|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
.
|
|
|
|
|
About the Book
The extended peace the world anticipated following the decisive Allied victory in the Second World War was abruptly shattered in June 1950 by the invasion of South Korea by communist North Korea. Responding to a United Nations’ call to assist the South Korean regime, Canada deployed an 8000-man brigade to the peninsula to fight as part of an American-led UN force.
This comprehensive account of the Canadian campaign in Korea provides the first detailed study of the training, leadership, operations, and tactics of the brigade under each of its three wartime commanders as well as its relationship with American and Commonwealth allies. An impeccably researched analytical history, the book examines the uneven performance of the various Canadian units and argues that the soldiers of the "Special Force" initially sent to Korea were more thorough and professional in their operations than were the army’s regular battalions that eventually replaced them at the front.
The revisionist interpretations of A War of Patrols will attract both academic and military professionals, as well as general readers interested in a fresh look at an important part of Canada’s military past.
Published in association with the Canadian War Museum.
About the Author(s)
William Johnston is Historian with the Directorate of History and Heritage, National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Prologue: Verrieres Ridge, Normandy, July 1944
Chapter 1: War and Recruitment, June - August 1950
Chapter 2: Rocky’s Army, September 1950 - April 1951
Chapter 3: Into Battle, December 1950 - March 1951
Chapter 4: Kap’yong, April 1951
Chapter 5: The Brigade Arrives, May - July 1951
Chapter 6: The Commonwealth Division, July - October 1951
Chapter 7: The First Rotation, October 1951
Chapter 8: No Withdrawal, No Panic, November 1951
Chapter 9: The Active Defence, December 1951 - April 1952
Chapter 10: The Professionals, May - June 1952
Chapter 11: The Inactive Defence, July - October 1952
Chapter 12: On the Hook, November 1952 - April 1953
Chapter 13: The Third Battalions, May - July 1953
Epilogue
Reviews
By the time the armistice of 27 July 1953 ended the fighting in Korea, most Canadians had a fading memory of that three-year-old conflict. But Canada's 'Forgotten War,' as it became know, deserved no such fate. Now only with the appearance of this book fifty years after the closing event, is the complete story being told. And how interesting it is. William Johnston's book is now the definitive work [It] should be read by all concerned soldiers and citizens alike.
-- Ronald Haycock, The Journal of Military History
This is far and away the most valuable study of the Canadians in Korea. Johnston’s work has the depth of archival research characteristic of the best official historians, while his iconoclastic, analytical approach yields new insights and new ways of looking at old questions. There will be considerable interest in this book in the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as Canada.
-- Terry Copp, author of Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy
A War of Patrols will become the standard work on the subject of the Korean war. Johnston has done a mountain of work in the primary sources and has a complete command of the secondary literature as well. This is scholarship at its best.
-- Marc Milner, author of Canada’s Navy: The First Century
Of particular note in this dialogue is William Johnston’s A War of Patrols: Canadian Army Operations in Korea. This book provides a highly acclaimed revisionist counterpoint to commonly accepted unfavourable perceptions of the performance of the hastily formed all-volunteer Special Force.
Johnston has created a seminal work that provokes a thoughtful re-examination of the training, leadership, operations, and tactics demonstrated in the course of Canadian Army operations during the Korean War.
A War of Patrols provides valuable insight to the Canadian military experience. Johnston’s methodical, detailed scrutiny of primary and secondary sources provides fresh perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian Army in Korea.
A War of Patrols is a definitive work that provides not only a perspective of the relationship of the state and the military but also provokes introspection concerning the role and meaning of regular military forces within the Canadian context. In the final analysis, William Johnston has created a masterful and unique historical account that provides a splendid contribution to the current body of scholarship pertaining to Canada and the Korean War.
-- Howard G. Coombs, University of Toronto Quarterly, Winter 2004/05
William Johnston, a historian at the Direcotorate of History (D-Hist) in Ottawa since 1983, is well qualified to write this book, and he has done so with a highly pretigious and demanding publisher… Highly competent authorities in military history read drafts of his manuscript before it went to press, and the final product includes seventeen maps and forty-three pictures. Johnston’s list of secondary sources fills almost three pages of small print. The level of accuracy is very high.
-- Graeme S. Mount, Department of History, Laurentian University, American Review of Canadian Studies, Autumn 2005
William Johnston is a revisionist military historian, and we are much the better for it. In his latest work, he provides an overdue reinterpretation of the Canadian army’s battlefield performance during the Korean War. Replacing mythology with fact, he tells it like it is: the army really did not fight as well as its own official history says it did… Johnston is brutally frank when he demonstrates, through solid scholarship, that this mediocre performance was due to a succinct lack of professionalism and guts among the regular brigades. He sets out to correct the record and succeeds in presenting a credible alternate view of how Canada’s army fought its first peacekeeping assignment five decades ago. This is a great book that should find its way onto the shelves of serious soldiers and scholars.
-- Michael Boire, Royal Military College, International Journal, Summer 2005
Sample Chapter
Introduction
Related Topics
History > Military
History
Other Ways To Order
In Canada, order your copy of A War of Patrols from UTP Distribution at:
UTP Distribution
5201 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T8
Phone orders: 1(800)565-9523 or (416)667-7791
Fax orders: 1(800)221-9985 or (416)667-7832
Email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca
Ordering information for customers outside Canada
|
|
|
|
 |
|
