Juno News - 80th Anniversary of D-Day - Lest we forget

00:00:00.000 Today is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. One of the most important days in 1.00

00:00:11.640 Canadian history and one of the most important days in world history. On this day, 80 years ago,

00:00:17.880 over 14,000 Canadian soldiers were given their task, given their own landing ground on the

00:00:23.520 beaches of Normandy, and successfully carried out the invasion of Juneau Beach with steel

00:00:29.240 resolve and true Canadian grit. It cost us heavily, but our troops did the job and they did it well.

00:00:36.280 D-Day was and still remains the largest and most ambitious military operation in history. And today,

00:00:43.800 for likely the very last time, our soldiers who stormed Juneau Beach 80 years ago are back on that

00:00:50.720 beach today, standing shoulder to shoulder to mark this important day in history. You all know the

00:00:57.120 history of D-Day and the pivotal role that Canadian soldiers played in the Second World War. But over

00:01:01.660 the past two years, True North has had the honor of speaking with two men who were there that day,

00:01:07.340 who saw it happen through their own eyes, who answered the call when our country needed them

00:01:12.200 the most. And today on Ratioed, we're going to let them speak about what D-Day was like

00:01:17.380 through their own eyes. Jim Parks, who was part of the first wave of Canadian soldiers to land on

00:01:23.780 Juneau Beach, and Honorary Lieutenant General Richard Romer, a reconnaissance fighter pilot who

00:01:29.660 flew several missions on D-Day over the skies of Normandy. Now, before we get into the show,

00:01:35.180 the common question is not much of a question, but it's more of a request. If you have a family

00:01:39.780 member who fought for Canada in the Second World War, tell their story below in the comments. Tell us

00:01:45.740 their names so we can remember them and honor their sacrifice. Here are some of the beautiful scenes

00:01:51.600 on Juneau Beach earlier today, where for likely the very last time, our Canadian troops who stormed

00:01:56.520 that beach 80 years ago are back on the beach, marking this important day, standing shoulder to

00:02:02.080 shoulder, and remembering those that never were able to come home. Our Prime Minister, the Prime

00:02:07.500 Minister of France, and other foreign dignitaries were there on the beach today. But I want to

00:02:12.440 highlight the comments of Canada's future King, the Prince of Wales, Prince William, who had this to

00:02:18.040 say to our troops who made it back to the beach today.

00:02:22.960 I want to thank you, our veterans, for your extraordinary acts of bravery and sacrifice on

00:02:30.080 Juneau Beach and the liberation of Europe. All of you demonstrated heroism and determination

00:02:37.960 that ensured fascism was conquered. The commitment to service displayed by Canadian troops is a great

00:02:47.120 testament to the strength of the people of Canada. Canada and the UK continue to stand side by side,

00:02:56.880 as we did in 1944, just as strong together 80 years later. Ensuring the memory of those who fought for

00:03:07.680 freedom lives on, is why we've come together again today, to say thank you. Thank you for our freedom,

00:03:17.840 and thank you for your service. Merci pour notre liberté et merci pour votre service.

00:03:25.520 I want to go into the operational detail of Canada's D-Day mission. Over 14,000 Canadian soldiers

00:03:33.760 were involved in the operation. 121 Royal Canadian Navy vessels were also involved, and 15 Royal Canadian

00:03:42.480 Air Force squadrons were involved in the operation. The training for the operation began in June of 1943,

00:03:49.600 basically a full year before Canadian troops touched down on Juneau Beach. Juneau Beach was divided into two

00:03:56.080 sectors, Mike, which was for the west side, and Nan for the east side. Mike's sector was attacked by the

00:04:02.240 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade, followed by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, the Canadian Scottish Regiment,

00:04:08.800 and the 1st Hussars who were in support. The Nan sector was attacked by the Regina Rifle Regiment of

00:04:14.720 the 7th Brigade, the North Shore Regiment, the Queen's Own Rifles, and the Fort Gary Horse Tank Regiment.

