This thesis is a study of the combat motivation and morale of infantrymen in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Using battle experience questionnaires, censorship reports, statistical analyses, operational research, and other contemporary sources, this study offers a “big-picture” look at the human dimensions of warfare as experienced by Canadian infantrymen during the Italian and Northwest Europe campaigns of 1943 to 1945. The myths and realities of who the Canadian soldiers were provides the background, as does an exploration of their training and organization. Each core chapter explores one segment of the Canadian campaigns in Europe: the Sicilian and Italian campaign of 1943, the Italian campaign of 1944-45, the Normandy campaign of the summer of 1944, and the Northwest Europe campaign of 1944-45. Each of these chapters analyzes the force structure, behaviour in battle, morale, cohesion, and motivation of Canadian infantrymen during that particular segment of the campaign, setting them in comparison with one another to demonstrate continuities and change based upon shifting conditions, ground, and circumstances. In doing so, this thesis offers an original interpretation of Canadian combat motivation in the Second World War. Due to high infantry casualty rates, influxes of new reinforcements, and organizational turmoil, Canadian soldiers in many campaigns frequently fought as “strangers-in-arms” alongside unfamiliar faces. In spite of being strangers, however, the Canadians maintained remarkably high levels of cohesion, morale, and effectiveness (despite setbacks and periods of malaise) throughout the fighting. These successes can be attributed to the phenomenon of “swift trust” cohesion, the preservation of NCO leadership even in the face of heavy casualties, and effective training. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-26 10:11:09.86

Throughout the Second World War, the Canadian Red Cross Society (CRCS) exerted its significant influence in the field of voluntary homefront labour to provide a vast number of services for the benefit of Canadian, Commonwealth and Allied servicemen, prisoners of war, and civilians affected by the horrors of war. These wartime programs, which cost the Society over $90 000 000, were made possible through voluntary contributions of millions of dollars from Canadian citizens mainly through the yearly Red Cross national campaigns. Because of the organization’s claim to reach over cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious lines, it benefitted from the support of various national groups within Canada. Another important group of contributors to the Red Cross structure were women who formed the backbone of the organization’s structure. Women served in nearly every capacity within the CRCS, which allowed them to gain valuable experience in a working environment outside of the home.

This thesis studies the Swedish advertising business as an actor in the national formation of Sweden. It argues that earlier research has ignored to see advertising businesses as possible forces of these formations. The essay investigates how this appears historically through collaboration with an informational organisation that had risen due to the Second World War and that was a part of the national defence. I can, by investigating a discussion that focused on this informational organisation and the advertising businesses relation to it, show how the business as an effect of a civic engagement expressed an interest to participate in the informational work. The thesis will also, through the pamphlet Om kriget kommer. Vägledning för rikets medborgare i händelse av krig, that was part of a campaign made by this organisation, and through a correspondence between the informational organisation and some people of the advertising business that were included in the elaboration of the pamphlet, show how the business successively gained influence over this work. It was through advertising theoretical frameworks that the business could gain influence on the informational campaigns. By applying these skills on the informational work, the advertising business guaranteed a thorough circulation of the national definition that was presented in the pamphlet. The inclusion of the advertising business in the informational work is furthermore highlighted by the civil deeds that were dictated in the same pamphlet – actions, that if practiced, in turn would secure and possibly form the nation.

This thesis aims to examine the final years of missionary activity in China, with particular reference to the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS). It argues that, contrary to existing narratives, the Society was committed, from the beginning of its work in China, to placing responsibility for evangelism, church organisation and leadership in the hands of Chinese Christians, but that this plan was undone by events in China between 1937 and 1952. The missionary departure from the province of Shandong, planned to take place in 1942, was delayed when members of the Chinese church found themselves obliged to seek additional help from the BMS in order to cope with the destruction occasioned first by the War of Resistance against Japan, and later by the Civil War. The thesis explores the contrasting experience of work during this period in three different North China provinces, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi. It examines the way the BMS dealt with the new developments, and the impact on individual missionaries and their families of working in this rapidly-changing environment. When Baptist missionaries eventually left, their departure was no longer in keeping with the systematic plan of withdrawal devised earlier, but was precipitated by political developments following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Relationships with Chinese colleagues had to be abruptly terminated, and strident public criticisms were levied against missionaries and other foreigners. The shock of this unplanned and painful departure led missionaries and missionary societies to reflect critically on the whole past history of their work in China. This negative emphasis has got in the way of a more nuanced assessment of the missionary contribution during these years.

