Saturday, June 13, 2015

Books re Combined Operations

Land of Plenty: A History of the Comox District

Published by Ptarmigan Press, Campbell River 1987

The Comox district is rich in British and Canadian military history and this book reveals some of it in very good detail, going back to early Royal Navy interests and establishments in the 19th century and progressing to Royal Canadian Navy interests during WW2 (re Combined Operations) and to the present day.

Royal Navy sailors at The Spit: Courtesy of the Courtenay Museum

The book reveals early purposes of the combined operations camp, how the activities outgrew allotted space in Courtenay and eventually moved, in part, a short distance down the road and river to Goose Spit in Comox, where Navy operations base was known as Givenchy III beginning in October 1943.



Rare photo of landing craft in Canadian waters

Activities ranged from practicing some basic routines (new ratings or soldiers learning seamanship skills in Navy cutters) to highly organized assault landings incorporating large numbers of landing craft, some manufactured in the area.




Combined Ops training, Courtenay BC, Jan. 1944: Courtesy of National Film Board 

I tracked down this book after reading online articles that provided information from it about Combined Operations activities that took place in Canada. I leafed through it while doing research in Comox, British Columbia and bought it via AbeBooks website. That being said, the online articles are a rich resource, less expensive and easier to obtain.

Please link to the online articles about Comox Valley military history, including those specifically related to Combined Operations, as they appeared in the Comox Valley Record in 2013:

ISSUU May 28, 2013

ISSUU May 30, 2013

ISSUU June 06, 2013

ISSUU June 13, 2013

Link to more Books re Combined Operations

Photos GH

No comments:

Post a Comment