It was only a few hours after the start of the largest seaborne invasion in history, and by that time, her family had already escaped several brushes with death. The day before their home had been requisitioned by the Germans. Ms. Morin, her father and mother – then several months pregnant – were forced to spend the night of June 5 in a little house to the west.
Some time later – Ms. Morin no longer remembers how long – the basement dwellers were startled by the sound of someone kicking in the doors.Ms. Morin first encountered Canadian soldiers on D-Day, when she and 20 others were discovered by the troops while seeking refuge from the fighting in a basement.
Those veterans will be honoured at various ceremonies this year to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in one of the most elaborate celebrations in French history. Organizers are going all-out because they recognize it could be the last major commemorations to involve living Allied troops who fought on June 6, Canadian or otherwise.The Canadian War Cemetery in Bény-sur-Mer, located on a hill overlooking the ocean, is known locally for its well-manicured graves.
On both sides of these encounters were strangers from far away, sometimes without a shared language. But these French children and Canadian troops were bound by sacrifice and small but impactful acts of kindness. Mr. Notteau was lucky. With only so much room in the small house, he slept against a load-bearing wall in between the kitchen and the living room. His neighbours, who were situated comfortably in the middle of the room, were crushed to death by the rubble. In a cruel twist of fate, their house was untouched in the bombardment.
By the time the bombs stopped falling several hours later, an eerie calm took over. “Something was different,” she said. The family soon decided they needed more adequate shelter. First they headed toward Ms. Legouix’s grandparents’, who had a small shed that seemed suitable. But the building was located alongside a big wall, which, if bombed, could bury those inside.
Eighty years later, Ms. Legouix still remembers not just the ear-piercing screams of shells and warplanes flying overhead, but the stench of death that wafted from a makeshift cemetery set up on June 7 just outside the village.Bodies, she was shocked to find, were being buried in shallow graves marked with crosses, some of which stayed there for a long time just wrapped in a blanket.
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