The war effort of the United Kingdom and the subsequent restrictions and laws enforced by the Government during the Second World War time period had a significant impact on the British piano industry. The skilled work force, factories, and raw materials previously used to produce pianos became integral to the war effort, while production of non-necessities and luxury items, such as pianos, was limited and eventually ceased. In order to limit production and divert material and labour to the war effort, debilitating restrictions, company consolidation, and prohibitive taxation came into effect. This forced many piano manufacturers to seek out war production contracts, while those who were not able to secure these contracts had to relinquish their factories and employees, rely on revenue from repair work, or completely close down during the war years. This thesis is the first extensive study of the impact of the Second World War on the British piano industry. Through an examination of the laws and regulations passed by the British Government during and immediately following the war years, a better understanding of the war’s effect on the entire industry will be established and a timeline of the various restrictions placed on piano manufacturing will be presented. This timeline highlights (1) the Government’s desire to stop piano manufacturing in order to divert labour and materials to the war effort, (2) the effect of Government restrictions on the piano industry, (3) the industry’s struggle to convert to war work, and (4) the impact of the war in the post-war years. Archival documents from both the piano industry and the Board of Trade elucidate the difficult situation faced by the industry and the effort of the Government both to stop piano production and to help the industry restart in the post-war era. The goal of the paper is to show the lasting effects of the war on the British piano industry and to argue that the British Government’s treatment of the piano industry during the war era hastened its eventual demise.

Research into air power history has grown in popularity, but much of this scholarship centres on operational activities with little study into matters of support, especially logistics; this paucity of research is particularly evident with regards to the British Royal Air Force (RAF). This thesis examines RAF logistics during the Second World War through five research questions, under the generic themes of Transformation, Sustainment and Flexibility. Its research methodology is innovative in that it uses an inter-disciplinary approach through the use of a management science model to conduct an historical study. First, it considers how the RAF’s logistics organisation came into being and how it was shaped by the Royal Flying Corps’ experience during the First World War. The inter-war years are then examined with particular emphasis on how the Expansion Programme of the mid to late 1930s shaped the logistics organisation, up to the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. The thesis then takes a detailed look at how RAF logistics was organised and how it operated its supply chain throughout the war including: manning, command and control, procurement, warehousing and transport. The final part of the thesis examines how logistic services were provided to the front line, both at home and overseas.

In 2013 the candidate published Operation Crossbow: The Untold Story of Photographic Intelligence and the Search for Hitler’s V Weapons. Through a detailed examination of the relevant primary sources – including aerial photography recently released to the National Collection of Aerial Photography in Edinburgh - this book investigates the role of British photographic interpretation in the hunt for German V-weapons during Operation Crossbow. In so doing, it provides a wealth of information on such matters as the wartime development of photographic interpretation, the techniques used by the interpreters, the personalities involved, the significance of photographic intelligence to the operation, and the wider politics of wartime intelligence. In particular, it contests some of the claims made by R. V. Jones in his memoir, Most Secret War (1978), about the role of photographic interpretation in the Crossbow investigation. It also demonstrates the wider importance of photographic intelligence in the British military history of the war and offers some explanation as to why this has become a ‘missing dimension’ of wartime intelligence studies. The critical review seeks to provide an academic superstructure for the book, which was intended for a general readership, and demonstrates that the research included therein is commensurate with that required for a PhD.

From the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940 through to the end of December 1944, the British and their allies waged a major campaign against Axis shipping in the Mediterranean. Uniquely for the British, this campaign took the form of a combined arms offensive throughout its conduct, and utilized all four methods of attacking shipping; surface vessels, submarines, aircraft and mine warfare. This thesis approaches the campaign thematically, examining each of the four methods individually. The priority given to the campaign, the forces and equipment available throughout, the tactics used and their development, the successes achieved in numbers and tonnage of merchant vessels sunk and the losses in numbers and casualties are all considered for each method. By examining these factors and the relevant quantitative data, the efficacy of each form of attack is determined and a final comparison of the four different methods made. The thesis concludes that overall, torpedo aircraft were the most effective method due to their ratio of high success and low number of personnel casualties, despite considerable losses of aircraft. Submarines were also very successful but ultimately more costly. The thesis demonstrates that mine warfare might well have achieved significant results had a greater priority been placed on it and that surface vessels no longer retained the ability to operate successfully for sustained periods in an anti-shipping role unless in an area of aerial and naval superiority.

