June 06, 1944 – D-Day:Operation Overlord On board their assault landing crafts, men of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles heading towards their sector of Juno Beach, June 6th, 1944

The D-Day Landing The sun was just coming up over the Normandy coast at about 5 a.m. on June 6, 1944 – D-Day. The Allied navies – Canadian, British, American – had brought a huge invasion fleet from England to France in total darkness. “Operation Overlord” was the plan to take 5 key beaches in occupied France, and then begin the land invasion of France, the final move to defeat Hitler. The Americans had Utah and Omaha beaches in the west, then came the British at Gold, then the Canadians at Juno Beach and finally the British at Sword on the east.

The Canadians At Juno Beach As the troops waded ashore, there was little fire at first--mainly because the German gun positions did not aim out to sea but were set to enfilade the coastline. As the Canadian soldiers worked their way through the obstacles and came into the enfilading killing zones, the first wave took dreadful casualties. Company B of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles was cut down to one officer and 25 men as it moved to reach the seawall. In the assault teams, the chance of becoming a casualty in that first hour was almost 1 in 2. By mid-morning, hard fighting had brought the town of Bernières into Canadian hands, and later Saint-Aubin was occupied. By evening the 3rd Division had linked up with the British 50th Division from Gold Beach to the west, but to the east the Canadians were unable to make contact with the British 3rd Division from Sword Beach-- leaving a gap of 2 miles into which elements of the German 21st Panzer Division counterattacked. The Canadians suffered 1,200 casualties out of 21,400 troops who landed at Juno that day--a casualty ratio of 1 out of 18.

The Canadians Liberate Holland With the success of the Allies at Normandy, the way was paved for the invasion and liberation of the rest of Europe. It would prove to be a long haul, but VE Day was inevitable. The Canadians were key in the liberation of Holland. They moved throughout Holland liberating sections at a time. Some resistance was met but it was apparent that the war’s end was in sight. Troops were able to move on quite fast, liberating the remainder of the Dutch territory and occupying the plains of northern Germany up. The might of the German Army was by then broken, and as the Allies closed in on Berlin, Hitler committed suicide. "At 1900 hrs we heard over the BBC that the German Army in ITALY had unconditionally surrendered and later on that BERLIN had fallen. The general feeling is that it can't last much longer now…" - Royal Winnipeg Rifles, War Diary, 1-7 May 1945

German soldiers being disarmed by troops of I Canadian Corps at a small arms dump in the Netherlands, May 11th, The War In Europe Is Over (VE DAY) As the Soviets had surrounded Berlin, ad the rest of the Allies were sweeping through Europe, Hitler commits suicide. Germany surrenders a week later. The war in Europe was finally over. It seemed unreal at the time. The firing stopped and the Germans surrendered unconditionally. Even though the celebrations had started in Europe, the war was still raging in the Pacific. Canada planned to send forces to the Pacific, but Japan surrendered before the Canadians got there.

The War Ends In The Pacific – Japan Surrenders (VJ DAY) “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction.” –President Harry Truman Plane that dropped the first bomb The war in Europe had ended. The war in the Pacific was still raging on. On August 6 th, 1944, the United States drops the Atomic Bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, Truman drops a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Views from ground and air of the initial explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The War Ends In The Pacific – Japan Surrenders (VJ DAY) What the bomb had produced was concentrated chaos, from which no city or nation could easily or rapidly recover. No significant repair or reconstruction was accomplished until months later. On September 2, the Japanese government, which had seemed ready to fight to the death, surrendered unconditionally. Winston Churchill estimated that the lives of a million Americans and two hundred and fifty British soldiers and sailors had been saved by this sudden shortening of the war. The war was finally over, however, a new war was about to begin, a much “colder war” was approaching.