History of the Canadian Army

The Canadian Army as such only existed under that name from November 1940 to February 1968. However, the term has been traditionally applied to the ground forces of Canada's military from Confederation in 1867 to the present. The term is often used colloquially and even semi-officially, for example in recruiting literature and the official newspaper of the Canadian Forces, The Maple Leaf.

Canada's land forces have a relatively short but distinguished history in comparison to the militaries of other developed nations. It is considered proper to consider all Canadian land forces regardless of actual title when discussing the history of the "Canadian Army."

Formation

Prior to the Confederation of Canada in 1867, the British Army provided the defence of Canada, although many Canadians served with the British in various conflicts including the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. However, after 1867, the British began to downsize their garrisons in Canada, mainly to move troops to other areas of the Empire, but also due to friendlier relations with the United States, Canada's immediate neighbour, and the only country capable of launching an armed invasion of the country. while Canada developed a volunteer Militia force of partially trained and often unpaid amateurs, defence of the country was dependent on a contingent of regular British soldiers, as well as naval defence through the Royal Navy.

The Canadian Army evolved from the various British garrison forces on the North American continent in the 1800s. Upon Confederation of Canada in 1867, the ground forces in Canada were referred to as the Militia. The primary action that the newly formed militia saw was from the Fenians, just south of the Canadian praries. The Fenians were coalitions of well trained and well armed Irish, fresh out of the american civil war; gathered in groups numbering up to 9000 at the largest, their main effort was to get back at England in lines with conflict and oppression overseas.

Eventually, a Permanent Active Militia was designated, being the regular army of Canada (regular in the sense that they were full time professional soldiers) and the Non-Permanent Active Militia (or reserves, part time soldiers who had vocations in the civilian world who trained on evenings, weekends, and for short periods in the summer months).

Expansion

After Canadian participation in the Second Boer War, the need for domestic supporting organizations was made evident. Canada in short order formed its own medical, veterinary, signals, ordnance and service organizations. During the First World War a provost corps was also created. Canada was the first military in the world to create a military dental corps.

First World War

Canadian participation in the First World War began with the unusual step of scrapping all mobilization plans, and creating a field force from scratch.

In 1914, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was created in response to a call by the United Kingdom for soldiers after the start of the First World War. The CEF was a separate entity from the Permanent Active Militia (by now also known as the Permanent Force, or PF) and the Non-Permanent Active Militia or NPAM. Regiments and other units of the Militia were not mobilized, but rather transferred personnel to the CEF for overseas employment. The CEF was disbanded after the First World War.

Otter Committee

The Otter Committee reorganized the Canadian Militia in 1920, instituting a series of perpetuations so that both the pre-war Militia and the CEF had their traditions and histories integrated into the modern Canadian forces. The numbered pre-war regiments were all reorganized and redesignated; the archaic system of numbers was dropped with only one noteable exception (48th Highlanders of Canada).

Modernization - 1936

In 1936, the Non-Permanent Active Militia had six Tank battalions created as part of the infantry, the first step towards modernization.

Canada's land forces underwent two major organziational changes between the world wars; in 1920 the pre-war regiments were all renamed, several organizational corps were created mirroring corps in the British Army, and new ones like the Canadian Machine Gun Corps (not to be confused with the wartime corps of the same name) were created. The new regiments all perpetuated the history of the wartime CEF, and when Battle Honours were granted many years later, were permitted to adopt those battle honours.

In 1936, the CMGC was abolished and the Militia again underwent dramatic reorganizations, with three types of infantry regiments being created (rifle, machine gun, and tank). Many regiments were disbanded or amalgamated.

Second World War

The Second World War saw major changes to the Militia; in November 1940 the name Canadian Army was adopted to refer to both the former PAM and NPAM. Many infantry regiments were transferred to the Canadian Armoured Corps created the same year. Cavalry regiments were mechanized, the horse was withdrawn from military use, and the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps was disbanded.

