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Book Review: The Army Medical Department, 1917—1941. By Mary C. Gillett. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army. 2009. xx + 644 pp. US$54. ISBN 978 0 16 083970 2

in the British Isles, and that in most of the Canadian battles – including Vimy Ridge – the Canadians were usually supported and/or accompanied by other British troops). The Canadian reputation overseas, however, emerged from a combination of real difference and stereotype mixed with ignorance. As Cook points out, the Canadians were ‘often perceived as brawlers, voyageurs, trappers, and prizefighters’ who were shaped by cold winters and the hardy lifestyle of the wilderness (vol. I, p. 308). For their part, the Canadians came to see themselves as an elite force and in some ways superior to their British cousins. ‘The Canadians are a queer crowd,’ wrote a young Captain Bernard Montgomery: ‘they seem to think they are the best troops in France and that we get them to do our most difficult jobs’ (vol. II, p. 321). The difference in these books is in the details and Cook provides enough information to satisfy even the most adamant military buff. He has included an impressive assortment of useful battlefield maps and a wealth of photographs, cartoons, and posters, along with multiple diagrams dissecting machine guns, grenades, barbed-wire defences, trench systems, and battalion formations. He also ranges widely in the text with chapters on the wounded, the men on leave, and so on, and includes diverse sections on how to dig a trench, on the clothing and technique of snipers, on the ‘grim art’ (vol. I, p. 292) of raiding parties, on the effectiveness of tanks, and much more. Cook eschews theoretical density for narrative clarity. Each major battle involving the Canadians – Vimy Ridge, Mount Sorrel, Ypres, Festubert, St Eloi Craters, the Somme, Passchendaele, and others – is painstakingly described from planning stage to execution to a summary of what went right and what went wrong. Each is unique and memorable in its own way, but together these battles leave an overall impression of endless heroism, comradeship, courage, and death in all its forms – tragic, gruesome, courageous, and random. Cook highlights several keys to the success of the Corps, including the development of the ‘bite and hold’ principle which focused more attention on holding positions once they had been won, and the growing appreciation for the decentralization of command which permitted the infantry men more freedom to make decisions and take action on the spot. And in the end it was the men at the front that made the difference: ‘endurance was the key to victory on the Western Front, and few Canadians were willing to give up until victory was achieved. In this industrial war, the human factor remained paramount to success on the battlefield’ (vol. I, p. 531). The Canadians fashioned an impressive record of achievement on the Western Front in the First World War, and Tim Cook has written an impressive record of those achievements.