Fuchsia Dragon | [email protected]
A pair of combat boots are making their way across Canada to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
The boots are travelling by train across the country to represent the many Canadians who undertook a similar journey during the Second World War to serve our country.
And on Tuesday, the boots arrived in Jasper for a special ceremony.
Uniformed veterans and serving soldiers filled the train station and Royal Canadian Legion Branch 31 Jasper president Paul Godbout welcomed the community.
鈥淭hese boots represent leaving home and travelling to front lines and serving our country,鈥� Godbout said.
鈥淲e will remember them.鈥�
Veterans Affairs Canada, VIA Rail and Parks Canada came together for this special project which will run in the months leading up to the anniversary on June 6.
The events highlight the long journeys that service members took across the country during the Second World War, mainly via the rail lines to Halifax, from where they sailed across the Atlantic to join Allies bravely fighting for freedom in Europe.
Richard Ireland, mayor of Jasper, said this event allowed him complete a journey after walking on Normandy beach and along the docks in Halifax.
鈥淚 so appreciate and understand the connection,鈥� he said.
鈥淛asper lads in those days boarded a train, young lads going across the country, stopping somewhere, stepping out again, now as soldiers, to follow those bootprints I have seen, and eventually to the beaches.
鈥淚t brings it together in such a moving way.鈥�
Jasper museum had Second World War artefacts on display, including a full ration kit and a binder full of information on our town鈥檚 soldiers.
Local children picked soldiers from the binder and wrote their information on the backs of postcards which will accompany the combat boots across the country.
Deedee Bartlett: 鈥淥ne kid was shaking saying one of the soldiers was his great grandfather. These put a face on the stories to go with the bots. Kids will have some idea of the connection of the local soldiers leaving to go to war.鈥�
A plaque was unveiled by Parks Canada of the SS Jasper Park, the first Park ship lost during the war. It was torpedoed west of South Africa in 1943.
Alan Fehr, superintendent of Jasper National Park, thanked the Legion and VIA Rail for working with the government to 鈥渕ake this special event a reality.鈥�
D-Day
On June 6 1944, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy (France) to open the way to Germany from the West. Victory in the Normandy campaign would come at a terrible cost. The Canadians suffered the most casualties of any division in the British Army Group during the campaign.
Some 359 Canadian soldiers were killed on D-Day alone, and a total of more than 5,000 of our men would die during the two-and-a-half-months of fighting in Normandy.
Most of these fallen heroes lie buried in France in the beautiful B茅ny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery and the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery. More than 13,000 more of our soldiers were wounded in Normandy, with many suffering injuries to body and mind that they would carry for the rest of their lives.