In 1939, the Canadian Active Service Force was mobilized; similar to the CEF, this was a mobilization of prewar PF and NPAM units, who retained their traditional titles. In 1940, the land forces of Canada were retitled. The CASF became the Canadian Army (Overseas), the Permanent Force became the Canadian Army (Active) and the NPAM became the Canadian Army (Reserve). The Canadian Army (Overseas) ceased to exist after the Second World War. A new Canadian Armoured Corps was created and many infantry regiments were reroled to fight in tanks.

A desire to have an entire French Canadian brigade was thwarted by a lack of francophone staff officers.See Granatstein, The Generals. The original mobilization scheme grouped infantry battalions by region; the 1st Brigade was an Ontario brigade, the 2nd from Western Canada and the 3rd from the Maritimes. The 2nd Division was supposed to follow the same lines, but after deployments to Iceland, the Western Canadian and Quebec brigades were mixed and no attempt was made with the 3rd, 4th or 5th divisions to organize regionally. The 5th Brigade was originally to be an all-Quebec brigade, with one anglophone and two francophone regiments. While French Canada was represented by four overseas French-speaking infantry battalions, and the Army did attempt to produce training literature in French, it would not be until after Unification that French and English soldiers would have equal career opportunities.

Post-War

The Canadian Army underwent many changes after the Second World War, including redesignations. The full time component became the Canadian Army Active Force and the part time component the Canadian Army Reserve Force.

Korean War

Canada sent 26,791 Canadians to serve in the Korean War, with 7,000 more remaining to supervise the ceasefire until the end of 1955. Of these 1,558 became casualties, including 516 deaths, most due to combat.korean-war.comAccessed 23 Jun 2006. Canada's participation included several naval vessels and aircraft, in addition to the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade which served as part of the 1st Commonwealth Division.

Canada's military was revitalized as a result of the Korean War. A planned changeover to US designed weapons equipment had been planned for the 1950s, but the emergency in Korea forced the use of war stocks of Second World War vintage British designed weapons. In the late 1950s, Canada adopted a variety of weapons of European, British and US design rather than proceeding with its planned Americanization.

Post Korea

Aside from providing a field force for the Korean War, few operational missions existed until the rise of Peacekeeping in the 1960s.

Prior to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Canadian Army was the only Imperial/Commonwealth nation to have provided the King's Guard in London. In the lead up, the contingent of Canadian troops sent for the coronation provided the guard during June 1953, along with an equivalent unit of the Australian Army.

In 1954, the report of the Kennedy Board was tabled, giving suggestions for reorganizing the Militia. The Anderson Report followed in late 1957.

The late 1950s saw a dramatic increase in the Army's size and Canada's largest ever standing army was created, largely through the vision of General G.G. Simonds the Chief of the General Staff. A new regiment, The Canadian Guards was created and both the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada became Regular Force regiments.

In the early 1950s Canada sent a brigade to West Germany as part of its NATO commitment after the creation of that alliance in 1949. The 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade later became 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, which remained stationed in West Germany and later the unified Germany until the 1990s and the end of the Cold War.

The future of the Army was put in grave doubt in the age of nuclear deterence. The postwar Militia (the part time component of the Canadian Army) was reroled from combat operations to civil defence, an extremely unpopular move. In 1964 the Suttie Commission made suggestions on improving the Army.

In 1968, The Canadian Airborne Regiment, a full time parachute regiment, was created.

Unification

The Army was integrated with the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force on February 1, 1968 under the policy of Unification. The newly formed Canadian Forces was the first combined command military force in the modern world. The Army became known as Force Mobile Command (FMC). Helicopter operations, briefly instituted under Army purview in the early 1960s, transferred to Air Command.

Most of the pre-Unification corps that had been created in the early 20th Century were disbanded; they were merged with couterparts in the Navy and Air Force to form the personnel branches of the CF.

Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and Royal Canadian Dental Corps - became the Canadian Forces Medical Service
Royal Canadian Corps of Signals - became the Communications and Electronics Branch
Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps amalgamated with supply and transport services of Royal Canadian Army Service Corps - became the Logistics Branch
Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers - became Land Ordnance Engineering, then Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Branch
Clerical trades of Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps, and Royal Canadian Postal Corps - became the Administration Branch (later merged with the Logistics Branch)
Canadian Provost Corps and Canadian Intelligence Corps - became the Security Branch

Cold War

The Regular Force was downsized in 1970, and the number of regular infantry battalions was reduced from 13 to 10.

Francophone units

In the late 1960s, the Canadian Forces committed itself to creating French Language Units (FLUs) and encouraging career opportunities for francophones. The Minister of National Defence, Léo Cadieux, announced their creation on April 2, 1968, to include artillery and armoured regiments as well as units of the supporting arms, with two battalions of the Royal 22e Regiment at their core. The Army FLUs eventually concentrated at Valcartier and became known as 5e Groupement de Combat. A French-speaking Regular Force armoured regiment was created, and the policy of bilingualism was supported by the first Chief of the Defence Staff, General J.V. Allard.

The focus of Force Mobile Command was set on peace missions as well as future conventional war in Europe. Equipment acquisitions such as the M113 APC and Leopard tank marked a modernization, as did the Militia's use of the Cougar and Grizzly AVGP in armoured reconnaissance and mechanized infantry roles.

Post Cold War

Mobile Command took part in several international missions following the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Aside from playing a minor part in the Gulf War in 1991, Canadian Forces were heavily committed to several UN and NATO missions in the former Yugoslavia which tested the shrinking military's abilities and resources.

Women in the Army

The Canadian Women's Army Corps was created in the Second World War as a separate corps of the Army, and remained so until the 1960s when women were integrated into the Canadian Forces. Women were restricted to certain trades, though by the 1990s were accepted into all trades. Captain Nichola Goddard would be the first female combat soldier killed when she died in battle in Afghanistan in 2006.

The first 'lady cadets' graduated from Royal Military College in the 1970s.

Special Forces

Joint Task Force Two was created in the wake of a decision to move counter-terrorism duties from the RCMP to the Army.

In 1995, the Canadian Airborne Regiment was disbanded after the Somalia affair. In 2006, a new Canadian Special Operations Regiment was created as part of the major reorganization of the CF by Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier.

Somalia

Aside from the disbandment of Canada's Airborne Regiment (which did not end parachute capability in the CF, as qualified jumpers were simply reorganized into jump companies of the 3 remaining Regular Force regiments), Somalia had other institutional effects on the military. Chief among these was sensitivity training such as LDA (Leadership in a Diverse Army) and SHARP (Standard for Harassment and Racism Prevention) which became mandatory for all members of the Canadian Forces. The training was a reaction to so-called "hazing videos" of members of the Airborne that came to light after the murder in Somalia.

A number of other decisions unrelated to Somalia also reflected changing social values in Canadian society and the Army during the 1990s. Women in Highland regiments were permitted to wear the kilt beginning in the 1990s; a form of dress traditionally gender related. Aboriginals were permitted by regulation to grow long hair in traditional braids, and the turban was accepted as a form of headdress for Sikhs.The Calgary Highlanders first put females into the kilt for the Queen's Parade on 30 Jun 1990, and the junior Colour bearer, Lieutenant Harry Sekhon, wore his turban on parade. (CBC news video)

Reorganization

In 1995, a Special Commission on the Restructuring of the Reserves was commmissioned.

In 1998, Mobile Command was renamed Canadian Forces Land Force Command.

Canada participated in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan during which time emergency equipment purchases were made, including world class artillery and armoured Nyala patrol vehicles, replacing aging howitzers and Iltis utility cars.

References

Military history of Canada | Military of Canada | Canadian Forces | Canadian Forces Land Force Command

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