Voices of a War Remembered: An Oral History of Canadians in World War II

Sidney Allinson is the editor at the Royal Canadian Military Institute
and author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

Because these accounts were originally spoken words, they have a
particularly fresh, spontaneous impact in written form. Over the years,
radio host Bill McNeil has interviewed dozens of interesting guests on
his popular CBC program, “Fresh Air.” Among them were the 100 people
who share their World War II reminiscences in this book. They range from
the well known—such as former Ontario Lieutenant-Governor Pauline
McGibbon and TV comedians Wayne and Shuster—to less-prominent but
equally worthy participants in that war.

For the most part, this is the story of veterans of the army, navy, and
air force. (Incidentally, McNeil modestly does not speak of his own war
service; he saw front-line combat in the Cape Breton Highlanders.) He
also presents interviews with civilians, news reporters, doctors and
nurses, and people who spent the war on the home front. As an unexpected
side benefit, their accounts give a vivid social picture of the sort of
country Canada was in 1939, and throughout the following decade.
Valuable military history, presented “live” through the voices of
people who were there and know whereof they speak.