Corps Commanders: Five British And Canadian Generals At War, 1939-45 (studies In Canadian Military History)

Corps Commanders examines how five strikingly dissimilar British and Canadian generals fought battles and fit into the British Empire armies of the Second World War. The three Canadians controlled British formations and served under British army commanders, and the two Britons worked for and led Canadians as well. Such inter-army adjustments were fairly simple because all Anglo-Canadian commanders and staffs spoke the military language of the Camberley andQuetta staff colleges. Gunners from Montreal understood guardsmen from London -- no small advantage when coordinating coalition battles involving thousands of troops. Delaney's book offers invaluable insight into interoperability and how men animate armies in war. The five British and Canadian generals depicted in Corps Commanders were a surprisingly eclectic lot – one a consummate actor, one a quiet gentleman, one a master bureaucrat, one a brainy sort with little will, and the last a brain with will to spare. And yet they all fit readily into British Commonwealth armies and fought their corps in similar fashion. All three Canadians controlled British formations and served under British army commanders, and the two Britons worked for and led Canadians as well. Such inter-army adjustments were relatively simple because they all spoke the same “language” – a common method for solving military problems and communicating solutions. Like all senior commanders in the British Commonwealth, they learned the language of the staff colleges at Camberley and Quetta, and so did the staff officers that served them. This allowed a gunner from Montreal to understand a guardsman from London with ease – no small advantage when coordinating coalition battles involving tens of thousands of troops. In probing how these corps commanders fought, Douglas E. Delaney has produced an invaluable study for anyone interested in coalition warfare, interoperability, or how men managed large formations in war. Corps Commanders examines how five strikingly dissimilar British and Canadian generals fought battles and fit into the British Empire armies of the Second World War. The three Canadians controlled British formations and served under British army commanders, and the two Britons worked for and led Canadians as well. Such inter-army adjustments were fairly simple because all Anglo-Canadian commanders and staffs spoke the military language of the Camberley and Quetta staff colleges. Gunners from Montreal understood guardsmen from London no small advantage when coordinating coalition battles involving thousands of troops. Delaneys book offers invaluable insight into interoperability and how men animate armies in war. Cover ......Page 1 Title Page ......Page 4 Illustrations......Page 10 Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Foreword......Page 14 Abbreviations......Page 16 Introduction: Who, How, and the Common Ground......Page 20 1 The Actor: Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Horrocks......Page 29 2 Wit in Want of Will: Lieutenant-General E.L.M. Burns......Page 78 3 The Quiet Gentleman: General Sir John Crocker......Page 141 4 Wit with Will to Spare: Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds......Page 208 5 The Master Bureaucrat: General Charles Foulkes......Page 274 Observations and Conclusions......Page 315 Notes......Page 325 Bibliography......Page 375 Index......Page 383 "Corps Commanders examines how five strikingly dissimilar British and Canadian generals fought battles and fit into the British Empire armies of the Second World War"--Amazon.ca Corps Commanders explains how five very different Second World War British and Canadian generals fought their battles, and why they fought them in similar fashion.