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Advanced Squad Leader

Advanced Squad Leader was released in the late 1980s as an upgrade to the original Squad Leader game system put forth in 1977 by The Avalon Hill Game Company.   Avalon Hill pioneered "wargaming" and was the premier line of "conflict simulations" for many years.  They have recently been purchased by Hasbro; unable to keep up with the pace of the expanding computer software industry, Avalon Hill was purchased for six million dollars by Hasbro, whose plans on continuing the line of war games are unclear at the present.

Advanced Squad Leader continues to maintain a loyal following of fans, as evidenced by the number of websites devoted to the game.  While The General, Avalon Hill's "house-organ" for all their wargames, devoted many of its pages over the years to Squad Leader and ASL, the popularity of the game system eventually led to the creation of the ASL Annual, a once-yearly magazine devoted solely to the ASL game system (with some articles also on the original game).  This developed into a semi-annual magazine.

Advanced Squad Leader became a game system flexible enough to simulate company and battalion level combat occuring in any theatre of the Second World War, and could simulate the characteristics, weapons, and tactics of any of the world's armies. The following article appeared in the 1993(b) edition of the ASL Annual, published by The Avalon Hill Game Company.  The author was supposed to receive compensation for the article, but never did.  While the article was edited very well in most cases, the editor obviously had no knowledge of some aspects of Canadian military history; the errors that crept into his editing have been amended here.  To add insult to injury, the header art included the modern maple leaf national flag.  It is replaced here with more appropriate header art.  The title is also the work of the editor of the ASL Annual, not the author.

WARRIORS OF THE NORTH
The Canadians in ASL
by Michael A. Dorosh

After reading various articles by Messers Posey, Markuss and Swann concerning the representation of different nationalities in ASL, I have concluded that perhaps some mention should be made of the Canadian soldier. While his characteristics - in game terms - are generally no different from those of the British that he is lumped together with, historically he retained a distinct character all his own.  Some explanation as to the nature and organization of the Canadian Active Service Force should (hopefully) prove interesting to readers, and serve as an aid to DYO scenario designers in crafting their own situations featuring the Canadians.

BACKGROUND

At the opening of the First World War, Canada's military had virtually no equipment, few regular officers, and few full-time professional soldiers.  The first overseas drafts arrived in England in 1914 with cardboard boots that fell apart in the rain, poorly designed web gear, and the inefficient (and potentially lethal for the firer) Ross rifle.  Thus, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was off to an inauspicious start.   Four years later, having been re-equipped by the British, Canadian soldiers had earned a reputation for toughness and gallantry on the bloody battlefields of the Western Front, and had pioneered many key tactical concepts (such as the trench raid, the creeping barrage, and the concepts of flash spotting and sound ranging that were so crucial to effective counter-battery artillery fire).  As well, the Canadians had gained a good deal of indepedence from their Imperial mentors.  Although a little over half of the soldiers in the CEF had been born in the British Isles, the men took great pride in the Canada badge each wore on his shoulder strap.  These "Canadians" had come to be recognized as crack troops by soldiers on both sides of the line.

The Canadian Army that fought in the Second World War differed from that of the Great War in that over 80 percent of the soldiers to go overseas were now Canadian-born.  There was, of course, still strong pro-British sentiment among many of the thousands of men who volunteered at the outbreak of war.  Nevertheless, the Canadian government was determined that the Canadian Army should fight independently, free of British commanders, and that their army should not be portioned out piecemeal to "Imperial" formations.

At the start of the Second World War, Canada had a small number of regular soldiers, no more than 6,000.  A militia of more than 50,000 existed, but many of these men knew nothing more than parade-square soldiering.  The army had exactly 16 tanks; five three-inch mortars existed in the entire country, and the Lewis Gun had not yet been replaced by the Bren Gun - and, in fact, most of the Lewis Guns were for drill purposes only, and could not actually be fired.  Uniforms were in short supply in 1939, and the recruits that came pouring in often had to train in their civilian clothes until more appropriate apparel became available.  When the First Division went overseas in December 1939, the ranks were composed in large part of men who had been civilians but four months before.  The three regular infantry regiments of the peace time military (Royal Canadian Regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and the French-speaking Royal 22e Regiment) left behind most of their experienced regulars in Canada to train recruits and serve as cadres for the many new formations projected for mobilization.  Thus, even the "regular" army units went overseas composed mostly of inexperienced, though eager, soldiers.

