John Melady

This is a very readable account of Canada's contribution to the Korean War. 516 Canadians died serving in the Canadian Forces of which 312 were killed in the fighting. Using interviews and government sources, Melady gives us the personal toll of fighting that war. One interesting subject he covers is the M.A.S.H. units that were made famous by the TV series. According to medical personnel who were there, they were nothing like the TV series.
Melady interviewed several Canadians who spent part of the war in North Korean prisoner of war camps. One of them was a Canadian pilot who was accidentally shot down by one of his own men.
Many soldiers remember the poverty of the Korean civilians and some who have returned to modern Korea, could hardly believe the change they saw. One veteran said that it almost seemed to have made fighting the war worth the cost.… (plus d'informations)

This the second book by Melady that I have read in the past month. He uses the same method in both of briefly presenting the historical background and then interviewing people who were involved as well as searching out primary sources such as letters, memoirs and government documents and adding their content where appropriate. For this book about Germans who were incarcerated in prisoner of war camps in Canada during the Second World War, he interviewed former prisoners and guards as well as people who lived near the camps. This technique gives this reader a book he cannot put down. Melady has chapters on prisoners who escaped including an entire chapter on the "The One Who Got Away", Franz von Werra, the only German POW to get back to Germany to fight again. He covers the controversial killing of two prisoners during one escape and the murders inside the camps by members of the Gestapo and hard line Nazis of other prisoners who were opposed to the war and the Nazi leadership.
From the interviews with the escapees it would appear that most of them never really expected or wanted to get back to Germany. They just wanted to feel free again and fully expected to be caught eventually and seemed to in some cases, to set themselves up to be recaptured. Many POW's enjoyed their forced stay in Canada and emigrated back to Canada after the war.
This is a very readable introduction to a piece of Canadian history about which many Canadians are unaware. In fact, a chance encounter with a man painting the guard rails beside the highway led Melady to research the subject and write this book.… (plus d'informations)