The full version of the iconic Bill Grant D-Day film. The 2:08 min video can be viewed at the bottom of the page. The Riddle Of The D-Day Footage | Legion Magazine
Excellent footage with good clarity. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be much resistance on that part of the beach!
Canuck, When the Juno Beach Center first opened, that clip was played in small room adjacent to the main hall of the museum. The small room gave one the impression of being in the very landing craft steaming toward the beach. In my recent visit to the JBC, the clip has been reduced to a scant 15 seconds. In its place is a film clip of Canada in the '30's taken from coast to coast. Pity... we are now ruled by the political correctness of our times.
So many times I had seen the intial stages of that film and wondered hat happened to the rest - Thanks for the link Jim
These were obviously troops of the 2nd wave. The 46 Commando landed at the same place after this footage was taken. The area shown in the video looks to be about one kilometer east of the Canada House in Bernieres sur Mer. On the first map that would roughly correspond to the red arrow marking A Co. of the North Shores View attachment 60511 View attachment 60512 View attachment 60513 I count at least 45 men disembarking from the landing craft but it's difficult to get a clear view.
great to see the piece of film - my father was with 46RM and has told me many times about going ashore with the Canadians - I have a full history of 46RM and have visited many of the places he fought at during his time with the unit - regards Ross
Of mortars and morphine: one physician's D-Day Charles E. Baker RCAMC The letter reproduced here with minor abridgements was written by Dr. (Major) Charles Baker as a report on his participation with the 3rd Canadian Division in the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Dr. Baker's field ambulance unit was assigned to Nan Red, the code name for the portion of Juno beach near St-Aubin-sur-Mer. Dr. Baker's letter was submitted to us by Dr. C.E. Robinson, who has been researching war diaries written by members of the unit he commanded after the war. Lt.-Col. Caverhill, to whom Major Baker's letter is addressed, was Dr. Robinson's commanding officer in 1946. As Dr. Robinson wrote to us, the "detail, clarity and eloquence" of this letter are remarkable, especially in view of the circumstances of its writing. Here is a glimpse of a medical soldier who has the sang-froid to throw a landmine into the sea "like a discus," who describes shrapnel wounds as "scratches," and who, having spent the previous day witnessing horrific deaths and attending to wounds inflicted by bullet and shell, is still capable of accounting to his superior officer for losses of matériel. Although the letter is dated June 7, it refers to some events after that date. Dr. Baker, who is now in his 90s, resides in a nursing home in Ohio. This letter is reproduced with kind permission of his daughter, Judi Baker Gerhart. H.M.S. L.S.T. 409 7 June, 1944 Lt. Col. M. R. Caverhill 22 Cdn. Fd. Amb. Dear Sir: I am sorry to be a bit late with my [reconnaissance] report. ... I am once again on my way back to England, dirty and unshaven, with a uniform dirtier than it was in 1940. There is also another difference in that it has no left sleeve in my shirt or battle-dress blouse. If it wasn't for the splitting headache I have, from the bits of metal in my skull and the pain in my useless arm I would be comparatively happy. A [situation report] of Nan Red beach as I saw it, is a bit confusing. I went across the channel in L[anding] C[raft] T[ank] 707 with a splendid Canadian officer as skipper. He was Lieut. C. J. Holland of St. Thomas Ont. We hit Nan Red beach at 08:55 on D day. The beach was being shelled, mortared and sniped. The tide was high and we passed over the beach obstacles: a mine exploded on our right and damaged the craft slightly. As we were coming in there was a ship on fire away off to our left. Just before we went in, [a] L[anding] C[raft] I[nfantry] on our left went down. The ship's company waved good-bye as they slid under. ... I left the craft ... with Major MacPherson and driver Etherington in my jeep ambulance. It was a dry landing, just as Lieut. Holland had promised us. Shells were bursting all around us. We moved a few yards and then had to stop in a traffic jam of S. P. arty [self-propelled artillery]. The beach was sandy but unfortunately had a high wall behind it. The beach obstacles were solid steel and each one had a teller mine tied on it. These were the new type mine and it was impossible to use a safety wire on them. I stepped on a mine but it did not go