00:04:21.520 The Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the Queen's Own Rifles, who were part of the first wave of landings,

00:04:26.400 took heavy casualties on the day. Over 350 Canadians laid down their lives on Juneau Beach,

00:04:32.720 with a further 1,000 casualties on the day. And although the Canadians landed last on this day,

00:04:38.000 the Canadians finished the day ahead of the British and American divisions. And for those that haven't

00:04:44.000 seen it, I want to take this opportunity to read the letter that was delivered to all Canadian troops

00:04:49.040 on the eve of D-Day by Lieutenant General Harry Crearer, who was in command of the 1st Canadian

00:04:54.640 Army. I want all ranks of the Canadian Army to know what is in my mind as the hour approaches when we

00:04:59.760 go forward into battle. I have complete confidence in our ability to meet the tests which lie ahead.

00:05:05.200 We are excellently trained and equipped. The quality of both senior and junior leadership is of the

00:05:09.680 highest. As Canadians, we inherit military characteristics which were feared by the enemy

00:05:15.280 in the last Great War. They will be still more feared before this war terminates. The plans,

00:05:20.720 the preparations, the methods, and the technique which will be employed are based on knowledge and

00:05:26.240 experience bought and paid for by two Canadian divisions at Dieppe. The contributions of that

00:05:31.920 hazardous operation cannot be overestimated. It will prove to have been the essential prelude to our

00:05:37.200 forthcoming and final success. We enter into this decisive phase of the war with full faith in our cause,

00:05:43.760 with calm confidence in our abilities and with grim determination to finish quickly and unmistakably

00:05:48.640 this job we came overseas to do. As in 1918, the Canadians in Italy and in Northwest Europe will 0.99

00:05:54.880 hit the enemy again and again until at some not distant time the converging Allied armies link together

00:06:01.200 and we will be rejoined in victory with our comrades of one Canadian Corps. It was that letter

00:06:07.600 which would have been read by Jim Parks of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles before he landed at Juneau Beach on D-Day.

00:06:15.680 This is what he experienced on that day. We were put on bolts at Portsmouth which is the southern part

00:06:21.840 of England that's where we and I was in a landing craft tank which is a bigger one because I was with

00:06:27.120 the mortar platoon and we had two mortar carriers which and we were lined up behind two armoured

00:06:34.560 bulldozers on the landing craft tank and we're supposed to go into the beach two minutes ahead

00:06:41.200 of the infantry assault boats because the armoured bulldozers had big ropes on them with hooks and when

00:06:48.240 they could come off the landing craft they were to pull off all the obstacles in the water which would

00:06:53.760 allow the landing craft to come in uh we wouldn't be uh hitting the uh the obstacles however that uh

00:07:01.520 that's the way it was we're supposed to be two minutes ahead of them but uh the way things worked

00:07:06.560 out that uh we all got mixed up and we got uh we were mixed up with the uh landing craft coming in

00:07:15.200 and the uh bulldozers they uh they were they were a little late a little late getting pulling those uh

00:07:21.680 obstacles all the water but the when they went off when they went off the landing craft the uh

00:07:28.160 it uh landing craft got fouled up and our our carriers the wind went off the uh landing craft

00:07:35.440 the water was too deep and we we sank the water was about eight feet deep and it was uh there's about

00:07:42.880 six eight feet when you figure out the waves and the uh when you get close to the shore it's rougher

00:07:49.680 and uh so we end up instead of having coming on on the shore with the two mortar carriers we end up

00:07:56.560 swimming in instead the mortar carriers were under the water so i end up on the beach and uh the first

00:08:03.120 thing i got to the beach i i plopped beside this uh i knew this corporal corporal scape he'd been mortally

00:08:10.080 mooted so i picked up i picked up the sten gun from him because i lost all my equipment going in

00:08:17.120 and uh then i headed for the sand dunes and waited for the rest of our our crew to come in it took a

00:08:23.760 little while because there's there's a lot of uh a lot of noise and a lot of uh a lot of firing going

00:08:29.600 on and the uh they although the machine gun fire being put down there's a lot of mortar bombs still

00:08:36.640 landing from the the enemy had mortars uh further inland and they were popping the bombs onto the

00:08:42.720 beach so we had to take cover quite a bit otherwise we uh we were kind of lucky too because the the sand

