After almost two months, the Allies remained penned up within a pocket only about 10 miles (16 km) deep from the initial site of their D-Day invasion.
The Canadian army held the easternmost part of the front in Normandy along with British troops. The area was crucial, since it controlled the supply lines to German troops facing the Americans further to the west.
If the Canadians could push through to the town of Falaise, it would trap the German 7th army to the west and could bring the war to a rapid end. The untested Canadian Fourth Armoured Division left England to take part in a series of crucial battles.
A Letter from Frank uses extensive research to describe from Russ's perspective the Fourth's arrival from England and their part in this crucial battle for Normandy.
In 1939, it was practically impossible for Germans not be affected by the Nazis. For fifteen-year-old Frank Sikora, one result was being sent from home in Leitmeritz in the Sudetenland with a Hitler Youth troop to visit Munich, the so-called birthplace of the Nazi party.
Becoming disillusioned with what he saw, he left his travelling companions to see Germany on his own.
Joining the Luftwaffe in 1941 at the age of 17, Frank served in an infantry unit for two years above the Arctic Circle in the Petsamo-Murmansk region.
In 1944 he was posted to western Europe, taking part in the campaign for southeastern Netherlands. He was also part of the campaign opposing the crossing of the Rhine near Wesel, Germany. His unit was forced to retreat from there, stopping only when they reached Bad Zwischenahn at the end of the war. There, Frank and Russ met.