off. It was quite loose in the sand so I picked it up and threw it out to sea like a discus. There were several hundred men lying in the sand close to the wall. Some of them were wounded. Others were just sitting there waiting to get wounded apparently, because each shell burst picked off a few more. ... I was very much amazed to see all these men sitting on the beach. I asked an R.E. [Royal Engineer] officer why these men were not off the beach. He said that there was a belt of mines just off the beach and that we couldn't go east or west because of snipers and mines. The snipers couldn't see the men against the wall. The snipers were shooting sailors in the craft and the craft were replying with A[nti-] A[ircraft] guns. One German ran down to the beach and threw hand grenades into a craft. Someone killed the German with a sten gun. I gave morphia to men lying in the sand. I dressed a lot of North Shore [(NB) Regiment] wounded there. Most of the men did not have shovels so we got them started digging holes in the soft sand with their hands. A shell explosion blew my hat off so I decided to move a bit. I went about fifty yards west and another explosion bent my glasses a bit and broke a man's back. About a hundred yards west along the beach there was a ditch through the barb wire into the mine field. This was just west of the sea wall. I think that this ditch was specially dug to be covered by rifle fire. I bent the wire back and crawled part way through. I was going to toss a coin to see whether I got killed by a shell or a mine but a shell explosion behind me made up my mind for me. It landed me flat on my face in the mine field. I ran along the ditch and was greeted by a rifle shot from the corner of a house off to the east about sixty yards. The shot missed me and I jumped into a bomb crater which happened to be in the edge of the ditch in a little hillock. The next shot covered my face with dirt. ... After a few moments I heard a burst of sten gun fire. Someone else was firing at my sniper. I raised my pistol with my tin hat over my hand. Just as I reached the edge of the crater the shell-dressing was shot off the back of my hat. I fired over the edge of the crater. I heard a rifle bang on the cobblestones and someone running away. Just then two beach riflemen came along the ditch. The three of us ran to the gate of the house and round the corner. We couldn't see anything but smoke. I posted the riflemen there as sentries and went back to the beach. I got Etherington and the jeep and brought them up through the S.P. arty to the ditch. I had no wire cutters so I couldn't get the jeep through the wire. For lack of a wire cutter we lost the jeep. Etherington and I crawled along the ditch. As we went along I kicked up a mine. It was a dummy mine — just two round pieces of tin with a block of wood between them shaped like a tellermine. There was a sharp steel spike on top of the mine about three inches in length. I decided that this was a dummy mine field and that it would be safe to bring the wounded across it. I went back to the beach. A mortar bomb blew part of a man's head off and wounded me in the leg. Etherington and I herded a few wounded up the ditch. I remember particularly having a bad time getting a blinded North Shore soldier through the wire. Next time I go to war I'll take a wire cutter with me. Mortar bombs were coming over six at a time. We got a few men up the ditch between each series of six bombs. Then I had four men carrying a badly wounded man on a stretcher. A bomb lit on the stretcher and killed all the stretcher bearers and the patient. They were laid out just like a cart wheel. I was standing to the right of No. 1 and he stopped most of the pieces coming my way. Two pieces hit me in the head and covered my face and glasses with blood. One piece cut into the chest piece of my flak suit and didn't hurt me so please tell the boys that flak suits are a darned good idea. I was stunned for a bit and did a bit of grovelling in the sand. Then I ran up the ditch and hid in my bomb crater. A soldier hid in it with me and he cleaned my glasses for me. After the next six bombs had gone over I went back to the beach again like a darned fool. I was going to drive the jeep off somewhere even if it was across a mine field. The jeep was surrounded by S.P. arty and we couldn't move it. A single bomb came over and lit right beside me. It killed two men and knocked me down on my back. This time I got three pieces in my left arm and a few more in my face. I crawled under the jeep. A bomb set fire to the petrol on the S.P. arty. If the S.P. arty hadn't been carrying so much petrol on the outside of their guns they would not