Seven Days in Hell

A riveting tour de force by Canadas leading military historian about the heroic Black Watchs fight for survival at Verrires Ridge Centred around one of Canadas most storied regiments,Seven Days in Helltells the epic tale of the bloody battle for Verrires Ridge, a dramatic saga that unfolded just weeks after one of Canadas greatest military triumphs of the Second World War. OKeefe takes us on a heart-pounding journey at the sharp end of combat during the infamous Normandy campaign, when more than 300 Black Watch Highlanders from across Canada, the United States, Great Britain and the Allied world found themselves embroiled in mortal combat against elite Waffen-SS units and grizzled Eastern Front veterans. Only a handful walked away. Pinned down as the result of strategic blunders and the fog of war, the men were thrust into a nightmare where station, rank, race and religion mattered little and only character won the day. Drawing on formerly classified documents and rare first-person testimony from the men who fought on the front lines, OKeefe follows the footsteps of the ghosts of Normandy, giving a voice yet again to the men who sacrificed everything in the summer of 1944.