Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army & the Scheldt Estuary Campaign

Kyt · Sep 24, 2008

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Canada’s role in the Second World War is greatly under-appreciated.

We played an integral part in D-Day, fighting the Germans in France, Italy and in Germany right up until the end of conflict. However since the majority of the literature written about the war has been penned by either American or British writers, our role has been downplayed. Mark Zuehlke is trying to change that.

The author was recently nominated for the 2008 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for his military history non-fiction novel Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign which chronicles the First Canadian Army’s battle in Belgian and Dutch territory from Sept. 13 to Nov. 6, 1944.

Zuehlke has written numerous books about Canada’s involvement in the war and said he hopes to educate Canadians about our actual role.

“It’s sort of re-dressing the wrong,” said Zuehlke.

“What became apparent to me while reading, before I set out on this, was one of the things that’s always bothered me about World War II history is that it’s always been written by the British or the Americans. And if you look at any book, say things like the D-Day campaign we’re not even there, literally we’re like a footnote. And in reality there were five beaches and Canada took one of them. We were the furthest inland that day of anyone, we suffered the second highest casualties on that day.”

Some of his other Canadian military history books include Holding Juno: Canada’s Heroic Defence of the D-Day Beaches, The Gothic Line: Canada’s Month of Hell in World War II Italy and Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle which all chronicle Canada’s part in the Second World War.

Each book is a labour of love for Zuehlke, who draws from the Library Archives of Canada and the Directorate of Heritage and History, Department of National Defence. Terrible Victory which features a fragmented battle over numerous areas, was a challenge for him to piece together in a linear fashion.

“This was the hardest book to write for me,” he said.

“For this book, for example my research files were if you took four of those legal boxes, that’s the amount of files I used. About 5,000 pages of material, so a lot of that’s archival stuff to sort through.”

Zuehlke also draws from first-hand interviews with the veterans themselves, plus material gathered at the University of Victoria library. But it’s not just about war reporting and retelling. Zuehlke is fascinated by the generation who went through the Second World War and lived to shape our nation as it is today.

“When you look at the veterans the war was the most vital thing that happened to them, and it left a huge psychological impression on them. And I think in order to understand them you have to understand the experience that they went through. To bring their story to modern readers because that was the generation that fundamentally changed this nation.”

He’s written so many books on Canada’s involvement in the war that they’re being packaged as a group, the Canadian Battles Series. He’s got another book coming out this fall titled Husky: Canada and the Sicily Campaign which follows the 1st Canadian Infantry Division as part of the Allied invasion of Sicily from July to August 1944.

Zuehlke has tentatively made plans to finish out Canada’s entire involvement in the war, which would mean 12 books in total – he’s currently working on a book about the the liberation of the Netherlands which took place roughly between 1944-1945.

Aside from the military history books Zuehlke has also penned three Elias McCann Mystery novels (aside from a host of other books on numerous topics such as British Remittance men in the Canadian West and B.C. and Alberta Fact Books). There’s a fourth book in the mystery series Zuehlke has finished which has yet to be published, which delves into the life of McCann, a reclusive community coroner in Tofino, B.C. who is a far cry from your typical TV typecast detective hero.

“I had written a book on the British Remittance men,” he said. “I really enjoyed these guys so I started wondering what would happen if you had a Remittance man in modern times. So Tofino would be the obvious choice because Remittance men always go to the corner of the earth.”

The Butler Book Prize will be announced on Oct. 15. For more information about Zuehlke and his books go online to Zühlke - empowering ideas.
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Amazon.com: Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944: Mark Zuehlke: Books

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Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army & the Scheldt Estuary Campaign

Kyt Άρης

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