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Loyal Gunners uniquely encapsulates the experience of Canadian militia gunners and their units into a single compelling narrative that centres on the artillery units of New Brunswick. The story of those units is a profoundly Canadian story: one of dedication and sacrifice in service of great guns and of Canada.
The 3rd Field Regiment (The Loyal Company), Royal Canadian Artillery, is Canada’s oldest artillery unit, dating to the founding of the Loyal Company in Saint John in 1793. Since its centennial in 1893, 3rd Field—in various permutations of medium, coastal, and anti-aircraft artillery—has formed the core of New Brunswick’s militia artillery, and it has endured into the twenty-first century as the last remaining artillery unit in the province.
This book is the first modern assessment of the development of Canadian heavy artillery in the Great War, the first look at the development of artillery in general in both world wars, and the first exploration of the development and operational deployment of anti-tank artillery in the Second World War. It also tells a universal story of survival as it chronicles the fortunes of New Brunswick militia units through the darkest days of the Cold War, when conventional armed forces were entirely out of favour. In 1950 New Brunswick had four and a half regiments of artillery; by 1970 it had one—3rd Field.
Loyal Gunners traces the rise and fall of artillery batteries in New Brunswick as the nature of modern war evolved. From the Great War to Afghanistan it provides the most comprehensive account to date of Canada’s gunners.
Lee Windsor holds the Fredrik S. Eaton Chair in Canadian Army Studies at the University of New Brunswick. He is deputy director of The Brigadier Milton Gregg VC Centre for the Study of War and Society and an associate professor in UNB’s Department of History.
|Roger Sarty, history professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, was in previous careers senior historian at the Department of National Defence and deputy director at the Canadian War Museum. His other books on the Canadian Army in the Maritimes include Saint John Fortifications (2003, with Doug Knight) and Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney Cape Breton and the Atlantic Wars (2012, with Brian Tennyson).
|Marc Milner is best known for his naval histories, including North Atlantic Run (1985), The U-Boat Hunters (1995), and Canada’s Navy: The First Century (2009). His 2003 book Battle of the Atlantic won the C.P. Stacey Prize for the best book in military history in Canada. Milner’s latest book is Stopping the Panzers: The Untold Story of D-Day (2014).
Table of Abbreviations
List of Maps
Forward: Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Strachan
Preface: Honourary Colonel J.K.F. Irving
Chapter 1: New Beginnings, 1893-1914
Chapter 2: Searching for Finding a Role at Home and Abroad, 1914-1916
Chapter 3: Building the Corps Artillery, 1915-1916
Chapter 4: War on Two Fronts, 1917
Chapter 5: 1918, The Guns of Victory
Chapter 6: The Long Armistice, 1919-1939
Chapter 7: Coast Defence 1939-1945
Chapter 8: The Long Road to War, 1939-1944
Chapter 9: Sicily and Italy: New Brunswick’s Batteries in 1st Canadian Corps
Chapter 10: Northwest Europe, 1944-1945
Chapter 11: The Hardest Fight (Cold War and Fragile Peace?)
Conclusion: Afghanistan: The Latest Test
Note on Sources