have lost four guns and burned up a lot of men. It was all started by a few small mortar bombs. I couldn't use my arm by this time so I crawled into my crater and stayed there. Bombs lit all around me but none of them touched me. The S.P. arty was burning merrily by this time. The ammo began exploding. It was about twenty yards north of me and although many pieces went past the top of my crater, none of them hit me. A sergeant crawled into my hole with me. My arm was soaked in blood and was stinging a bit. He cut my sleeve away dressed my wounds and gave me some morphine. The S.P. arty exploded and covered the whole area with smoke, fumes, burning cordite and burning petrol. The grass started burning all over the mine field and all around my hole. My face was scorched a bit. The sergeant and I decided to make a run for the house. Shells were exploding all over the place. A mortar bomb lit in the ditch in front of us. It didn't explode. The sergeant grabbed me or I would have stepped on it. We reached the house safely. The men who had been unlucky enough to stay on the beach under and around the S.P. arty were burned alive. Some of them were probably wounded previously by mortar fire and could not move but I cannot for the life of me understand why they all stayed on the beach. As they burned up, they screamed blood-curdling screams that I can hear yet. As the sergeant and Etherington and I made a run for it along the ditch, the ammo was going up continually. We ran around to the corner of the house where I had posted the sentries. Quite a number of wounded had gathered there so we sat down for a bit and hid from the flying steel. Finally we got everybody down into a big cement basement under the building. We cleaned up the basement and made a small hospital there. D[river] Etherington proved invaluable to me throughout the whole show. He is one of the coolest and best medical orderlies I have ever had. With S.P. arty exploding all around him he salvaged the mortar bomb case of serum and dressings from the jeep. The serum I think saved a soldier's life because he was practically dead when we gave it to him. Etherington and a gunner from the 19th F[iel]d Reg[imen]t did nearly all the dressings for me as I could only use one hand. The boys were very much afraid, of booby traps in the old house. A North Shore sergeant walked through a doorway and had his brains blown out onto the floor beside him. There was an old bed and a lot of junk in the basement which they were afraid to move. A couple of us with five or six holes in us decided that a few more holes wouldn't make much difference. We threw the junk out. Nothing happened. We dressed everyone, laid them in rows, gave them morphine etc. The ammo explosions were dying down so Etherington and I went to look for our jeep. All that was left of it was two front tires and the two petrol tins on the bumper. We salvaged the petrol and then hid while more ammo went up. As the ammo kept exploding and the petrol was burning everywhere, we couldn't go back onto the beach via our ditch. I took two stretcher squads and we sneaked west along a hedge and then across the mine field in single file. Half way across a sniper shot at us. We hugged the ground for a few moments. Then there was a burst of sten gun fire which I deemed to be in the direction of the sniper. Finally we ran for it and hid behind a wall. ... We gathered up all the wounded from among the burning S.P. arty. Most of the men there were dead, including the engineer officer who had told me I couldn't get off the beach. Etherington put the fire out in a burning Arty jeep and backed it into the water away from the main fire. Then we went along the beach to the B[rigade] D[ressing] S[tation] and reported the location of our patients. I sent Etherington back to the cellar and told him to wait for the A[dvance] D[ressing] S[tation] to arrive. I dressed a few patients in the sand. The next thing I remembered I was lying in the sand and a patient was trying to give me a drink. I reported to the Beach H[ead] Q[uarters] on Nan Red beach that I was wounded and that I thought I should go to hospital. Just then an L.C.I. beached with some wounded aboard. I was sent aboard to see them. When I came out of the hold we were going hell for leather for another L.C.I. that was sinking. We rescued everyone off that craft just before it sank. There were several seriously injured cases. When I finished dressing them we were alongside H.M.S. Waverly. The next thing I remember I was lying in the officers mess ... talking to Commodore Ottway-Ribon. I was made very welcome by the officers ... . I had several doses of morphine and eventually fell asleep. I