A landing craft sets out with Canadian troops aboard destined for the Normandy beaches. Canadians at Juno penetrated further inland on June 6, 1944, than any Allies at the five D-Day beachheads.[Dennis Sullivan/DND/LAC/PA-132790.]

By the numbers: Who contributed, and sacrificed, the most in WW II?

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

The American president outraged a host of Allied nations recently when he claimed the United States “won World War 2” and should be celebrating the fact.

Donald Trump made the statement after a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron who, he said, told him France was “celebrating our victory over the Germans.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump said a week after VE-Day on May 8. “Now, we don’t take credit for what we do. And I said, what the hell? Every country I’ve spoken to in the last week is celebrating the war but us. Isn’t that terrible?

“Russia was celebrating, France was celebrating, everybody was celebrating but us. And we’re the ones that won the war. We won the war.”

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The final book in Phil Craig’s trilogy, 1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and Struggle for a New World, follows an Indian family with two boys divided by the opposing side they chose to fight for. [Phil Criag]

Phil Craig confronts colonialism in new book

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

British author and filmmaker Phil Craig has long anticipated completing his book trilogy on the Second World War. First came Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain in 1999, co-written with Tim Clayton. In 2002, a second collaborative effort—again with Clayton—produced End of the Beginning, retracing the desperate days from May to November 1942 to coincide with what was then the 60th anniversary year.

Now, Craig has rounded off his WW II saga with the recent publication of 1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World. Brimming with poignant first-hand accounts and untold stories, the already well-received book confronts the realities of Far East colonialism in the war’s final months and the immediate aftermath. Among the topics examined are the “rather shameful and foolish things” carried out by the British in the name of imperial agendas, says Craig himself.

Nuance, however, is a key factor throughout the volume, as the bestselling writer explains after sitting down for a Legion Magazine exclusive.

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