00:08:50.400 would absorb quite a bit of the uh the shock of the bomb landing and take up a bit of the shrapnel but uh it

00:08:57.440 was still pretty dangerous the debt that we owe major jim parks and his fellow troops of the royal

00:09:02.560 winnipeg rifles who stormed juneau beach is simply incalculable but we have a duty to never forget his

00:09:08.880 name and never forget his sacrifice i now want to highlight what d-day was like from the skies

00:09:15.600 through the eyes of honorary lieutenant general richard romer who i had the honor to speak with

00:09:21.120 last remembrance day and who told us what it was like to play a role on this truly historic day well

00:09:29.520 uh d-day we finally knew where the landing was going to be and the two of us went out from england

00:09:38.720 and across it was a very exciting moment because this is what we had been training for no fear it was

00:09:45.840 all pumped up and uh my trip across was very simple uh i was a number two flying on uh was a fellow called

00:10:00.960 jack taylor and we got over to the over to the beach uh sector and there was a wall of cloud

00:10:12.800 right sitting over the beach so that we had to go under the wall and down to about 500 feet to get

00:10:22.560 through this which is what we did people firing at us in the usual way then we went down to kong

00:10:32.080 which is a big town to do a reconnaissance came back up the oran river and there was a big bridge there

00:10:40.480 the the the british had landed the gliders filled with troops and they were fighting that battle at

00:10:48.640 the moment then up and down the beach back and forth and on a reconnaissance basis also looking for

00:10:57.840 any any fighters that might be coming to attempt to shoot up people on the beach and there weren't

00:11:05.440 any because we had between the british and the canadians and the americans the fighters had

00:11:15.200 fundamentally from the german point of view disappeared and then at that point i i going up and down the

00:11:25.280 beach two of us and i looked at my fuel gauge and it said zero

00:11:31.440 so because i had been flying on this other man not really paying attention to my petrol

00:11:41.280 and so i said to my number one time to get home so we left and went up to england and i landed

00:11:50.880 thorny island the petrol ran out when i touched down just barely mid but the concentration on

00:12:02.560 what was happening there outside the airplane was total which is the reason i almost lost myself in

00:12:10.480 terms of running out of fuel but i made it all right yeah and you went back later on the same day

00:12:19.840 oh well wow yeah i i i i got fuel no problem in the p51 and back to base got rebriefed again for a new

00:12:33.440 mission which i was leading this time so it was a full day and i did i think two more one more there

00:12:43.280 and then two more the next day it was keep going and you can remember you can remember what it was

00:12:50.480 like that day oh absolutely yeah absolutely it just it was a a great exercise in euphoria because we were

00:13:02.880 doing what we've been trained to do and we're doing it well and uh yeah it was scary from time to time but

00:13:13.600 the reality was we were making progress on the ground which was our job to help them and we did and from

00:13:22.400 the sky on that day could you feel like the the invasion was working could you see it making it

00:13:28.560 making its progress and and you could you feel like you guys were were winning the day we when we got

00:13:35.760 back to base we could be we were briefed as to how the army were army bridge canadian american were

00:13:43.440 doing on the ground that's when we could tell we were making some real progress and they added that

00:13:50.960 into what we could see when we were flying our reconnaissance so we could tell that we're making good

00:13:57.600 progress indeed i'm in a little airplane and i'm totally concentrating with another two or three or

00:14:05.920 whatever people and that's my world and if it's going bad for me i can tell or if it's going good i can

00:14:17.920 tell and getting back and forth 135 times it was quite something certainly and i never thought about

00:14:30.560 it very much the reality was from time to time i got scared big time but the reality was i would stick

00:14:41.600 my head below the level of the cockpit and uh keep going like hard to put it all into words i can only

00:14:52.160 imagine yeah was there a sense amongst your squadron and amongst amongst people involved in the war that

00:14:59.760 this they were involved in something very special did you guys feel like you were you were you were

00:15:05.600 in history uh oh yeah no question about that it will not be long until the heroes like jim parks and

00:15:14.640 richard romer will no longer be with us we live in a country that shares very little similarity to the

