Military historian Ted Barris recounts the wartime stories of Canadians who celebrated VE Day on May 8, 1945.

On May 8, 1945 — VE Day — the Germans finally capitulated — in Holland and across Europe. Celebrations swept the Continent. For Canadians, the festivities also spilled into the streets of cities and towns back home. It was a sweet day and a bitter one for millions of people whose lives had been changed forever by nearly six years of global war.

This volume of wartime reminiscences carries the reader from the early days — when Canadians in combat and at home experienced more trials than triumphs — to the ultimate march to victory that began in Italy and Normandy, and culminated on VE and VJ Day more than a year later.

Here are the stories of countless average volunteers, some of whom became well known after the war. Among these are war correspondents Ross Munro and J.D. MacFarlane; broadcasters Marcel Ouimet and Clyde Gilmour; seamen Dave Broadfoot and Scott Young; air crew Buzz Beurling and Marion Orr; and army troops Denis Whitaker and Richard Malone — as well as homegrown entertainers such as Fred Davis, Victor Feldbrill, and comedians Wayne and Shuster.

From interviews, research, and images originally gathered by father-and-son writing team Alex and Ted Barris — bestselling author Ted Barris has broadened the contents of the initial volume to include stories of Canadian heroism in the Pacific war, accounts of Canadian war correspondents battling to beat the censors, and more first-hand impressions of the liberation of Italy, France, Belgium, Denmark — and finally Holland. Days of Victory records the voices of the generation that gave the world a second chance.

Not a soldier, but the soldier’s storyteller, not a veteran, but recognized by vets as keeper of the flame, TED BARRIS has published eighteen non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. He has worked as a broadcaster in electronic media in Canada and the US for forty years. He is a full-time journalism professor at Toronto’s Centennial College and the author of the online column the Barris Beat. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 CLA Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year. His latest book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen in the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, is a national bestseller. 

Ted Barris' profile page

For a nation rapidly losing its wartime elders, Days of Victory provides a helpful bridge between the past and future generations who will grow up with no living vets to help nourish their awareness of the sacrifices made by legions of young Canadians from 1939 to 1945.

The London Free Press

... an important contribution to our understanding of the Canadian experience of the Second World War... worth the while of any history reader.

Quill & Quire

This oral history is replete with first-hand accounts of events. It is a comprehensive survey that looks at Canada's experience of war from every conceivable angle.

Winnipeg Free Press

One could compare reading this book to browsing through an album of old photographs

Kitchener-Waterloo Record

One could compare reading this book to browsing through an album of old photographs or being in a Canadian Legion lounge on Remembrance Day, listening to the war stories of former service personnel...Sixty years after the end of the great conflict, there are fewer and fewer men and women to describe the way it was then. Thankfully, books such as this will keep those stories-- and their memories-- alive for a long time.

The Guelph Mercury