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| On Thursday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democrats, joined politicians and heads of state from Europe to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France, a military operation on a scale that remains staggering today. |
The armada of Allied ships heading to France.
Gilbert Alexander Milne, Royal Canadian Navy/Canadian War Museum |
| About 14,000 Canadians were among the 150,000 Allied troops who parachuted into Normandy or landed on its beaches. Another 10,000 sailors aboard 110 Royal Canadian Navy ships helped bring them there, as 15 Royal Canadian Air Force fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons attacked from the skies over Normandy. Of the 1,074 Canadian casualties, 359 were killed. Another 5,500 Canadians died in the ensuing Battle of Normandy. |
| [From The Archives: The Times's coverage in 1944 of D-Day.] |
| [From The Archives: Canadians Proud of Their Troops.] |
| But observing D-Day, or remembering World War II, for that matter, is a relatively recent thing for Canada, according to the historian Tim Cook. We met on the morning of D-Day's anniversary at the Canadian War Museum ahead of a sold-out talk by Mr. Cook, the author of 11 books on Canadian military history. |
Canadian troops landing on Juno Beach.
Ken Bell, Canadian Army Film Unit/Canadian War Museum |
| Canada moved swiftly to commemorate World War I, in which the country experienced losses that were, proportionate to its population, greater than those of the war that followed. About 4,000 memorials were built across the country, including the National War Memorial in Ottawa, where Remembrance Day honoring all of Canada's war dead is still observed on World War I's Armistice Day. And in France, the memorial marking the World War I battle at Vimy Ridge remains a defining symbol of Canada and its military. |
| "Unlike the first war that ends quite abruptly and strangely — Germany is not even invaded — this is a war that ends in total victory," Mr. Cook said of World War II as, nearby, a school group looked at a special D-Day exhibition. "The celebrations are astonishing. So the war ends on a really high note and then understanding of what this war was about." |
Canadian veterans on Thursday at Juno Beach.
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
| But once those celebrations died down, Mr. Cook said that Canadians set aside World War II, perhaps because they weren't as "haunted" by it as they were by the previous war. |
| "Because the First World War was so traumatic, at least on the commemorative landscape, there is no room," Mr. Cook said. "In Canada, it's an age of prosperity and moving forward. So we don't memorialize the second war the same as we do the First World War." |
| All that shifted, he said, when the 40th anniversary of D-Day was celebrated with an international event in France in 1984. While then-President Ronald Reagan's speech was broadcast live, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the prime minister at the time, played a minor role. That, Mr. Cook said, led to pressure for the federal government to pay more attention to Canada's World War II history. |
Canadian soldiers accepting the surrender of Germans in France in August 1944.
Canadian War Museum |
| Ten years later, when the world's leaders gathered in Normandy, Jean Chrétien, the prime minister, gave a powerful speech broadcast live in Canada and increased the country's profile and participation at the 50th anniversary ceremonies. Events were also held in Ottawa and across the country. The Juno Beach Center opened in 2003, followed two years later by the new war museum, much of which is devoted to World War II. |
| The Times has reported extensively on the 75th anniversary celebrations of D-Day over the past week. But for me, the highlight of our coverage is this package of historical photos. |
Caen, France in ruins following the D-Day invasion.
H. Gordon Aikman, Canadian Army Film Unit/Canadian War Museum |
| In Opinion, Ben Mankiewicz, the Turner Classic Movies host, wrote that while World War II films "may have only been 'based on a true story,'" the best of them "did justice to the essential truth of what happened on the ground." Our Books section has also offered a guide to recent D-Day books. Also be sure to read Adam Nossiter on the researchers in France who are still digging up and cataloging the remains of the invasion. |
| Like many World War II veterans, my father, Ronald B. Austen Jr., spoke relatively little about his experiences. A navigator for the Royal Canadian Air Force bombers, he didn't land on Juno Beach. But while he didn't live to see the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the commemorations of the massive invasion have come, for me, to represent his time at war more than Remembrance Day. |
| On the Bus |
| It's back. After a successful debut last year, The New York Times is hosting another bus excursion from Toronto to the Stratford Festival on July 13. On board will be Scott Heller, our theater editor, and once in Stratford he'll team up with our co-chief theater critic Jesse Green and culture reporter Cara Buckley for interviews with cast members from "Billy Elliot the Musical" and "Othello," the two plays the group will see. Plus we'll throw in lunch. Tickets are limited and likely to vanish quickly. You can buy them and find all the details here. |
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