thought they were all one unit” (p. 22). Upon the voyage to England, the 145^th Battalion suffered the same fate as many other locally-recruited units and was broken up to supply reinforcements to other units already in the field. Johnston volunteered for machine-gun duty, and was assigned to the 14^th Canadian Machine Gun Company as a horse transport driver.

This new duty did not initially please Johnston, noting that “the army was bad enough before you had a horse to babysit,” (p. 36) but he quickly adapted himself to his equine charges. Indeed, he exuded a genuine affection for horses throughout the rest of the war, recalling that “I gave them credit for getting me out of alot of the dirty messes that I found myself in” (p. 37). The rest of the memoir is filled with a number of intriguing anecdotes about equine behaviour under fire, with some horses remaining stoic and calm under shell fire and others panicking at the first sound of a gun. He notes that during the Passchendaele campaign, the extreme difficulties in moving supplies to the front lines meant that a single horse “was of more value to the army than a man” (p. 61-62). Crucially, Johnston illustrates the intense bonds that formed between the driver and his horses, noting that “we did not want to be parted” even while enduring intense shell fire (p. 58).

Headquarters, Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, Shorncliffe (Canadian War Museum)

While horses occupy the central position on Johnston’s recollections, his memoir is also replete with other interesting anecdotes on military life. He notes that his initial aversion to alcohol, so perplexing to his comrades, completely evaporated after enduring the nightmare of Passchendaele. Similarly, he evolves from being a complete novice at gambling into one of the major Crown and Anchor bankers for his unit. Far from the raw recruit who knew nothing about artillery, by 1918 Johnston became a deft scrounger and highly efficient transport driver. By November 1918 he felt he was getting “old awful fast,” about to turn twenty-one, “a ripe old age, that is as a soldier” (p. 91).

Wilson notes in the introduction that Johnston’s self-aware progression from raw recruit to seasoned veteran forms one of the three principal strengths of the memoir. He further considered the memoir valuable because it provided a good discussion of conditions at the front, and presented the unique perspective of a horse transport driver. This last consideration is ultimately the book’s most important contribution to Canadian Great War literature. While Johnston’s descriptions of life at the front are lucid and frank, readers seeking to know the terrors of front line life would be better advised to consult such works as Will Bird’s Ghosts Have Warm Hands and Victor Wheeler’s The 50^th Battalion in No Man’s Land. Both Bird and Wheeler served in front-line infantry units, and so are better sources to convey the banality of trench routine and the horror of combat.

A Canadian looks after his horse like a brother, November 1916 (Canadian War Museum)

Nevertheless, Johnston’s interaction with his transport horses sets this memoir out as being one of the more valuable in the Canadian experience of the Great War. Many accounts discuss combat; few discuss the indispensable and often tragic service rendered by the soldiers’ mute, quadripedal comrades. Outside of official veterinary accounts, Johnston’s memoir is one of the more extensive examples of a primary source that devotes considerable attention to the use of horses and mules at the front. In writing this memoir Johnston seems to have appreciated the neglect of animals in Great War historiography and memory even by the 1960s. Indeed, he lamented that “very little has been said about the horses and mules that were used and what they suffered is beyond all description.” (p. 54) With James Robert Johnston’s memoir, at least, a little more has been said about the invaluable contributions by animals in the Great War.

]]> http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/a-review-of-james-robert-johnstons-riding-into-war-the-memoir-of-a-horse-transport-driver-1916-1919-by-andrew-mcewen/feed/ 0 http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/2012-guelph-military-lecture-series/ http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/2012-guelph-military-lecture-series/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:28:02 +0000 caitlin.mcwilliams http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/?p=2421

Note: This talk is being held in the NEW Guelph Civic Museum, 52 Norfolk Street.  Here is a link to a story about the new museum in the Guelph Mercury:
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/652107–museum-set-for-soft-launch-with-pilot-tours

Click here to download the 2012 Military Lecture Series Flyer

A fascinating look by Sian Price on at letters from the front. The collection features 70 letters chosen from more than 30 000 letters she read in more than 10 different countries including Canada, the US, Britain, Australia, Wales and New Zealand. In an Interview with the Daily Mail, the Welsh Historian said ‘The common theme that binds them all is love. Almost all the letters from the whole 300 years express the writer’s love for someone, whether it is their wife, mother or children.”  Watch the Interview below.

Rama Mani
Senior Research Associate, Centre for International Studies (University of Oxford); Director of the Global Project ‘Responsibility to Protect: Southern Cultural Perspectives’