Bullets, Bombs, and Bayonets draws attention to a significant part of Canadian military history, a period in which almost an entire generation of young men never returned from the battlefields of Europe. In 2017 Canada commemorates the 100th year of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The triumphant conquering of Vimy by the Canadian Corps in April 1917, was considered a defining moment in Canada’s rise to nationhood. Equally significant but much less publicized was the Canadian victory at Passchendaele in the fall of 1917. It was there that more than 4,000 Canadian soldiers died, and almost 12,000 wounded. The Battle of Passchendaele will be forever remembered as a colossal slaughter in the mud of Flanders fields. Bullets, Bombs, and Bayonets acknowledges those members of the 43rd Battalion who fought and died in the Ypres Salient, in the name of freedom.

CROWNING TOUCHES OF BEREAVEMENT is focused on issues of bereavement, which is a universal experience. It is hoped that the reader will find solace, comfort and peace from identification with those whose lives have been touched by bereavement. And in so doing, their hearts will be healed.

In World War II, the U.S. Army’s 44th General Hospital found themselves at ground-zero of the Japanese counterattack on the island of Leyte. As Japanese infantry infiltrated and enemy paratroopers dropped around them, the 44th’s officers faced a life-or-death decision. With over 200 patients, the Japanese surrounding them, and no option to retreat, they had to act fast. Should they uphold their oath to “do no harm”? Or do they arm the medical staff and defend themselves and their patients? Do they risk violation of the Geneva Convention or risk death or imprisonment at the hands of the Japanese? But without authorization to obtain arms, how would they defend themselves? Could the 44th hold out until infantry support arrived? Their fate would be determined in what was called “The Battle of Buffalo Wallow”. This book tells the previously unknown and controversial story of the 44th General Hospital, experienced medical professionals who were asked to perform actions over and above their expected duties. In World War II, the Philippine island of Leyte became the stage for a key battle between the United States and Japan. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s 6th Army invaded Leyte on October 20th, 1944. Soon afterwards, the Army’s 44th General Hospital landed to care for casualties. Untrained in combat, they were sent inland to the village of Burauen, very close to the front lines of fighting. The hospital tents were set up between three airfields that were recently taken from the Japanese. But, as the U.S. infantry advanced westward, they left the 44th and other service units behind, mostly unprotected. In a desperate move, the Japanese determined to make Leyte the decisive battle they hoped would turn the tide of the War. To counter the American advance, Japanese General Yamashita devised a bold plan. The first step would be a combined infantry and paratrooper attack to retake the airfields on Leyte. Subsequently, the attack placed the 44th and their patients in great peril. Their courage and dedication would be tested in the heat of battle. After the War, the Surgeon General of the Army called the 44th “the finest that ever served.”

Malaria is not only the greatest killer of humankind, the disease has been the relentless scourge of armies throughout history. Malaria thwarted the efforts of Alexander the Great to conquer India in the fourth century BC. Malaria frustrated the ambitions of Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan to rule all Europe in the fourth and thirteenth centuries AD; and malaria stymied Napoleon Bonaparte’s plan to conquer Syria at the end of the eighteenth century. Malaria has also been the Australian Army’s continuing implacable foe in almost all its overseas deployments formation of the Australian Army in 1901. On at least three occasions malaria has halted Australian Army operations, bringing it to a standstill and threatening its defeat. The first time was in Syria in 1918, when a malaria epidemic cut a swathe through the Australian-led Desert Mounted Corps. The second time was in Papua New Guinea in 1942–43, when the Army was fighting malaria as well as the Japanese. The third time was in Vietnam in 1968, when malaria caused more casualties than did enemy action. Indeed the Australian Army has been fighting ‘an unending war’ against malaria ever since the Boer War at the end of the nineteenth century. The struggle against the disease continues 115 years later because virtually all Army’s overseas deployments are to malarious regions. Fortunately for Australian troops serving in nations where malaria is endemic, the Australian Army Malaria Institute undertakes the scientific research necessary to protect our service personnel against the disease. Ian Howie-Willis, in this very readable book, tells the dramatic story of the Army’s long and continuing struggle against malaria. It breaks new ground by showing how just one disease, malaria, is as much the serving soldier’s foe as any enemy force.

Just war theory focuses primarily on bodily harm, such as killing, maiming, and torture, while other harms are often largely overlooked. At the same time, contemporary international conflicts increasingly involve the use of unarmed tactics, employing 'softer' alternatives or supplements to kinetic power that have not been sufficiently addressed by the ethics of war or international law. Soft war tactics include cyber-warfare and economic sanctions, media warfare, and propaganda, as well as non-violent resistance as it plays out in civil disobedience, boycotts, and 'lawfare.' While the just war tradition has much to say about 'hard' war - bullets, bombs, and bayonets - it is virtually silent on the subject of 'soft' war. Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict illuminates this neglected aspect of international conflict.