South Albertas: A Canadian Regiment at War

J.L. Granatstein, distinguished research professor emeritus of history
at York University, is the author of Who Killed Canadian History?, and
co-author of The Canadian 100: The 100 Most Influential Canadians of the
20th Century and the Dictionary of Canad

Regimental histories in Canada have tended to be formulaic. Everyone was
brave, all commanders were loved by their men, and although casualties
occurred, the regiment always gave more than it got. Lately, the
approach is changing. Daniel Dancocks and David Bercuson, for example,
have written full and frank accounts of the Calgary Highlanders in the
two world wars, and this trend is much sounder historically. To this
list we can now add Donald Graves.

His regimental history of the South Alberta Regiment, an armoured unit
in World War II, is one of the best of the new genre. There are massive
research into records and many interviews; superb photos and
illustrations, most never before published; and some superb charts. The
prose is good too, and Graves tells the story of the regiment from its
coming together in Alberta through its training in Canada and England,
and its first initiation to battle in Normandy. Indeed, the SARs were
the cork in the bottle at Falaise, where 4th Canadian Armoured Division
had the task of stopping two German armies trying to flee encirclement.
The Falaise struggle, where SAR squadron commander David Currie won a
Victoria Cross, gets the space it deserves in an account that adds to
our understanding of a critical point in the war. The rest of the
regiment’s actions in Northwest Europe are similarly covered well, and
the book concludes briefly with the postwar history of the unit.

This is a fine book that avoids the flaws of past regimental histories
and deserves a wide readership.