Canadian Military History Guide - Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia 180 joined by a contingent of current Canadian military as well as an impressive turn out of the French Army, Navy, Air Force and Foreign Legion. Politicians from France and Canada were there as well as a grateful public. O Canada and La Marseillaise were played, speeches given vowing never to forget, and the memorial was unveiled to thunderous applause; there were no weeds then. I shall never forget the veterans in attendance. They had come back, some for the first time since 1944, to a place of memory, mourning, and sacrifice. 127 Canadians lived their last day within a few kilometers of the memorial. So costly was the assault on Carpiquet airfield and the nearby village that the North Shore Regiment refers to Carpiquet as “the graveyard of the regiment.” Major J.E. Anderson, of the North Shores later wrote: I am sure that at some time during the attack every man felt he could not go on. Men were being killed or wounded on all sides and the advance seemed pointless as well as hopeless. I never realised until the attack on Carpiquet how far discipline, pride of unit, and above all, pride in oneself and family, can carry a man even when each step forward meant possible death. I have returned to this site many times since that memorable day in 1995. As a battlefield guide, I’ve been coming to Normandy for more than twenty-five years now. In that time, I have witnessed this site and other sites and markers of significance in the area become “unnoticed” too. I suspect very few who land at this regional airport today have any idea of what happened here. The passage of the last twenty-seven years has aged me for sure but veterans in their 70’s in attendance that day are now in their very late 90’s and 100’s. Without them, who comes here to remember? I suppose this question is at the heart of remembrance. What is remembered and who is remembered becomes selective over time. Thousands of Canadians will come to Normandy to “see Juno Beach”, which is actually multiple sites along a ten-kilometer stretch of Norman coastline, but few will go to Carpiquet just a twenty-five-minute drive away. COVID put my tour groups on hold for the last few years, but I went back to Normandy in July to reconnect with sites that have meant much to me over the years. After so many years, I typically don’t take many photos anymore, but I was struck this time by so many other “forgotten” memorials that I took pictures. The memorials that are presented below do not comprise any sort of comprehensive list or have any cohesive theme. All that they have in common is that they are Canadian, in Normandy, and likely go unnoticed today but at one time and to certain people meant much. H/Captain Callum Thompson, a Canadian chaplain, conducting a funeral service in the Normandy bridgehead, France, 16 July 1944. Wiki Commons.
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