[music] It’s a funny thing, you know, I can watch a war picture and yet when I see some of these films where some guy pops up with a gun and points it in somebody’s face, I can’t stand it. I just shut it off. >> I still see things. I close my eyes and just see pictures. It’s [snorts] like a movie. I don’t care how many films you make, you’re not going to come near describing

war because war is something by itself. Unless you experience it, you don’t know it. The forces of liberation move to their rendevu with destiny. The landings are on. >> Everything was just so noisy. When when shall started landing and things were blowing up, you realized then it was for real. There were hell breaking loose everywhere.

We had battleships firing in. We had artillery on barges firing over the top of us. Then we had the Germans firing at us, too. It >> was very busy. The Germans were were shelling and blowing up the crass in the water and guys were floating around dead and their bodies all over the place for me.

That was the most scary part when that door dropped down. >> When it was my turn, I was uh kind of very hesitant to move and the corporal had to holler at me a couple times before I could move. I was just petrified. Finally got up and stepped over and jumped off into the water. >> When the ramps come down to let these guys off the boat and to get onto the beach, they running into machine gun fire. A lot of guys got killed that way.

Once we hit the beach, that’s when we really had lots of trouble. And it was a quite a tricky business to get around that type of fire. >> They had lots of time to shoot at us. I remember as plain as it was yesterday, the sand moving in front of us where bullets were heading. One of the lads got hit and he was lying there calling for help.

We couldn’t stop to help him because if I if we had we would have lost some more of our [snorts] own men. It was a you know a hard decision to make and uh leave them there. Now, what was 12 Platoon’s particular objective on the beach? >> It was to clean out that gun imp placement. >> Did any of them surrender? >> No, we didn’t even give them a chance at the time.

They said that we had no place to put prisoners. You just had to dispose of them. That was it. Because if they took prisoners, we had no place. No, pardon, no empoundment or anything. So, and our job was just to clean out anything that was on the beach and move on. The company was about 120 men. We hit the beach.

I think it was around 40 left standing. company got knocked right out. I was one of the lucky ones. I guess the vaunted west wall crumbled before our whirlwind advance. The citizen soldiers of yesterday are now a hardened mass of professional killers. They have learned and improved on the lessons of Deep.

They may now master the roads that lead the way to Berlin. >> In view of the fact we had a few thousand miles to go before the end of the war. It was a kind of a dummy prize. You you won the first day and you’ve only got another two years to go and you win. Our target was to get in land. The first thing I saw when we got into this little town, there was three Germans laying there.

obviously had been hit by a shell or something of other and when the man had his head out and that made an impression. He >> he had his head off. >> Yeah. His head was missing. So I fig Well, this is what war is like. So that was the first impression I had. It took us an hour to get off the beaches. We got into a traffic jam.

The streets were not wide enough for two vehicles to pass one another, I don’t think. >> And when the two regiments came in, the town just erupted. It was full of people. >> There was a lot of people glad to see us. They come out and met us as we were coming in on the roads and and whatnot and wanting to shake our hand.

Most of us couldn’t speak the language, but we knew enough to know that they were glad to see us. >> A little boy climbed up my tank and gave me a bottle of wine. He go 10 or 12. His father put him up in my tank and gave me a bottle of wine. >> Up came a a big glass of calvados. I downed it with one gulp. >> Felt good. Felt good.

Canada. We got in about five or six miles at the first night. As far as we knew, we were the first to reach our objective. >> Now, how does that compare to the Americans at Utah and Omaha and the British at Lion [music] and Sword? >> As far as we understand, we were the we’ve reached the furthest of any other Allied formation in on D-Day.

[music] We reached our objectives way ahead of the rest. >> By the night of D-Day, this brigade of Western Canadians is the only one to take all of its objectives. But their salient is now exposed to the vicious guns of the SS. If they fail to hold it, the whole D-Day beach head is at risk. >> We are out [music] exposed quite a bit ahead of the rest of the group.

>> Why is it dangerous to be out there? >> Because if we had nobody to support us, uh they could surround us. If the Germans [music] got to the beach, they could have uh worked their way each way and folded up. They could have gone to the left and right and and kept going and and wiped out people along the beach.

They were directed to cut us off, as they put it, to dunk us. In other words, push us back into the channel. The German Storm Troops include the 12th SS Youth Division, a formation of cunning and ferocious young Germans who’ve been indoctrinated since childhood with the most fanatic Nazi and with only one idea to fight like devils and throw us back into the sea.

Kirk Meyer and his 12 SS. They were a very young bunch and so conditioned that they they figured they were invincible. very good troops. A lot of them are battle hardened over in Russia, so they know what they’re doing. also kilome. The reginas got beyond their objective

northwest of K. They are there today and they mean to stay. >> And where was Brentville? Why was it important? The at12 asset was trying to create a corridor to get back to the beach. Germans were trying to dislodge us, try to drag us back to the beach. I was sitting in the main street of Bretville and my sweater commander said, “Take a look.

