PM honours troops for D-Day invasion - FTA Files Community Forums for Satellite Equipment

**Putski** · #1 (**permalink**) 06-06-2009, 06:37 PM

PM honours troops for D-Day invasion
World leaders gather in France to commemorate 65th anniversary
Last Updated: Saturday, June 6, 2009 | 10:05 AM ET Comments101Recommend57CBC News
In this June 1944 file photo, U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land near Normandy in the days following the Allies' D-Day invasion of France. (Peter Carroll/Associated Press)Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid tribute Saturday to Canadian soldiers who landed at Juno Beach in northern France 65 years ago and helped Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Europe.

The soldiers who stormed the beach in the face of enemy fire took on "the most dangerous task imaginable," the prime minister said during an event in Caen, France.

They changed the course of history and "gave us the foundations of the peaceful and prosperous society we have today," Harper said.

"We should always remember that, acknowledge that and be prepared ourselves to defend those things and those values in the future."

Sam Garnett, 86, was a Royal Canadian Air Force gunner aboard a patrol aircraft flying above the Allied invasion force and spoke in Caen about his experiences.

English Channel crowded with warships
"We flew protecting the [English] Channel, especially down by the Bay of Biscay. And from the air, the Channel looked like you could walk across it — there was so much shipping in that narrow area."

Earlier Saturday, Harper laid a wreath at the grave of an unknown soldier at the Canadian war cemetery at Bény-sur-Mer. A quiet patch of land near Bény-sur-Mer is the final resting place for 2,044 Canadian soldiers who died on D-Day and in the days and weeks of fighting that followed.

Later in the day, the Allies who took part in the historic Second World War battle in Normandy marked the anniversary with a major service at Colleville-sur-Mer, the U.S. war cemetery where over 14,000 soldiers are buried.

About 130,000 Allied troops faced German machine-gun fire as they stormed the Normandy coastline in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, in an operation that saw landings on five beaches.

The Canadian delegation marking the 65th anniversary of D-Day joined U.S. President Barack Obama, Britain's Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Prince Charles greeted those leaders, as well as veterans, during the afternoon ceremony at Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach.

'Like a waking nightmare'
Sarkozy spoke of the horrors of the landings.

"At 5:45 a.m. the guns of 1,200 warships had opened fire. At 6:30 a.m., the landings began. There was a stiff wind. The landing craft were rocked by waves many feet high.

"The troops — soaked, shivering with cold and seasick — had to bail out without helmets. Many who had jumped to shore too soon were drowned. Some craft sank before they could reach land.

"One Canadian armoured unit lost 15 of its total of 19 tanks before even landing on the beach, and those who did make it to shore waded through the bodies of the dead and wounded that floated on the tide. Then they had to step over more corpses lying on the sand.

"One of the very first American infantrymen to land on Omaha Beach wrote, 'It was unreal, like a waking nightmare. The ground was so strewn with bodies that you could practically cross the beach without touching the sand.'"

President Barack Obama holds his hand to his heart during the playing of the U.S. national anthem with Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Colleville-sur-Mer, France on Saturday. (Gerald Herbert/Associated Press)
The Canadians overran the port of Courseulles-sur-Mer and two smaller villages to the east, Bernières and St. Aubin. By nightfall on June 6, 1944, they had penetrated further inland than either the Americans or the British.

Okill Stuart, 88, was a lieutenant with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment, which was tucked in behind the Queen's Own Rifles Regiment when it landed at St. Aubin.

His regiment's 105-mm self-propelled guns started lobbing shells at the fortified coastline — which bristled with guns and fields of barbed wire — even before they rolled off the landing craft.

Near his landing craft were floating tanks that had capsized, Stuart said. On shore, once the major firefight was over, he drove around in a Sherman tank, which had to come to a halt while waiting for a path to clear.

As they waited, a French couple came out of their house with bottles and glasses. They offered Stuart and his crew sips of Calvados, a Norman liquor made of fermented apples
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