Browsing by Author "Hill, Alexander"
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- ItemOpen Access“A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours”: Explaining the August 1941 Invasion of Iran(2013-01-24) Hann, Keith; Hill, AlexanderThe origins of British participation in the August 1941 invasion of neutral Iran are poorly understood. Rarely examined on its own, the invasion is instead typically simplified in a historiography dominated by other subjects or brushed over altogether, with the most common explanation of its origins—a need to establish a supply corridor to better provide the Soviet Union with war material—being incorrect. Such oversights, simplifications, and inaccuracies have served to mask the true origins of the invasion, which can be traced back to a desire of the British to secure what can be termed “imperial interests”: the lines of communication running through the Middle East from Egypt to British India, and the massive oil refinery complex at Abadan in southern Iran.
- ItemOpen AccessComing Home a "Veteran": The military-civilian transition in Canada and Canadian military identity(2021-11-19) Tremblay, Myriam; Yessenova, Saulesh; Gibbs Van Brunschot, Erin; Hill, Alexander; Towers, FrankThe military-civilian transition (MCT), despite having no concrete definition, is understood as the transition between a military member’s career and their reintegration into the civilian world. Canada’s defence strategy, “Strong, Secured, Engaged”, considers the MCT to fall within its strategic framework. There are gaps in what we know about the MCT in Canada, especially as MCT policies continue evolving. The purpose of this research is to understand the experiences of nine former members of Canadian Armed Forces based on the information obtained through semi-structured interviews about their releases, which took place between 2012 and 2016, and self-report questionnaires. The focus of this research is on negotiation of identity following military service by using a social psychological approach and identity theories. The main themes that emerged from this research are: (1) Training and indoctrination, (2) Making meaning from military service, (3) Uniforms and identity, and (4) Storytelling and identity. This thesis argues that: (1) current MCT frameworks fail to account for the civilian-military transition, which is the first transition that members experience throughout their military careers, while seeking to address the MCT; (2) the construction of the “veteran” reveals tensions between military culture and Canadian values and highlights tensions in post-military identity formation; and (3) understanding operational culture and military training is key to understanding how members adapt to the civilian world and when they engage in identity negotiation throughout and after their careers.
- ItemOpen AccessCultural Disparity and the Italo-German Alliance in the Second World War(2015-09-04) Giannone, Elicia; Hill, Alexander; Timm, AnnetteThis thesis will argue that cultural disparity between Germany and Italy played a significant role in creating and exacerbating problems within the Italo-German military alliance in the Second World War. This will be achieved by first comparing and contrasting trends in Italian and German military culture and broader martial culture throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. These trends will then be applied to Italo-German attempts at military cooperation in the North African, Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Eastern theatres of the Second World War. Memoirs will be used extensively to determine what attitudes were between personnel in the Italian and German militaries. What will be found is that military cooperation between these two powers was made ineffective by cultural disparity.
- ItemOpen AccessGalula in the Bush: A Case Study of Counterinsurgency Theory Using the Insurgent Conflicts in Postcolonial Uganda, 1981-2006(2023-12-20) Kingston, Fenner William Patrick; Stapleton, Timothy; Hill, Alexander; Huebert, RobertThis thesis uses primary and secondary sources to analyse the applicability of David Galula’s counterinsurgency theories as described in his 1964 work Contre-insurrection: théorie et pratique to three cases from the insurgent conflicts in postcolonial Uganda from 1981 to 2006. These conflicts include the National Resistance Army (NRA) in the Luwero Triangle from 1981 to 1986, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda and southern Sudan from the group’s founding in 1987 to its formal departure from Uganda in 2006, and the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) and United National Rescue Front (UNRF I&II) insurgencies in West Nile district between 1986 and 2002. These three cases offer examples of localised insurgent conflicts fought between national armed forces and regionally or ethnically motivated insurgent groups. This provides substantial evidence that Galula’s theories apply in contexts other than the international, expeditionary and/or colonial counterinsurgent campaigns to which his theories have previously been applied. It concludes that Galula’s theories offer both civilian and military leaders a model for counterinsurgency operations that they can readily apply. Galula’s theory stands up when scrutinised in the context of thirty years of conflict in which ethnic, regional, geographic, and religious factors affected the insurgencies, thereby showing its applicability across a wide range of potential insurgencies.
