Tom Douglas (2)

When I first started to read D-Day, Canadian Heroes of the Famous World War II Invasion, by Tom Douglas, I realized that I was not going to glean much in the way of new information from its pages. Having read about this topic for decades, that was hardly surprising and was about what I expected, BUT, this book was not written for the likes of me. It is instead, a compact, well researched history of the June 6th, 1944 invasion, focusing on Canada’s contribution to the battle. Douglas begins show more the story with just enough background history to further whet the appetite of his readers.

Those who have not spent a lot of time delving into military history and especially younger people, will find this an informative cache of information, covering everything from the original planning stages to biographies of the military leaders involved in planning and carrying out the invasion.

A nice addition is the last two sections of the book – a glossary of military terms and a mini encyclopaedia of the weapons used.

I would recommend this book to anyone seeking knowledge about D-Day beyond what they may have seen in the movies or heard during Remembrance Day services. I would especially suggest it to teachers who are about to broach the subject with their younger charges who may in fact know very little about the war or Canada’s military history. It will leave them more informed and more importantly, a bit more proud of their country’s participation in forming the world they live in today.

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This is a quick read of about 135 pages that describes the adventures of Canadian soldiers who ended up in France as members of the Special Operations Executive. The first chapter covers how Frank Pickersgill could have had a safe and important government job in Ottawa during the war but instead chose to drop into occupied France as an Allied agent. In their rush to get agents into France, his handlers made several mistakes leading to Pickersgill's quick arrest, torture and eventual show more execution by the Gestapo.

The other chapters mainly cover the activities of agents Lucien Dumais, Raymond LaBrosse and Gaby Chartrand who organized Resistant cells that sabotaged German infrastructure and rescued down Allied fliers. show less

I READ THIS not for its literary skills but to hear about the vets. I think the writer did the best he could. it's a hard topic. if you write about 1 person you can make it more interesting.

A collection of brief biographies of every Canadian Recipient of the Victoria Cross in WW II. Several biographies are accompanied by a photo. this would be a good introduction to the subject and iit does contain a brief bibliography which would assist the reader in finding more information on these men. Excellent introduction for young readers.