They Were so Young
Montrealers Remember World War II
- Publisher
- Vehicule Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2002
- Category
- World War II
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781550651676
- Publish Date
- Oct 2002
- List Price
- $18.00
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Out of print
This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.
Description
After visiting her cousin's grave in the Canadian military cemetery at Bretteville-sur-Laize in Normandy, Patricia Burns returned to Montreal with a determination to record the stories of veterans of World War II. These stories of young men and women who served in the army, navy and air force illustrate the raw courage, youthful bravado, and sacrifice needed to defeat a powerful enemy. Some served on the home front; others, who returned from the theatre of war, were never the same again.Moving accounts from family members of veterans'sons, daughters, wives and siblings?reveal the price they also paid in this most horrible war. We meet a young bride who spent her first three wedding anniversaries alone while her husband languished in the POW camp, Stalag Luft III, and took part in the doomed escape which was made into the movie, The Great Escape; a ship's stoker who feared not being able to escape a torpedo attack which would mean either instant death or a horrible death by scalding; the daring pilot who became a priest after the war; a young woman who joined the air force and realized that its motto, "We Serve That Men May Fly" really meant "We Serve That Men May Die"; a nurse who unknowingly skied in a minefield in Italy, and a soldier's account of the Dieppe raid of August 19, 1942?"the costliest day in Canada's military history.
About the author
Patricia Burnsis the author of The Shamrock and the Shield: An Oral History of the Irish and They Were so Young: Montrealers Remember WWII. She lives in Montreal.