As we push further into the 21st century, Canada’s Second World War veterans are sliding ever more quickly into extinction. Once they are gone, how will they be remembered? Arthur Bishop’s new book goes a long way toward commemorating the ordinary Canadians who risked the ultimate sacrifice and fought for glory and country over half a century ago.

The 20 stories of personal heroism collected in Unsung Courage include the tale of the military padre who dug up the corpse of an “unknown soldier” in order to send fingerprints to the appropriate authorities. There is also the story of John Hoare and Frank Furlong, who ditched their airplane in the Atlantic Ocean while on a mission to bomb the Bismarck, one of the Nazis’ fiercest battleships. Hoare and Furlong floated in their inflatable raft in a freezing sea for more than 24 hours before they were rescued by an Allied ship that was itself over 100 miles off course.

Written in clear, workaday language, and an almost breezy tone, Unsung Courage honours its subjects with war stories that will inspire pride in all but the hard-hearted. Bishop’s tales of grace under pressure occasionally lack credibility when he allows the warmth of his feelings for his subjects to interfere with sound historic reflection. Other historians have written about the battlefield snafus, the second-by-second insanity of combat, and the fear, anxiety, and boredom faced by soldiers at war. Bishop hints at the horror, but he does not dwell on it. His subjects went on to live productive, ordinary lives. His duty here has been to sing songs of their wartime courage. These are stories worth remembering.