WWII General H.D.G. Crerar Press Release Photos

WWII General H.D.G. Crerar Press Release Photos - Black and white photographs, gloss finished, three featuring Crerar presenting awards to soldiers, the other illustrates Crerar seated with a bureaucrat delivering a speech to his left and an older gentleman to the far left, three of the four photos are stamped "Please credit CANADIAN ARMY PHOTO PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE M.D. 7 FILE No. H." on the reverse, 203 mm x 252 mm, extremely fine. Footnote: Henry Duncan Graham "Harry" Crerar CH, CB, DSO, KStJ, CD, PC (April 28, 1888 – April 1, 1965) was a Canadian general and the country's "leading field commander" in World War II. A complex and ambitious leader, Crerar built and led the Army from a force that had been largely forgotten in the interwar years. Not known as a skilled field commander, where he relied heavily on his staff and subordinate commanders, he knew how to weigh into bureaucratic battles. A veteran of both world wars, his planning in 1941 led to the First Canadian Army, comprised of five divisions and two armoured brigades. He urged the sending of troops to Hong Kong in 1941 and deployed Canadians to Dieppe in 1942. Both ended in disaster, but neither decision affected his career. Many times his relations with high-ranking leaders were strained to the breaking point. During the bloody Rhineland battles of 1945, he led an army of 350,000 men, the largest force ever to serve under a Canadian general.