September 29 - Juno Beach

If the L'Ecrin hotel is considered a three star hotel in France, I can't begin to imagine what a four star hotel must be like.  Our room is spacious with modern art prints on the walls.  The walls are covered in material instead of paint or wallpaper.  It gives the room a warm intimate feeling.

For breakfast we ate in the Manor House in a large sun room that overlooked a very serene garden. The layout of the garden would make our good friend Annie T envious.

The breakfast was the usual French fare.  Cheese, ham, cereals, juice, bread/toast/croissants, boiled eggs, coffee, hot chocolate and yogurt.   The coffee was served in a silver chalice, How bourgeois !

Today was a very educational, yet extremely emotional day for us.  We visited the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. This is site where the Canadian troops came ashore on D-Day to begin the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.

Juno Beach - Center or White Zone

When we arrived, we walked down to the beach where the troops would have landed.  The English Channel was rough but not as rough as it was on June 6, 1944. On that day waves, some two metres high, made sailing difficult even at reduced speed. The ships and landing crafts were tossed around and many got seasick. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a landing craft, jumping into waist high water with 40 pounds of equipment, having waves a meter over my head crashing over me as I run into an unprotected beach dodging machine gun fire from the enemy, all the while hoping that I don’t step on a land mine.  

There were six landing areas on Juno beach, spanning about six kilometers of beach front.  While the fighting still raged, some French civilians left their homes. They were astonished to meet soldiers who spoke their language. 

The Juno Beach Centre is in the middle of these landing areas.

When the D-Day plans were drawn up, Juno beach was considered the second most deadly mission, next to Omaha Beach which was in the American sector.  It was expected that Canadian troops would experience fifty percent casualties in the first twelve hours. Instead the number of casualties was considerably lower.On D-Day 574 men of the 3rd Canadian Division were wounded and 340 were killed. Of all Allied troops the Canadians advanced the furthest inland, reaching most of its primary goals on the first day.  It was only after British Viscount Montgomery took command of the Canadian troops that our advance slowed down, allowing the Germans to counter attack and prepare better its defenses.

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Juno Beach Centre

The museum itself is wonderful.  Instead of just concentrating on D-Day, it also showed the political, social and economic impact of the Second World War on Canada.  In one exhibit there are letters from Canadian and French children as they give their interpretation of the events.  One particular note from a French child tells of her feelings following the arrest and execution of her father by the Germans.











There was also a picture from the RCAF training school in St. Thomas.  This eventually became the "Physic Hospital", where Marg worked during her career.

To conclude the visit to museum, there is a short film called “They Walk With You”.  In the film they show the historical facts about the Canadian role in the liberation of Normandy, Belgium and Holland.  At end they talk about how some units lost over half of their men during the months following D-Day. As they talk, photographs of the troops are displayed on the screen where the photos are then photoshopped so that it appears that dead have dissolved right before our eyes .  In the final sequence a young Canadian family is shown walking down Juno Beach, followed by the ghosts of these young men who sacrificed their lives to liberate Europe.  This still brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

German Bunker

There was tour of the German bunkers after the museum visit.  How the troops got past these bunkers, is beyond description.  It must have been a killing zone.

The museum is a privately funded, by a not for profit, organization.  It was founded by several veterans on the 50th anniversary of D-Day.  Walmart is a large sponser to this site.

On our way home we stopped at the Canadian cemetery at Beny Sur La Mar.  It is a very tranquil setting. Seeing all these grave stones, really drives home the debt of honour we owe these men and women of our parents generation.

Graveside Poem

We had not planned this, but the cities they we have visited in the north were all liberated by Canadian troops in 1944 - 45.  They include Rouen, Brugge, Ghent, Antwerp, Dieppe, Honfluer and Courseulles-sur-Mer.

On a lighter note, we meet a couple from Montreal at the cemetery.  They have also have had problems with their rental car.  They did explain how to shift the Peugeot into reverse.  It only took us eight days to get this right.

For dinner tonight we went to “Aux Vieux Honfleur”.  We had seafood which was good but not the best we’ve had.