Heard Amid The Guns

"Carmichael captures the anguish and the wonder of war in flashes of colour, humour, and gems of human detail mined from letters, diaries, interviews, [and] her own family history." —Halifax Chronicle Herald A rich and varied tapestry of the First World War, highlighting the personal stories of over 150 men and women from across North America who served overseas. After receiving a bundle of worn letters written by her late grandfather George “Black Jack” Vowel during the First World War, journalist Jacqueline Carmichael became fascinated with the daily realities and personal stories of those who had lived through that pivotal and harrowing period in history. Reaching beyond the battlefield descriptions found in most history books, Carmichael presents unforgettable accounts filled with drama, hope, and heartbreak culled from journals and letters of Allied soldiers and nurses. From tales of men “shot at dawn” under charges of desertion or cowardice, to women cross-dressing to get into battle, to a Canadian Member of Parliament whose PTSD-induced death was barely acknowledged by Ottawa for nearly a century, Heard Amid the Guns reflects the human face of war. Featuring profiles of people from every Canadian province and many American states, including soldiers of Indigenous, Asian, Indo-Canadian, and African-Canadian and -American backgrounds, this book is a touching tribute illustrated throughout by WWI-era photos, postcards, documents, and the author’s contemporary photos from battlefield sites and monuments.

Scarce Heard Amid the Guns tears the curtain of myth away, providing a rare, visceral inner perspective of the various Canadian peacekeeping missions. “In the Service of Peace” — simple words that adorn the obverse of every United Nations medal, yet behind this eloquence lurks violence and an unheralded heroism invisible to an often misunderstood quarter of Canada’s military history. The Canadian contribution to peacekeeping is enormous but ensnared in a lethal mythology that has seen it abandoned to popular folklore. From the early and intrinsic Canadian contribution to the U.N. Emergency Force in 1956, through the blur of the frenetic 1990s down to the anemic level of contemporary Canadian participation, it is difficult to make sense of the wide circumference of this significant legacy. Until now. Scarce Heard Amid the Guns provides an incisive perspective on the various Canadian missions: their omnipresent doubt and un-telegraphed terrors. This insider’s guided tour of our military at war in peace introduces us to some of the men and women who carried the day — ordinary Canadians who did extraordinary things and continue to bear the scars of forgotten fields in their bones.

Scarce Heard Amid the Guns tears the curtain of myth away, providing a rare, visceral inner perspective of the various Canadian peacekeeping missions. ''In the Service of Peace'' - simple words that adorn the obverse of every United Nations medal, yet behind this eloquence lurks violence and an unheralded heroism invisible to an often misunderstood quarter of Canada's military history. The Canadian contribution to peacekeeping is enormous but ensnared in a lethal mythology that has seen it abandoned to popular folklore. From the early and intrinsic Canadian contribution to the U.N. Emergency Force in 1956, through the blur of the frenetic 1990s down to the anemic level of contemporary Canadian participation, it is difficult to make sense of the wide circumference of this significant legacy. Until now. Scarce Heard Amid the Guns provides an incisive perspective on the various Canadian missions: their omnipresent doubt and un-telegraphed terrors. This insider's guided tour of our military at war in peace introduces us to some of the men and women who carried the day - ordinary Canadians who did extraordinary things and continue to bear the scars of forgotten fields in their bones.

From 1914 to 1920, thousands of men who had immigrated to Canada from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire were unjustly imprisoned as “enemy aliens,” some with their families. Many communities in Canada where internees originated do not know these stories of Ukrainians, Germans, Bulgarians, Croatians, Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, Alevi Kurds, Armenians, Ottoman Turks, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Serbians, Slovaks, and Slovenes, amongst others. While most internees were Ukrainians, almost all were civilians. The Stories Were Not Told presents this largely unrecognized event through photography, cultural theory, and personal testimony, including stories told at last by internees and their descendants. Semchuk describes how lives and society have been shaped by acts of legislated discrimination and how to move toward greater reconciliation, remembrance, and healing. This is necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the cross-cultural and intergenerational consequences of Canada’s first national internment operations.

For eighteen months during the Second World War, the Canadian military interned 1,145 prisoners of war in Red Rock, Ontario (about 100 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay). Camp R interned friend and foe alike: Nazis, anti-Nazis, Jews, soldiers, merchant seamen, and refugees whom Britain feared might comprise Hitler’s rumoured “fifth column” of alien enemies residing within the Commonwealth. For the first time and in riveting detail, the author illuminates the conditions in one of Canada’s forgotten POW camps. Backed by interviews and meticulous archival research, Zimmermann fleshes out this rich history in an accessible, lively manner. The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior will captivate military and political historians as well as non-specialists interested in the history of POWs and internment in Canada.

"The Great War in Verse and Prose" offers a profound reflection on the harrowing experiences of World War I. This compilation, with its evocative poetry and compelling prose, serves as a poignant testament to the indomitable human spirit amidst the chaos of war. The authors' ability to capture the raw emotions and stark realities of the battlefield immerses readers in the tumultuous era, making this work an invaluable historical and literary resource.

"In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems" by John McCrae. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.