Eventually, the Canadian Army serving overseas came to number three infantry divisions and two armoured divisions, plus two independent armoured brigades.   The bulk of Canadian overseas forces moved first to England, each formation settling down to a long period of training there.  Elements of the First Division were landed in Brest in June of 1940, and moved inland via train and truck.  Paris fell the next day, and cooler heads withdrew the 5,000 men before they made contact with the enemy.  The Division returned to England with their weapons and artillery, but 216 of their trucks had to be hastily destroyed and left behind on the Continent.   Six men were listed as missing, four of whom found their way back to England, one of whom was killed, and on who was made a prisoner of war.

The first Canadian soldiers to see action were the men of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada, who were dispatched to Hong Kong in late 1941 and went into captivity after sharp fighting there in December.  The Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942 provided battle experience for the Fourth and Sixth infantry brigades, as well as the 14th Canadian Army Tank Regiment, but at a tremendous cost in lives.   Apart from these interruptions, the majority of Canadian soldiers in the United Kingdom participated in endless training schemes throughout the British Isles.  By 1943, they were understandably anxious to see action; the winters they had endured in England thus far had been colder than normal, discipline was strict, and morale was starting to become a factor.

Finaly, in July 1943, the First Division and First Armoured Brigade were committed to action in Sicily, and when they later moved to the mainland of Italy, the Fifth Armoured Division joined them to create the First Canadian Corps.  And still the other Canadian formations trained in England, while the British, and even the newcomer Americans, continued to fight the war without them.  In June 1944, the Third Canadian Division, supported by the Second Canadian Armoured Brigade (not to mention the men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion jumping with the British 6th Airborne Division) was given the task of assaulting Juno Beach, and the eager Canadians performed well.

In fact, these Canadian units achieved the deepest penetrations of any of the Allies on D-Day itself.  Repeated counter-attacks by the 12th SS Panzer Division during the days to come battered the Canadians, but failed to break them.  The Third Division gave as good as it got, inflicting considerable casualties on the German panzergrenadiers.  In July, the Second and Fourth (Armoured) Divisions landed and they too quickly became engaged in the vicious fighting in Normandy.  Thus was born the First Canadian Army, and like I Canadian Corps in Italy, was soon a proven veteran of some of bitterest resistance the Germans had to offer. In February 1945, the Canadian formations in Italy were reassigned to northwest Europe, and all five Canadian overseas Divisions ended the war fighting under one command.

THE TROOPS

The only special rule ASL grants to Canadian troops to distinguish them from British soldiers is the application of "Elite" status to represent the fact that they were all volunteers.  In fact, the Canadian Army suffered the highest casualty rates of any of the Allied armies in northwest Europe, and the casualty rates among infantry battalions were higher than even those of First World War Canadian battalions.  By late 1944, the Canadian government was hard pressed to provide replacements for their infantry formations, a problem shared by all the Allies.  The French-speaking regiments were particularly short of reinforcements.  Canada had enforced conscription for home service since 1940, and in 1945 small numbers of these men began appearing in the ranks of the First Canadian Army in Europe. Like the British Army, the Canadian Army employed a Regimental system in which its soldiers found a home.   Canada, the second

            Any graduate of Sandhurst would have been shocked right down to his polished boots by a scene that Gordon Beatty, a gunner with the 5th Battery at Vimy, witnessed
        in the battery's orderly room.   Beatty's driver, Private Dan Surette, asked to be paraded before the commanding officer on 'a personal matter'.  Beatty marched him in,
        saluted smartly, and reported: 'Driver Surette to see you, sir.'
            Whereupon Private Surette turned to the CO, extended his hand, and said, 'Got a chew, Colonel?'
             'Sure,' said the Colonel, reaching into his hip pocket for a plug, 'just keep it, Dan,' he said as he handed it over.  The two men were old friends who had both worked for the
        town of Moncton, the CO as a city clerk, the driver as a garbage collector.  (Pierre Burton, Vimy)

