Wednesday

We went on a Dday tour of Juno beach and the route the Canadians took on June 7 and 8. This seawll was too high and the Canadians had to make their way along the beach to get behind it. 45% casualties. Machine gun nests and anti-tank guns all along the beach. On one beach,the Canadians could only leave by a narrow road that the navy had blown a huge crater in. They lost a tank in the crater and built a bridge over it. Recently they have dug up the tank. The Canadian cemetery was very moving. The Canadians were holed up in a small town and Leon Gagne and the bakery's daughter fell in love. He said he would come back for her. He wrote to her after the war and said she wouldn't want him now ( he lost both legs to a mine). She went to Canada and married him. The abbey in the bottom two pictures was where the SS holed up. 27 Canadian soldiers were executed there.