- ItemOpen AccessIn the House of Rimmon: British Aid to the Soviet Union, June-September 1941(2012-10-02) Lytton, Avram; Hill, AlexanderBritish efforts to aid the Soviet Union in the early months of the war in the East are underexplored and simplified in the historiography of Allied supply to Russia during the Second World War. In fact, British leaders recognized within weeks of the German invasion that the Eastern Front was the most important front in the war against Nazi Germany and that the Soviets were likely to continue to resist for a long time. Britain then became increasingly committed to supplying the Soviets with material aid. Given the difficulties involved, and Soviet uncooperativeness, British aid prior to the Moscow Supply Conference was substantial and relatively swift. The expansion of aid into a large scale effort, later established on a lend-lease basis, had its origins in the evolution of British assessments and priorities over the summer of 1941.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Last German Victory: Combat Doctrine and Tactical Performance in Operation Market Garden, September 1944(2020-01-30) Bates, Aaron Christopher; Hill, Alexander; Terriff, Terry; Stapleton, Tim J.This thesis reevaluates Operation Market Garden, the failed Allied airborne invasion of German-occupied Holland in September 1944 by comparing the combat doctrines and practices of the British and German forces that engaged in the campaign, particularly with regards to command and control and the employment of firepower, and seeks to assess the degree to which each force was actually suited to the circumstances that they faced during the operation. The study concludes that German combat doctrine and training, based around a highly decentralized and proactive command ethos and a high level of small-unit tactical proficiency, was a major factor in their ability to effectively cope with the unexpected Allied attack and the confused combat situation it created. Conversely, the British forces were hampered by the fact that their own doctrine, based around rigid centralized control, cautious set-piece battle planning and the maximal use of artillery and aerial firepower, proved itself ineffective in adapting to the confused and fast moving situation that their own surprise offensive created, ensuring that they were unable to achieve their objectives.
- ItemOpen AccessLinking molecular targets of Cd in the bloodstream to organ-based adverse health effects(Elsevier, 2020-10-05) Hill, Alexander; Gailer, JuergenThe chronic exposure of human populations to toxic metals remains a global public health concern. Although chronic Cd exposure is linked to kidney damage, osteoporosis and cancer, the underlying biomolecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Since other diseases could also be causally linked to chronic Cd exposure, a systems toxicology-based approach is needed to gain new insight into the underlying exposure-disease relationship. This approach requires one to integrate the cascade of dynamic bioinorganic chemistry events that unfold in the bloodstream after Cd enters with toxicological events that unfold in target organs over time. To this end, we have conducted a systematic literature search to identify all molecular targets of Cd in plasma and in red blood cells (RBCs). Based on this information it is impossible to describe the metabolism of Cd and the toxicological relevance of it binding to molecular targets in/on RBCs is elusive. Perhaps most importantly, the role that peptides, amino acids and inorganic ions, including HCO3-, Cl- and HSeO3- play in terms of mediating the translocation of Cd to target organs and its detoxification is poorly understood. Causally linking human exposure to this metal with diseases requires a much better integration of the bioinorganic chemistry of Cd that unfolds in the bloodstream with target organs. This from a public health point of view important goal will require collaborations between scientists from different disciplines to untangle the complex mechanisms which causally link Cd exposure to disease.
- ItemEmbargo‘Long Cold War’? Intelligence and the precarious Anglo-Soviet wartime alliance(2023-06-01) Cabel, Patrick Michael Beckloff; Ferris, John Robert; Hill, Alexander; Chastko, PaulDuring the interwar period (1919-1939), British politicians were unwilling to treat the revolutionary Soviet state as a serious factor in European politics. From the British side, the relationship was marked by frustration, mistrust, and animosity. This was an early, ideologically-driven Cold War. As Europe’s clouds darkened in the 1930s and a new war seemed increasingly possible, a British-Soviet partnership was a possibility, but both opted to deal instead with Adolf Hitler in the desperate hopes of avoiding war. Hitler would eventually bring Britain and the USSR together when he launched Barbarossa in June 1941. The Second World War forced the Anglo-Soviet relationship to change. Once the USSR survived the German attack, it became increasingly clear the Red Army would destroy Nazi Germany and dominate the European political picture. Although the wartime Anglo-Soviet partnership, embodied in the ‘Grand Alliance’ that included the United States, was often on shaky ground, Britain, knowing it needed the USSR after the war, sought to determine if it would be a cooperative or hostile power. This process, begun in 1943, used a new source of intelligence: intercepted diplomatic communications from various European capitals. Diplomats closely watched the Grand Alliance both as a war-fighting entity, and that which would determine the peace settlement after victory. These well-positioned and perceptive diplomats understood the European political map faced an upheaval, and they sought to assess the danger presented by the USSR. Their observations offered British politicians valuable insight into Soviet intentions, which, increasingly, portended a confrontational postwar relationship as Moscow, relentlessly pursuing the security of its borders, sought to expand its influence into states like Poland and Turkey. These communications have been little used by historians, and never for the purpose of contextualizing how British leaders grappled with their position as a power in eclipse, their relationship with the ascendant United States, and whether the USSR would support or subvert a postwar settlement.
