by Phil Koch

Canadian Military History (CMH) was started in 1992 by Terry Copp, a prominent military historian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. It came into existence at a time when serious study of Canadian military history was not in vogue, but the journal helped to change that.

Now, however, CMH faces a money crunch after funding from the Department of National Defence was cut for the journal, as well as for the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies with which it is connected. Copp believes donors have helped to secure the journal’s future until 2015.

In addition to putting out the journal, the centre also publishes battlefield tour guidebooks, puts on an annual military history colloquium, organizes battlefield study tours, and runs lecture series. Its current priority is to digitize its archives, an extensive collection of documents, maps, photos, films, and other materials.

It’s also pushing for new journal subscribers and donors. New subscribers will receive a free copy of The Canadian Battlefields in Italy: Ortona and the Liri Valley by Eric McGeer and Matt Symes. The book contains never-seen-before historical and aerial photos of the Ortona campaign, which is often referred to as Canada’s Stalingrad.