Normandy Remembrance
by David Cale ®

A cold wind, blew in from the sea. The day was grey and blustery. Typical June weather for Normandy. It was high tide. I walked out from the beach until I was standing, gazing out to sea, knee deep in the cold English Channel waters.

I had travelled for five days North from Paris to Dunkerque and then exploring on my way down along the coast of France to Caen, and to the D-Day invasion beaches of Normandy. Driving north I crossed the river Orne at Pegasus bridge, which marks the Eastern edge of the D Day invasion. From there it was a short drive to the beaches. First Gold and Sword Beach, where British troops landed and then my objective Juno Beach where my countrymen, Canadians, came ashore.

On a day similar to this, June 6, 1944, D-day, this six kilometre stretch of beach from Courseulles to St-Aubin sur Mer was newly christened -in blood- Juno Beach. It was here that Canadians of Toronto's Queen's Own Rifles, Regina Rifles, and Royal Winnipeg Rifles and others jumped into heavy surf and struggled ashore into the teeth of strong German resistance. Many of the German bunkers had not been destroyed by the preliminary bombardment, and until they were "silenced", these inflicted heavy losses.

Many of the Canadian Amphibious Tanks went straight to the bottom in the heavy seas. Those that made it to shore aided enormously in making the landings a success.


At the end of the day "The German dead were littered over the dunes, by the gun positions", a Canadian journalist reported. "By them, lay Canadians in bloodstained battledress, in the sand and in the grass, on the wire and by the concrete forts. ..They had lived a few minutes of the victory they had made. That was all." Three hundred and forty Canadians had given their lives. Another five hundred and seventy four had been wounded. This was just the beginning. In the days to come Canadians would see some of the bloodiest fighting of the invasion.

La Place Du Canada
One of these old bullet scarred German bunkers remains, renamed "Place du Canada." The Queen's Own Rifles memorial plaque describes the battle that day which and asks you to try to imagine what it was like.

The trouble was I couldn't and suspected that only those actually there could ever grasp what took place. I took a deep breath. The salt spray smelled of the iodine rich seaweed strewn on the beach, the surf crashed and roared, and the grey-green sea was empty of the madness of men.

I felt an impossible yearning, to have been there, to have fought evil, at a time before ambiguity,
when "They" were bad and "We" were good. The last "righteous war." One that we had to be fought as the consequences of not joining in the conflict was too devastating to comprehend.

I have since come to understand that it is that dichotomy that fuels all wars. It is often express religiously... that God is on our side, or that it is God's will that we fight and kill the evildoers.

I realise now that I was yearning to have a sense of meaning that is one of wars most addictive and seductive traits.

Juno Beach stretched from Ver-sur-Mer to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer included in this Berniers sur Mer "juno beach" at low tide.
I am standing at the edge of the water. This is the view that soldiers had as they rushed towards the sea wall and the machine guns of the Germans.

Juno Beach
Time seemed suspended. I had an uncanny feeling I had been here before. I walked the beach, watching as the tide took the water half a kilometre out. This beach was so familiar; but nothing beyond it. At some point I turned and walked back towards the houses lining the beach, some looking just like they had prior to the invasion.

The beach storage houses are a modern addition... you can rent one for the summer.

La Maison du Queen's Own Rifles
One of the houses that survived the invasion.

You will often see this house in footage of old WW2 film of the landings of D-Day. There it is seen just as the Landing Crafts front door open and machine gun fire cuts down a number of men.

Juno Beach peaceful now but at times you can feel the "power of place" that all travellers have felt when they least expect it.

The new Juno Beach Center. This is a museum remembering the Canadians who fought here.

http://www.junobeach.org/Centre/index.html

Monument symbolizing the Croix de Lorraine and commemorating the return of General de Gaulle in France
The setting sun catches the stanless steel surface making it glow in the setting sun.

Croix de Lorraine with the French Flag.