The SaltWire Network is publishing a series of articles commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Hundreds of soldiers from Atlantic Canada took part in the invasion and we tell some of their stories.
VIDEO: The road to D-Day
By Christine Soucie, The Chronicle Herald
Army Museum curator Ken Hynes speaks about the D-Day exhibit at the Halifax Citadel Museum in Halifax on May 28, 2019.
Why a school in France is named for a Pictou soldier
By Francis Campbell, The Chronicle Herald
There are many lessons to be learned from the Second World War. Gabrielle Cheverie is doing her bid to impart some of them.
U-boat hunter Roderick Deon returns to Juno Beach for D-Day
By Glen Whiffen, The Telegram
On June 6, Roderick Deon of St. John’s will stand at Juno Beach in France. It will be the first time the Royal Canadian Navy veteran of the Second World War has been in France since D-Day 75 years ago.
Sound of gunfire rang in P.E.I. soldier’s ears
By Millicent McKay, Journal Pioneer
James Winn was deep in thought as he sat in his rocking chair five years ago. Looking at him, you wouldn’t be able to guess what was on his mind. That is until his eyes welled up and his breathing became shallow.
North Nova Scotia Highlanders at the sharp end of D-Day invasion
By Francis Campbell, The Chronicle Herald
They were innocent, fresh-faced rural kids not far removed from school, the sons of farmers, fishermen and miners. And the big, wide world beckoned.
STORY MAP: Follow the D-Day experience of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders
By The Chronicle Herald
The North Nova Scotia Highlanders were part of Canada's 9th Infantry Brigade. On June 6, 199 they landed on Juno Beach with their fellow Canadians and other Allied forces. Follow their journey from their home garrison in Amherst, N.S. all the way to Normandy.
12 North Nova Scotia Highlanders murdered at Abbaye d’Ardenne
By The Chronicle Herald
On June 7 and 8, 1944, just hours after the D-Day invasion, 18 Canadian soldiers were executed by German troops of the 25th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, commanded by Kurt Meyer.
‘It was noisy as the devil,’ says St. John’s torpedo man
By Glen Whiffen, The Telegram
From his position on the deck of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Tracker, Charles Starkes could hear the unnerving drone of thousands of planes racing across the sky over the English Channel for the coast of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
59th Newfoundland Heavy Regiment was eager to do its part
By Glen Whiffen, The Telegram
On D-Day in 1944, it was a waiting game for George Thomas Hudson and his fellow members of the 59th Newfoundland Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery.
A P.E.I. dispatcher’s long, uncertain journey to Normandy
By Millicent McKay, Journal Pioneer
While the D-Day war effort started on June 6, 1944, it lasted far longer than one day.
“If you went to war between June 6 and early August, you were thought of as part of the D-Day party,” said Ira Enman, a 97-year-old Second World War veteran from Northam, P.E.I.
LAURENT LE PIERRÈS: D-Day invasion was best birthday present for my Dad
By Laurent Le Pierres, The Chronicle Herald
Was it the distant sound of thunder? Strange, though, how it never got louder or fainter and how it would not let up. It was 6 o'clock in the morning and Dad rose to investigate. His whole body was an aching reminder of the day before.
‘Sight of our boys being blown up ... wouldn’t leave my mind:’ Bedford veteran, author
By Francis Campbell, The Chronicle Herald
Fred Turnbull was an able seaman during the Second World War who helped guide landing craft to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
Dartmouth veteran's first combat mission was D-Day invasion
By Francis Campbell, The Chronicle Herald
Second World War battles still rage intermittently in the uncluttered mind of 98-year-old veteran Havelyn Chiasson.
Halifax air gunner had bird’s-eye view of D-Day
By Francis Campbell, The Chronicle Herald
Russell Hubley had a bird’s-eye view of the chaos and carnage that was D-Day.
“We saw the troops going into the water and some of them never got to shore,” said Hubley, a sergeant and air gunner with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
‘We had everything fired at us but the galley sink’: Yarmouth County veterans share war and D-Day memories
By Tina Comeau, The Vanguard
There are photos in the house of a younger version of Wesley Spinney. When he was 18. He’s 95 now.
New Waterford veteran has lived good life after surviving D-Day invasion
By David Jala, Cape Breton Post
D-Day veteran Joe Petrie lived through the horror of war, but the 98-year-old hasn’t let the memories get in the way of a life well lived.
JOHN DeMONT: An old film clip of D-Day shows the nature of courage
By John DeMont, The Chronicle Herald
I have never done anything physically courageous: no subduing an airplane hijacker, no standing resolutely in a meadow as a grizzly bear rears up on its two hind legs.
D-Day landing map’s origins a mystery to army museum historians
By Brian Hayes, for The Chronicle Herald
They know what it is, but when, where and who made it remains a mystery to military historians at the Army Museum Halifax Citadel.
The approximately 4.5-metre-long by two-metre-wide Second World War observation map, depicts the June 6, 1944, D-Day landing of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division’s 9th brigade on Juno Beach in France.