While a lack of experience was good in the sense that Canadian officers could develop their own tactical methods, the Canadian Army seemed plagued by bad leadership when they first went into action.  In the months following D-Day in northwest Europe, a high number of battalion and brigade commanders were sacked.  During the long period of preparation in England, many Canadian officers had taken too casual an approach to training their men.  Many officers felt that when the time came, the men would be ready for combat, and there wasn't much that could be done to prepare them for it.   Unfortunately, many of the poor Canadian officers were often not spotted and removed until after they had been identified in action, sometimes after serious consequences had resulted from their inadequacies.  As was the case in the British forces, most of the best and brightest professionals had joined the Air Force, and the Army suffered accordingly.  The most able leaders that the Army was able to attract seemed to come from civilian life - by early 1945, of the ten senior staff appointments, not one was a pre-war Regular; of the five Canadian divisions, only two were commanded by pre-war Regulars, and both of the two independent armoured brigades were commanded by citizen-soldiers.

As for Canadian enlisted men (called Other Ranks in Canadian parlance) in the infantry, they suffered from having inadequate machinegun support (like the British, Canadian medium and heavy machineguns were placed in special Machine Gun battalions, one per division), notable when on the attack.  As in the First World War, and of necessity, the Canadian soldier became dependent on artillery support to fight his battles for him, especially in the Italian campaign. And when he took the heavy casualties that became almost routine for the Canadian units, his ranks were augmented with hastily trained replacements or men from disbanded artillery regiments that had practically no infantry training.

Replacements, especially for officers and NCOs, for the French-speaking regiments were hunted for throughout the Canadian Army in Britain; the army became desperate for trained soldiers who could speak French, even those with but a minimum of training.  Even those soldiers who had the benefit of several years of instruction in England were not necessarily any better in action than raw recruits.  A "make believe" mood infested some soldiers after "playing at" war for so long that it took a while for many to adjust - if they lived long enough to do so.

Looking at the factors of a Canadian squad (the Canadian term was actually "section" but for simplicity's sake we shall use the more common ASL terminology) in comparison to a British squad, the Canadian doesn't differ significantly except for perhaps a higher Morale.  The Firepower factor of "4" may seem incorrect when one considers that the standard of musketry among Canadian soldiers was lower in contrast to the usually high British standard of marksmanship.  Strome Galloway, a soldier who fought for 25 months in three campaigns with the British Army and later the Royal Canadian Regiment during World War Two, insists that many Canadians seldom fired their weapons on the rifle range during training, and when they did do so their standard of marksmanship was low; there were too many soldiers and too few rifle ranges to accomodate them all.  However, the difference that this makes in ASL terms is small.   The Firepower factor of the Canadian squad consists mostly of the firepower contributed by the inherent light machine gun, and the squad leader's tommy gun.   Galloway has stated (in his column in Legion Magazine) that "...the majority of men in fighting platoons could have arrived on and occupied the objective carrying pitchforks."  Since British and Canadian units both used the Bren LMG and the Sten and Thompson SMGs, and both British and Canadian squads contained ten men at full strength, the difference in rifle marksmanship alone is not enough to warrant a different firepower factor in ASL terms.

The Range factor represents not only the effective range of the squad's weapons, but also the willingness of the soldiers to use them. There was a feeling among some senior Allied air officers that Canadian soldiers in northwest Europe had become "drugged with bombs", that they had become too dependent on heavy bomber support by the end of the conflict.  General Crerar, the commander of the First Canadian Army, had adopted wholeheartedly what (to him) was a cardinal lesson during the First World War - "use guns instead of men."   Thus, the Canadian soldier seemed to lack the spirit that his First World War counterpart had.  Some military historians are of the opinion that unlike the soldiers that pioneered the trench raids that Canadians had become famous for in the Great War, this new generation of warriors were all too happy during the Second World War to call down artillery on enemy positions - even if that artillery was sometimes unable to do the job that the grenade and tommy gun could have done much better.  In full scale, well-supported attacks during daylight, the Canadians performed extremely well, and more than made up for any lack of drive that they may have suffered from when placed in static positions.  Nonetheless, first-line German units were more aggressive than most Canadian units, and their greater range factor is, to some extent, a small reflection of this.

