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Through Blood and Sweat: A Remembrance Trek Across Sicily’s World War II Battlegrounds
As the author of 18 previous military books, historian Mark Zuehlke was one of a small contingent of marchers in a 300-kilometre trek in 2013 through Sicily in the footsteps of Canadian soldiers who were there in WW II.
They walked between 15 and 35 kilometres each day, usually along winding country roads, in order to reach the outskirts of a small town or village. Often they walked under a searing sun, with Mount Etna in the distance.
That adventure with his wife Frances Backhouse sparked Zuehlke's contemplation of war and remembrance for Through Blood and Sweat: A Remembrance Trek Across Sicily's World War II Battlegrounds (D&M $36.95).
Filmmaker Max Fraser also undertook the Sicilian trek to mark the 70th anniversary of Sicily's liberation in order to make his documentary, Bond of Strangers.
The marchers were repeatedly greeted by hundreds of cheering and applauding Sicilians.
In front of each community's war memorial, a service of remembrance for both the Canadian and Sicilian war dead was conducted.
Each day brought the marchers closer to their final destination-the Agira Canadian War Cemetery, where 490 of the 562 Canadian soldiers who fell during the course of Operation Husky in 1943 are buried.
Operation Husky was the code name for the successful 1943 invasion of Sicily.
978-1-77162-009-3
They walked between 15 and 35 kilometres each day, usually along winding country roads, in order to reach the outskirts of a small town or village. Often they walked under a searing sun, with Mount Etna in the distance.
That adventure with his wife Frances Backhouse sparked Zuehlke's contemplation of war and remembrance for Through Blood and Sweat: A Remembrance Trek Across Sicily's World War II Battlegrounds (D&M $36.95).
Filmmaker Max Fraser also undertook the Sicilian trek to mark the 70th anniversary of Sicily's liberation in order to make his documentary, Bond of Strangers.
The marchers were repeatedly greeted by hundreds of cheering and applauding Sicilians.
In front of each community's war memorial, a service of remembrance for both the Canadian and Sicilian war dead was conducted.
Each day brought the marchers closer to their final destination-the Agira Canadian War Cemetery, where 490 of the 562 Canadian soldiers who fell during the course of Operation Husky in 1943 are buried.
Operation Husky was the code name for the successful 1943 invasion of Sicily.
978-1-77162-009-3
Submitted on March 1, 2016 in By David.
