1,720,960 research outputs found
St. Vincent’s Iron Harvest: The History of the Meaford Tank Range
No full textThis thesis examines the history the Meaford Tank Range as the area was transformed from a civilian settlement into a tank range during the Second World War. It focuses on the Canadian military’s reasoning for establishing a range in St. Vincent, Ontario, drawing on military documents to outline the construction process and subsequent training activities. This thesis also examines local archival sources to document the civilian experience with displacement, and the impacts it had on their community and the environment. In bringing these diverse sources together, this thesis shows how the military quickly established a new training range in St. Vincent, at the expense of its local population. It argues that military actions taken in St. Vincent continue to affect both the natural and social landscapes of the region, as the base’s economic value to the region and its impacts on the surrounding environment remain major issues in local politic
Review of The Long Shadows: A Global Environmental History of the Second World War by Simo Laakkonen, Richard P. Tucker, and Timo Vuorisalo, eds.
Get PDFReview of The Long Shadows: A Global Environmental History of the Second World War by Simo Laakkonen, Richard P. Tucker, and Timo Vuorisalo, eds
“Under Fathoms of Salt Water:” Canada’s Ammunition Dumping Program, 1944-1947
Get PDFThis article examines Canada’s ammunition dumping program in the mid-1940s and pays special attention to the practical and technical dilemmas that influenced policy making and implementation. A pressing logistical crisis followed the end of the Second World War as crowded armaments depots ran out of storage space for leftover ordnance. In July 1945 a major explosion at the Bedford Magazine in Halifax Harbour heightened public safety concerns and influenced future disposal policies. From a range of imperfect destruction methods, dumping emerged as one of the most efficient alternatives; whenever possible conventional and chemical munitions were submerged. Although the quantities sunk by the Americans, British, and Russians dwarf the amount dumped by Canada, the Canadian dumping program was no less important to the nation’s postwar transition or without serious ramifications for Canadians and their coastal environments
Killing Time, Not Germans: Reserve Positions in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division during the Battle of Normandy
Get PDFAllied victory during the Battle of Normandy is often attributed to operational and strategic factors, but the high-level focus on command and combat effectiveness obscures the infantry’s lived experiences. Although combat was their primary purpose, soldiers killed time as often as they killed Germans. This article examines the significance of the reserve position and the “down time” that soldiers spent within its confines. It argues that the reserve position was critical to combat effectiveness and high morale because it provided defensive and offensive flexibility and surplus labour for work parties and logistical tasks, while officers used it to integrate reinforcements and manage the strain of battle through frequent rotations to the rear. For the troops, being stationed in reserve opened up a variety of experiences and activities that defined daily life, but as the Allied armies moved inland the meaning and significance of “rest” changed when the space for more elaborate rear area services was secured. Yet these new amenities were also accompanied by some unintended consequences as they helped spread an epidemic of dysentery and food poisoning that ravaged Canadian soldiers in July and August 1944
Out with the Old: Munitions Disposal, Marine Environments, and the Canadian Military
Get PDFThis article examines the history of the Canadian military’s disposal policies and practices for surplus and/or obsolete munitions from the 1940s to the 1960s. During that time, the military dumped ammunition, explosives, chemical weapons, and other unneeded ordnance at sea. Such practices were common worldwide and originated from the immense surpluses of weaponry leftover at the end of the Second World War. This article shows that munitions dumping took place on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, and other inland waters. It further demonstrates the importance of placing Canadian dumping policies and operations within their historical context, as wider political, logistical, scientific, environmental, and military factors influenced decision-making and implementation. Yet dumping was not without serious consequences for marine organisms, environments, and the communities that depend on the sea for their livelihoods. By taking a use-centred approach to military technologies and focusing on the disposal regimes for conventional and chemical munitions, this article shows that the afterlives of military technologies can embody the environmental legacies of war
Review of The Secret History of RDX: The Super-Explosive that Helped Win World War II by Colin F. Baxter
Get PDFReview of The Secret History of RDX: The Super-Explosive that Helped Win World War II by Colin F. Baxte
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Waste into Weapons: Recycling in Britain during the Second World War (Book Review) by Peter Thorsheim
Get PDFReview of Waste into Weapons: Recycling in Britain during the Second World War by Peter Thorsheim
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