Slow March to a Regiment

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

It is now more than a half-century since the outbreak of World War II,
and just as the conflict has all but faded from the public memory, all
the more is it alive in the thoughts of those who fought. Alexander
Ross, an English professor at the University of Guelph, served in his
youth with the artillery in the 5th Canadian Armoured Division. As a
junior officer, he fought in Italy and the Netherlands, and his memory,
based on his letters, remains clear and true. This book, really the
account of his entire life to 1945, details his youth, his girl friends
in Canada, and—discreetly—his hell-raising abroad. There is little
overt heroism here but more of enduring the hardships that befell
Canadians in heavy fighting. This is a useful contribution to the
still-limited record of Canada’s part in World War II.