Canadian Forces in World War II (Men-at-Arms)

Nice quick read on the subject matter. Nice illustrations and informative for my purposes.

Excellent drawings and photos of soldiers. Great for model detail painting

I am an avid collector of British militaria, and I loved this book. I Use it as a reference for my uniforms all the time.

It is a book that i no else could find.I was very pleased to obtain that book to complete my collection.Yours sincerely

Great book

good

Réné Chratrand's book on the Canadian military during the last war packs a lot of information in a slender volume. It's a good 'bridge' book because it supplments Brian Jewell's companion volume on the British Battledress, on Mike Chappell's on the Canadian Army at war from the same series as well as adding another combattant nation to Osprey's reinvigorated, ever-burgeoning series on the Second World War.Chartrand briefly summarizes the country's political and military situation during the inter-war years. He even diplomatically discusses the events that lead to the 1944 conscription crisis.Nevertheless, the bulk of the book is on Canada's military contribution in all branches- not just the traditional services but even lesser known such as the Canadian navy's Ferry Command and the women's auxiliary services. Indeed, Chartrand reminds his readers that from the fall of France until America's entry into the war, Canada was the second largest power. Even after the latter's entry, Canada was still an important contributor both militarily and industrially despite having a population less than half of today's.Ron Volstad's colour plates are the among the best of his career as an illustrator. The degree of detail and realism is really exceptional and esthetically very pleasing. A real tour de forceNevertheless, I do have criticisms. I found the large table that covers every Canadian army unit of the war to be unnecessary. It takes up valuable space on subject matter on more interesting subject matter. Such questions as, how did the war radically change Canadian military training during and after the conflict? How did the war affect Canada's identity? How were the Francophones incorporated into the military? Were there any social tensions due to the language differences? What was the Canadian soldier, airman and sailor's reputation in the eyes of its allies and enemies? Chartrand missed an opportunity to delve into such interesting questions.Surely, if Canada was such a major contributor, why give the same mini-series treatment to country's military contributions that the German, Italian, American, British and Japanese armies have with the same imprint?In spite of some shortcomings, this book is outstanding and would make a welcome addition to any modelbuilder's, re-enactor's and militaria collector's library.Highly recommended.

This is a bit slim even for an Osprey Men-at-Arms title. The content is geared more to modellers who want to get uniforms right. Indeed, the color plates are the best part. For the history of Canada's contribution to the war and how they so impressively and quickly got on a war footing one must look elsewhere.

This rating is not about the author & artist, but about Ospreys continuous illegal bootlegging of their own products.What we have once again is a cheap and nasty print on demand copy (this should be clearly listed in the description).There are serious with the quality of the printing, and then the quality of the paper being used.Imagine buying a CD or DVD from amazon and receiving a bootlegged copy, well this is exactly what osprey are doing with their own products....shame on them!!

The review of this book gave the impression that a very in depth account of the liberation of Holland by the 1st Canadian Army was to be found. Instead it was a very summarised account, with more detail about general uniforms, etc., and all the Canadian Forces, than the details of how and from where the Canadians travelled to Holland and how they managed to liberate the Dutch from the Germans, I feel there was far more detail of the actual engagements with the Germans that could have been contributed to this book. I was very disappointed with its content. My father was in the Royal Canadian Artillery 1st Canadian Regiment as a gunner and took part in this action, and I really wanted to be able to retrace his footsteps, but there was nothing to glean from this book at all in that respect, apart from a small overview. That said the content is sufficient for a cursory interest in all the Canadian Forces in WWII, so I have given it 4 stars.

This typical Osprey book gives a brief but very well outlined overview of the Canadian contribution to WW2 (which was quite extensive). It details the Canadian formations, their organisation and equipment and also their tactical employment throughout WW2. An excellent overview.

Good test backed up with truly superb illustrations by renowned artist, Ron Volstad. Highly recommended.

all good.