slept about twelve hours. Then I attended a burial service for Lieut. Holland and Pte. Shaw. Lieut. Holland (the skipper of my craft) had lost both arms and part of his head in a mortar bomb explosion. About 16:00 hrs 8 June '44 all wounded were transferred from H.M.S. Waverly to L[anding] S[hip] T[ank] 406 bound for England. As we pulled away a cruiser was firing salvos at an enemy strong point. I was ashore between five and six hours. When I left there were about thirty-five dead men on the shore and eighty or more wounded gathered up into a bunch at the house and another bunch near the groyne on the beach. ... As I came away there were beached craft on every beach to the west of us as far as I could see. I lost the jeep and all the equipment with it. I hope that loss did not bother you too much in the assault. If it is necessary I can send a statement to the Q[uarter] M[aster] Capt. Scattergood for the write off. I lost all my personal equipment and clothing and Etherington also lost his. When I get some clothing coupons ... I will make out a claim and send it to you for your signature. As soon as my scratches are better I would like to come back to the unit if that is satisfactory to you. It is the best place for me in the army and I was quite happy there. If you will be so kind as to ask the A[ssistant] D[irector] M[edical] S[ervices] to put in a special request to the R[einforcement] U[nit] for me I may find my way back to the unit one day. Give my regards to everyone in the unit. I wish them all the best of luck in the coming campaign. Yours sincerely Charles E. Baker Major
At about 1:50 in the clip you can see a shell burst in the top left corner of the frame so although resistance at the time the film was shot may have been light, it still was a shooting war. I picked up a copy of "Voices from D-Day, eye-witness accounts of 6th June 1944" by Jonathan Bastable. Seeing this clip today and reading about the Juno landings last night makes the event quite vivid. I can't help wondering if I would have had the guts to leave the boat or if you would have found me quivering at the back of it hidden under a tarpaulin, all Flashman like. The quote above is only the second time I've seen the "Flak suit" mentioned by Canadian soldiers. George Blackburn, if I remember correctly, described somewhere in his trilogy the story of a soldier who's chest plate stopped a burst from a MP-40. As I recall the German behind the SMG was so stunned that the Canadian soldier had time to shoot him with his revolver.
At about 1:50 in the clip you can see a shell burst in the top left corner of the frame so although resistance at the time the film was shot may have been light, it still was a shooting war. I picked up a copy of "Voices from D-Day, eye-witness accounts of 6th June 1944" by Jonathan Bastable. Seeing this clip today and reading about the Juno landings last night makes the event quite vivid. I can't help wondering if I would have had the guts to leave the boat or if you would have found me quivering at the back of it hidden under a tarpaulin, all Flashman like. The quote above is only the second time I've seen the "Flak suit" mentioned by Canadian soldiers. George Blackburn, if I remember correctly, described somewhere in his trilogy the story of a soldier who's chest plate stopped a burst from a MP-40. As I recall the German behind the SMG was so stunned that the Canadian soldier had time to shoot him with his revolver. The first man to disembark, likely an officer, keeps ducking down, looking back and forth and is understandably nervous on the approach. It seems that some ordnance is flying close by. It appears that he also has a conversation with the Navy rating to his right and I assume is getting the warning that they are about to land. At 36 seconds into the clip, when he actually leaves the landing craft, you can see that slight pause as the door opens and he hesitates just a moment before taking that first step. As would most of us! When you think about it, the camera is capturing his courage as he leads his men into the unknown. I've watched this clip at least a dozen times and I see some new detail with each viewing. It is so representative of that 'moment of truth' for all the infantrymen who landed that day. With the predictions of dire casualties, any man whold have taken a deep breath before being the first to step off the ramp.
Milner's 'D-Day to Carpiquet' on the North Shores indicates that their A Coy landed with two platoons up, so the possibility that this is the third platoon would fit with the idea that these were not the first ashore while still allowing the A Coy identification mentioned in the Legion article.
