D-Day: Commonwealth Sectors

42. Maison des Canadiens

Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandie

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The Canadian House was one of the stand out landmarks on Juno beach, many of the other lovely holiday homes and seafront villas had been cleared by the Germans to make way for the defenses. The famous jittery, grey movie reels taken on D-Day by Canadian Sergeant Bill Grant, clearly show the house as the troops burst from the safety of their landing craft to cross the beach. After 20 minutes the house had been liberated and was the first building liberated by the Canadians on the 6th June. The house contains lots of memorabilia of the day including blood stained Francs offered by a German soldier, behind the house to one of the Queen's Own, in exchange for his life and a message in the visitors book apologizing for throwing a grenade into the cellar. A plaque on the building chillingly reads "Within sight of this house over 100 men of the Queen's Own Rifles were killed or wounded in the first ten minutes of the landings". On Canada Day the building is respectfully bedecked with the maple leaf flag, while during the first week of June the owner leaves a lighted oil lamp in the window each night and on the evening of the 6th June he takes it down to the shoreline as a mark of respect to the troops who liberated Normandy.