In French Normandy, Canadians are still remembered as liberators

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Poppies bloom in the fields of Flanders

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Between the crosses, row by row. . .

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Written in 1915 by Canadian officer and field surgeon Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, these words still resonate this Remembrance Day weekend. And while poppies don’t grow on this part of the Western Front in World War I,Canadians are welcomed with open arms as maple leaves flutter proudly alongside the French tricolor.

The newly created Canadian Memorial Route, commemorating Canada’s role in both wars La Route du Souvenir Canadienmeanders through northern France and Normandy, from World War I La Carriere Wellington, from the labyrinth of tunnels below the city of Arras, to the colossal monuments of Vimy Ridge, a memorial to the ill-fated Operation Jubilee of 19 August 1942. Continue to the monument. Raid Dieppe and continue along the coast to Juno Beach, site of the 1944 D-Day landing.

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It’s not just the Canadian flag that’s everywhere. Canadians are everywhere too.

A native of Victoria, British Columbia, Emily Levneris is in Vimy during her tenure with the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs, which manages the World War I memorial ceded to Canada by France in 1922. UBC alumni are part of the Government of Canada’s French Student Guide Program. She guides the group through the trench lines and underground tunnels around the visitor center.

The Juno Beach Center is a Canadian museum built on the D-Day shores of World War II that employs young Canadian guides each year. One of them is Sydney Cadaggies, 24, from Langley, British Columbia. She arrived in January of this year after earning a BA in History from her college at Kwantren.

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“I can’t tell you how lucky I am to have this opportunity,” she says of her seven- to nine-month contract with the museum. “It’s great to be here.”

Founded in 2003 by Garth Webb, Lieutenant, 14th Canadian Regiment.th Named for the field regiment that landed at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944, this private museum is operated by the Juno Beach Center Association, a Canadian nonprofit charity supported by the Canadian government. I’m here. Along with the students are 3 Canadian guides.

“this place teeth I’m Canadian,” says Juno Beach Center Director Natalie Worthington. “And I believe every Canadian should come here at least once in their lifetime.”

The center is also designed to educate young people about World War II and Canada’s role in it, and has interactive exhibits for children.

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“This is how veterans wanted it. It’s not just a museum dedicated to Juno, it’s a torch to pass down to the next generation,” says Worthington. “Any Canadian who has a link can find out what happened to their family during the war.”

Of the 100,000 visitors to the Interpretation Center in 2019, 30% were Canadian, half of whom came for family reasons.

So did Cadaghis, whose great-grandfather came in August 1944. He was a captain in the Royal Canadian Corps of Engineers. “He trained in the military and volunteered to fight,” she says.

All 14,000 Canadians who landed here on D-Day volunteered to fight on the front lines. Canadian forces reached 12 km inland. This was the furthest out of the Allied forces. In this area he liberated towns and people from German occupation in which 20,000 civilians died.

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“Seventy percent of the population here have family members who were emancipated by Canadians,” says Worthington. She had her mom and dad among them too. “People in this region would never call D-Dday an invasion. For them it was a liberation.”

And thanks are here above all for that release.

Three local women who witnessed the event firsthand came to the center to share their experiences and express their gratitude.

B’s Colette Legixeny-sur-Mer was eight years old on June 6, 1944. We were not hit by a shell. “ But on D-Day, she and her brother saw something moving offshore. “The ocean was full of boats and lights and big balloons,” she recalls.

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Maryvonne Morin from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer was 6 years old on D-Day. Her family’s home had been taken over by the Germans. “The Canadian kicked down the door with her boot because we were told there were no civilians when we arrived,” she recalls. “When we saw the injured children, they stopped. We were really upset. So were they.”

Yvetes Deslandes of Basly explains how he lost his little sister, aged just 14, when he was shot down in a German air raid during the occupation. Ivetes said he was 16 years old. A Canadian soldier named Bob came to her aid, turned her around and said,

“Canadian people have very good memories. I will never forget them,” she says. “We owe them our freedom. We quickly took it back. Without them, we would be Germans now.”

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She touches a red silk scarf decorated with white maple leaves that hangs around her neck. Her eyes are often filled with tears. “I will love them for the rest of my life.”

At the Canadian House of Berniere-sur-Mer, an association of over 100 members was established to pay tribute to the Canadian Armed Forces. Built in 1928, the seaside house was a beacon for Allied forces during the war, told not to shoot or bomb, but a positioning tool to know exactly where they landed on Juno Beach I was told to use it as Today, he is one of the few original structures remaining along the coast.

“People would walk by and look in the windows,” says current owner Nicole Hoffer, whose grandfather bought the property in 1936. La Maison de Canadiens As a place where people can come to pay their respects. ”

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The facility now houses many artifacts donated by Canadian veterans and their families.

Hoffer also initiated a memorial service to remember those who served. Every year on June 6th, bagpipes are played, and 300 to 400 of him gather on the beach to light lanterns and throw flowers into the sea to remember those who fought for freedom.

On a breezy fall day on the beach outside the Juno Center, former RCMP officer Guy Pollock, from New Westminster, British Columbia, and his friend John Crumb, from New Canaan, Connecticut, stayed up all night. Both of their grandfathers served in World War II. Guy was an infantryman and John was a bombardier.

“We came here to remember,” says Pollock.

Something we should all do. Never forget.

if you go

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Air France flies non-stop between Vancouver and Paris (CDG) five times a week. The CDG train station has a direct connection to Arras, the starting point of the route.

To avoid expensive data roaming charges while in Europe, purchase an e-Travel SIM Vacation Prepaid Plan from Bouygues Telecom. A pre-activated plan provides you with an electronically downloaded French mobile number to provide you with a range of services during your trip.Buy SIM directly online www.bouyguestelecom.fr/carte-prepayee/vacation-prepaid-plan

The author traveled as a guest of Atout France and Air France who neither reviewed nor approved this article prior to publication.