2012: Dieppe and Eastern Front

The History Graduate Students' Union is pleased to announce, "1942: Seventy Years On", the third annual public lecture in our New Perspectives on the Second World War series. This year's lecture commemorates the Canadian raid on Dieppe, and the German Army’s attempts to cross the Caucasus in the fall of 1942.

For the Canadian army, 1942 was a long year of preparation punctuated by grim debacle. Tim Balzer of the University of Victoria will present, "Selling Disaster: Mountbatten, the Canadian Army, and the Dieppe Raid News", examining the struggle between Combined Operations Headquarters and the Canadian Army over the publication of Dieppe news. Balzer specializes in the history of Canadian Military public relations and news management during the Second World War and is the author of The Information Front: the Canadian Army and War News Management during the Second World War.

Scholars have called the immense battles of 1942, “the death of the Wehrmacht”. In his lecture, “Plan Edelweiss: A Contest of Follies on the Eastern Front”, Alex Statiev will analyze the German Army's attempt to reach the critical Baku oil fields in Azerbaijan. The German Army displayed tactical brilliance coupled with dismal strategy, while the Red Army blundered in the initial stages of the attack, yet eventually won strategic victory at great cost. Statiev is the author of The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands (2010), and is associate professor at the University of Waterloo.

The lectures were held at The Military Museums of Calgary (4520 Crowchild Trail Southwest) on Thursday the 6th of December, 2012. 

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Timothy Balzer specializes in the history of Canadian Military public relations and news management during the Second World War. He is currently an instructor for the University of Victoria and The Royal Military College of Canada. He is the author of The Information Front: the Canadian Army and War News Management During the Second World War and the article "'In Case the Raid is Unsuccessful'... Selling Dieppe to Canadians." Canadian Historical Review (2006)

Alexander Statiev is the author of The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands (2010) and a number of articles that examine the Romanian armed forces, penal and blocking units in the Red Army, Soviet deportations, Russian war mythology and pro- and anti-Soviet resistance during World War II. He is associate professor at the University of Waterloo.