Building the Army's Backbone: Canadian Non-Commissioned Officers in the Second World War(Studies in Canadian Military History)

In September 1939, Canada's tiny army began its remarkable expansion into a wartime force of almost half a million soldiers. No army can function without a backbone of skilled non-commissioned officers (NCOs) – corporals, sergeants, and warrant officers – and the army needed to create one out of raw civilian material. Building the Army's Backbone tells the story of how senior leadership created a corps of NCOs that helped the burgeoning force train, fight, and win. This innovative book uncovers the army's two-track NCO-production system: locally organized training programs were run by units and formations, while centralized training and talent-distribution programs were overseen by the army. Meanwhile, to bring coherence to the two-track approach, the army circulated its best-trained NCOs between operational forces, the reinforcement pool, and the training system. The result was a corps of NCOs that collectively possessed the necessary skills in leadership, tactics, and instruction to help the army succeed in battle.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 Profile of the Infantry Senior NCOs 2 NCO Development before the War 3 The Wartime Army's Expectations of Its NCOs 4 Wartime Drivers of NCO Development 5 Unit and Formation Programs 6 The Mass Army's Programs in Canada 7 The Mass Army's Programs in the United Kingdom 8 Managing the Talent Conclusion Notes; Bibliography; Index

About the Author :
Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew L. Brown is an assistant professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada. With over three decades of service in the army, he has served in a variety of positions at home and on operations abroad. His research focuses on army manpower issues in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in the Second World War.

Review :
"Andrew Brown…has credibly produced a historiographic masterpiece…It is a significant read for every NCO, military leaders, instructors, and historians, and anyone who wants to know how key conditions were set for Canadian military success in the Second World War." - John M. Hinck (The Journal of Military History) "Overall, [Brown] presents a narrative of NCO development that is contextualised within the Canadian Army's wider wartime activities. It is a thoroughly valuable contribution to the historiography" - Megan Hamilton, King's College London (Canadian Military History)