- ItemOpen AccessNATO Infantry Weapons Standardization: Ideal or Possibility?(2016) Zhou, Yi Le (David); Terriff, Terry; Hill, Alexander; Keeley, JamesThis thesis examines the efforts that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has taken regarding the standardization of rifles and small arms ammunition from the Cold War to the present day and the limitations of these standardization efforts. During the Cold War, NATO was unsuccessful at standardizing a common rifle and its member states only agreed to standardize ammunition calibers. This thesis will discuss the factors that prevented all of the alliance’s militaries from adopting the same rifle models and the problems associated with NATO’s ammunition standardization efforts. Many NATO members intend on procuring new small arms during the 2020s period but there are no plans for the adoption of a common NATO rifle. In the absence of a common rifle for the future, NATO needs to undertake efforts that would both modernize its small arms capabilities and improve the degree of standardization within the alliance.
- ItemOpen AccessTen Principles of Soviet Operational Art: Red Army Operations in Theory and Practice, 1936-1942(2014-09-30) Brisson, Kevin; Hill, AlexanderOver the course of the Great Patriotic War, fought from 22 June, 1941 to 9 May, 1945, there was a dramatic transformation in the way the Red Army conducted battle. From an army on the cusp of annihilation to one that quickly recovered to vanquish the invading forces of Nazi Germany, this resurgence can be traced in part to its mastery of operational art. Moreover, the ever-increasing series of strategic victories which eventually led to Nazi Germany’s final defeat, beginning in late 1942, revealed the importance that offensive doctrine held for the Red Army leaders. The guiding principles which formed the basis of operational art were proscribed within many of the Red Army’s prewar and wartime theoretical writings, many of which coalesced unto the pages of several Red Army field manuals. However, for the purposes of this thesis, focus shall be assigned to the 1936 Provisional Field Regulations as the primary source for what the author shall later identify as the ten principles of Soviet operational art. The first chapter will be devoted to explaining how the author utilized various sources in the examination of this subject. In addition to English-language sources, Russian and German primary and secondary materials were extensively consulted. As part of this literature review, comments regarding both the value and shortcomings of these works will be made to show why they were used and to what degree they proved helpful. The second chapter will seek to discuss all ten principles of Soviet operational art. This will begin by identifying where in the manual these principles are located and how they were supposed to be applied in the context of tactical and operational offensives. This will be followed by a brief look at how each was conceptually developed. A broader understanding of the nature of these principles will require an examination of their respective roles in the planning and conduct of tactical deep battle and operations in depth. The third major section of this thesis will assess the importance of the aforementioned principles by examining their roles in two major operations. These are: (1) the Smolensk Counter Offensive Operation, 21 July to 7 August, 1941 and (2) Operation Uranus, 19-23 November, 1942. The Smolensk Counterstroke was chosen to demonstrate operational failure when most of the ten principles of operational art were absent. Conversely, Uranus will be to show success when all are present. Following this shall be the fourth chapter, which will offer a comparative discussion on the differences and similarities in German and Russian military doctrines as expressed by their respective field manuals, namely the 1933 Truppenführung and the 1936 Soviet Polevyye Ustav. Lastly, the fifth and final chapter will offer a summary conclusion that will address the question of why the German army failed to win the war, even when abiding by a military doctrine similar to that practiced by the Red Army. This will involve a comparative assessment of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin’s abilities as military leaders and their understanding of operational art.
