Alex Black

Awesome! It has quite the breadth in terms of subject matter.

With a slight respite in the Canada Post strike, I finally got my contributor's copy of @mike-bechthold.bsky.social's Airpower and the Normandy Campaign!

Looking forward to reading the contributions of @boneyabroad.com, @heatheratacts.bsky.social, @smoorebofb1940.bsky.social and many others!

If the Rogers Centre was closed, the roof would have blown off today.

A group of Yankees hasn’t been beaten in Canada that bad since 1812.

Don't give us ideas...

Thinking of pitching a book about US military history the thesis of which is that when America has won wars in the past it has had less to do with ‘warrior ethos’ than with some grown ups in charge who knew what they were fucking doing.

Apparently this is an urgent thesis to restate.

Shades of Red Alert! But the dolphins are on the wrong side.

snoop dogg is wearing a top hat and a bow tie and saying oh fo sho . ALT: snoop dogg is wearing a top hat and a bow tie and saying oh fo sho .

It solved much of the perimeter defence problem for France.

Not sure about this one.

It would have been a less one-sided vote, but Parliament would have carried the vote with English Canada's urging. Maybe Canada doesn't go to war united, but then it wasn't perfectly united in 1939 anyways.

My current read. The 80th anniversary of the end of the Asia-Pacific War nears. It ended in a cacophony of violence. And how it ended may not perfectly link to why it ended.

I watched The Last Rifleman last night. It was heartfelt, straightforward, personal, and handled some difficult moments well (12th SS veteran encounter).

Have you seen it? If so, what did you think?

Quick stop last week in Whitby, ON at the former site of Camp X, a #WW2 training facility for Allied agents and a comms relay station that lasted into the 1960's. There is also a bust of Sir William Stephenson and a stone commemorating the local historian who helped unearth and keep the story alive.

I'm not much of a collector, but this one caught my eye. Front and back of my new Mark II helmet, named to a Pte. Sovereign (ID disc attached to the chin strap), who served with a Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps unit at 2nd Canadian Corps.

#CanadaDay

"The job of clearing the approaches to Antwerp was given to the First Canadian Army. What Copp dubbed 'The Cinderella Army' was habituated to doing much with little and getting even less credit for its efforts. And so it would be in the Scheldt."

Seven Days in Hell.

O'Keefe's take on the holding attack angle is a bit more nuanced. The job was to threaten a German panzer division, which would attract more troops to that sector.

Either way, it was a high price to split German attention.

"... it is a central tenet of this phase of the Normandy narrative that the British were running low on infantry. But somebody's infantry had to maintain pressure south of Caen, at least until the Americans launched their attack. That task fell to the Canadians."

Result: bloody Verrieres Ridge.

And the Allies also used the press to help sell deception efforts; which the press hated for being played like chumps.

"Much of the angst over the slow pace in Normandy emanated from SHAEF itself: 100 sea-miles from the action, besieged by idle and frustrated journalists, and much less well informed than it ought to have been."

"Between their role in the deception campaign and the tenacious defence of their positions [on 7-10 June 1944]..., the Canadians had defeated the threat of a Panzer counterattack in the opening phases of Overlord. ... [T]hey changed the course of history."

Venting frustration:

Apparently the strain between Canada and the USA right now is all in my head. And Everything will go back to the way it was after Trump is gone.

Also, I am told a monument is only a good monument if it has a realistic-looking Canadian soldier featured. Vimy stinks I guess?

@balloons2drones.bsky.social – 9 years on. Thanks go to those who have supported the site, especially @brianlaslie.bsky.social, Mike Hankins, @alexfitzblack.bsky.social, @luketruxal.bsky.social, @spitfirefilly.bsky.social, @mariaeb.bsky.social, drrossmahoney.wordpress.com/2025/06/16/f...

🗓️ #OnThisDay 6 June 1944: Operation Overlord, the invasion of France, begins. In S5, @alexfitzblack.bsky.social of the Juno Beach Centre 🇨🇦 rages against the idea that this was the largest invasion in history.

Listen now at: pod.fo/e/161258
#OTD #OnThisDate #History #Podcast #WWII

"No British politician, official or military officer who had to deal with Canadians in the early 20th century ever found them tame, humble, or lacking in independence."

D'Este's main complaint is that Monty changed the plan and then lied about it and said what he did was the plan all along. Big whoop.

I'm only about 15% into the book, so Monty hasn't shown up yet. Interested to see how he handles him for myself.

That review is somewhat infuriating. If you came for a full Normandy narrative that includes Stalin and De Gaulle, you've come to (obviously) the wrong place. It's in the title.

He definitely calls out some takes, especially by American historians, on British actions.

His Canadian shows through and he is retired now but Marc is hardly bad-tempered. ;)

It is!