As for granting an "Elite" Morale factor to Canadian units, in fact this should only apply to the period shortly after any given formation arrived in combat.  Before the Sicilian invasion, Farley Mowat (an author known to all Canadians, and at the time an infantry officer in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment) recounted that morale among he and his comrades was high immediately before the landing.  The Canadian soldiers were bored, and even embarrassed that they were left "safe" to train for so long, while other nationalities carred the burden of fighting the war against the Germans.  Thus these Canadians were very eager to get into action and prove their worth.  Once in action, Canadian units performed extremely well, but as the Italian campaign (and later, the Normandy fighting) dragged on, with little sign of respite, Canadian morale became increasingly lower.  A lack of reinforcements, and the problem of few leaves having been granted during the long period of training in England were major problems in the short term.  And there was also a fair amount of resentment towards the "Zombies" - the conscripts in Canada who were not being sent overseas because they were not volunteers.  The Canadian government feared a conscription crisis akin to that which occurred in the First World War, and had pledged not to send conscripts overseas.  On the 31st of October 1944, the Commanding Officers of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada had this to say in the War Diary of his battalion:

            The morale of the Battalion at rest is good.  However, it must be said that 'Battle Morale' is definitely not good due to the fact that inadequately trained men are, of
            necessity, being sent into action ignorant of any idea of their own strength, and after their first mortaring, overwhelmingly convinced of the enemy's.  This feeling is
            no doubt increased by their ignorance of fieldcraft in its most elementary form.

By the time these lines had been written, the battalion had been in action for four months and suffered more than 1400 casualties (at full strength the battalion numbered 800 men).  In those four months, the Black Watch had been wiped out twice: once at Verrieres (when 325 men crossed the start line and fewer than 25 made it back to the Canadian lines) and once again on "Black Friday" (13 October 1944) when they were ordered to attack over 1200 yards of open beet fields.  In that attack, every company commander had been killed or wounded, and one company of 90 men had been reduced to four.  In all, the already depleted Black Watch suffered 183 casualties that day, 56 of them being killed.  The other battalions of the First Canadian Army were suffering casualty rates only slightly lower than that of the Black Watch.

It often seemed to Canadian soldiers that no relief was in sight, and this too had an effect on morale.  After the Battle of Sicily, while American and British soldiers enjoyed generous leaves in cities and coastal resorts there, the men of the First Canadian Division were herded into a rest camp in the middle of the island and forbidden to leave.   While not in combat, they were subjected to endless training, inspections, and parades.  The Canadians trained six days a week, and on the seventh attended mandatory Church Parade, and were then free to clean their weapons and kit in preparation for the next six days.  Farley Mowat pointed out that at the same time, war workers in Canada were striking for higher pay, and the civilian population of Canada was "less than stoically" enduring "the horrors of sugar rationing."   While the German Army in Sicily had encouraged their soldiers to do what they could to enjoy themselves, and even at times provided mobile brothels for their men, the Canadians were "unique among the fighting soldiers in Sicily" in that they were the only onese to be treated "like inmates of a reform school."  These factors didn't exactly provide the means for high morale.

The lack of home leave for Canadian troops overseas was a problem never properly addressed during the war.  After the first troops arrived in England in late 1939, it was established that the only home leave would be for "compassionate reasons."   Men granted leave in such a manner were "Struck Off Strength" of the overseas force.  Obviously, the practice was discouraged by commanding officers and the Canadian administration.  In fact, officer granted compassionate leave were usually required to pay for their own passage home.  Complaints on the matter of leave in September 1941 led to a further restriction of leaves.  It was decided that leaves would not ordinarily be at public expense, and soldiers given leave would not be discharged from the service (unless the reasons for their leave would incur extreme hardship whould the soldiers be forced to return to service).  Between 1 October 1942 and 14 April 1943, exactly 647 Canadian soldiers applied for home leave, and only 112 applications were approved.

Some men did get home to Canada, however, for brief visits.  Between the autumn of 1940 and 31 July 1944, 944 officers and 3750 men were returned to Canada to take courses or become instructors.  These men were given time to see their families.  During the war, 22 drafts between December 1941 and November 1944 escorted prisoners of war to Canada, allowing 4758 soldiers of all ranks to come home.  Some of these men are included with those mentioned above, and thus some duplication exists in the figures of returnees.  Additionally, some of these prisoner escorts were being sent home for release from the service as being either under or over aged, or as being medically unfit.

