Campbell set the bar at its highest in researching and writing this engaging book, making it easily one of the best CEF unit histories ever produced.
Andrew B. Godefroy, CD, PhD, author of For Freedom and Honour and Great War Commands Lieutenant R. O. Spreckley, a veteran and historian of the 19th Battalion, warned in the mid-1930s ... Read morethat he could not write an 'intimate' regimental history without knowing what the 'boys did, thought, felt, smelt, and endured' during the war. He was forced to abandon the history. It has taken eighty years, but David Campbell has picked up the torch to write a rigorously scholarly and eminently readable history of the 19th Battalion. He captures the strain and struggle of a battalion at war, linking it to the wider war effort but always reminding the reader of the crucial role of individual Canadians on the Western Front and behind the lines. It Can't Last Forever is essential reading for those interested in the Canadian Corps and the Canadian soldiers who delivered victory in the many hard-fought battles and campaigns of the Great War.
Tim Cook, C.M., Canadian War Museum David Campbell writes compellingly of the 19th Battalion at war, putting its story within a broad political and military context while never forgetting the soldier's view on the blood-stained ground. In 1969 Herb Fearman, a decorated officer in the 19th Battalion, was dismayed when a new history of the Canadian Corps omitted his proud regiment. Fearman's unit suffered 60 percent casualties among its 5,000 men and he wanted his battalion understood in terms of both its service and its sacrifice; now, almost 50 years later, Campbell has fulfilled his wish and done so in brilliant fashion.
Robert L. Fraser, University of Toronto ...a tragic and beautiful book.
Holly Doan
Blacklock's Reporter, 20171201 Show Less