Juno Beach and Beyond

The Battle of the Atlantic lasted 2074 days and claimed the lives of more than 4,000 men and women in the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian merchant navy. This month on Juno Beach and Beyond, Juno Beach Centre Association Executive Director Alex Fitzgerald-Black sits down with author and historian...

Wilson Brooks, Ella Jackson, and Kenneth Jacobs were all fighting a Double War against fascism and racism. This month we share the inspiring legacies of three remarkable Black Canadian Veterans.

When she was 8 years old, Grace Eiko Thomson was uprooted from her home in Vancouver, BC and sent to the Minto Mines Japanese Canadian Internment Camp. She was one of an estimated 21,000 Japanese Canadians who were interned by the government during the Second World War. In this episode, Grace tells her story.

From stretcher bearers risking their lives to save others to the collection of fallen soldiers' body parts without their consent, military historian Tim Cook joins us to talk about Canadian medical intervention in the First World War.

Todays story and excerpts come from the book titled Patton's Gap: Mustangs Over Normandy written by Major General Richard Rohmer. Rohmer’s accounts of his time as a reconnaissance pilot during the Second World War presents an often underappreciated role that many pilots in the Air Force played in identifying key strategic targets.  Timestamps 0:00 |...

Written in 1994, Company Sergeant-Major Charles Cromwell Martin tells his story as a member of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in his memoir titled Battle Diary: From D-Day and Normandy to the Zuider Zee and VE. His story explores the events of D-Day and beyond as a leading Sergeant of A Company in the QOR, including firsthand experiences...

This edition of Witnesses to History tells the story of Fred Turnbull through the words of his book “Invasion Diaries”. Fred’s role as a member of the Royal Navy’s Combined Operations led him to take part in some of the most significant landing operations in the Second World War, as well as some of those...

On this episode of Juno Beach & Beyond, we had the opportunity to speak with Al McAlder from Sherwood Park, Alberta, about the story of his father, Douglas McAlder, who was an infantry soldier with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders at Dieppe. Not only was he a part of the invasion on August 19th, 1942,...

Today’s episode is focused on telling the stories of a few of the many Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the Dieppe Raid on August 19th, 1942. Through the course of these stories, it is clear that the Canadians who fought at Dieppe were a diverse group of men with their own individual personalities,...

*Content Warning from 20:00 to 25:45* The Canadian soldiers of “C” Force deployed to Hong Kong in 1941 faced a difficult task; defense against an assault by the Japanese. Cut off from most supplies and reinforcements, the brave defenders surrendered on Christmas Day of 1941, ending the Battle of Hong Kong. Many Canadian soldiers were...

For many Canadians, mention of the name Farley Mowat is sure to pique the interest of most. Some Canadians might know Mowat as an environmentalist- a man whose writing and activism helped to change popular attitudes towards nature. His writing on the Canadian North specifically helped to draw much popular attention to occurrences in the...

Today's episode is dedicated to Canada's most proficient fighter pilot in the Second World War, George Buerling and his many stories from his time in the Royal Air Force.

The Italian Campaign in the Second World War is often overshadowed by the legacy of the D-Day Landings in June of 1944, however the soldiers who served in “Sunny Italy” faced their own share of trials and tribulations. The story of RSM Harry Fox is just one of these accounts. The collection of stories found...

Our Fathers’ Footsteps is about four average men among the millions of people who volunteered to serve their countries during World War II. These men had one thing in common. They all landed on Normandy’s beaches on June 6, 1944. Using family history books, letters, telegrams, journals, and Regimental War Diaries, Don Levers tells the...

What was the experience like for the many members of the air operations leading up to D-Day? Today’s episode tells just part of the story of Flight Lieutenant David Murray Peden, who recounts his role as an RCAF bomber pilot preceding D-Day in the early hours of June 6th, 1944. We are excited that Witnesses to...

For centuries, countries have relied on their non-commissioned officer (NCO) corps to form the backbone of their armed forces. The Canadian Army was no different in the Second World War. As it mobilized from fewer than 56,000 regular and part-time soldiers to almost a half-million men and women, it needed to grow an effective NCO...

Faced with the global environmental disaster that asserts itself a little more each day and that threatens peace in the world, we began asking ourselves some questions: What have we done with the peace obtained by the Allied Forces in Europe in 1944-1945? What are we going to do with it in the future? As...

