Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Why do soldiers ght What keeps them going What compels them to face death when their long-time comrades have fallen around them Strangers in Arms addresses these questions in a groundbreaking study of the behaviour morale and motivations of Canadian infantrymen on the front lines of the Second World War. Canadas army has long faced intense criticism for its combat performance during the war and Canadas ofcial history has presented Canadian soldiers as decient inexperienced and unpre- pared in comparison with their enemies. Question- ing entrenched views Robert Engen explores a trove of contemporaneous documents to create a remarkable new portrait of Canadians at war. Rather than the popular band of brothers image of soldier cohesion in battle he nds stag- gering casualty rates and personnel turmoil that left Canadian infantrymen often working with and ghting beside men they hardly knew. Yet these strangers in arms continued to ght effec- tively and in good spirits against a tenacious and deadly enemy triumphing in the face of heartrending loss and sacrice. Challenging old narratives about the Canadian soldier and supported by cutting-edge empirical and qualitative research Strangers in Arms crafts a new understanding of what happens at the sharp end of battle. It is hard to overstate the impact this book will have on the eld. In addition to being a solid reective and profound piece of history Engens work adds signicantly to the general literature on combat motivation. This is an important con- tribution to scholarship one that will shake up several elds and have important consequence internationally. J. Marc Milner University of New Brunswick Robert Engen is a postdoctoral fellow and instruc- tor at the Royal Military College of Canada and the author of Canadians Under Fire Infantry Effectiveness in the Second World War. 1 2 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 Strangers in Arms Combat Motivation in the Canadian Army 19431945 robert engen A penetrating study of why soldiers ght and what sustained Canadians in battle during the Second World War. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S May 2016 978-0-7735-4725-4 39.95T 39.95A 27.99 cloth 6 x 9 312pp 20 tables 14 diagrams Ebook available C A N A D I A N H I S T O R Y M I L I TA R Y S T U D I E S