Unlikely Soldiers
How Two Canadians Fought the Secret War Against Nazi Occupation
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On Sale:
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04/09/2009
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Formats:
Trade paperback | Hardback
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Published to rave reviews, this is the never-before-told story of two brilliant young Canadians who became unlikely soldiers. Ken Macalister was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Frank Pickersgill was a doctoral student in classics at l’Université de Paris. Together, they volunteered for the British SOE and soon found themselves being trained to kill. On June 15, 1943, with false identities, they parachuted into the Rhone Valley, but there were double agents within the Resistance; too soon Macalister and Pickersgill were captured, tortured and put on a train for Germany.
Vance has written a brilliant, heartbreaking book about heroism, betrayal and sacrifice, capturing the promise of a generation of young men who went to their deaths for a greater cause.
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Author Extras
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Critical Praise for
Unlikely Soldiers
“ Vividly brings to life a largely forgotten story about a pair of idealistic young Canadians. . . . A compelling, highly readable account.”
— CALGARY HERALD
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“Vance achieves the personable storytelling that history buffs will know from British historians Simon Schama and Sir Martin Gilbert.”
— LONDON FREE PRESS
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“A carefully researched account that reads like a thriller.”
— THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
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“Powerfully detailed and extraordinarily moving.”
— THE GLOBE AND MAIL
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Unlikely Soldiers
When Nazi Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated in 1945, its records revealed that two young Canadians, Ken Macalister and Frank Pickersgill, were among its countless victims. At 30 and 31 years of age, they had been agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE )...
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