The Guns of Victory: A Soldier's Eye View, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, 1944-45 Paperback - 1997

“It is exciting when the second volume of a great memoir continues and deepens the experiences of the first one. This is so with…The Guns of Victory – now a companion to last year’s triumph, The Guns of Normandy.”
–Douglas Fisher, columnist

“This…volume, continuing Blackburn’s story from the clearing of the Channel ports through the Scheldt and Rhineland battles to V-E Day, is a stunning successor [to The Guns of Normany].…This epic should be a part of every Canadian’s consciousness.”
–J.L. Granatstein, Quill & Quire

“…an outstanding historical balance in which the human element of warfare is much more prominent than in purely operational accounts.”
–Lee A. Windsor, Vanguard

“A riveting narrative worthy of a novelist.”
–David Evans, Edmonton Journal

“The narrative is enthralling.…The personal experience, quiet integrity and unstated courage of the author make his work so much more authentic and deeply felt than any academic historian…could hope to emulate.”
–Peter Buitenhuis, Vancouver Sun

“Blackburn’s scope is immense, his writing fast-paced and gritty.…This is a riveting good read.”
–Paul Jackson, Calgary Sun

“The Guns of Victory is a bittersweet, exhilarating account of some of the darkest days in human history.…Blackburn writes well, lacing his narrative with anecdotes and word pictures that are vivid, telling and lasting. This is history first-hand, perhaps the best kind there is.”
–John Melady, Globe and Mail

“The Guns of Victory… rings with utter authenticity.”
–S.F. Wise, Ottawa Citizen

“The Guns of Victory shows how young Canadians liberated a people and captured their hearts forever.…[It] and The Guns of Normandy are now part of our national heritage, a beacon for future generations of Canadians.”
–Tom Clark, National Editor, BBS-TV

“Blackburn’s work reads like a fine novel – gripping, tense – but its strength is in the stark realism. He was there.”
–H. Clifford Chadderton, Chairman, National Council of Veteran Associations

“The Guns of Victory adds immeasurably to the understanding of what went on at the ordinary front-line soldier’s level.…The book ranks with Robert Graves’s First World War account in Good-by to All That.”
–David Green, Regina Leader-Post


From the Hardcover edition.

George C. Blackburn, M.C., was born in 1917 in a farmhouse near the village of Wales, which disappeared under the waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway. He has been a newspaper reporter, Director of Information of the Federal Labour Department, and Director of Fair Employment Practices. In addition he has been a radio producer, an award-winning documentary scriptwriter, an award-winning playwright, and a lyricist and composer. His musical "A Day to Remember" was housed in a theatre built specially for the purpose in Upper Canada Village. He and Grace, his wife of fifty-seven years, have three children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

George Blackburn earned his Military Cross helping to save the Twente Canaal bridgehead in Holland.

From the Hardcover edition.