Canadian Army Reading List- 11+ Years Of Suggestions and Ideas

[Danjanou]

Major I think these are the books you‘re looking for. (I read them as a kid too and this sounds about right)

I found both available at this web site.

http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm

Volume 1 Woodshed Books is located in Ogdensburg, NY USA

Volume 2 Augustine Funnell Books Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada.

Both available for $6.95 USD each +S&H)

 

[Gunnar]

I‘m looking for a book about the second world war, which is composed of snippets written down about people‘s experiences. I don‘t remember the name, or the editor, but I do know he did a similar one on the Great Depression called "10 Years Gone".

The war book is really good, as it is composed of snippets of 1 paragraph to 2.5 pages, written by people in the trenches, back home...wherever Canadians were at the time. It should be required reading for any serious history class in Canada. Before I skimmed it, I had never heard of Zombies.

Now the question: Does anyone know the author or the name of the book?

 

[Danjanou]

The book you‘re looking for is Six War Years by Barry Broadfoot, who also wrote Ten Lost Years about the depression and IIRC another one dealing with the settling of the west at the turn of the century.

Pretty good read and a nice compliment to "dryer official histories."

 

[Franko]

SIX WAR YEARS....best book that shows the everyday life of a soldier. Read it 3 times cover to cover.

Regards

 

[Gryphon]

there‘s also a book from Reader‘s Digest called WWII, The People‘s Story....

Nigel Fountain, General Editor

 

[jimbunting]

Gentelmen:

I offer a few other tomes about Canadians in World War Two, from my shelves, here at home, in Toronto.

In no particular order.....................

The D Day Dodgers< by Daniel G Dancocks.

Rheinland. by Brigadier General Denis Whittaker, who was the Rileys Co in Northwest Europe, 44/45.

Tin Hats, Oilskins, and Sea Boots. by Latham B Jenson. RCNVR officer on RCN‘s small ships, on the Atlantic convoy runs. Great stories, and hand made pencil drawings of the life aboard the corvettes.

The Corvette Navy. by James B Lamb. Attacking a surfaced U-boat with empty coke bottles, cause the deck guns couldn‘t depress enough, as the sub surfaced only 30 feet off the starboard side of the corvette he was on. He went over the side, swam to the sub and along with a bosun, attempted to "take her as a prize".

Terror in the Starboard Seat. By Dave MvIntosh a RCAF misquitto navigator, who admits he was "terrified" on every trip. Direct and truthfull and full of great word-pictures of his experiences in the air.

Maple Leaf Against The Axis. by David J Bercusson.

Tug Of War, by Denis Whittaker. The Canadians in Belgium and Holland.

And finally, Blackburn‘s trilogy about the gunners. The last one is the very best, called "Where The **** Are The Guns?" A FOO who had the best point of view, as he called the "shots".

Jim Bunting. Toronto.

 

[East Side Soprano]

"Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer
"Soldat" by Siegfried Knappe
"Panzer Commander" by Hans von Luck
"Bloody Combat" by ...
and pretty much anything by Stephen Ambrose (R.I.P.)

 

[East Side Soprano]

I‘m looking for some fiction material of the CF, preferably about the modern day/recent CF. Can anybody recommend any titles?

 

[mattoigta]

Legion Magazine put out a book called True Canadian War Stories; it‘s an anthology of true war stories people have sent in over the past 60 years to Legion Magazine.

 

[Danjanou]

Great lists there guys. So when are we going to see reviews on them here?

Just kidding. Although reviews would be nice and it‘s not like book reports in school honest.

 

[Danjanou]

To be honest I haven‘t come across a lot of modern stuff. There are historical novels set in WWI, WWII and earlier though.

Two that comes to mind are Victory and The Killing Ground which both deal with a hypothetical Canada-Quebec civil war. of the two I‘d say the first is the better.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Do you guys remember First Clash that was also used as a training manual as well?

