Triumph at Kapyong: Canada's Pivotal Battle in Korea

Triumph at Kapyong: Canada's Pivotal Battle in Korea

Dan Bjarnason
$22.99
Publication Date: March 2nd, 2011
Publisher:
Dundurn Press
ISBN:
9781554888726
Pages:
200

Description

April 24th, 1951, was a lonely, moon-lit night in Korea. On a godforsaken hill, a few hundred surrounded Canadian soldiers waited for the fight of their lives to begin. Soon, Chinese communist troops in their thousands, swarmed around them, plunging straight towards the Korean capital, Seoul. These Canadians were all that blocked the way.

This is the story of the first battle by Canada's first soldiers in the Korean War: the 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. These volunteers were straight from Central Casting: truck drivers, construction workers, kids just out of high school, and bored farm boys. Outnumbered and outgunned, this people's army of amateurs beat off some of the toughest troops on earth.

This battle that's become a legend takes its name from a nearby peanut-sized village: Kapyong.

It's become a mythic Canadian story, except this is mythology that is true and real.

About the Author

Dan Bjarnason was a television news and documentary reporter for the National at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for over 35 years. His world-wide assignments, including time as a foreign correspondent, allowed him to indulge his passion for military history and to visit dozens of battlefields from the Little Bighorn to the Falklands. He lives in Toronto.

Praise for Triumph at Kapyong: Canada's Pivotal Battle in Korea

a tribute to not only an oft-neglected war, but also Canada’s contribution to peacekeeping and active countermeasures against Communist incursions.”