This morning, my wife and I attended a D-Day ceremony in our city. There were about a dozen or so veterans there who took part in the invasion of Europe on June 6th, 1944.
I was pretty disappointed to see that most of the people that showed up to watch it were mainly family members of the veterans. 90% of the people today don't know what D-Day is or they just don't give a damn. It's very sad. We owe everything we take for granted in our lives to these men and women that served under our Canadian flag.

Unlike the other nations of the Allied army, ALL of Canada's soldiers during the war were volunteers! We didn't have a draft system and didn't need one. The dedication of these guys willing to give up their lives, careers and home life to assist people of other countries across the ocean amazes me to no end. They are true heros.

One man I spoke with after the ceremony had told us about a few of his experiences overseas. He was part of the invasion force that had invaded France on D-Day. He fought from the beaches of France straight through to Germany the following year. He said he "had seen more front-line action than just about anybody".

When he was fighting in France, he was part of the force that tried to close the "Falaise Gap" (a corridor that the Germans used to retreat through when they left France. Many thousands of German soldiers were captured, but the bulk of their army made it through to fight another day). He had entered a house to find two German soldiers filling their canteens with French wine. He had surprised them so much that they had dropped their guns and spilled all the wine they were stealing onto the floor. They surrendered immediatley to him.

He had also experienced some very terrifying moments as well. One day in Holland during Operation "Market Garden", a German shell landed right in front of him. It had knocked him down and winded him. He was lucky because it had killed both men on either side of him. He suffered no injuries.

Another time in France, he had collected money from captured Germans who had stolen it from the French people. He kept the money in his paybook in his back pocket (he said the wad of money was about 4 or 5 inches thick). His commanding officer instructed them to give the money to the French kids in the town, but before doing so, he was hit with a piece of shrapnel. It tore through the paybook with the wad of money and slowed it down enough so that he only recieved a small cut and a bruise. If it wasn't for that money, he said he would have suffered a pretty serious wound or even killed.

Another time he wasn't so lucky, he caught a small piece of shrapnel that went though his bottom lip and broke two of his teeth. The scars are still visible today. He told us he had been wounded a couple of other times, but each time he had made it back to his unit and continued on.

It was a great experience and an honour to meet these men and share some of their stories. It's sad to know that most of the personal experiences these guys had will be lost forever when they leave us for good.

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Tomorrow (June 6th, 2004) will be the 60th anniversary of D-Day. It was the beginning of the liberation of Nazi controlled Europe.

Just after midnight on June 6th, 1944, Allied planes had dropped approximately 20,000 paratroopers (the US 101st Airborne, 82nd Airborne and British 6th Airborne divisions behind enemy lines to assist with defending the beaches of Normandy as the invasion began later that morning. They also captured key bridges and roads that would be crucial for the re-supplying of the troops in the following days and weeks of the operation.

At 6:30 am, more than 150,000 soldiers aboard 7,000 ships attacked the French coast while 11,000 planes assisted from above. It was the largest invasion force in history. Operation Overlord as the invasion was called, lasted about 80 days and cost the Allies over 10,000 casualties on just the first day alone (D-Day).

If you have a chance, go attend the many ceremonies that will be taking place all over the world tomorrow and make sure to thank a veteran for the sacrifices they made. We owe everything we have to these people.

Note: The helmet pictured above was found near Wiltz, Luxembourg. It belonged to an American soldier who took part in the "Battle of the Bulge". The battle was the last major offensive by the German army before they were pushed back into their own country and were defeated. Many of the American soldiers (maybe even the one who wore this helmet) took part in D-Day and fought all the way through to Germany more than 8 months later.

The helmet is a part of my collection.

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