August 2022 will mark 80 years since the Dieppe Raid – Operation Jubilee. In nine hours, a force of nearly 5,000 Canadians suffered over 800 killed, with two-thirds of the force dead, wounded, or captured. Canada's darkest moment of the Second World War remains shrouded in controversy, mystery, and tragedy. For decades, the disaster dominated...

Today's episode is a little different. Instead of a guest interview, we are pleased to share stories about Canadians who served during the world wars. This is a new feature of the podcast and we hope to bring it to you regularly. Today's stories take us from the forests of France behind the trenches in...

In fall 1941, the Canadian government accepted a request to reinforce the British garrison at Hong Kong. Canada sent two infantry battalions, the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers, a brigade headquarters, and two nurses from the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. “C” Force, as they were known, arrived in Hong Kong on...

Approximately 27,000 Canadian soldiers and airmen killed during the First World War, the Second World War, or the Korean War have no known graves. Some 8,000 went missing during the Second World War.  A couple of times each year, the Canadian Armed Forces will announce that the Casualty Identification Program has identified the remains of...

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) was easily one of Canada's top contributions to victory in the Second World War. Part of the wider Empire Air Training Plan, in Canada, the BCATP laid the foundations for the training of over 131,500 aircrew (nearly 73,000 with the RCAF) and 80,000 ground crew between October 1940...

In June 1940, France fell to Nazi control and preparations began for the Battle of Britain. The Canadian government deployed soldiers overseas – to Iceland! The Canadian authorities labelled these troops “Z” Force. Eventually, three Canadian battalions served in Iceland under the leadership of Brigadier Lionel F. Page. These were the Royal Regiment of Canada,...

Laden with two 500-pound bombs and adorned with black and white invasion stripes, a model of Harry Hardy's Hawker Typhoon IB “Pulverizer II” hangs proudly in the “Road to Victory” room at the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. There is a certain fierceness in its profile, especially looking up into the four-bladed propeller, four...

Order a copy of Seven Days in Hell: Canada’s Battle for Normandy and the Rise of the Black Watch Snipers by David O’Keefe through our online shop and receive a 15% discount using the code BLACKWATCH at checkout. Offer valid until August 31, 2021.  Three miles or so south of Caen the present-day tourist, driving...

In 1959 author Cornelius Ryan began research for his book “The Longest Day”. In doing so he put out advertisements to countries of the Allied nations of the Second World War, looking for first-hand accounts of D-Day. More than 100 Canadians responded, as well as soldiers from Allied nations serving on the Canadian sector at...

New Brunswick is one of Canada's smallest provinces, yet it has always played a prominent role in Canadian military history. Many will be aware of the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment's efforts on D-Day. Less well known is the story of Ripples Internment Camp (Camp B), located about 30 kilometres from Fredericton, the provincial capital....

New Brunswick is one of Canada's smallest provinces, yet it has always played a prominent role in Canadian military history. Many will be aware of the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment's efforts on D-Day. Less well known is the story of Ripples Internment Camp (Camp B), located about 30 kilometres from Fredericton, the provincial capital....

It’s a familiar scene in old newsreel footage and modern recreations of the Second World War like ‘Band of Brothers’: Allied troops in Europe advance through a town that just moments before was occupied and abandoned by fleeing German troops. The English-speaking soldiers are met by throngs of civilians waving flags and celebrating their newly...

The Canadian Army in Northwest Europe was the largest field force ever assembled by Canada. Between late summer 1944 and spring 1945, Canadian troops liberated great swaths of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They also joined with other Allied troops in the invasion of Nazi Germany from the west. Casualties were heavy, and the military...

The road to the Second World War in Europe is well documented. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933 and proceeded to rearm Germany. These actions challenged the Treaty of Versailles that concluded the First World War. On March 7, 1936 German troops occupied the Rhineland, a demilitarized sector in western Germany....

Dieppe is a fishing port on the Normandy coast built along a long cliff overlooking the English Channel. On 19 August 1942, Canadian, British, American, and Free French troops staged a raid against the German-occupied town and nearby seaside villages. The result was a disaster. In one morning, 3,367 Canadian soldiers were killed, wounded, or...

Remembrance doesn’t stop for a pandemic. We can still wear poppies and visit cenotaphs or war memorials on our own time. We can watch the national ceremony on TV or by live steam and we can still observe two minutes of silence at 11am. Remembrance is personal. We can all stop to reflect and remember...

