The role of Canadian universities in selecting and training officers for the armed forces is an important yet overlooked chapter in the history of higher education in Canada. For more than fifty years, the University of Toronto supported the largest and most active contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps (COTC), which sent thousands of officer candidates into the regular and reserve forces. Based on the rich fund of documents housed in the university archives, Varsity’s Soldiers offers the first full-length history of military training in Toronto. Beginning with the formation of a student rifle company in 1861, and focusing on the story of the COTC from 1914 to 1968, author Eric McGeer seeks to enlarge appreciation of the university’s remarkable contribution to the defence of Canada, the place of military education in an academic setting, and the experience of the students who embodied the ideal of service to alma mater and to country.

Praise for THE VARSITY from Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation: "Lee Brown has discovered and written about an important and fascinating aspect of the Greatest Generation. Many veterans went to war by dropping out of school and enlisting under age. When they came home determined to resume their education they were older and viewed by some educators as troublesome. As Lee shows us, these vets enriched their schools, communities and it's time they get our appreciation." Synopsis: World War II was the most lethal event in human history, which explains why its history is so often explored in film and literature. THE VARSITY, however, deals with one of its least known narratives: the contributions of America's underage warriors. Today, it is estimated one-hundred thousand adolescents, ages 12 to 16, forfeited the sweetness of their youth to combat the ruthless ambitions of the Axis powers. The novel's two main characters, Bruce Harrison and Manny da Silva, leave high school to enlist underage illegally. Entering the kill zones, they face not only the terror of mortal combat but severe penalties should their true ages be discovered, to meet these challenges they adopt the core values of a warrior's ethic: soldiering on. At war's end, Bruce and Manny return to their former high school only to face new conflicts from a hostile PTA, jealous seniors, and insensitive teachers. To avoid the banalities of senior year hi jinx, the two GIs become co-captains of a perennially losing varsity squad and show them how to become a championship team. THE VARSITY is more than just another war story as it explores love beyond romance, touches upon shell shock, and asks if there are any core military values with application in peace time. Lastly, it has been meticulously researched for historical accuracy, and its characters represent amalgams of genuine underage veterans of World War II interviewed by the author.

In this viscerally exciting account, a paratrooper-turned-historian reveals the details of World War II’s largest airborne operation—one that dropped 17,000 Allied paratroopers deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than two thousand Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized. The invasion smashed Germany’s last line of defense and gutted Hitler’s war machine; the war in Europe ended less than two months later. Four Hours of Fury follows the 17th Airborne Division as they prepare for Operation Varsity, a campaign that would rival Normandy in scale and become one of the most successful and important of the war. Even as the Third Reich began to implode, it was vital for Allied troops to have direct access into Germany to guarantee victory—the 17th Airborne secured that bridgehead over the River Rhine. And yet their story has until now been relegated to history’s footnotes. Reminiscent of A Bridge Too Far and Masters of the Air, Four Hours of Fury does for the 17th Airborne what Band of Brothers did for the 101st. It is a captivating, action-packed tale of heroism and triumph spotlighting one of World War II’s most under-chronicled and dangerous operations.

Here, Martin Bowman brings us the first book on Operation Varsity to include both British and US air and ground operations, as well as the US, British and Canadian paratroop and resupply missions, all presented together in one ambitious volume.Operation Varsity-Plunder, the last large-scale Allied airborne operation of World War II, was certainly no walk-over. Varsity was the airborne part, whilst Plunder represented the British amphibious operations by the British Second Army.The airlift consisted of 541 transport aircraft containing airborne troops and a further 1,050 troop-carriers towing 1,350 gliders. The American 17th Airborne Divisions C-46 Commando transports and Waco gliders joined the British 6th Airborne Division C-54s, C-47 transport aircrafts, Horsas and Hamilcar gliders to form an immense armada that stretched for more than 200 miles across the sky. The successful air attack involved more than 10,000 Allied aircraft and was concentrated primarily on Luftwaffe airfields and the German transportation system.The combination of the two divisions in one lift made this the largest single day airborne drop in history. In this impressive account, Martin Bowman weaves firsthand testimony and a compelling historical narrative together with a variety of photographic illustrations, many of which have never been published before, in order to create a complete and fascinating record of events as they played out in March 1945.