Barnard, W.T.
(1954).
A Short History of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada.
Toronto:
MacKinnon & Atkins.
At 22 pages, including the copyright page and introductory material, this short
history is very short indeed and necessarily superficial.
Printed in the form of a small pamphlet, 97 by 168 millimetres, it attempts to
cover the entire two-century story of the regiment up to the immediate post
second world war era.
The second world war is covered in just six pages.
It comes across as regimental propaganda and is much less useful as a source
of the history of the regiment than are the books by Dunkelman, Marin,
Martin, and Whitsed.
Dunkelman,
Ben.
(1976).
Dual Allegiance.
(An autobiography).
Toronto:
Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd.
The nature of Ben Dunkelman's dual allegiance stands out on the
dust cover of his book, showing a symbol, the left half of which is
the maple leaf and the right, the star of David.
His autobiography begins after his completion of high school when
his affluent parents send him on a world tour ending in Palestine
in 1931.
It carries on through his return to Canada, and eventual enlistment
in the Queen's Own Rifles as a private.
By the war's end Dunkelman was a major commanding a rifle
company.
The last half of the book deals extensively with his involvement in
the Israeli war of independence in the late forties.
It ends with his return to Toronto but with continued involvement
with Israel.
Martin, Charles Cromwell.
(1994).
Battle Diary:
From D-Day and Normandy to the Zuider Zee and VE.
Toronto:
Dundurn Press.
This book consists of a series of short vignettes arranged roughly in
chronological order written by the company sergeant-major of one of
the rifle companies of the Queen's Own Rifles, who was with the
regiment from D-Day almost to the end of the war in Europe.
He missed only the final three weeks because of wounds.
His stories clearly depict the lives of those on the front lines
and make it easier to understand why the infantry incurred
70 percent of the war's casualties.
Martin mixes accounts of combat with personal stories about himself
and the men he worked with.
His 192-page book includes some general information, on slit trenches
for example, as well as numerous photographs and six appendices.
Although not a true regimental history, Charlie Martin's book
may be as close to such a history as can be had for the Queen's
Own Rifles.
It is readable and worth reading.
Stacey, Colonel C.P.
(1960).
The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe 1944-1945.
(Official History of the Canadian Army in the
Second World War, Volume III).
Ottawa:
The Queen's Printer.
This lengthy book (770 pages), one of three providing the official
history of the Canadian forces in World War Two, begins with
the preparations for D-Day and continues through to victory
and the postwar disposition of Canadian troops in Europe.
Its considerable detail is supplemented by many fold-out maps,
figures, photographs, and also appendices including a table
of abbreviations.
Whitsed, Roy J. (ed.).
(1996).
Canadians: A Battalion at War.
(Canadians in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, 1940 to 1945).
Mississauga:
Burlington Books.
Whitsed's book consists of an organized series of materials on the second
world war mainly from veterans of the Queen's Own Rifles.
They are organized chronologically when possible and otherwise more or less
at random.
Not surprisingly, there is a lack of unity and highly variable quality among
the contributions to the book.
Some are barely coherent while others are highly informative and even amusing
at times.
A standout among the latter are a series of excerpts from the diary of the
regimental medical officer, Douglas Oatway.
The editor wisely included lengthy contributions from Oatway.