Building the Army’s Backbone
Canadian Non-Commissioned Officers in the Second World War
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of British Columbia Press
Published:15th Dec '21
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In September 1939, Canada’s tiny army began its remarkable expansion into a wartime force of almost half a million soldiers. No army can function without a backbone of skilled non-commissioned officers (NCOs) – corporals, sergeants, and warrant officers – and the army needed to create one out of raw civilian material. Building the Army’s Backbone tells the story of how senior leadership created a corps of NCOs that helped the burgeoning force train, fight, and win. This innovative book uncovers the army’s two-track NCO-production system: locally organized training programs were run by units and formations, while centralized training and talent-distribution programs were overseen by the army. Meanwhile, to bring coherence to the two-track approach, the army circulated its best-trained NCOs between operational forces, the reinforcement pool, and the training system. The result was a corps of NCOs that collectively possessed the necessary skills in leadership, tactics, and instruction to help the army succeed in battle.
"Andrew Brown…has credibly produced a historiographic masterpiece…It is a significant read for every NCO, military leaders, instructors, and historians, and anyone who wants to know how key conditions were set for Canadian military success in the Second World War."
-- John M. Hinck * The Journal of Military History *"Overall, [Brown] presents a narrative of NCO development that is contextualised within the Canadian Army’s wider wartime activities. It is a thoroughly valuable contribution to the historiography"
-- Megan Hamilton, King's College London * Canadian Military HistoISBN: 9780774866965
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 560g
300 pages