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Thursday,
April 21
After
an early breakfast the buses loaded for Caen. It was morning
traffic on the Paris Ring road so everyone watched the city
creeping past. Paris is remarkably clean but some places along
here needed some cleanup.
Once out into the country it was beautiful, the fields growing
crops, trees in leaf, and flowers here and there. The season
was much more advanced than back in Canada. At one point we
watched one of our buses go a different route from the other.
Interesting! We stopped at Caen to pick up Dr. Jean Pierre Benamou.
 The
air was hazy as the buses pulled up to the Juno Beach Museum
overlooking Juno Beach. For me it was a disappointment. It was
a poorly designed building, representing nothing, unless it
was one of the destroyed gun bunkers. Inside there was the usual
display of mannequins dressed in a variety of uniforms with
assorted war time items around them. I had expected more for
such an important location.
The group toured the museum and then walked to the beaches where
they could see how well the German Army could control the landing
points on the beach. There was little else for the Allies to
do but walk into blistering enemy fire and hope to get through.
Twenty one thousand Canadians made the march, spread  across
6 miles of beach that surrounded the little town of Courseulles-sur-Mer.
The group was fortunate indeed to have with them Dr. Jean Pierre
Benamou and Major General Graham Hollands. Mr. Benamou has been
a friend of the Canadians for many years and his interpretive
skills were excellent.
Later the veterans posed in front of a tank from the Ist Hussars
which recently was retrieved from the ocean and placed in town
with several plaques attached to it.
The tour proceeded higher up the hill where, from the cliffs,
they could see the Mullberries, the huge structures that were
towed from England to act as harbours in a land where there
were no welcoming ports.
At the War cemetery at Benny Sur Mer they took time to visit
and lay a wreath for the fallen comrades.
After driving across the quiet countryside the buses arrived
at Abbaye Ardennes which is a complex of huge stone buildings.
The Abby had been taken over by the Germans. When they had to
retreat because of the Allies moving in, Kurt Meyer's troops
took several Canadian prisoners outside and shot them in the
back of the head. A large plaque lists the names of those found. |
