Twice during the first half of the twentieth century, on two separate and distinctly
unique wartime campaigns in Europe, the survival of Canadian overseas armies was
badly threatened not by enemy guns, but by the menace and ravages of an unseen enemy:
infectious disease.
Between the spring of 1915 and the fall of 1918, hundreds of thousands of
Canadian soldiers lived and fought in the trenches of the Western Front. The Canadian
Expeditionary Force (CEF) faced many tactical challenges in fighting this radical and unknown style of war in the trenches. There were also many medical challenges faced by the Canadian forces during this new era when they soon discovered that the trench
environment was highly conducive to the rapid development and spread of infectious
disease. In particular, pathogen carrying pests, such as body lice and rats, and
“mysterious” emerging diseases, such as trench fever, would become the bane of
existence for many Canadian soldiers. Life in the trenches would prove to be inherently
dangerous for reasons other than enemy fire.
Just two and one half decades later, during the Second World War, the Canadian
First Division, recently victorious in occupying Sicily, was decimated, not by its German or Italian foes but by an epidemic of the mosquito transmitted infectious disease of malaria. Anti-malaria measures and precautions were well known, but the Canadians would discover that both the application of these practices and the compliance of the rank and file could not be taken for granted.
This work examines the important influence disease vectors and infectious disease
had upon the lives and experiences of our soldiers, as well as the conduct and outcomes
of two important twentieth century military campaigns conducted by Canada’s army
between 1914 and 1945. In essence, this study will explore and analyze Canadian
attempts, both individual and corporate, to control, possibly defeat or at least come to
terms with, its most elusive and silent enemies on the field of battle – infectious diseases.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/3124 |
| Date | 16 November 2010 |
| Creators | Dubord, Denis Gerard |
| Contributors | Zimmerman, David |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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