Quiet contemplation, paying respects and reflection on lives lost too soon

Today, Friday, is our last full day in France as we are travelling back to England tomorrow evening, so we decided to spent the day visiting War cemeteries.

The first cemetery we visited was Bretteville-sur-Laize in Cintheaux, near Caen. It contains the graves of almost 3000 individuals, 2782 of them being Canadians. It is the largest burial site of Canadians in this area of France.

The area in front of the cemetery is named Place Gérard Doré, in honour of Gerard Dore who volunteered for the Canadian Army regiment Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal when he was 15 years old. Private Gerard Dore was killed on the 23rd July 1944, when he was only 16 years old, and now rests in this cemetery

Next we visited a site where 20 Canadian soldiers were murdered by German fighters. The Ardenne Abbey massacre occurred during the Battle of Normandy at the Ardenne Abbey, in Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, near Caen, France. In June 1944, 20 Canadian soldiers were illegally executed at the abbey by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division.

During the Normandy Campaign, then Kurt Meyer, commander of the 25th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, used the Ardenne Abbey for his regimental headquarters, as the turret allowed for a clear view of the battlefield. The abbey is the location where in June 1944, 20 Canadian soldiers were illegally executed by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division.

During the evening of 7 June, 11 Canadian prisoners of war, soldiers from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the 27th Armoured Regiment (The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment), were shot in the back of the head. This was a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions (of which Germany was a signatory) and therefore these actions constituted a war crime.

After liberating the Ardenne Abbey on 8 July, members of the Regina Rifle Regiment discovered the body of Lieutenant Williams. The bodies of those killed on 7 and 8 June were not found until the winter and spring of 1945, when inhabitants from the abbey accidentally discovered remains throughout the premises. Examinations of the remains revealed that the soldiers had either been shot or bludgeoned directly in the head. All the remains were taken to the cemeteries at Beny-sur-Mer or Bretteville-sur-Laize, except for Private McKeil, who was taken to Ryes War Cemetery.

Kurt Meyer was tied and served prison time for his actions.

Our final stop of the day was Ranville War Cemetery, in Ranville, France. This cemetery is linked to the 6th Airborne Division, which captured the bridge known as the Pegasus Bridge, over the Caen Canal June 6, 1944. The 6th Airborne where a glider infantry division.