Aerial view St-Aubin-sur-Mer showing NAN 7 Beach where the ¨North Shores¨ landed on June 6, 1944. AT LONG LAST the hour had come, and every man of the North Shore was eager to reach the beach of St. Aubin and get into action. The long wait in the cramped quarters aboard ship, and the nauseating roll of the troop carriers, made everyone anxious to put feet on solid ground and get on with the job. ¨B¨ Company The North Shore Regiment was divided into sections that all had there own strategies and attack plans which coincided with one another in attempts to overthrow the enemy. ¨B¨ Company had the hardest task in connection with landing on the shore of St. Aubin. The strong-point was at the highest point of land, and intelligence reports stated it had and estimated garrison of forty of all ranks, consisting mainly of category men evacuated from the Russian front with some Russians and Poles. They were classified as poor troops with morale only fair. After reaching the beach, ¨B¨ Company was to reorganize and move immediately to south of the strong point via the beach exit and main lateral road to take up a position preparatory to assaulting the strong point from the rear. No. 4 platoon would be to the right and No. 5 platoon to the left for the attack. No. 6 platoon would contain the enemy from the beach until the assault was ready. Lt. ¨Bones¨ McCann was the commander of the No. 6 platoon. ¨Our run-in was not bad,¨ he said, ¨except for a few of the lads suffering from mal-de-mer.¨ At this point they came under small arms fire depressed to ground-level, but landing on the beach was as scheduled and intact. Among the few wounded, the first officer casualty was No. 5 platoon leader Lt. G. V. Moran. ¨Bones¨ was unknown of this his injury at the time, but soon after was in charge of two platoons instead of one. Soon the No.6 platoon began to have more casualties. The enemy started sneaking up and appearing at unexpected places. One of the first to be hit was Cpl. Falls with a nasty cheek wound. Fortunately, there were no complications from the way they dressed his wound and he stayed right along with them. War Painting of St-Aubin-sur-Mer after landing of North Shore Regiment, 6 June, 1944, by War Artist, Capt. Fisher. No. 4 platoon was commanded by Lt. C. F. Richardson. ¨Tracer bullets from German anti-aircraft seemed to fill the air as we came in,¨ he said, ¨but everyone in our boat seemed to take it as just another scheme. In fact the morale was never higher and the platoon was merrily singing 'Roll Me Over, Lay Me Down' as we approached the shore. The Germans held fire until we were fairly close in. Our first casualty was when an armour-piercing bullet came through the L. C. A. and struck Pte. P. White a stunning blow in the forehead. Once we were out of the boat everyone acted mechanically, heading for the beach and the cover of the beach wall. We were fortunate in that we did not lose a man as we made for the high bank ahead, used our bangalore torpedo with good effect and were at close quarters with the enemy after traversing through what we later discovered was a mine field. The Germans were back of concrete and we were without armoured support. Soon the sniping became the most demoralizing aspect of the day as we began to lose one man after another. Around ten o'clock some tanks got ashore and word was sent to Major Forbes about the position of our platoon as we were pinned down by mortar and machine gun fire and could neither advance nor withdraw. Blakely had to cross an open area swept by machine gun fire but he made it, and then returned through the same peril with word that help was on the way, and immediately began helping move the wounded to a safer area. Major Forbes was able to get the tanks into action for us and none too soon as we had lost seventeen men, dead and wounded, from the sniping and shelling.¨ Capt. Bill Harvey was second in command of ¨B¨ Company and as he leaped ashore found the sand like coarse salt, slippery under foot. ¨Just in front of me,¨ he said, ¨a man was hit. Our first-aider immediately took care of him and the next man up automatically grabbed the gun and ammo and carried them on. Then we saw a low wire entanglement and the lads swung into action. The fuse was set, there was an explosion and as the smoke cleared the men rushed through to their respective stations.