These small numbers returning home were not enough to salvage morale throughout the entire Canadian contingent.  By the early weeks of 1944, there were reports that the long separation from families and home was starting to play a large part in decreasing the army's spirits.  Over 370,000 Canadian servicemen of all ranks were sent to Europe by 31 May 1945, and only a fraction of these men ever received any kind of home leave.   Unfortunately for the Canadian Army, doing so was logistically difficult.  The army in Europe was always wanting for manpower and a 30-day leave to Canada for a soldier meant his regiment went without him for three months.  As well, there was the problem of transporting large numbers of troops back and forth between Europe and Canada.   The feeling among the ranks was, not surprisingly, that the only way one could go home was by being wounded.

In the summer of 1944, the Canadian Army adopted the British "Tri-Wound Scheme."  A soldier became eligible for a return to Canada (or the UK if he preferred) for six months duty if one of the following applied:

        a) the soldier was wounded "otherwise than trivially" three times, or,
        b) the soldier had three years overseas service and was wounded twice.

Few soldiers qualified for leave under this scheme.

By September of 1944, the First Canadian Army felt that a better leave scheme was warranted, and in November a plan was instituted where every month, 450 men from throughout the army would be granted 30 days home leave.  To qualify, a soldier needed five years continuous service, although each month in a combat theatre counted as two months.  In the first three months of the scheme, 1992 men went home to Canada.   It was planned that these soldiers would return to Europe, but in fact only 53 men actually did.  In April of 1945, the scheme was put on a new footing, in hopes that more men would be returned to combat immediately afterwards.  But by June 1945, only 626 officers and 9603 other ranks had been granted leave to Canada under this revamped scheme.  In fairness, it must be pointed out that the plan was instituted very late in the war, and very few men overseas actually returned to Canada for leave.  The fact that a plan based on service even existed, however, did play some part in keeping up morale - moreso than had the men thought no such plan existed at all.  Still, many Canadians were deprived of seeing their home or families for up to six years - a regrettable situation that had serious consequences for many Canadian families, and, of course, the morale of many Canadian soldiers.

When considering the Experience Level Rating (ELR) of Canadian troops, there is no substitute for researching the particular action being simulated to come up with an appropriate rating.  In general, however, I would suggest that Canadian troops going into action for the first time should have an ELR of "4" - not to indicate so much their "experience" as their training and tendency not to break (in game terms, replaced with a lower value squad).  To simulate units that have progressed farther into their campaigns, their ELR should drop - simulating the effect of untrained and inexperienced troops being added to their numbers - but never lower than "3."  And rarely should a unit be higher than "3" in 1944, unless the unit being simulated had recently taken heavy casualties.  By 1945, the ELR for Canadian soldiers should be no higher than "3", with a value of "2" being given to extremely worn-out units having just suffered heavy casualties.

As for Sniper Availibility Numbers (SAN), every Canadian infantry battalion came to have a dedicated Scout and Sniper Platoon, equipped with special camouflage clothing and outfitted with high power binoculars and the excellent Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk 1 (T) sniper rifle.  While Canadian snipers in the First World War managed to rack up impressive totals of enemy kills (especially, it seemed, Native soldiers), the short periods that the Canadian Army spent in defensive positions opposite an active enemy in the Second World War didn't allow for the kinds of successes Canadian sharpshooters gained in the more static warfare between 1915 and 1918.   Moreover, as the SAN is also a way of simulating random events and effects due to not just sniper fire, standard formulas should be used when determining the Canadian SAN for any given scenario.

THE TROOPS

The weapons that Canadians fought with were, by and large, the same as those issued to British troops.  In fact, many "British" weapons were actually manufactured in Canada.  For those who may wish to design hypothetical scenarios involving the First Canadian Division in France in 1940, or defending against Operation Sea Lion (the planned invasion of Great Britain by German forces), the following should be kept in mind:

Lewis Guns were used in Canadian units until enough Bren Guns arrived in 1941 to fill the ranks.  Two- and three-inch mortars were not issued until the summer of 1941, and the 4.2 inch mortar was not adopted by Canadian units until December 1942.  In the fall of 1942, the AT platoons of Canadian infantry battalions were issued with 2-pounder guns, and the following summer they were replaced with the 6-pounders.  The Boys ATR first became available from Canadian sources in 1942, and was replaced with the PIAT in 1943.

