Building the Army’s Backbone: Canadian Non-Commissioned Officers in the Second World War (Studies in Canadian Military History) - Softcover

Brown, Andrew L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774866977 ISBN 13: 9780774866972

Publisher: UBC Press, 2022

Synopsis

In September 1939, Canada’s tiny army began its remarkable expansion into a wartime force of almost half a million soldiers. No army can function without a backbone of skilled non-commissioned officers (NCOs) – corporals, sergeants, and warrant officers – and the army needed to create one out of raw civilian material. Building the Army’s Backbone tells the story of how senior leadership created a corps of NCOs that helped the burgeoning force train, fight, and win. This innovative book uncovers the army’s two-track NCO-production system: locally organized training programs were run by units and formations, while centralized training and talent-distribution programs were overseen by the army. Meanwhile, to bring coherence to the two-track approach, the army circulated its best-trained NCOs between operational forces, the reinforcement pool, and the training system. The result was a corps of NCOs that collectively possessed the necessary skills in leadership, tactics, and instruction to help the army succeed in battle.

About this title

About the Author

Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew L. Brown is an assistant professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada. With over three decades of service in the army, he has served in a variety of positions at home and on operations abroad. His research focuses on army manpower issues in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in the Second World War.

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774866977
• ISBN 13: 9780774866972
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300