¨ The men could see the way in which the enemy had arranged his field of fire and had all approaches covered with machine gun fire. Snipers were cleverly located and could move underground from one point to another. The platoons were having a difficult time. Some were in exposed positions and sections had been lost. C. S. M. Don Murray was doing all possible but the situation was bad and would be until we had armored support. They were fighting to maintain stability and did so to the best of their ability, trying to have as few casualties as possible. When enough strength and help arrived, C. S. M. Don Murray, Lts. McCann and Richardson moved in with "B" Company for the attack on the strong-point. The enemy began to fly white flags but as the assault moved in, opened fire again, that caused more casualties. But the boys drove in and the tanks did their stuff. White flags went up again but the North Shore had had enough of that trickery and went in with bombs, cold steel and shooting. They inflicted many times the casualties the enemy had inflicted on them and cleaned out the place. Lt. McCann was into the stronghold with his men. It took two hours to thoroughly inspect the main gun positions and their underground connections, and no one knew whether or not we had all the enemy. Four officers and 75 other ranks were taken prisoner, and another fifty were killed or wounded. "B" Company, less McCann and his platoon, moved up the road, Away from St. Aubin, towards Tailleville and bedded down for the night at some distance from that village. Capt. Bill Harvey said he company had come though with flying colors in a show that was a real test, that among the heroes of the day were Lts. McCann and Richardson, Major Forbes, C. S. M. Murray, Sgt. Spray, Cpls. Falls, Joe McCann and Bilks Signalman Ron Cooke and Pte. A. R. Foster. "A" Company A few members of "A" Company. Front Row: (l-r) Syd Cable, Frank Cripps, Vince Nolan. Back Row: (l-r) "Red" Cripps, Bill Clancy, Marven Harding. . "A" Company, on the right, was to clear the beaches, swing right, capture the gap and buildings to the west. On landing the company immediately came under machine gun and mortar fire accompanied by 88mm air burst and in clearing their position of the beachhead sustained fairly heavy casualties from mines and booby traps, but obtained their objective on time and joined up with the Queen's Own Rifles on the right. Lt. M. M. Keith led his men across the beach to he wall but a mine exploded killing Sgt. Hugh McCormick, L/Sgt. Pal Walsh and Cpl. Albert Savoy. So Lt. Keith bore to his felt and had Pte. B. H. Elles fetch a bangalore to blast a lane though the wire. The explosion set off a hidden mine and Lt. Keith was terribly wounded while Pte. Elles was killed However the others got though the gap created by the explosion and house-to-house fighting began. "C" Company "C" and "D" Companies landed a few minutes after the first wave and took their turn at racing across the beach. "We did not have too many casualties there," said Capt. Hector LeBlanc, second in command of "C" Company, "because we had made plans to get from there as quickly as possible. I made a gap with my own wire-cutters along a wall and after making a reconnaissance I told the platoons to follow me. Lt. MacQuarrie's and Lt. Fawcett's followed me with no casualties but Lt. Day's platoon had found another gap and in going through it suffered three casualties. We met Major Daughney where we should have and then all started working our way towards St. Aubin church and cemetery. We met Lt.-Col. Buell and proceeded to the middle of the town. On reaching the main street we went right along to the church passing by the station and through "D" Company. We met two troops of tanks at the church, and had our three-inch mortar sections with us, with Sgt. Albanie Drapeau in charge. The anti-tank guns soon joined us and I had to stop Sgt. FitzGerald's boys from firing at the water tower. The advance started on toward Tailleville, our objective. As we were advancing with one platoon on the right and another on the left, with men spread out into the fields, the enemy mortars opened up. Sgt. Girvan came running back wounded in the neck. He was evacuated after being given first aid, then casualty reports started coming from the platoons. The tanks gave us good support so we kept slowly moving ahead." Major J. Ernest Anderson was in command of "D" Company. Their landing time was slightly delayed to allow supporting crafts to get into position. The run in to the beaches was uneventful, except for a great amount of seasickness. Bombs, rockets and supporting fire from naval craft as well as their own artillery in L. C. T.s was falling in the beach area and further into the town. They also watched "A" and "B" Companies land, as well as three or four tanks of the engineer assault crews, but could tell very little about enemy resistance due to smoke and fire from the town. During this time, Cpl. Main never made it ashore and was one of only two North Shore men listed as missing during the war. Word came back to Lt.-Col. Buell at headquarters that "A" Company had taken its objectives but in the doing had suffered 25 casualties. "B" Company reported they required much more time to complete their task and subdue the strong-point. However, they had completed clearing their portion of the village. "C" Company reported they had taken their objectives and were assembling ready to move on Tailleville when ordered. "D" Company reported they had cleared the remainder of St. Aubin but had some difficulty at isolated spots. Bob Forbes, commander of "B" Company, said they now realized the strength of the strong-point was much greater than they had anticipated. He was further puzzled by the fact that men kept appearing as thought the garrison were being supplied from somewhere. He asked for the assistance of some Fort Garry tanks to blow a hole in the control pillbox of this strong-point. A map of the Assault Landing in St-Aubin-sur-Mer, France. Click to enlarge. Support Company Capt. C. C. Gammon commanded Support Company. "Lt.