 

[East Side Soprano]

Thanks for the help, can you give me the author names of those books? I‘m having a hard time finding them on Amazon.com

 

[wright.rj]

Here are a couple of fiction novels about the CF: Both by Gordon Barr. 1. "The Devon Affair", it‘s based at Alert and the Soviets attack. 2. "Death Lost - Death Found", it‘s about two CDN‘s who find an atomic bomb in an Ontario lake which was lost in the fifties.

They were both a good, easy reads. Hope this helps.

 

[Gryphon]

A good book, Tho it‘s not totally CF fiction, but there is elements of a hypothetical annexation of Canada by the US, and the Canadians kick the us *** is called Exxoneration..

it‘s quite a good read..

 

[Danjanou]

Ex Dragoon I‘d forgotten about First Clash which was a fairly good read about 4CMBG holding off a Soviet MRD during a hypothetical WWIII.

I even have a copy of it, after it was originally released as a training pam, the ok was given to publish it as a novel. I don‘t believe it sold well and I grabbed my copy in a bargain bin at Coles I think.

There was supposed to be a whole series and I think the sequel was actually done. It was supposed to be a Mech Brigade in the assualt. I remember the fictional armoured regiment (1CTR) was equipped with "Lion Tanks" with 120mm. Wishful thinking on the authors part.

The funny thing about First Clash for anyone who was actually in 4CMBG is where the battles take place. This is supposed to be the opening 24-48 hours of the war and the Canadian are thrown in to cover the withdrawal of US and Germany divisions.

However look at the maps where the battles take place. They‘re actually training areas around the CFBE Baden which was on the Rhine. So what they‘re implying is that in 48 hrs the Soviets would have been able to overrun almost all of West Germany, not good. On Reforger 1980 we held "them" off for a couple of weeks in the Hoff Corridor south of the Fulda Gap, until the US reinforcements arrived

Exxoneration is not one of my favourites. nothing against General Rohmer but it was a great read for me as as a teenager before joining (it came out in the early 1970‘s) but now the "Battle of Pearson Airport" is highly unrealistic.

I‘m sorry but last time I checked the 4 Infantry reserve units In Toronto never had full strength TOW platoons like in the book which they use to take out waves of Hercs and Starlifters full of Green Berets. Again wishful thinking.

Franko thanks for the heads up on the other books. I‘ll keep my eye out for them.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Rohmer is sooooooooo boring...

 

[Gryphon]

Okay, yes... it is quite unrealistic in today‘s terms, but i thought it was "CF FICTION"

and Ex-Dragoon.. i could name you others that are more boring then Rohmer

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Its not CF fiction (Canada is not even mentioned at all) but James H Cobb has a few good books starting with Chooser of the Slain.

 

[Danjanou]

Ex Dragoon tell me about it.

Shortly after I arrived in Toronto and joined the TSR, the RCMP "O" Division decided to shut down their HQ building on Jarvis St in Toronto (it‘s a hotel now). Before they did the Sgt‘s Mess there decided to have a formal mess dinner.

They sent out invites to Toronto‘s regular and reserve CF units and as my RSM couldn‘t make it he gave it to me.

Great dinner, catered in the main dining room and fantastic hospitality. As soon as I and other Snr NCOs arrived we were met at the bar my our Mountie host who made sure we never touched our wallets all night.

Any ways for the after dinner speaker they had Rohmer. Unfortunately they hadn‘t had a lot of formal dinners and got the sequence a little mixed up. After the dinner there should have been the port and toasts and then a quick bathroom break before coffee, cigars, and the speakers including Rohmer.

No break, and after almost an hour of cocktails and several bottles of wine some of us were squirming in our seats. I was sitting as far away from the head table as you could get with a bunch of RCMP Drug Squad Sgts (should have seen them try to squeeze into their Scarletts). Anyway they solved the imminent problem with a few empty wine bottles.

Can‘t remember what Rohmer spoke about. It probably was interseting, but my mind was preoccupied and I do remeber he did talk for almost an hour.

:warstory: