Daniel Byers

A good book but Byers is dominated by the politics of conscription despite his protests to the contrary. The Second World War was or was close to an existential conflict for Canada. Battlefield exigencies were important, especially in 1940-42 when the key conscription decisions were made. What Byers calls the big army wasn't that. Canada raised 8 divisions and sufficient support troops for two corps and one army headquarters as well as the adequately sized air force and navy.This compares to the US which with 10-11 times our population raised about 13-14 times the armed forces. Our efforts were inefficient if one assumes it was an existential war. So there was no big army problem, rather a government split as to the magnitude of the Canadian contribution, and a military with little sense of efficiency. Restassured that all Canadian headquarters were amply provided with as many general servce officers and soldiers as they wanted without stint. Just like now.… (meer)