Canadian artillerymen mostly used the obsolete 75mm guns, 18-pounders and 18/25-pounders until the summer of 1941 when 25-pounder guns became available in quantity from Canadian sources.  The Royal Canadian Artillery also started the war equipped with 6-inch howitzers, which were replaced in October 1941 by 5.5-inch howitzers.  In February of 1944, 4.5-inch howitzers were introduced to Canadian units in Italy to help augment the shortage of 5.5s, and were eventually retained for their greater range and accuracy, serving alongside the 5.5-inch howitzer batteries.

Anti-aircraft regiments generally used the 3.7-inch and Bofors 40mm guns.  Light AA regiments, some brigade support groups and armoured formations, used 20mm guns as well, until August 1944 when the 20mm models were withdrawn from service.

Canadian armoured units were initially equipped with Churchills, Matildas and Lees. The Canadian Ram tank was intended to be used by armoured regiments, and the Churchill by army tank brigades.  The Ram proved inferior to the Sherman, however, and was kept in service only for training purposes; eventually all Canadian armoured formations adopted the Sherman (and the distinction between "armoured" and "tank" units was dropped) whose various main armaments consisted of 75mm, 17-pounder and 105mm weapons.   In addition, the Canadians employed a wide variety of soft-skin vehicles, scout cars, light tanks and armoured cars.  And it was the Canadians who invented the "Kangaroo", the world's first fully-tracked armoured personnel carrier.   Those interested in the technical side of these vehicles are referred to Mr. Markuss' fine article mentioned earlier, where many weapons used by the Canadians are discussed in detail.

THE ORGANIZATION

For those interested in scenario design, the following 1944-45 Orders of Battle for Canadian overseas formations (or War Establishments, as the Canadians called them) might serve as an aid in the determination of OBs:

ARMOURED REGIMENTS

Specifically, the Sherman V (Vehicle Note 14) was used to outfit the armoured regiments; in mid to late 1944 Sherman VC Fireflies began to appear, and later Sherman IC Fireflies, (both Vehicle Note 16) usually 1 per troop, and by 1945 enough Fireflies existed that two per troop could be provided. The Stuart V (Vehicle Note 4) was used as a recce vehicle, eventually replaced by the Stuart VI.(in game terms, equivalent to Vehicle Note 4) The AA troops used Crusader III AA tanks (Vehicle Note 60), and Humber I Scout Cars (Vehicle Note 43) were used by the Intercommunication Troops. Ram ammunition carriers (called "Wallabies") were also seen, similar to the Kangaroo APC.  In April 1945, the South Alberta Regiment became the only armoured regiment in the 4th Canadian Division to receive its own Valentine bridgelaying tank (Vehicle Note 36) (they were usually assigned to brigade headquarters).

ARTILLERY REGIMENTS

INFANTRY BATTALIONS

For those who may wish to add some authenticity to their scenarios, the following order of battle is provided.  While all of the formations listed below had organic artillery, engineer, signals, medical, military police, and other service elements, in game terms these are somewhat irrelevant, and therefore only the infantry, motor infantry, machine gun, armoured, reconnaissance, armoured reconnaissance and armoured car regiments are listed.

FIRST CANADIAN ARMY

THE OVERSEAS CORPS

Occasionally, the defence platoons of The Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment) were given combat experience; one such platoon used for brigade and division headquarters defence traded places with a platoon of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada during the attack on Boulougne, for example. The Royal Montreal Regiment's First Canadian Army Headquarters Defence Company was also attached to the 7th Brigade during the clearing of the forts at Cape Gris Nez and Calais, and moved with the brigade into Belgium.

