- The First World War
- Death on the Battlefield
- War in the Air
- Victoria Cross Winners
- The Generals
- Organizing for War
- The Wartime Economy
- Recruitment
- Conscription Divides Canada
- Pacifism
- Ethnicity and Race
- Civilian Contributions
- Writing on War
- The War's Impact on Families
- Demobilization and the Veterans
- Indigenous Soldiers
- Military Medicine
- Military Chaplains
The Generals
This extract from the biography of Sir Edwin Alfred Hervey ALDERSON illustrates a few of the problems he encountered:
“Alderson found the [Canadian Expeditionary Force] ill-equipped and untrained, with many weak officers. In a few cold, rain-sodden months on Salisbury Plain, he did what he could to put things right, dismissing some of [Minister of Militia and Defence Samuel] Hughes’s chosen officers and replacing useless Canadian-made equipment with British issue. Inadvertently he made an enemy of Hughes’s representative in England.”
To learn more about the difficulties Alderson and other high-ranking officers encountered, please consult the list of biographies.