A SPECIAL DEBT OF THANKS is owed to the many veterans whose stories appear in this book. Without them, Juno Beach would not exist. It is impossible to mention all of the veterans here, but they are all listed in the bibliography. I would like to single out, though, Stan Richardson, who trusted his time-worn diary tracing his service as a telegraphist on the minesweeper HMCSBayfield to Canada Post so I might study it. My trepidation remained high as I undertook copying the diary and accompanying photos and then waited anxiously until it returned safely to Stan’s home in Powell River.
This time out, I was assisted immensely in gathering veteran interviews by John Gregory Thompson of Ingersoll, Ontario. John tirelessly and enthusiastically visited veterans scattered throughout southern Ontario, spending many hours conducting taped interviews on my behalf. It is to his credit that so many veterans are included here. Ken MacLeod of Langley, B.C., shared the interviews he has gathered over the years in both video and audio form of veterans in the Vancouver area. Major Michael Boire, associate professor at Royal Military College, generously interviewed lieutenant colonels Don Mingay and Ernest Côté—key officers in 3rd Canadian Infantry Division’s headquarters—on my behalf.
In Normandy, Isabelle Bodin-Benjamin went out of her way to gather a group of elderly gentlemen who lived through the invasion and tried to translate the resulting happily chaotic interview at the PMU Bar in Courseulles-sur-Mer. At home, the tape of this interview ended up in the capable hands of Ottawa translator and good friend Alex MacQuarrie. He and colleague Claude Bolduc somehow managed to sort out the wheat from the chaff of people placing bets in the background and everyone in the bar tossing in their two Euros’ worth to make sense of the interview. Also in Normandy, Jean-Pierre Benamou, a local historian, allowed me to tag along for part of a briefing on the invasion that he was giving a fresh batch of interpreters at the Juno Beach Centre.
The Royal Winnipeg Rifles Association (British Columbia Association) kindly donated a copy of their compiled collection of veteran accounts entitled Perspectives.
At the Canadian War Museum, Roger Sarty very helpfully directed me to the best source documents that could be found at the Department of National Defence’s Directorate of Heritage and History Archives with reference to the Royal Canadian Navy’s role in the invasion. That led to Major Michel Litalien tracking them down for me and then Stephanie Burton undertaking the colossal photocopying task. Steve Harris at the directorate was also, as always, a great help. Back at the Canadian War Museum archives, Carol Reid was a delight to spend an afternoon burrowing through documents with, and in the library there Liliane Reid Lafleur was of great assistance. Thanks also to staff at the National Archives of Canada and the University of Victoria Special Collections.
I am indebted to Professor Jack Granatstein for granting permission to consult his files on Major General Rod Keller at York University.
Thanks, too, to Rosalie A. Hartigan for permission to quote passages from the late Dan Hartigan’s book, A Rising of Courage. Also used with permission from his Battle Diary: From D-Day and Normandy to the Zuider Zee, by Charles Martin (Toronto: Dundurn, 1994), are several passages written by the eminently respected Company Sergeant Major of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada.
A major chunk of the work on Juno Beach was carried out while writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson, Yukon. My thanks to the Berton House Writers Society for giving me this opportunity for a three-month stay there and to Pierre Berton for donating the home for this use in the first place. Thanks also to the BC Arts Council, whose financial assistance helped make researching and writing this book possible.
My new publisher, Scott McIntyre, at Douglas & McIntyre deserves much praise for having rescued the Italian trilogy from disappearing into the realm of out-of-print books after the collapse of Stoddart Publishing in 2002. His enthusiasm for Juno Beach and commitment to future works on Canada’s World War II experience is heartening to see. Scott sets a tone at D&M that obviously works because everyone there is a pleasure to work with, whether editors, publicists, or designers.
Speaking of editing, immense thanks to Elizabeth McLean for agreeing to step once more into the breach of working on a book about battle. C. Stuart Daniel also stepped up to the plate again to provide the maps. My agent Carolyn Swayze continues to ensure this writer’s career prospers sufficiently to keep writing such research-intensive books possible.
Another person who came forward to help was Colonel Tony Poulin, a veteran of the Royal 22nd Regiment who some readers will remember from The Gothic Line. Tony had become a good friend over the years and kindly consented to translate Le Régiment de la Chaudière war diary entries and relevant parts of the text of their regimental history into English for me. Soon after he completed this task, Tony suffered a fatal injury during a tragic fall at his home in St. Bruno, Quebec. He is dearly missed.
Finally, I remain blessed to have the continued support of Frances Backhouse, a true partner in this writing life who’s always game to trudge a battlefield come rain or shine.