Living History Chronicles

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom and The History of Fort St. Joseph, and the co-author of
Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American

Gwilym Jones persuaded members of Toronto’s Royal Canadian Legion
Branch 258 to join him in describing their most memorable experiences
from World War II and the Korean War. The 33 included men and women who
were veterans of the Canadian, British, and Polish armed forces (armies,
navies, and air forces). Each entry begins with a biography; most end
with two pictures, one of the individual at the time of the conflict,
another of the individual today.

Military history certainly ought to include personal reminiscences from
foot soldiers,

paratroopers, sailors, entertainers, and the participating
noncelebrities. Jack Cotter, a veteran of the Korean War, says that when
he returned to Canada, successive governments ignored him and his
buddies. For 40 years, Ottawa dismissed the conflict as a mere “police
action” rather than a war. When the government of Canada did change
its mind, it simply mailed the military service medals to the troops.
There was no ceremony. Ralph E. Fisher says that when he returned from
Korea, the local Member of Parliament had left the place where he was
supposed to have taken the salute before the soldiers could reach it.

There are stories of terror and suspense in this book as the authors
tried to jump with parachutes from aircraft, patrol the seas, flee or
avoid POW camps, liberate Italy and the Netherlands, occupy Germany, and
cope with food shortages. There are touching stories of interactions
with the civilian population, British and German, along with some humor.
One soldier heading for the Normandy beaches complained that the blanket
issued to him was insufficient given the cold weather. The reply was,
“It’s not to keep you warm—it’s to bury you in.” After World
War II, a veteran of the German Navy moved to Toronto and lived near one
of the Canadian sailors. His wife Inge remembered the time when the
Royal Air Force dropped leaflets at the supposedly camouflaged territory
around the Kiel naval base: “Why don’t you move those wooden cows
around once in a while?”

May there be many more books like this one while the World War II and
Korean War veterans remain able to tell their stories! Recommended for
all public library military collections.