Meeting of Generals

Ross Willmot is Executive Director of the Ontario Association for
Continuing Education.

Kurt Meyer, one of the two World War II generals here portrayed, commanded the German Youth Division which fought seasoned Canadian and British troops to a standstill in the drive to Berlin from the Normandy beachhead. In command of the opposing Canadians — 43 of whom were killed by the Germans — was Major-General Harry Foster, the father of the author of this fascinating book.

Using new family and official information, Foster examines the terrible effects of this war through his well-told biographies of these two generals. Their different moral and political ideologies clashed and produced many victims on both sides.

Major-General Kurt Meyer was charged as a war criminal although no evidence was produced he had ordered any killings, and his military court martial was presided over by Major-General Foster. Meyer was sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Canada but he was later freed amid great controversy to spend his last few years in Germany. Canadian Army generals recognized he was no more guilty of war crimes than they were.

An experienced writer of best sellers, Tony Foster has given life to official accounts by tracing the lives of these two wartime enemies in parallel fashion. His own background as a combat pilot and writer has enabled him to explain much military information in layman’s terms. The book is by no means a whitewash of either general.