the longest day.

'when the ramp goes down
get out fast
go like a bat out of hell
get in close and take cover
shoot at anything moving...
don't stop to help
the wounded even if
he is your buddy, the medics will
take care of them...'
-d-day officer's order of the day

i spent the weekend with a heavy heart.

carolynn, her brother john, kristin and i all met up in dieppe for a lesson in history. kristin came and joined us from dijon, where she is studying this year; john joined us from the queen's castle where he is taking courses for the summer semester; and care took the weekend off of working on her essays. we took a huge ferry to france from the south of england on friday evening, and arrived in dieppe in the wee hours of the morning.

it is difficult to fully grasp the scale of a world war battle when you study it in school. the situations are put before you like a picture story book, the soldiers are simply characters and the consequences last for two minutes while you discuss it in class. it is impossible to picture the d-day beaches beyond what we see in films and bell canada commercials.

we woke up on saturday with the goal of making it to the d-day beaches on the coast of normandy. we all had a strong interest in modern european history, and i have always wanted to explore the war sights to put a real-life context to the 'stories'. john, our resident stick driver, managed to manipulate our newly rented miniature 'cah' all the way, only stalling once! we passed through beautiful french countryside, stopped in a little french town for cafe creme and drove across the famous (and impressive) normandy bridge.

our major stop for the day was juno beach, where many of the canadian troops landed on d-day. (canadian troops also landed on gold and sword beaches) juno is 8 kilometres long and is in a small french city called courselles-sur-mer. as you approach the beach, it is framed by a ridge covered in long grass that seems to hold the memories. we had a classic french picnic (cheese, baguette, sausage and fruit) while looking out to the ocean. the tide was out so the beach was long, empty and deserted. rocks and sticks were strewn about littering the beach emphasizing the death and destruction that occured there so long ago. my mood became contemplative as we walked around, soaking up the intensity of the experience.

the juno beach centre is the only canadian museum on the d-day beaches, and is run privately to educate visitors and honour the contribution of the canadian soldiers. they hire canadian students to work for the summer, offer tours and run the museum. we took a walking tour of the beach, got to explore old german bunkers used for defence and visited the museum. most striking was the commemorative statue, showing five soldiers, in a sort of wave, displaying the various emotions the soldiers would have felt as they landed.

on d-day, 135,000 soldiers landed on all the beaches. the canadiens played a decisive role, and their experience at juno was deemed a success when they successfully liberated courselles-sur-mer. they had learned from many of their mistakes at dieppe. however, juno was the end for many young men: some soldiers got dropped in water that was too deep, and drowned before they even made it to the beach. others turned to help a friend, and became an easy target for the germans.

we continued our drive along the coast of normandy, stopping again at omaha beach, one of the beaches where the americans landed. unlike juno, which was mostly flat, omaha was situated below a high ridge, which allowed the germans a full picture of what was going on below them. it was terrifying to climb the ridge and view the beach from the same perspective that the germans would have had.

there is no textbook or history lesson that can accurately encapsulate the feelings i felt when we visited the normandy d-day beaches. young men, younger then me, sent into the unknown, to fight an enemy of strangers. while d-day marked the beginning of the end for the germans, there is nothing that we can do to repay the men who lost their lives for a success they never got to witness.

i was/and am really proud to be a canadian - paying my respects to those who lived and died on the longest day.