In This Sign

Sidney Allinson is Canadian news correspondent for Britain’s The Army
Quarterly and Defence. He is the author of The Bantams: The Untold Story
of World War I, Jeremy Kane, and Kruger’s Gold: A Novel of the
Anglo-Boer War.

Army chaplains are seldom even mentioned these days, much less written
about in novels. So this book by retired Lieutenant Colonel. the
Reverend Lyman R. Coleman is intriguing. No doubt aware of reader
unfamiliarity, the author sets the scene himself. “While many
characters in this novel are fictitious, the events and circumstances
are real. During World War II, 465 Protestant chaplains served in the
Canadian Armed Forces; nine of these were killed in action and many
others were wounded—several taken as prisoners of war.”

Coleman uses the historical-fiction approach to tell the story of a
military “padre” during World War II. He writes with admirable
directness, and has a good ear for authentic Ottawa Valley speech
patterns among the soldiers in his unit. The main protagonist is a newly
ordained Anglican priest who volunteers for overseas service with his
local regiment, and who encounters much demand for both his religious
guidance and his practical help.

As the troops change from raw volunteers to trained soldiers, their
initial enthusiasm for tackling the enemy is gradually worn down by the
tedium of years of boring garrison in England. The chaplain meets an
English village vicar who, pleasantly enough, has a toothsome daughter.

The tone gets grimmer when the chaplain’s regiment is shipped to
Italy and endures months of bloody combat on the way to the Battle of
Ortona. Through it all, the novel conveys a thoughtful message about the
need for some form of spiritual belief to sustain soldiers during the
horrors of combat.