This thesis integrates archaeological survey, aerial photographs and historical documents to undertake the first analysis of the conflict landscapes and military history of some of the most important German logistics facilities in northern France during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. Post-war survival of features has been remarkably good in this forested setting and this likely constitutes one of the best- preserved and most extensive examples of a non-hardened WWII archaeological landscape yet documented in northwest Europe. Over 900 discrete archaeological earthworks have been mapped and interpreted with the aid of primary source material from both Allied and German archives to characterise munitions, fuel and rations depots in the Forêt Domaniale des Andaines around Bagnoles-de-l’Orne, Orne Département, Basse-Normandie. These landscapes also preserve bomb craters associated with air raids on the facilities by the US Ninth Air Force and these have been mapped and analysed to show that despite 46 separate attacks by over 1000 aircraft, and the dropping in excess of 1100 tons of bombs in the forest during the spring and summer of 1944, the depots continued to function and to support German Army operations until the area was occupied by American forces in August 1944. In some areas of the forest it has been possible to link discrete arrays of bomb craters to individual air raids and even specific flights of aircraft. This work is yielding new perspectives on the character and operation of fixed depots in the German logistics system in Normandy both before and during the battles of 1944, while also permitting a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of Allied intelligence gathering, targeting and bombing operations against forest-based supply facilities. In doing so it is making a unique contribution to the newly-emerging record of WWII conflict archaeology to be found in the forests of northwest Europe.

At the beginning of the Cold War, the gathering of intelligence on the Soviet Union's current and future military capability seemed a near-impossibility. Soviet high-level communications were secure against decryption. Agent networks in the USSR were very difficult to establish and of uncertain reliability. Aerial reconnaissance of warrelated targets in the Soviet Union was risky and could only be occasional. But valuable intelligence was gathered in the years 1945-55 on the USSR's frantic arms build-up, thanks to its policy towards Germans and their country. Its exploitation of Germans and its Zone of Germany in its war-related research and development and the reconstruction of its war-related industries gave British Intelligence penetrable targets in the Soviet Zone and gave great numbers of Germans sought-after information on the USSR itself. The ease of recruiting age nts in East Germany and the flight (including enticed defections) of refugees from it allowed research and development projects and uranium.-mining operations there to be penetrated. Intelligence of Soviet weapons development and of the quality of Soviet military technology was obtained. The mass interrogation of prisoners-of-war returned by the Soviets to the British Occupation Zone in the late 1940s yielded a wealth of valuable information on war-related construction and the locations of numerous intelligence targets in the Soviet Union: most importantly, those of atomic and chemical plants, aircraft and aero-engine factories, airfields, rocket development centres and other installations. When, in the period 1949-58, some 3,000 deported German scientists , engineers and technicians were sent back to their homeland from the USSR, promising sources among them were enticed West and interrogated for their knowledge of the Soviets' research and development projects. The cream of the information they provided was crucial intelligence on the locations of atomic plants and laboratories and uranium deposits; useful information on structural weaknesses in the Soviet system of scientific and economic management; expert (if out-of-date) assessments of the quality of Soviet accomplishments in atomic science, electronics and other fields; and well-informed indications as to possible lines of development in guided missile and aircraft design. One Soviet scientific defector in Germany provided similar information which influenced British perceptions of the Soviet Union's scientific potential and missile development plans. Refugees entering the British Zone from East Germany, intercepted letters and monitored telecommunications, informal contacts and, of course, secret agents all made significant contributions to the gathering of scientific and technical intelligence in Germany too. The British passed to the Americans much of the intelligence they acquired in Germany and the installations identified and located by German sources were overtlown by spyplanes in the 1950s and particularly by U-2s in the latter half of-the decade. Priceless information was obtained, which establi shed that the USSR's war-related scientific research and development and its actual military capability were both inferior to those of the West. Thus the Germans enabled Soviet security to be deeply penetrated and helped to stabilize the Cold War. They are the missing link between Ultra and the U-2.