Black Yesterdays: The Argylls' 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 Canadi

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada was a Hamilton, Ontario,
militia battalion that went to war to fight its country’s battles in
World War II. The long years of waiting and training culminated in the
battle for the Falaise Gap, where the Argylls formed a large part of the
blocking force that produced the destruction of an entire German army.
How the regiment got to that point, and how it survived the casualties
of mid-August 1944, is the focus of this splendid, oversized regimental
history.

Robert Fraser is a trained historian, and it shows. His decision not to
write a standard account but instead to use the unit war diaries as the
basis of his story and to interweave interviews, letters home, and
photographs has resulted in what is likely the best overall view of a
Canadian regiment that we have. We see the officers and men trying to
reassure the folks at home. We watch marriages break up as soldiers, far
from home and too long away from their wives, find companionship. And we
observe frightened and lonely reinforcements join the unit and (if they
survive) become caught up in its protecting, warm embrace. The idea of
the regiment as extended family comes clearly through. Families pull
together in tough times, of course, and the Argylls had their hard
months of war. The war diary account of casualties is usually terse, but
the letters of officers and family members convey the horror and shock
all too vividly.

Black Yesterdays deserves a much larger readership than regimental
histories usually attract.