- ItemOpen AccessThebe ya Sechaba: A History of the Botswana Defence Force, c. 1977-2007(2021-01-11) Mocheregwa, Bafumiki; Stapleton, Timothy J.; Chastko, Paul A.; Apentiik, Caesar Roland; Hill, Alexander; Huebert, Robert N.; Thomas, Charles G.The protracted liberation struggles of Southern Africa that began in the 1960s, particularly in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe today) eventually prompted the Botswana government to establish its own defence force in 1977. Due to budgetary constraints and relative internal political stability, Botswana had relied on a small paramilitary force called the Police Mobile Unit (PMU) since the early 1960s for all defence – related issues. By the late 1970s, the sharp escalation of the struggle for Zimbabwe resulted in cross-border incursions by Rhodesian security forces who were pursuing armed freedom fighters. In these numerous violations of Botswana’s territorial integrity, many Batswana who lived in towns and villages adjacent to the Rhodesian border lost their lives while other were abducted, women raped, children maimed, and houses set ablaze by Rhodesian forces. This study explores the circumstances around the establishment of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in April 1977 in reaction to the Rhodesian war. This study also traces the development of the defence force into a professional military between the time it was established and the early 2000s taking into account internal and external factors that determined this evolution. Internally, the lack of funds during the BDF’s formative years meant that the government could only acquire limited equipment and manpower but the discovery of diamonds and economic stabilization beginning in the 1980s resulted in more expansive budgets and the acquisition of lethal hardware. Externally, it was regional contentions in the 1980s, mainly aggression from apartheid South Africa, that largely shaped the development of the BDF. After the end of apartheid, the BDF adopted a more aggressive expansion policy that was supported by the strong diamond – based economy of Botswana. It was in this period that the BDF started to participate in international peacekeeping operations which not only taught valuable lessons to it personnel but highlighted Botswana as a democratic country that helped restore peace and stability in fellow African nations. The decisions to professionalise its officer corps in the late 1990s and early 2000s as well as the recruitment of women into the force were important indicators of growth. These represented necessary steps that the leaders of the BDF took to mould it into a professional apolitical military.
- ItemOpen AccessTigers on the Loose: Assessing the Effectiveness of the Panzer VI “Tiger”, 1935-1945(2021-09-13) Kaine, Logan Brian; Hill, Alexander; Huebert, Robert; Bercuson, DavidFrom 1942 to 1945 the cry of Tiger! filled the hearts of Allied tank crews with dread. The Tiger, or Panzerkampfwagen (Armored Fighting Vehicle or Panzer) VI, was neigh unstoppable. The 8.8 cm gun allowed the Tiger to destroy virtually all opponents at over a kilometer. At such ranges the thick armored plates that protected the tank, 10 centimeters at their thickest rendered the tank almost impervious to enemy fire. At the same time this 56-ton vehicle was notorious for its mechanical unreliability. The transmission was a particular weakness, with a tendency to break with any kind of hard use, immobilizing the vehicle. Its legacy is a study in contrasts. It has been heralded as both a symbol of German technical prowess and of technical myopia. These contradictions are well known parts of the Tigers history. What is missing from many of these works on this vehicle is an examination of its true value to the German Army, as well as the value of its variants. Its numerous flaws and the great cost of its production meant that in spite of its often remarkable combat performance the Tiger proved to be a vehicle that the German Army would have been better off without. I will examine the development, production and combat use of the Tiger and its variants to fully demonstrate its value. Its development shows the mechanical and operational demands being made on the vehicle before it ever entered service were ignored in favor of appealing to Hitler’s flawed design sensibilities. Production indicates the difficulties in producing a mechanically complex vehicle in an economy beset by Allied bombing and an inefficient economic system, which struggled to allocate adequate men and material to its production. Finally the combat record of the vehicles, demonstrates that their often impressive combat record was insufficient to alter the outcome of many battles, to say nothing of the war itself.
- ItemOpen Access“Truly Polish in Spirit and Form”: The Communist Poles and their Battle against Nazi Germany, 1941-1945(2020-07-06) Hann, Keith; Hill, Alexander; Clark, John Denis Havey; Bercuson, David Jay; Roberts, Geoffrey; Stapleton, Timothy J.; Timm, Annette F.The armed resistance of communist Poles and the forces they organized against Nazi Germany during the Second World War—both clandestine and regular—is poorly understood in the West. Rarely examined in any depth in English, the people and events involved are instead typically folded into a historiography focused on other subjects, dominated by Cold War-era prejudices, and defined in large part by a lack of usage of or access to accurate Polish sources. The resulting oversights, simplifications, and inaccuracies have served to mask the significant military contributions of the communist Poles to the armed struggle against Nazi Germany in the period 1941 to 1945, as well as to conceal the ways in which the communists made their armed forces Polish (as opposed to Soviet and/or communist) in appearance and character. In turn, this obscures one of the foundations of communist postwar rule: the communists, who would eventually come to power in Poland and rule that country for over four decades, made a great effort to shore up their legitimacy by constantly referencing and sometimes inflating their role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Whether or not this military contribution was at times inflated, it was a significant one, made by armed forces that were to a meaningful extent “truly Polish”.