Previous attempts at biographies of Peters were stymied by a
lack of information in official records, but
The Bravest Canadian – Fritz Peters, VC: the Making of a Hero of Two World Wars
by Sam McBride is based on a treasure trove of recently-discovered personal
letters that reveal his personality, motivations and zest for battle. They also answer many questions about his
mysterious life, including service with Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service,
exploits in the Gold Coast colony of west Africa in the inter-war years, three
stints of Royal Navy service over a 37-year period, and his tragic death in a
flying boat crash returning to England after miraculously surviving heavy fire from
all directions when he led a charge into the Vichy French-held Algerian port of
Oran.
Published by Granville Island Publishing, The Bravest Canadian was launched in bookstores in Canada and abroad in November 2012.
Book release coincides
with 70th anniversary of Peters’ Victoria Cross award
November 8, 2012 marked the 70th anniversary
of the Allied invasion of North Africa, code-named Operation Torch. The invasion of Vichy French territory was
the first large combined operation of British and American forces, and would
prove to be a turning point in the war against Nazi Germany. The initial targets of the invasion were
Oran and Algiers in Algeria, and Casablanca in Morocco.
Fritz Peters’ courage in leading an attack by two converted
Coast Guard cutters through barriers and inside Oran harbor at 3 a.m. on Nov.
8, 1942 in the face of point blank fire from French shore batteries and moored
warships was honored with the highest awards for valor offered by Britain and
the United States.
The surrender of the last Nazi forces in North Africa in May
1943 secured Allied shipping lanes in the Mediterranean and gave the Allies
bases for subsequent invasions of Sicily, mainland Italy and France.
Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1889, Peters
moved with his family in 1898 to Victoria, British Columbia, where he lived
until joining the Royal Navy in 1905, aside from time in England at naval prep
school. The Peters family resided in Oak Bay and then
Esquimalt before moving to Prince Rupert.
Peters was determined to live up to his family’s tradition
of military leadership and courage in battle, going back to United Empire
Loyalist leaders in the Revolutionary War, and a prominent general of the
Crimean War. Peters’ father, P.E.I.
Premier Frederick Peters, was a close grandson of shipping magnate Sir Samuel
Cunard, one of the reasons why his son Fritz chose a career in the navy.
At age 53 in 1942, Fritz Peters was the oldest Victoria
Cross (VC) recipient in the Second World War.
Twenty-seven years earlier, in January 1915, he received the
Distinguished Service Order (DSO) medal, second only to the VC as an award for
valor, in the Battle of Dogger Bank in the North Sea. He was also Mentioned in Dispatches, earned a
British Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in 1918, and then a bar to his DSC in
1940. His Oran gallantry was recognized
with the Victoria Cross and the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross, the highest medal
for valor awarded by the U.S. to non-Americans.
In the inter-war years he developed technology for miniature
submarines, and was an early user of plastic explosives and time-delay fuses in
his work with secret intelligence. In
1940 he commanded a school for spies and industrial sabotage for expatriates
who later returned to their native countries in Occupied Europe to fight the
Germans from within.
Peters’ admirers included Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Allied
commander-in-chief U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, and British naval commander
Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. However,
several of Eisenhower’s American underlings were bitter opponents of Peters in
the planning and carrying out of the Oran harbor attack, and blamed him for heavy
casualties suffered by U.S. troops.
Tragically, Peters died before he had a chance to tell his
side of the story. Later, British
authorities chose to downplay the Oran action to avoid antagonizing the French
when they resumed as allies against the Nazis.
Some government documents were destroyed, and others were kept secret
for 30 years. As a result, the personal story
of Fritz Peters – recipient of six medals for valor in two world wars – remained
a mystery until the author’s discovery of the Peters Family Papers.
