Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945 Review

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Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945 Review"Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945" by Terry Copp is a solid piece of historiography that covers does considerable justice to the Canadian men who fought with the Allied forces in the ETO. While certainly not a majority in numbers of men relative to other Allied nations, the Canadian's fought a disproportionate number of 'lousy' less 'appealing' engagements with little chance for popular press kudos between their entrance into the ETO and V-E Day. Given these facts it should maybe not be surprising that the combat and command actions of the Canadian Army have received little attention in the popular Second World War literature. The general lack of literature dedicated to the gallant Canadians has not been limited to historian/authors outside Canada; even with the great northern neighbor of the US only limited pieces have been produced that cover broadly the Canadians in the ETO outside the official histories (e.g., Stacey's "The Victory Campaign"). One historian/author who has keep the fire burning and brought proper attention to the heroism and sacrifices of his fellow countrymen in WWII - Terry Copp.
In collaboration with Robert Vogel, Copp generated a series of books, the Maple Leaf Route series, during the 1980's dedicated to various actions (based on temporal and spatial divisions) of the Canadian Army in the ETO. Each of these soundly researched and written entries provided considerable new material for students to ruminate on beyond that provided in the 'official histories'. However, one would have to read them all (5 volumes in total: 1-Caen; 2-Falaise; 3-Antwerp; 4-Scheldt; and 5-Victory), which given their relatively small printing numbers means first tracking each down, to get a thorough picture. Copp is able to pull together these previous works into effectively two volumes with the production of "Cinderella Army" and its previously published companion piece "Fields of Fire" (2004). However one should not therefore assume that Copp has merely rewritten his previous books, rather he has taken that previous work and woven in considerable new research material to produce a coherent single document (296 pp., plus 94 pp. of Appendices, notes and references) that covers the period from the Normandy breakout to V-E Day ("Fields of Fire covering actions of the Canadian Army up to the Normandy breakout). "Cinderella Army" should adorn the bookshelf of serious students who want a broader perspective of ETO actions.
Not only is "Cinderella Army" an outstanding piece of research but Copp is a talented and engaging writer. Readers, whether specifically interested in the Canadian Army or not, will not be bored with "Cinderella Army". Fortunately for readers Copp does not fall into a parochial category authors who present history with a national bias. All in all Copp's prose is extremely fair, presenting both positives and negatives, is fairly critical of the Canadian leaders and the interactions (not always positive) between these men and the 21 Army Group HQ (and SHAEF to a lesser extent). Readers will walk away from this read with a much deeper appreciation for how the bloody battles (often produced the highest sustained per unit casualty rates in the ETO) to capture the Channel Ports and clear the Scheldt Estuary, while protecting British Second Army units as they pursued more 'lofty' and headline garnering targets. If there was a black-sheep sibling in Montgomery's 21st Army Group who got all the crap details it was clearly the First Canadian Army!
Pick up "Cinderella Army"; it's a solid 5 star read, both from historical research and writing perspectives.Cinderella Army: The Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945 Overview

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