The Story

During WWII, the Brits started an organization that they planned to use to sabotage the Nazis behind enemy lines, and to help support and grow the French resistance. This was a secret organization, and the best of the best worked there – whether under cover in the field, or in administrative positions, or even teaching those who would go out in the field.

Two of the soldiers who were sent to France were Canadians, Ken Macalister and Frank Pickersgill. Unlikely Soldiers is their story.

The Review

Okay. So, I first heard about this book in the London Free Press in autumn of 2008, and knew I wanted to read it. Less than a month later, there was a series of posts up at The Savvy Reader (Remembering Remembrance Day, The Least We Can Do to Remember and Recognizing the Silence of Sacrifice) that convinced me I absolutely must read it… and it had been sitting on my TBR list ever since. (Goodness, don’t you hate it when that happens??)

Finally, its call to me could no longer be quieted and I was in desperate need of reading it. And oh my goodness!! I am so so so happy I didn’t put this off any longer!

The first thing I noticed about this book when I finally did pick it up was how readable it was – and how not-dry it was. It was extremely informative, and yet it was also exciting and oh-so-interesting! It told some of the stories about WWII that I didn’t know about previously. Like how when the Nazi’s took over part of France, and people who were not citizens of France had to go to prison, while regular French citizens didn’t necessarily have to. Or even the whole story about the SOE, which I hadn’t realized even existed.

One of the things that amazed me the most about both Ken Macalister and Frank Pickersgill was how parallel their lives were before even meeting. Both of their fathers fought in WWI, both were just born when their fathers went off to war, both studied at U of T, both studied in France, both weren’t able to enlist into the regular army (one due to bad eyesight, the other due to partial deafness)… and the way that Vance wrote the book made the parallels even more obvious (a chapter on growing up, a chapter of education, a chapter on their time in France, etc.).

A good portion of the second half of the book got me really super annoyed. I couldn’t understand (and this is no fault of Vance’s, but non-understanding at the situation) why the people heading the SOE wouldn’t believe that the SOE had been infiltrated, that their under-cover soldiers were captured and in custody of the Germans. If they had all these security measures in place, and these security measures were obviously not being followed by those communicating with SOE headquarters, why didn’t they see that their field offices had been compromised? Was it wishful thinking that just maybe all of their field officers had forgotten their true security codes? Was it carelessness? Was it denial? Because, due to this overlooking of missing security codes, they sent in numerous additional men and women to their deathes, and they provided the Nazis with weapons, and they weren’t able to help the French resistance. It was … somewhat infuriating.

I am so thoroughly impressed by Vance after reading this book. You can tell that he took the writing of this book and the subject matter so very seriously. It does nothing but honour the memories of Ken Macalister and Frank Pickersgill, and what they did during WWII to fight against the Nazi occupation of a country they had both grown to know and love after they had left Canada. Vance reminds his readers how real the people who fought and died in this war were, makes them real to us through the exploration of who they were. And even though we know how things are going to end, it is still so horrible and heartbreaking to read about how events unfold.

There was only one thing that I didn’t like about how this book was written. The book is split into two parts – everything up to the point where the two men join the SOE is in the first part, and the second part contains everything afterwards. The first part focuses on Macalister and Pickersgill when they are growing up, going to school, traveling to Europe, and so there’s a lot of time to get to know the two men. And the second part spent more time telling logistics about the SOE and logistics of the concentration camps and whatnot, and it seemed at times like what happened to Macalister and Pickersgill was a side story. I can understand why this happened – obviously, it’s important for the reader to have the background on what is going on. There’s also the fact that most of the people the two men spent their time with in France were killed as well, so we wouldn’t necessarily have an in depth report of what the two men did or said during that period of time. But I really would have liked to get to know these two men more.

The Bottom Line

Okay. So obviously this is going to be a tear jerker… but it’s an amazing read. Informative, interesting and heartbreaking. It helps you get to know two of the people who fought and died in WWII. And I highly highly HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is a Canadian and/or interested in learning more about the Second World War.

Other Reviews

Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.