Fields of Fire

"Full of new material, this is a provocative and challenging interpretation by a master of Canada's military history." -- J.L. Granatstein, author of Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace

This new edition of Copp’s best-selling, award-winning history includes a new introduction that reflects on the genesis of the book and its impact on our understanding of the Second World War.

With Fields of Fire, Terry Copp challenges the conventional view that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a “failure” – that the allies won only through the use of brute force, and that the Canadian soldiers and commanding officers were essentially incompetent.  His detailed and impeccably researched analysis of what actually happened on the battlefield portrays a flexible, innovative army that made a major, and successful, contribution to the defeat of the German forces in just seventy-six days.

Challenging both existing interpretations of the campaign and current approaches to military history, Copp examines the Battle of Normandy, tracking the soldiers over the battlefield terrain and providing an account of each operation carried out by the Canadian army. In so doing, he illustrates the valour, skill, and commitment of the Allied citizen-soldier in the face of a well-entrenched and well-equipped enemy army.

This new edition of Copp’s best-selling, award-winning history includes a new introduction that examines the strategic background of the Battle of Normandy.