REGINA — More than 80 years after Canadian soldiers landed in Normandy during the Second World War, a friendship between Saskatchewan and a small French community continues to grow.
Nearly 10 years ago, Antoine Piard, president of the Up the Johns Association of Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, France, began researching who helped liberate his town during the war.
“When I did some research about who liberated my town, I understood that it had been liberated by the Regina Rifles Regiment,” he said.
That discovery inspired Piard to learn more about the regiment and eventually helped lead to the creation of the association.
“I decided to create an association to pay tribute to those men,” he said.
The Regina Rifles were among the Canadian troops who landed at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.
While exact numbers cannot be confirmed, Kelsey Loney, a member of the Royal Regina Rifles Trust, said between 500 and 1,000 troops from Regina landed to help liberate communities from German occupation.
“They met folks while they were liberating towns and villages, with people pouring out of their homes, so thankful to be liberated,” Loney said.
Many civilians shared what little food and possessions they had with the Canadian soldiers.
“There’s a thankfulness and an appreciation that was kind of forged during that time,” Loney said.
In its efforts to remember the Royal Regina Rifles, the Up the Johns Association has used military records, research and eyewitness accounts of the war to paint a better picture of the regiment's contributions.
“We record their memories so they can be shared with anyone who wants to hear them,” Piard said.
“We then compare those memories with our military sources, such as the war diaries, as well as accounts from soldiers who wrote or recorded their own memories after the war,” he said.
Along with research, the association is also focused on educating younger generations through ceremonies, military vehicle parades, re-enactments and liberation balls.
“It is important to show what happened here in 1944 in different ways, especially for the younger generations,” Piard said.
In September, about 15 members of the association will travel to Saskatchewan for Operation Pilgrimage.
“We are really honoured to be there and to attend events and to meet our friends from the regiment,” Piard said.
The visitors will spend time in Regina and Moose Jaw, visiting sites including the RCMP Heritage Centre, 15 Wing and the Western Development Museum.
Loney said Saskatchewan has worked with community partners to make the visit meaningful.
“It’s been a community effort to put this together on our end,” she said.
The visit will also allow Saskatchewan to return the hospitality shown to its visitors in Normandy.
“We always feel so hosted and cared for when we visit Normandy,” Loney said.
“To be able to return that favour is something that we’re really looking forward to,” she said.
For both communities, the upcoming visit represents another chapter in a friendship that began during the liberation of Normandy in 1944.
The veterans may be gone, but their stories continue to connect Saskatchewan and Normandy.
