Stacey C.P. The Canadian Army 1939 - 1945

Department of National Defence, Canada, Ottawa, 1948. — 401 p.
This volume has been prepared in order that the people of Canada may have in their hands at as early a date as possible an authentic comprehensive outline of the work of their Army in the War of 1939-1945 against Germany, Italy and Japan and their satellites.
In no previous conflict did the military forces of Canada serve in so many lands and in such varied roles as in this Second World War. Canadian soldiers did duty in some capacity in every continent, and the tasks they performed were of such diversity as to defy enumeration. In this relatively brief summary our main concern must of course be their battles, and these in themselves would fill a much wider set of covers. The Canadian field army was denied large-scale action for a long period, but when its time came it played distinguished parts in two of the three great European campaigns which produced the defeat of Germany: that in Sicily and Italy beginning on 10 July 1943, and that which began with the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944.
In the nature of things, this account of these events cannot be definitive. It is an interim report: a Summary, not a History. It is too brief to tell the whole story, and is published too soon to be able to make any claim to finality. The activities of the Canadian Army in the late war are recorded in hundreds of thousands of documents⎯War Diaries, reports on operations, departmental and headquarters files, and miscellaneous papers of scores of different sorts. Before anything approaching a final history can be produced, these documents must be read in detail. The historian must also consult the multitudinous British and Allied documentary sources of information, as well as the great mass of papers captured from the beaten enemy. In addition, he must seek assistance from men who participated in the events of which he tells, supplementing the evidence of official papers by drawing upon the memories and the private records of individuals.