THE OVERSEAS DIVISIONS

INFANTRY BRIGADES

ARMOURED BRIGADES

The First Canadian Parachute Battalion also fought with the British 6th Airborne Division, and the First Canadian APC Regiment was attached to the 79th British Armoured Division.  Canadian soldiers also contributed to the First Special Service Force (administratively referred to as the Second Canadian Parachute Battalion), a bi-national commando-type unit.  This unit is analyzed in detail by Steven Swann in the ASL Annual 1990 issue.

The First Canadian Army did not consist solely of Canadians; in addition to Canadian nationals it contained various Polish, British, Dutch, Belgian, French, Czechoslovakian and American formations under command at different times.  For clarity, and in keeping with the subject of this article, only Canadian units have been described.   In fact, in 1945 the First Canadian Army had more British soldiers under command than did the British Eighth Army at El Alamein!

Canadian military units styled themselves after British units, and the use of the words "of Canada" in the titles of some regiments is often to distinguish those units from identically-named units of the British Army.  Most Canadian regiments had formed alliances with British regiments, that may or may not be obvious from looking at their titles.  While it is not obvious by looking at their respective titles that The Calgary Highlanders were closely tied with The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) of the British Army, or that the Saskatoon Light Infantry were allied with the Yorkshire Light Infantry, it may be correctly assumed that there are links between The Seaforth Highlanders and The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada.  Thus, strong regimental traditions so vital to the Commonwealth soldier's morale and espirit de corps do not only come from within their native countries, but from allied Imperial regiments as well.

CONCLUSION

Hopefully, readers now have a little more of an idea as to the nature of the Canadian soldier in World War Two.  Well conditioned and armed, but sometimes poorly commanded and inefficiently trained, Canadian soldiers rarely gave ground on the defence and proved most tenacious on the attack.  Although some military authors feel that Canadian units were too dependent on artillery or heavy bomber support, one must remember that reinforcements were often in short supply for Canadian battalions, and their commanders necessarily had to be careful in conserving their manpower.  If Canadian units did suffer from poor marksmanship, it really didn't matter much as few soldiers in any army actually fired their rifles effectively in combat, letting the proliferation of automatic weapons and artillery do the killing for them.  Canadian soldiers didn't get the kind of "Crack Troops" label that they had earned during the First World War from the British or German commands, but nonetheless were generally regarded as highly competent and professional by both.  That Canadians did as well as they did is almost surprising, considering their lack of experience, lack of a sizeable pre-war Regular cadre, lack of home leave and the long, gruelling period spent training before going into action.

What the Canadians might have lacked in experience, they made up for in courage.   The 12th SS (a mixture of teenaged fanatics and veteran NCOs and men from the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Division) failed to dislodge the Third Canadian Division right after D-Day, and there are many other instances in which Canadian units got the better of battle-hardened German veterans.  The first real divisional-level battle that Canadians fought, at the Moro River in December 1943, was against the 90th Light Panzergrenadiers, veterans of the vaunted Panzerarmee Afrika.  There the First Canadian Division performed credibly, but as the battle raged through to the end of the month culminating in the capture of Ortona (where veteran soldiers of the German First Parachute Division made a desperate stand) most of the Division's infantry companies had been reduced to half strength.

ASL players won't notice much difference between playing the Canadians and playing the British.  Both armies were similar in terms of weaponry and organization (as reflected in the tactical level of the game system).  Canadian ELR and Morale will generally be higher than comparative British units, who were pretty war-weary by the time the Canadians got into action in 1943 and 1944.  But even this trend will decline towards the end of the war.  The Canadians were never a real elite, even if they were in the main an all-volunteer force.  Nevertheless, as ASL players should appreciate, once they gained battle experience they were more than a match for even the best of the German Army (which itself was worn down on various levels by the time the Canadians got into battle. In effect then, a Canadian force will usually behave much like a British force on our cardboard battlefields.  One American serving in the Canadian Army said "the strength of (the) Canadian Army was as close-in fighters; they went at it like hockey players!"  (Dick Raymond, quoted in Overlord by Max Hastings.)   On the attack, Canadian units will have to close the range, due to their lower factor, have fewer medium and heavy machineguns, and will often be obliged to "go at it like hockey players."  Their higher morale and ELR will often allow them to do this.  And if your cardboard Canucks take heavy casualties as they get in close, well, that too is historical.