1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910151630103321

Autore

Wilmot Laurence F. <1907->

Titolo

Through the Hitler line [[electronic resource] ] : memoirs of an infantry chaplain / / Laurence F. Wilmot

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Waterloo, Ont., : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, c2003

ISBN

1-280-92576-0

9786610925766

0-88920-554-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (167 p.)

Collana

Life writing series

Disciplina

940.54/78/092

Soggetti

Military chaplains - Canada

World War, 1939-1945

World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Italy

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Treading Cautiously into the Unknown -- Ministry on the Arielli Front -- Taking Up God's Armour -- Breaking the Hitler Line -- A Tourist in Wartime -- Preparing for the Attack -- Tragedy at Foglia River -- Fierce Fighting and Close Calls -- A Time of Stress and a Moment of Rest -- Roman Holiday, Russi Road -- Prayers for the Fallen -- Liberating Holland -- The Guns Fall Silent.

Sommario/riassunto

Laurence Wilmot's Second World War memoir is a rare thing: a first-hand account of front-line battle by an army officer who is a resolute non-combatant. And it is paradoxes such as this that also make Wilmot's book a unique and compelling document. Wilmot, as an Anglican chaplain, is a priest dressed as a warrior, a man of peace in battle fatigues. He is an incongruous figure in a theatre of war, always vigilant for opportunities to partake of silent meditation and prayer, never failing to lose sight of the larger moral issues of the war. His compassion is boundless, his sensitivity acute, and one senses his mounting emotional and spiritual enervation as the death toll of his fellow serving men steadily mounts. At the centre of the book is Wilmot's witness of the murderous battle at the Arielli.  Wilmot's



compassion for the fighting men compels him to leave the safety of his ministry and join them at the front, at great personal risk. There, as an unarmed stretcher-bearer, he is kept busy transporting the wounded under enemy fire. In this crucible of battle we see the qualities that attest to Wilmot's character and contribute to his memoir's importance: an indefatigable devotion to his duty to save and comfort the wounded, and a resolve to resist despair in spite of the terrible carnage all around. In short, a singular triumph of the decency of one man in the midst of total war.