More Battlefields of Canada

Olaf Uwe Janzen is an associate professor of history at Sir Wilfred
Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

This is a sequel to Fryer’s Battlefields of Canada (1986). Each of its
18 chapters examines a separate “battlefield” that figured in
Canadian history between the early 17th century (the conflict in Acadia
between La Tour and d’Aulnay) and the 20th century (the Battle for
Hong Kong, 1941). Some chapters, like the one on d’Iberville in Hudson
Bay and Newfoundland, examine campaigns rather than battlefields. Most
are found in Canada; a few, like Paardeberg and Hong Kong, took place in
foreign locations and are included because Canadians fought there or
because the battle is supposed to have some significance to Canadian
history. There are illustrations, including maps, and by and large the
narrative flows in an entertaining style.

However, style is not enough. Factual inaccuracies abound, in some
chapters more than in others. Moreover, the book suffers from an
uncertainty of purpose. If it was conceived as a sort of battlefield
guidebook, it seems poorly suited for this purpose. The sketch maps lack
crucial details, such as contours, while the battlefield visitor will
find no assistance in locating interpretation centres, visitor
facilities, park hours, and so on as one might expect in a visitors’
site guide.

The book does a poor job of delivering on its jacket-blurb promise to
begin each chapter “by setting the context of the battle in terms of
the larger struggle of which it was a part.” Thus, we are never told
that King William’s War (the War of the League of Augsburg) was more
than a conflict between New France and New England. Finally, the
significance of the battles and campaigns to Canadian history is rarely
defined or explained.

In short, this is a book with an ambiguous mission and of questionable
accuracy. Those interested in the battles and campaigns described
therein should go elsewhere.