2020 has been a challenging year. Amid the pandemic, the deaths of African-Americans like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement led to the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement across the world. In Canada, these events have forced our society to reflect inwardly on our treatment of Black Canadians, both in...

Anyone who has visited the Juno Beach Centre has likely had an encounter with one of our Canadian student guides. Our founding veterans wanted to ensure that all visitors receive a friendly Canadian greeting when they walk into the museum. These veterans were mainly in their late teens or early 20s when they stepped onto...

In the summer of 1998, the epic war film Saving Private Ryan was in theatres. Its portrayal of the American landings at Omaha Beach on D-Day hooked audiences for a story underlining American exceptionalism in the “good” war. In reflection, one Canadian journalist asked what the film would have been like had Canadians made it...

The Second World War was a war of peoples and machines. After the high blood price of the First World War, nations like Britain, the United States, and Canada turned to technology to defeat the Axis powers. Steel, not flesh was the mantra, and Canada became the fourth-largest Allied producer of war material. The Allies...

In the summer of 1945, the war in Europe was over, but the search for airmen who had gone missing over nearly six years had just begun. While hundreds of thousands of Canadian service personnel returned to Canada and demobilized, Canadians who had lost family and friends during the war grieved. Yet others held out...

Seventy-six years ago, Canadians participated in one of the most formative events of the 20th century. The airborne and seaborne landings in Normandy on June 6th 1944 saw American, British, Canadian and other Allied forces return to France to stay for the first time since 1940. D-Day was a great and tragic day. The success...

Canadians played a leading role in restoring freedom to the Dutch. It was arguably Canada’s finest hour. On May 5th 2020 (Liberation Day in the Netherlands) the Juno Beach Centre Association, Defining Moments Canada, and the Canadian Research and Mapping Association, supported by the Canadian War Museum, partnered on a webinar to commemorate the 75th...

In May 1945, the residents of Bay Bulls (and later, St. John’s), Newfoundland witnessed as a German submarine entered the harbour. The boat was U-190, and its crew had surrendered to vessels of the Royal Canadian Navy days before. Back on 16 April 1945, U-190 had torpedoed and sank HMCS Esquimalt, the last Canadian warship...

Editor’s note: this is the second of a two-part episode featuring an interview with Second World War veteran Don White. This episode focuses on Don’s memories of the liberation of the Netherlands. We covered Don’s early military career and his time in Italy in the previous episode entitled “Interviewing Don White”. Don’s daughters, Holly and...

Don White is 95 years old and full of energy. He is a Canadian Second World War veteran who saw fighting in Italy and the Netherlands with the Royal Canadian Dragoons. In recent years, Don has found himself at the centre of Canadian-Dutch commemorations of the end of the war in Europe.  We got in...

Almost 20 years ago, the TV miniseries Band of Brothers propelled parachute troops from the Second World War into our popular memory. Executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg told the story of a company of American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. Not for the first time, American star power and money helped to...

In February 1945, the First Canadian Army began its largest battle of the Second World War. Canadian, British, Belgian, Dutch, and American forces struck into the Rhineland, gateway to the Ruhr, Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland. With nearly a half-million Canadian and Allied troops under his command, General Harry Crerar commanded the largest military force ever...

For our first episode of 2020 acclaimed storyteller Ted Barris joins us to explore his latest book, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire. The book is filled with amazing stories about (mostly) Canadian medical personnel who have served in conflicts over the last 150 years. At the core of the book, Ted...

Before we sign off for 2019, we wanted to put together this special bonus episode as a way to thank you all for listening. We hope you’ll share it with your friends and loved ones this Remembrance Day as we remember another Remembrance Day under very different circumstances.  The episode includes a CBC Archives recording...

For the first time, the Juno Beach Centre Fellowship is going to a group of history students. Usually awarded to a single scholar doing research in support of the Centre, the 2020 award will benefit 20 undergraduate students travelling to Canadian battlefields and commemorative sites in Belgium and France.  The students are from King’s University...

Today’s episode is a back-to-school special featuring the Juno75 Student Pilgrimage. This past July, the Juno Beach Centre sponsored a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for high school students from across the country. Two dozen students travelled on a tour of Canadian battlefields of the First and Second World Wars, following in the footsteps of thousands of men...