I recently read Arthur Gullachsen's An Army of Never-Ending Strength - Reinforcing the Canadians in North-West Europe 1944-45. In the interests of transparency I should point out that Arthur, a serving Captain and history prof at RMC, and I served together in 2 RCR and we have remained friends...
This video Defence Economics by Perun is an hour-long investment, but I think it should be required viewing for those who like to post about what equipment Canada should buy/produce etc. It focuses on the US and the aerospace sector, but I think it can applied to other areas as well. There is a...
I've fielded some personal messages recently on what is involved in being an Armoured officer, and when I searched my previous open forum posts on this topic I noted that some of it is out of date and some of it is buried inside threads. Since it seems to be that time of year when people are...
I've been chewing on this for a while. I see references made to "swarming" from time to time, and I have even been advised to try "swarming" with my troops. I also read references to network-centric warfare. I did some digging on swarming a while back to find whatever theoretical basis I could...
The thread on Equipment and Doctrine has had me thinking and looking at how Doctrine evolves. I came across a good little paper titled The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War. It is authored by Timothy Lupfer from the West Point History...
One of my in-laws had a grandfather who served in WW1 with the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a stretcher bearer. One of his descendents has put together a nice shadow box of his medals, but they are looking for a Geneva Cross badge that he would have worn on his uniform.
I have seen a...
This may belong in Radio Chatter, but I wanted to share this for those who might appreciate it. I was in the Fort Frontenac Library doing some research on the Guadacanal Campaign. I pulled a volume out of an imposing collection of books on the US Navy in World War II. The book was titled The...
I recently read a short book titled The Unknown Battle of Midway: The Destruction of the American Torpedo Squadrons. by Alvin Kernan (2005 Yale University). While the book discusses the action of the torpedo bombers at Midway, some of the lessons appeared applicable to me on a broader scope...
We've had several threads revolving around the issue of deployments. One common theme seems to be that soldiers want to go on deployment. Another is that Regular Force soldiers want the deployments and quit when they do not get them, attributed in part to having to include Reserves on...
I just came across an interesting article in the Sep-Oct 2005 edition of Military Review regarding the long-term modernization of the Chinese Army. It is written by LCol (retd) Dennis Blasko, a US Army intelligence officer with attache experience in China. He overviews the modernization...
I've just been reading Thunder Run by David Zucchino. It is an account by am embedded journalist with the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division regarding the actions in Baghdad in April 2003. The book offers an up-front look at modern combat and the author appears to have had excellent...
I read an excellent little article in the June 2005 edition of the Marine Corps Gazette today regarding the use of Marine M1s in the intitial Fallujah battles. The article was written by a tank company commander who was there and the focus was on tank/infantry cooperation in the urban...
11 June is observed among the 1st Hussars as "the Black Day" to commemorate the battle of le Mesnil-Patry in 1944.
Le Mesnil-Patry is a small town NW of Caen, near Capriquet, and occured during the fighting between the beachhead forces and the German reinforcements. The attack had been...
Here is a slightly cleaned-up version of my submission to a Light Forces working group regarding the possible uses of Armoured Reconnaissance with the newly envisioned Light Forces. It is fairly hasty and is primarily an attempt to float some "trial ballons" to see which way the wind is...
I just came out of an excellent presentation made by a Maj from the USMC regarding urban operations in Iraq. He had been a Weapons Company Commander during the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom and then returned as the S3 (Ops O) of a Bn. He served in the initial fighting in Falluja...
I'll apologize ahead of time if this has been covered in another thread, but my search did not turn up a thread that matched. The aim of this thread is to explore how the Recce Sqn and Tp should be organized and equipped. I firmly believe that Recce is the future of the Armoured Corps and I'd...
Does anyone here have experience working with the fire support assets of other nations (particularily our potential coalition partners)? If a Canadian FOO was attached to a deployed Canadian Recce Sqn that lacked Canadian guns/mortars could he bring in fire support from Coalition resources (ie...
Some of the things that I will discuss here have been touched on in other threads, but I wanted to put some ideas out there for feedback, criticism and a healthy reality check. I posted similar threads in the now defunct CF forum about a year ago, so forgive me if I repeat some things.
My aim...
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