A
detailed account of Canada's involvement in D-Day. This is a piece of
Canadian history that I think everyone should be more aware of. Having
visited the Juno Beach Centre in France (where I picked up this book) I
have developed a greater appreciation of the sacrifice of the young
Canadian men in the push to liberate France from the Nazis. I also have a
more vivid understanding of the horror and human cost of war.
Sometimes the details were overwhelming, trying to keep all the various military terms and troops sorted out in this large work, but Mark Zuehlke was also able to weave in many individual stories and incidents to keep the material interesting. I was proud of Canada when I finished the book, not because I glory in war, but because what the Canadian troops accomplished that day was astounding, and yet is little known in public memory. I learned, for example, that even though the Canadian troops were last to land, and faced the most fierce resistance (other than what the American troops faced at Omaha beach), the Canadian troops pushed the furthest inland. The Canadian troops were the first to accomplish one of the military objectives set forth that day, in spite of huge losses of soldiers on the Juno Beach.
Looking back on our recent European trip, I wish I had read this book before visiting the Juno Beach Centre, and I wished we had had more time to spend there. Thanks to this book, Juno Beach is more than a vague idea of something that happened in World War II, and for that I am grateful.
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