© Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1994 Cat. No. V32-59/1994 ISBN 0-662-61144-6

"Ready, Aye Ready" Again

The Long Wait Begins

Baptism of Fire - Dieppe

The Italian Campaign

Invasion Plans and Preparations

The Opponent

D-day

The Germans Counterattack

Carpiquet and Caen

The Battle of Attrition Continues

The Disaster of July 25

The Breakout Begins

The Road to Falaise

Closing the Gap

Aftermath

Canada and Normandy

A half century is a long time in a world that moves quickly from one fad to the next. Living in their greatly favoured land, Canadians often seem all too ready to forget the great events that let them develop and prosper in freedom. Many even fail to remember that young Canadian men and women played a major role in the greatest seaborne invasion of all time, the Allied assault on Normandy on June 6, 1944, and in the long, wearying struggle that followed in the Norman countryside.

Over a brutal ten-week period in the stifling heat of that terrible summer, the inexperienced soldiers of the First Canadian Army fought against a powerful enemy, suffering and inflicting heavy casualties. By the third week in August, when the campaign in Normandy at last came to its end, the armies of the Nazi regime had suffered a resounding defeat, one in which Canadian regiments played a major role. In the process, Canada's troops had been forged into a highly effective army. This is their story.