In The Ypres Salient: The Story of a Fortnight’s Canadian Fighting: Uniform Legends

This short book by historian and journalist Henry Beckles Willson is a fellow soldier’s tribute to the Canadians who fought in World War I at the Battle of Mont Sorrel in 1916. Willson was a senior officer with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Mount Sorrel, which lasted nearly two weeks and exceeded 8,000 Canadian casualties. After losing the first two phases of the battle, the Canadians achieved victory in the final operation, as careful planning and concentrated artillery bombardments had begun to tip the battlefield balance in favor of attackers over entrenched defenders. After the armistice in 1919, Willson became Town Major of Ypres to oversee the rebuilding of the town’s ruins. The newest in the Uniform Legends series, In the Ypres Salient is classic military writing at its best.