Highland light infantry of Canada, 1940-1944

This thesis is a study of the Canadian infantry battalion, the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, in the first five months of the campaign to liberate northwest Europe. The purpose of this paper is to establish a careful record of the unit’s campaign as a way of addressing the critical statements made by C.P. Stacey, the Official Historian of the Canadian Army in the Second World War and other military historians, on the leadership and performance of Canadian military units in northwest Europe. Throughout the campaign the battalion under study demonstrated a pattern of careful planning, high courage and skill in combat. Although this paper cannot address the overall questions raised by Stacey and others, it does argue that it is impossible to substitute their generally negative view on the basis of the record of the Highland Light Infantry