00:15:21.600 one that they fought for and in many cases died for 80 years ago we live in a country with leaders

00:15:27.360 who seem ashamed of our past with leaders who seem more interested in erasing and rewriting our history

00:15:34.480 than celebrating it and honoring it the good the bad and the ugly our leaders today seem more

00:15:40.560 concerned about achieving diversity quotas and by lowering the uniform and dress regulations for our

00:15:47.200 canadian soldiers than by building up a strong and competent fighting force we live in a society today

00:15:54.080 that shuns masculinity and suppresses patriotism and nationalism our prime minister believes canada

00:16:01.360 has no core values and that we are a post-national state we must never forget the names of those who fought

00:16:08.480 and died for this country who paid the ultimate price we owe them at the very least a debt of gratitude

00:16:15.840 but i would argue that we all as canadians today have to do our part to fight for and to preserve

00:16:21.760 the country that our great canadian soldiers laid down their lives for we must not let our country

00:16:27.920 crumble and fragment into pieces over political and linguistic lines we must remain a proud and unified

00:16:34.960 people willing to stand up and to oppose those that seek to irreparably damage our country before i sign

00:16:42.080 off i want to leave you with two short clips from the two men you heard earlier in the episode jim parks

00:16:49.680 gives some advice to young canadians today and so uh what is the message that you have when you speak

00:16:55.360 to schools you speak to students you speak to young canadians uh what is it that you think is important

00:17:00.560 that they know about what you live through uh what the second world war was fought for and and what canada

00:17:07.120 uh means to you well what it means is that just cherish what they have look around what they've

00:17:14.720 got they're able to walk be able to get a job where they want they have a travel where they want they can

00:17:20.880 do what they want each day get up you take what job they want but they have they have the freedom of

00:17:26.320 choice it's a matter of preparing themselves for that choice and they stick at the advantage of that

00:17:32.960 don't take it for granted just just uh just realize what you have and utilize every every aspect you

00:17:41.760 can of your energy and your education to do the best you can to make a living because what you've got

00:17:48.080 your whole life ahead of you you've got to prepare for it you've got to make sure you've got a bit of

00:17:53.120 good foundation and you've got to look ahead prepare yourself for not only the next year but look ahead a

00:18:01.040 bit and say well how am i preparing today so i'm better off next year and the year after like if

00:18:09.280 you you're looking forward to uh when you first get started you get married or you want to get a

00:18:14.160 you want to get a house how are you going to you have to plan ahead of time how you're going to plan

00:18:18.560 to get that where are you going to go and in the meantime you've got your own job you're preparing

00:18:23.840 you're preparing yourself in your own job and you're you're you're improving yourself in your education

00:18:30.080 and work habits so you get ahead in your job and earn more money because it wasn't worth earning

00:18:35.680 the money you're not going to go anywhere you've got to get a good foundation of work habits and

00:18:41.040 education and lieutenant general richard romer answers the question what it means to be a canadian

00:18:48.080 we're bringing in a lot of new people into canada and a lot of people are coming into this country

00:18:52.480 and i'd like to know from your perspective it's a tough question i can't answer myself i wish i could but

00:18:58.000 i struggle to at least in your mind what does it mean to be a canadian ah that means to be

00:19:06.640 to me it's very simple

00:19:10.480 to me it means to be part of a country that is not a threat to anybody that is a little dragging its feet

00:19:20.160 in terms of protecting itself uh it's the i when i i do a lot of talking and speaking and i said this

00:19:34.400 is the finest country in the world in which to live and we're letting too many people in from time to time 0.73

00:19:40.720 uh we're doing but the reality is uh we are not a power but we are a presence and

00:19:56.560 we're letting people in here by the high numbers of 500 000 a year i don't know how we're going to do that

00:20:04.000 but the reality to be canadian is is a matter of great pride for me and it's the safest country that

00:20:15.600 i know to be a citizen and a participating citizen to the best of one's ability it's the first the

00:20:28.160 the finest country in the world in which to live right now

Juno News - June 06, 2024

80th Anniversary of D-Day - Lest we forget

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