On a chill Easter Monday in 1917, with a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France did what neither the British nor the French armies had been able to do in more than 2 years of fighting. They went over the top at dawn; by lunch time, most of the ridge, known as the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front--Vimy Ridge--was in their hands--at a cost of only 10,000 casualties. Vimy has become an enduring Canadian myth marking, in most minds, a turning point in Canada's relations with the world. But this book is more than just the story of a nation, it is equally the story of individual soldiers, trapped in the horrors of a senseless war and enduring almost indescribable conditions. Drawing on scores of interviews and a treasury of unpublished personal accounts, Pierre Berton has told not only what happened in the Great War but also what it was like for the youth of Canada. Some of the soldiers were only sixteen years old.
Pierre Berton, 1986
Hardcover, Very Good (some tears on the back of dust jacket, inscription of previous owner and signed by Pierre Berton)