-Col. Buell asked me for an anti-tank gun to clear out a pillbox. The pillbox was in the middle of a field 100 yards inshore and the Germans must have been quite frantic as they were throwing stick grenades over the top and none of our fellows were within 100 yards of them. One shot from an anti-tank gun finished that pillbox. Later, I made contact with "D" Company under Major J. E. Anderson, who had gone though to the far edge of the village and had captured the station and vicinity, and "C" Company under Major Daughney, who was occupying a farm commanding the road to Tailleville. By that time we were well in possession of the village and the only fighting going on was Major Forbes's company attacking the strong-point. All the time the Germans were mortaring the town. Just at the road on the beach, I met Major Archie McNaughton leading "A" Company. They had made contact with the Queen's Own and were going to push inland." (p.217) Carrier Company: "As we made our run in, they started to machine gun us," said Capt. J. A. Currie, who commanded the carriers. He had three with him, engineer jeeps and vehicles for the British 3rd Division. "We could see our lads ducking along ditches and back to the wall." Major Bob Forbes needed some help for his troops, so a section of carriers was suggested to push along through alleyways and give his men cover to advance in attack. It was a slow procedure, but the carriers moved along, the anti-tank guns blazed and "B" Company cleared one building after another. They were joined together by underground passages and there was a system of trenches as well. "We would get the Germans out of one tough spot and they would re-appear in another. We could not figure it out at the moment but by persistent fire and rushes "B" Company got them out and took a lot of prisoners. The pioneers were called and blew up a building that was in the way. This exposed the German gun position and they were pouring out with their hands up." http://www.gnb.ca/0007/Heritage/Regiment/chp7a.htm
We went over on D-Day [the Allied Normandy landings of June 6, 1944]. We were the last to sail because we were the only Landing Craft, Infantry, LCIs, that went all the way from Britain to France, or Normandy. We landed behind The North Shore Regiment of New Brunswick at 8:15 in the morning. I can remember it well. I was delayed for an hour. But anyway, we was about, the spectacular thing was when we woke up at 5:00 in the morning on June 6th, every ship had a [barrage] balloon [defense against low-level air attacks] above it. And the air was totally dominated by RAF [Royal Air Force], RCAF [Royal Canadian Air Force] and the US [Army] Air Force; and we never saw a German bomber or fighter anywhere near us. We landed on Juno Beach, Nan Red [Sector]. We were probably 40 minutes on the beach, and then I heard the colonel of our regiment calling out, [No.] 48 [Royal Marine] Commando rally here and that. I got up and at that time, a bomb fell down and I was wounded in three places, left leg broken, and the right shoulder, and the left wrist. So I was put out of commission; and I lay there until 9:00 at night on the beach. Frank Burton came along to the beach, presumably to collect arms and ammunition from those who had fallen. We [No. 48 Royal Marine Commando] had 55 killed on D-Day. I then was put in a ditch on a stretcher and given some penicillin for the first time ever. And that probably saved my life more than anything. That was the first part of three days in Normandy, which I lay on a beach or on a ditch rather, on a stretcher. And I’m sure that I was drugged very heavily because I don’t remember a damn thing about it. We were taken out by "ducks," DUKW, and they were amphibious landing craft that had been brought over; and they could run on both the land and in the sea. And we went onto a LCT, Landing Craft, Tank, and were taken back to Britain. We were in Epsom Downs when I first had my first operation. That was the race course and that was then a Saturday. The first buzz bombs [Vergeltungswaffe-1 (V-1): German flying bombs] came on Saturday night and they were shot down over the race course with frequency. So we were evacuated to Sheffield in Yorkshire. There I had my various operations and various reconditioning or recycling, or whatever you want. I went back to the Commando in December [1944], after they had landed at Walcheren, in Holland. When V-E [Victory in Europe] Day occurred, we were in a village in Holland; and we were with the Canadians all the way throughout Normandy, throughout Sicily and Italy actually, Canadians. So we had a close connection and that’s why we came to Canada. Ian Mair The Memory Project
