How I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier's Story

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Women's Studies. Still sassy, Doris Gregory takes the reader back over seventy years to when she joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps during WWII. Her memoir allows us to travel with her across the Atlantic at the height of the U-boat infestation and to take refuge in underground shelters while bombs fall on London. Unlike most memoirs of the war that focus on battles, Gregory shows the everyday mundane activities of office life, working under some less-than-brilliant supervisors. Gregory transforms what could have been a dull soldier's life into one of small adventures: cycling along traffic- free roads through southern England, the midlands and Scottish lowlands, hopping on the ferry to Ulster, slipping into neutral, forbidden Éire, and looking into the gun barrel of an angry German sentry. Although at times the war weighs heavily upon her, the author's optimism, enthusiasm and sense of humor permeate this memoir, full of laughter and surprises.