Get Tough, Stay Tough

[David Filsell]

Kenneth Radley, Shaping the Canadian Corps 1914-1918,

Get Tough Stay Tough is, the fourth in the excellent Wolverhampton University Military Studies series The book has already been nominated for the prestigious Templar Medal instituted in 1981 presented each year an author who has made significant contribution to Commonwealth Military History. Radley is an established author of books on the American Civil war and writer of the only published history of a Canadian Great War Division. Having served with The Queens Own Rifles of Canada, he is a graduate of Canadian Command and Staff College who retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Whilst the locus of this work is the Canadian army, its relevance to those interested in the armies of Britain and the rest of the Empire is equally undeniable. The fabric of the book is the author’s experience drawn from his knowledge and experience of soldiers and as a soldier. This is firmly buttressed by extensive research from an extremely wide range of well know, and well regarded, British works about the Great W - from Aldington to Baynes and Behrend and from Travers to Simkins and Wyrall, as well as Canadian and British official records, military text books and leaflets and personal accounts.

What emerges is a fascinating, detailed and rounded picture of the making of a soldier during the Great War, of military discipline and crime and its punishment, the concepts and realities of morale and espirt de corps and the differences between officers and men and their relations in training and at war. Like Gordon Corrigan’s writing, Radley’s reveals and benefits from the author’s experience as a soldier, a dimension now rare amongst those writing about war. This and Radley’s failure to employ a retrospectoscope to examine, judge and explain what was and what occurred in the war produces a well focussed text supported by extensive deployment of the contemporary accounts and opinions. All underline the author’s belief that tough training, fair discipline (and harsh Kings Regulation punishment) shared confidence between officers and men, sound logistics and concern about welfare were the bricks which trained, developed war winning skills, confidence and esprit in the Canadian, British other and Empire men and formations

Unlike Chris Pugsley, who has expressed the view strongly that it was the Canadian Corps’ which forced the pace of strategic development and military success of the ‘British’ army in Flanders this author makes no such claims. He merely shows what was done and how it ensured the excellence of its army. (Nevertheless, in so doing, Radley is unable to avoid taking heretical an enjoyable sideswipe at Australian discipline, particularly out of the line, and comparing it badly that of other Imperial and Empire troops.

This extremely well documented book, its content, quality of production, and price, make it essential reading for anyone who claims to take the study of the Great Wars, the structure and management of the armies raised in Britain and the Empire - its men and officers alike - seriously. It seems to me that Kenneth Radley’s new work meets the Templar Medal criteria perfectly. Get Tough Stay Tough is a highly significant contribution to Commonwealth military history. It would be difficult to offer greater praise.