A Portrait of War 1939-1943

Just prior to Remembrance Day I picked up some war history books from the library, and the first one I finished was Richard S. Malone's "A Portrait of War". The book details his involvement in Canada's participation in WWII, from an interestingly personal point of view, as opposed to the normal stories told based on troop movements, military actions, and political overtones. Malone was a newspaperman, and early in the war was tapped to work on the Defense Minister's staff, and eventually was involved in nearly every major Canadian activity. The book can read a bit like an exercise in name dropping - referring to General Montgomery as "Monty", in the context of a series of interactions the author had with the General; however, Malone's presentation serves to capture a sense of the personal, and this serves to provide an enriching background to the various events.

Malone's involvement included participating in the initial efforts to move Canada from a peacetime to a war footing, planning portions of invasions, facilitating meetings and the exchange of information between Canadian, British and eventually American war offices, and arranging press operations in Sicily and Italy (which included the inauguration of the Canadian military newspaper, the Maple Leaf.

It is not a fast read, and at times can get a little laborious, but it is a well written book overall that richly recounts a perilous time in history.