Post by kootenayguy on Nov 26, 2012 18:55:46 GMT
My biography "The Bravest Canadian -- Fritz Peters, VC: The Making of A Hero of Two World Wars" was released this month, 70 years after the action in Oran harbor for which Capt. Frederic Thornton "Fritz" Peters, VC, DSO, DSC and bar, DSC (U.S.), RN received the Victoria Cross and the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross. Previous attempts to tell the story of Peters' life have been stymied by great gaps in information. While much remains to be discovered about his wide-ranging life as a naval officer, spymaster and engineer, I have used more than a hundred letters to parents sent by Fritz and his brothers Jack and Gerald Peters, who both died in WW1. The letters fill in details about his life, but are most valuable in revealing his fascinating personality, motivations and zest for battle.
In one letter, sent from naval base in England to his brother Gerald in Prince Rupert, on Canada's West Coast, he offers consoling advice to Gerald, who had just failed his enlistment physical. Fritz's comment "It is not given to every man to be so fortunate as to fight for his country" sums up his view that battle was more than duty -- it was an opportunity to be seized upon. Not once in his letters does Fritz express any fear or concern for his personal safety. Restless by nature, the only thing he feared was boredom.
At 53, Fritz was the oldest VC recipient of WW2. He has been called "The Bravest Canadian" as a result of earning multiple awards for valor in both world wars, including the DSO in the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915.
Side stories and more info on the book are in the blog www.thebravestcanadian.wordpress.com.
In one letter, sent from naval base in England to his brother Gerald in Prince Rupert, on Canada's West Coast, he offers consoling advice to Gerald, who had just failed his enlistment physical. Fritz's comment "It is not given to every man to be so fortunate as to fight for his country" sums up his view that battle was more than duty -- it was an opportunity to be seized upon. Not once in his letters does Fritz express any fear or concern for his personal safety. Restless by nature, the only thing he feared was boredom.
At 53, Fritz was the oldest VC recipient of WW2. He has been called "The Bravest Canadian" as a result of earning multiple awards for valor in both world wars, including the DSO in the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915.
Side stories and more info on the book are in the blog www.thebravestcanadian.wordpress.com.