There’s something going on out there.” And I went down and out of laneway and swung around the corner and there were five pancers coming right at me. They were uh something to behold. >> Scary. >> Oh boy. >> And somebody start to holler, “The Germans are coming. The Germans are coming.” Fortunately, one of our [snorts] third troop was 17 pounders was further down the road and he knocked the whole five of them out.

But how but how could he hit five that quickly? Why would one of the panzas swing its gun round and hit him? >> He didn’t have time. He was [snorts] down the field hitting them from the side. Bang bang bang bang. But there wasn’t very many entrance to that first attack. I guess they figured we just throw up our arms and and give in.

But uh the Regina rifles are called the Farmer John’s. Farmers never give up. [laughter] And that that’s why I guess we stayed there and weren’t going to be defeated or die in the attempt. >> Today the infantry fought off those tanks and won. It was heroic fighting by new men. The Nazis are poised for another attack, but these Western Canadians know that the entire D-Day invasion depends on their holding their position.

The Germans were told that they must push the Canadians back or die. They obeyed that order. There was a counteratt attack on the uh Regina rifles to left of where I was. >> By this time they knew that they were in for a good fight. >> We started to get shelled. The shell fire was pretty heavy. >> They hit me. They hit my turret.

It killed my gunner and my loader operator and and men from my other tank were crawling over and I said, “Just get the hell out of here. Just leave me. That’s an order.” And they just got in either side of me and started to pull me through the wheat. I don’t know why I didn’t bleed to death, but I didn’t I just didn’t have anything vital.

Did a lot of damage and lost my leg. There was a a little guy, Ruple was his name. He was laying there and kind of groaning and we rolled him over and his clothes next to his stomach was split wide open. We could see his intestine, some of his intestines there, but it was very little bleeding because I think the thing was that the metal that cut him through was so hot it sort of uh seared the blood vessels and stuff.

>> The German tanks crashed back and forth past our slit trenches and destroyed many of our guns. They sprayed the Canadians with steel and fire. In a melee of confusion, they even penetrated our positions. >> When the tanks come in on our left hand side and come down into Bretfield, they [music] they surrounded the headquarters at Bretville.

>> [music] >> This is the [music] one young lad got hit and I tried to stop the bleeding And the last three words he said, “I want my mom.” [snorts] He said it three times and the last time because of the noise of the shelling, you could hardly hear it. And after dark, I had to take him away and bury him.

[snorts] Shield does be. [music] As long as the vaginas had any ammunition, they wouldn’t give up. Even then, I think if they had chance, they’d use their bayets. These boys knocked out 29 Panther and Tiger tanks, bigger than anything we’ve got, and they never retreated. Monty said, “Stake out a claim and hold it.

” They’ve done it. Our beach head in Normandy is secure. When I come out in the morning, it was a mess. There was hand laying there and arm laying there and this little girl walking down pushing a baby buggy and she had one one little one in that. She had another one by the hand and they were walking and covered in blood and they were just out of it.

I tried to talk to them, but you couldn’t. They just blank. I’ll never forget Bretville. on the 6 to >> How did you feel when that ended after the after a couple of days? >> Well, I certainly felt elated about it. You know, after all, uh we had beat these bastards back. I had a lot of good friends right there

then that that got shot. A lot of our fellas were were taken prisoner, taken to this what they call the abbey. That’s where Clark Meer was. And they marched them [music] out in the yard and shot them. Some people got away. There’s a field. There’s a field where they’re lined up and there’s a Oh, there’s quite a number there.

And they and the two C people said it looks like they’re going to shoot us cuz they had the machine guns up. This is all prisoners of war. So they took off in into the grain field and the firing began and they murdered a lot of PS. Some were Brits and a lot of them were Winnipeg rifles. The Germans murdered 58 of our guys, you know. 58.

[music] I mean, they were captured. It wasn’t a heedal battle. They were captured. Sometimes you wonder how some of these guys ever made it through. Well, I was in the hospital at Colchester and this little guy see him coming across the the little square, prayed square I guess you’d call it, and he was all bent over and I went over to talk to him because he was going fairly slow and this was a little rumple [snorts] and uh we did we didn’t expect him to live and he said, “Well, Mora, I’m going home.

[snorts] We’re glad he lived. >> Yeah, it was really something to see that he survived. We have taken the beach head and the Germans are not going to push us back into the sea. But the foothold is small and the Hun is still strong and [music] ferocious. Hitler will not yield the rest of Normandy or France or indeed Europe without a fight.

But we [music] will give him that fight and we will win it.