This volume examines the state of the art in modern military history, and the utility of the subject as a training, educational, and policy-relevant tool for professional armed forces. Part 1 explores the state of military historical writing in Britain and the United States, and on specific topics, such as air warfare, naval warfare, intelligence, low-intensity conflict, and the most recent trends in the New Military History. Part 2 illustrates the utility of the historical method in analyzing command decisions, providing an institutional memory for a wide range of policy, command, and operational problems, and its application in specific subjects such as naval strategy, and by certain countries (the US, Germany, and the Soviet Union) in the search for lessons and fundamental principles. The contributing authors represent an impressive cross-section of prominent academic and official historians recognized as leading scholars in the study of military history. The Foreword is written by Anne N. Foreman, Undersecretary of the United States Air Force.

This book will be of interest to the academic and the official historian (and their students) and to military professionals.

A major reinterpretation of the most important military campaign of World War II World War II was only a few hours old when the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest campaign of World War II and the most complex submarine war in history, began with the sinking of the unarmed passenger liner Athenia by the German submarine U30. Based on the mastery of the latest research and written from a mid-Atlantic--rather than the traditional Anglocentric--perspective, Marc Milner focuses on the confrontation between opposing forces and the attacks on Allied shipping that lay at the heart of the six-year struggle. Against the backdrop of the battle for the Atlantic lifeline he charts the fascinating development of U-boats and the techniques used by the Allies to suppress and destroy these stealth weapons.

Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Book Prize In the narrative of D-Day the Canadians figure chiefly—if at all—as an ineffective force bungling their part in the early phase of Operation Overlord. The reality is quite another story. As both the Allies and the Germans knew, only Germany’s Panzers could crush Overlord in its tracks. The Canadians’ job was to stop the Panzers—which, as this book finally makes clear, is precisely what they did. Rescuing from obscurity one of the least understood and most important chapters in the history of D-Day, Stopping the Panzers is the first full account of how the Allies planned for and met the Panzer threat to Operation Overlord. As such, this book marks nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of the Normandy campaign. Beginning with the Allied planning for Operation Overlord in 1943, historian Marc Milner tracks changing and expanding assessments of the Panzer threat, and the preparations of the men and units tasked with handling that threat. Featured in this was the 3rd Canadian Division, which, treated so dismissively by history, was actually the most powerful Allied formation to land on D-Day, with a full armored brigade and nearly 300 artillery and antitank guns under command. Milner describes how, over four days of intense and often brutal battle, the Canadians fought to a literal standstill the 1st SS Panzer Corps—which included the Wehrmacht’s 21st Panzer Division; its vaunted elite Panzer Lehr Division; and the rabidly zealous 12th SS Hitler Youth Panzer Division, whose murder of 157 Canadian POWs accounted for nearly a quarter of Canadian fatalities during the fighting. Stopping the Panzers sets this murderous battle within the wider context of the Overlord assault, offering a perspective that challenges the conventional wisdom about Allied and German combat efficiency, and leads to one of the freshest assessments of the D-Day landings and their pre-attack planning in more than a decade.

The brutal battlefields of Europe during World War II were the testing ground for the young men of the 1st Battalion of the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment. On June 6, 1944, the soldiers landed on the coast of France as part of the first wave of the D-Day invasion. After securing the eastern flank of the Canadian landing along Juno Beach, the Regiment was in constant contact with the enemy over the next thirty days, suffering a steady stream of casualties. This led to a ferocious battle in the French village of Carpiquet. For five days, the Regiment endured a living hell and suffered nearly 300 casualties. By the end of it, the North Shore Regiment had effectively died. For the first time, the comprehensive tale of this storied Regiment is finally told. D-Day to Carpiquet is volume 9 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.

From the seafaring battles between the British and the French of the 1640s to the privateers of the War of 1812, from the merchant ships of the Second World War to the construction of the corvettes and frigates in the 20th century, New Brunswick has played an important role in Canada's naval history. In 1881, the new Dominion of Canada chose New Brunswick as the base for its naval operations. Three decades later, New Brunswick MP Sir George Foster initiated Parliamentary debates that led to the founding of the modern Canadian Navy. In this fact-filled volume, Marc Milner and Glenn Leonard tell the story of New Brunswick's contribution to Canada's storied naval heritage.New Brunswick and the Navy is volume 16 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.