Politics by other means: Canadian "Strategy" and the Italian Campaign, 1943

Authors

  • Christine E. Leppard Department of History, University of Calgary

Abstract

This manuscript addresses the decision of the Canadian government in 1943 to send a Corps to participate in the invasion of Italy. In the process, Canada divided its forces in Europe into two groups, so wrecking an established military and political principle, to keep all its soldiers in Europe under unified Canadian command. The author concludes that confusion, incompetence and crossed wires among Canadian politicians and generals produced this decision, allowing ephemeral political needs to compromise greater aims. 

 

Author Biography

Christine E. Leppard, Department of History, University of Calgary

Christine Leppard is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at the University of Calgary.  Her dissertation examines the perennial Canadian question of how to advance the country's national interest while fighting as a junior partner in a coalition war, by studying the I Canadian Corps in the Italian campaign, 1943-1944.

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Issue

Vol. 13 No. 4 (2011): Summer 2011

Section

Military Strategy in War and Peace