- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada (Oct 12 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679312935
- ISBN-13: 978-0679312932
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #15,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Praise for The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle:
“Off is a smooth and powerful writer, delivering a mixture of descriptive passages, contextual background and editorial argument which collectively produce a provocative page-turner.”
—The Globe and Mail
“Off is a smooth and powerful writer, delivering a mixture of descriptive passages, contextual background and editorial argument which collectively produce a provocative page-turner.”
—The Globe and Mail
Book Description
In 1993, Canadian peacekeepers in Croatia were plunged into the most significant fighting Canada had seen since the Korean War. Their extraordinary heroism was covered up and forgotten. The ghosts of that battlefield have haunted them ever since.
Canadian peacekeepers in Medak Pocket, Croatia, found no peace to keep in September 1993. They engaged the forces of ethnic cleansing in a deadly firefight and drove them from the area under United Nations protection. The soldiers should have returned home as heroes. Instead, they arrived under a cloud of suspicion and silence.
In Medak Pocket, members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry did exactly the job they were trained — and ordered — to do. When attacked by the Croat army they returned fire and fought back valiantly to protect Serbian civilians and to save the UN mandate in Croatia. Then they confronted the horrors of the offensive’s aftermath — the annihilation by the Croat army of Serbian villages. The Canadians searched for survivors. There were none.
The soldiers came home haunted by these atrocities, but in the wake of the Somalia affair, Canada had no time for soldiers’ stories of the horrific compromises of battle — the peacekeepers were silenced. In time, the dark secrets of Medak’s horrors drove many of these soldiers to despair, to homelessness and even suicide.
Award-winning journalist Carol Off brings to life this decisive battle of the Canadian Forces. The Ghosts of Medak Pocket is the complete and untold story.
Canadian peacekeepers in Medak Pocket, Croatia, found no peace to keep in September 1993. They engaged the forces of ethnic cleansing in a deadly firefight and drove them from the area under United Nations protection. The soldiers should have returned home as heroes. Instead, they arrived under a cloud of suspicion and silence.
In Medak Pocket, members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry did exactly the job they were trained — and ordered — to do. When attacked by the Croat army they returned fire and fought back valiantly to protect Serbian civilians and to save the UN mandate in Croatia. Then they confronted the horrors of the offensive’s aftermath — the annihilation by the Croat army of Serbian villages. The Canadians searched for survivors. There were none.
The soldiers came home haunted by these atrocities, but in the wake of the Somalia affair, Canada had no time for soldiers’ stories of the horrific compromises of battle — the peacekeepers were silenced. In time, the dark secrets of Medak’s horrors drove many of these soldiers to despair, to homelessness and even suicide.
Award-winning journalist Carol Off brings to life this decisive battle of the Canadian Forces. The Ghosts of Medak Pocket is the complete and untold story.
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Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Accurate, but only scratches the surface,
By Rich Mills (Halifax, NS Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada's Secret War (Hardcover)
I was there. For years I wasn't believed when I spoke of what happened, even when I had photographs to back me up, so I stopped talking about it. Only my family and a few friends believed me at the tme, and I think it was mostly because I wasn't the same person who left for Croatia in April 1993. This book should be read by anybody who thinks peacekeeping is a warm and fuzzy, Sesame Street-type exercise. There is a reason why the soldiers who take part in these operations don't refer to it as peacekeeping but call it military operations other than war, or MOOTWA for short. We did what many couldn't or wouldn't do.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ghosts of Medak Pocket,
By Ken Krueger (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada's Secret War (Hardcover)
Well researched and presented, Carol Off meticuloulsy navigates thru the complex history of the region to set the stage for the arrival of the Canadian "peace keepers" in 1992. It is high time that the story finally be told of how the Princess Patrica's Canadian Light Infantry(PPCLI)unit gallantly tried to seperate the Serb & Croatian combatants in an unsuccessfull attempt to protect Serb civilians within the hellish medak pocket, from Croat premeditated, ethnic cleansing. The book is balanced in that it shows that there is enough blame to be spread around to both sides of the greater conflict. One can have nothing but the deepest admiration for the members of the PPCLI (involved in this campaign)and sadness and shame at their disrespectful & contemptuous treatment at the hands of their senior military brass and the Canadian Goverment upon arriving back home.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
NOT WHAT I EXPECTED,
By fejesmg (Gatineau, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada's Secret War (Hardcover)
I have to say that while I really liked the Lion, the Fox and the Eagle, this book falls a little short of what I was hoping for. Carol Off does a really good job in setting up the parameters of the book and what the Canadian Soldiers were getting themselves into but loses her momentum very shortly after. A large part of her references seem to come from the same 4-5 people and even then, instead of writting a paragraph about their thoughts, she just simply inserts a one sentance quote that leave you wondering what else that person had to say. She also referes to the reservists (who apparently were was an issue of concern for a number of people on the tour) but then does not provide any detail about their performance overseas. Her book did provide a lot of information about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and the shorfalls that the Canadian Military has to overcome that can be applied to current missions.
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