Alex Souchen

University of Guelph | UOGuelph · Department of History

War Junk reveals the complex political, economic, social, and environmental legacies of munitions disposal in Canada. During the Second World War, Canadian factories produced mountains of munitions and supplies, including some 800 ships, 16,000 aircraft, 800,000 vehicles, and over 4.6 billion rounds of ammunition and artillery shells. Although they...

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol26/iss2/3/ This article examines Canada’s ammunition dumping program in the mid-1940s and pays special attention to the practical and technical dilemmas that influenced policy making and implementation. A pressing logistical crisis followed the end of the Second World War as crowded armaments depots ran out of storag...

When hostilities ended in 1945, the large arsenals of chemical weapons manufactured during the Second World War posed a major disposal problem. To eliminate leftover stockpiles, the Allies dumped them at sea. This article examines the disposal of Canada’s surplus mustard gas, which was packed into Landing Ship Tank (LST) 3521 and scuttled in the At...

This article examines how the Canadian state disposed of surplus munitions and supplies after World War II. It makes three related arguments. First, mass production during the war created a post-war disposal crisis that compelled the government to regulate the divestment of assets for political and economic purposes. Second, through a government-ru...

When the First World War ended in November 1918, the British military was overwhelmed by logistical problems involving the disposal of leftover munitions piling up across the Western Front. To expedite disarmament, the British started dumping all manner of bombs, bullets, and chemical weapons into the seas surrounding Europe. On the surface, dumpin...

Canada is often seen as a peaceful country with a modest military and a small defence industrial base, but its military-industrial complex is deeply embedded in the fabric of the country. Silent Partners reveals its origins and influence. During the Cold War, Canada’s military, industrial, and political partnerships developed in silent ways, behin...

Archival research is an important starting point for scientific studies on underwater munitions, but marine scientists have voiced concerns and criticism over the completeness, validity, and reliability of historical records. However, labelling primary sources as ‘incomplete’ demonstrates that scientists have largely misunderstood how and why archi...

Marine scientists and other experts depend on information found in archival documents and other historical records to investigate underwater munitions. These sources help them locate dumpsites, establish timelines, identify ordnance, and better understand the hazards, chemicals, and degradation products found in their studies. However, historical s...

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol30/iss1/1/ Allied victory during the Battle of Normandy is often attributed to operational and strategic factors, but the high-level focus on command and combat effectiveness obscures the infantry’s lived experiences. Although combat was their primary purpose, soldiers killed time as often as they killed Germans. Thi...

In November and December 2016, local residents around St. Mary’s Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, noticed something alarming: thousands of dead fish were washing up along the coast. Scientists from the Canadian government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans investigated, but the cause remains a mystery. This research note excogitates a potential cause: d...

This article explores the collective impact of information sharing, social interaction, and cultural expression on the morale of Canadian soldiers in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division during the Battle of Normandy in France during World War II. It finds that battalion newspapers played an important role in supporting unit morale in three ways. Fir...