General H.D.G. 'Harry' Crerar (1888?1965) was involved in or directly responsible for many of the defining moments of Canadian military history in the twentieth century. In the First World War, Crerar was nearly killed at the second battle of Ypres, was a gunner who helped to secure victory at Vimy Ridge, and was a senior staff officer during the pivotal battles of the last Hundred Days. During the Second World War, he occupied and often defined the Canadian army?s senior staff and operational appointments, including his tenure as commander of First Canadian Army through the northwest European campaign.

Despite his pivotal role in shaping the Canadian army, however, General Crerar has been long overlooked as a subject of biography. In A Thoroughly Canadian General, Paul Douglas Dickson examines the man and his controversial place in Canadian military history, arguing that Crerar was a nationalist who saw the army as an instrument to promote Canadian identity and civic responsibility. From his days as a student at the Royal Military College in Kingston, to his role as primary architect of First Canadian Army, the career of General H.D.G. Crerar is thoroughly examined with a view to considering and reinforcing his place in the history of Canada and its armed forces.

Paul Douglas Dickson is a strategic analyst and military historian at the Centre for Operational Research and Analysis, Department of National Defence.

Endorsements/Review Excerpts

?The only Canadian soldier ever to command an army in the field, Harry Crerar faded away even faster than the powerful divisions he led. Paul Douglas Dickson?s thorough study at last demonstrates that, through the policies that he developed in a succession of key posts, Crerar also shaped Canada?s Second World War army from recruiting to training to demobilization. Sharp-minded, politically shrewd, and sometimes calculating, Crerar was ?a thoroughly Canadian general? to a country in need of just that. In fact, given how governments of all stripes treated Canada?s military, he was a far better soldier than we deserved.?

?Harry Crerar used to be Canadian military history?s most famous nobody. Not anymore. Paul Dickson?s thoughtful biography rescues him from the deep shadow cast by more famous contemporaries ? Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton ? while situating him firmly, as the title suggests, in a Canadian military context. Dickson?s account, impeccably researched and carefully argued, balances the scale while avoiding hyperbole, which is no mean feat, given the still-swirling debates on wartime generalship. A Thoroughly Canadian General is a giant step for Canadian military biography.?

?In this biography, Paul Douglas Dickson argues that the long and controversial career of General H.D.G. Crerar can best be understood in terms of the general?s great personal ambition and his sense that military service was the supreme form of civic duty. The primary research from both Canadian and British archives is formidable and carefully managed by the author. A Thoroughly Canadian General is a significant contribution to the field of Canadian military history, and also to international studies of the Second World War, particularly operational command of the western Allied forces.?

Winner - 2008 C.P. Stacey Award - The Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War and the Canadian Commission of Military History

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Abbreviations

Maps

Map Credits

1. HamiltonRoots
2. Baptism of Fire
3. The Killing Ground
4. Learning the Game
5. Stagnation
6. The Politics of Preparedness
7. Limited Liability War
8. Chief of the General Staff
9. Hong Kongand the Politics of Army Expansion
10. Father of First Canadian Army
11. Preparing 1st Canadian Corps
12. Dieppe
13. Replacing McNaughton
14. Corps Command in Italy
15. Taking Command of the Army
16. First Canadian Army and Overlord
17. The Normandy Campaign
18. The Learning Curve: Totalize and Tractable
19. Coalition Battles
20. First Canadian Army and the Scheldt
21. The Rhineland Offensive
22. Veritable: Crerar
    #8217;s Battle
23. The Final Campaign
24. Casting the Postwar Army
25. Fading Away

Notes

Bibliography

Index