THE SHAME AND THE GLORY

In 1066 the Normans sailed from Dieppe to conquer old England and create the new. In 1942 another invasion force came back from there in a ""strategic move"" to feel out the German defenses. This force was Canadian in origin and five thousand strong; nine hours after it reached the pebbled beaches of this dreary little French resort, nearly a thousand of them were dead and twice that many were prisoners. Was it a necessary step toward D-Day, or a grisly blunder? Of the men mainly responsible, Lord Mountbatten has said, ""I would do it again;"" General Montgomery has said, ""We could have gotten the information and experience we needed without losing so many magnificent Canadian soldiers;"" and the Canadian commander, Major-General Roberts, has silently accepted the role of scapegoat. In this stirringly written and impressively researched volume, he has stripped ""the facts of embellishment"", placed them in perspective, and relieved General Roberts of ""ill-informed...criticism"". He has done much, much more; The Shame and The Glory is a memorable documentary and a moving exposition of the horror and futility of war.