The Regiment

by Farley Mowat, Lee Windsor (Introduction)

The story of an astonishing band of Canadian soldiers and their part in the Allied victory in Italy, told by Farley Mowat, a legendary Canadian writer and a member of the regiment.

The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment (the Hasty Ps) was Canada’s most decorated regiment in the Second World War, winning thirty-one battle honours. Famed for their role in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the conquest of Italy, for six years the members of the regiment suffered brutal conditions, fighting bravely in the face of fierce opposition from the enemy, and ultimately triumphing.

In The Regiment (originally published in 1955), Farley Mowat, famed Canadian fiction writer and regiment member, tells the story of the Hasty Ps, from their recruitment in September 1939 until the end of the war. Mowat was a second lieutenant and platoon leader with the regiment, and writes movingly of the great suffering his fellow soldiers endured, their bravery in battle, and the lasting friendships he forged as a member of the group.

Dundurn is very pleased to be making The Regiment, long out of print, once again available.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Canada, World War II, Historical, Canadian Literature

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Farley McGill Mowat was a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.

Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.

Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visited it to assist its mission.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

'These men- these comrades-to whom I owe so much'. And don't we all.

With what great love and respect Mowat relates the men that served this regiment both before and during the war.

'Peace is a good thing, and yet it is a bitter truth that peace does not live long in our times. During the decades after the Armistice of 1918, there were few men who recognised this truth. Hating war with a depth of understanding born of a bloody experience, these men alone were not deluded. Knowing was for what it was-foresaw the day when they, their sons and grandsons too perhaps, must need do out again to battle that unborn generations might survive.'

I am not surprised that this book is required reading on military reading lists. Military books are not my usual genre and this slowed me down but Mowat's obvious love and respect of those he served with and his eloquence as a writer shone through.

This is not a book I would read in entirety again but portions of it at least should be reading material in school to remind us all of those who bravely gave for those of us who came after.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had previously been impressed with Farley Mowat's account of his WWII service, "And No Birds Sang" which ended on a devastating anti-war note. This one is his non-fiction book about the service of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment to which he belonged for about six long years. It covers the rest of the war after the end of "And No Birds Sang," which was one of the things that I was curious about after reading the other book. Both books gave me quite an education into Canadian WWII infantry service, something I really didn't know about before reading Mowat's book and one general Canadian history book.

For some reason, the heroic service of the Canadians in both WWI and WWII has been overlooked, at least in the U.S. memory of the war (where I have done my history training). For instance, I hadn't known that most of top WWI "Flying Aces" were Canadian, or that infantrymen in The Regiment served about 1.5 years of continuous battlefield combat. My spouse told me that the Americans learned from the soul-crushing experience of the Canadians to rotate men off the front every 90 days. Eighteen months for Mowat's Regiment versus 1.5 months for Americans. Yikes. If you read this book, you'll see it was even worse than you can imagine, but that for much of the war the men managed to create a "home" for themselves in their camaraderie anyway.

There are many very moving parts of this book, and at times his writing had me choked up or swearing at what the men went through. On the other hand, it felt that maybe at times the material was so personal and painful for him, that he had to detach himself and write in a strictly non-fiction manner. This isn't the book to read if you want an overall WWII perspective, as it is truly focused on the Canadians' experience (almost entirely in Italy) rather than looking at the European war in general. I definitely recommend it to people interested in WWII history, especially if you haven't read one from the Canadian perspective before.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read "The Dog who Wouldn't Be" two years earlier as an 8 eight-year and became an instant Mowat fan. "The Regiment" was the second adult's book by Mowat that I had ever read and the first war history that I ever read. In this category I may never have read anything better. It brilliantly captures the experience of being a frightened teenager on the field of battle. It also illustrates how war is viewed from the perspective of the grunt. Although a very fine book, it is arguably only for Canadians.

[John M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read and especially interesting if you have ties to Prince Edward County. Had to stop constantly to look up the names of towns in Italy to understand how the Regiment moved around.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very different book from Mowat's others, part military history and part nostalgic memoir although the author hardly appears at all in this narrative of the regiment in which he served for six years. the bulk of the book recounts Mowat's Canadian regiment's campaigns and battles in Italy over three years as it fought across Sicily and up the Italian Peninsula from the tip of the toe to north of Ravenna.

[Craig Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as we travelled through Italy, which was wholly appropriate given that's where it's set. This is an invaluable book: Mowat combines his story-telling gift with his first-person experiences in Italy during the Second World War and delivers a potent memoir and record of Canadian service in that theatre.

[Donna Herrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A harrowing tale of World War II

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am glad I came across this book.

[John C Currie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read

This is a very eloquent and personal history by Farley Mowat of his time with the Hasty P’s. Very thoughtful and moving.

[LauraJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i should have stopped reading with 60 pages left. save my heart from that tragedy.

[Drew Branson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the last Farley Mowat books I hadn't read yet. An excellent description of what it was like in the Italian campaign of WW2.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough if you're into this sort of thing and has a few high points, but on the whole this book lacks the Mowat spark