D-Day anniversary, battlefields tour an emotional experience

Joshua Plenty of tears were shed as emotions ran high during a trip to Normandy for the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
For Sylvan Lake resident Allan Cameron attending the anniversary was just one reason for the week-long trip to France earlier this month. He also wanted to retrace the steps of his uncle, Perley Cameron, and visit the grave site of another uncle, Ernest Glenmore Hill, who was killed during the battle and is buried at Brettville Sur Laize Canadian War Cemetery.
And, as a videographer who’s recording the stories of Canada’s war veterans, he wanted to talk to some of those he met in his travels about their experiences on the battlefields.
Both his uncles were with the North Novies (North Nova Scotia Highlanders).
Perley Cameron landed at Juno on June 6, 1944 at about 9:45 a.m. with the second wave of troops to hit the beach.
Cameron thinks his other uncle, Ernest Glenmore Hill, came in about a week or two later and was killed on July 25, 1944 in Tilly-la-Campagne during the breakout offensive along the Verriéres Ridge. They were in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the 12th SS Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) Panzer Division, said Cameron.
“It was an emotion packed week” for he and his brother, John. They’re two of just four members of his family who have had the opportunity to visit the grave of his uncle in the intervening 65 years.
“Walking onto the beaches of Juno, going from the parking lot and pathway to the dunes, you just stand there and think about what happened,” Cameron said. “My eyes just filled, emotion was rampant, everyone was there for a reason. Everyone we met on the beach had a story to tell. We talked to people, grown men, standing talking with tears in their eyes, it was an unbelievable experience.”
While at Juno they noticed the house still standing which was a sentinel to those landing on the beach. Approaching he was taking video and his brother was taking pictures when the grandson of the original owner came out and learned they were Canadians. The house had been liberated from the Germans by the Queens Own Rifles of Canada. The owner invited them in for a tour of the landmark. “It was pretty amazing,” said Cameron.
Then they went through Berniéres-sur-Mer and Caen down to Authie — all the areas where the North Novies had been fighting. In Authie, as in other locations, they saw the battle scars where significant battles had taken place and shell damage was still evident. All through Normandy there were shell holes through fences with some repaired and others not. “Older people came out to tell their stories,” Cameron said.
There’s a memorial to the North Nova Scotia Highlanders at Authie where 84 members were killed. The church still has battle scars. Cameron said in a whole bunch of gravestones you could see where the firefight had taken place back and forth because there are still bullets in the walls.
“You stand there and look and you can see it all happening, you can almost see the battles taking place. I’ve seen so much footage of armies going through the fields in Normandy you stand there and just imagine it all happening. It was an amazing, amazing experience.”
Despite having a GPS, Cameron was unable to get to the place his uncle Hill died. But they visited Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery and after about half an hour found his grave.
“Emotion, tears in my eyes, to know somebody from a little town in Nova Scotia (Point Edward) was killed so many miles away all those years ago,” described Cameron. “There are close to 3,000 Canadians in that cemetery as well as a few British and Americans. It’s a beautiful cemetery, immaculately kept.”
Cameron said the day was wet and cold. But within five minutes of locating the grave the wind subsided, the clouds parted and there was 45 minutes then the storm came up again.
Shooting video footage throughout the trip, he said his next goal is to make a documentary from a family perspective as well as from the perspective of the North Novies as a battalion.
“It’s just amazing what they pulled off, the battles they went through. I think it’s important that it’s known, that a documentary story is done. There hasn’t been anything done on it.”
Cameron was spurred to create the non-profit Memories Recovered Project after talking to his uncle, Perley Cameron. “He agreed with me that documentation of veterans is something that had to be done. To put it in his words, “Let the young people of today know what happened so it won’t be forgotten,”, said Cameron. Unfortunately his uncle died several months afterwards and Cameron was unable to record his experiences.
Since starting Memories Recovered Project (www.themrp.org) in 2000 he’s recorded the stories of over 200 veterans, the majority in Alberta. He’s also had calls from across Canada and Europe. “They’re curious about what I’m doing, why I’m doing it. It’s growing like wildfire.” Cameron said he’s pretty well booked every weekend to mid-August but knows the importance of recording the stories quickly because the veterans are dying.
To keep the project moving forward the organization has been operating as a non-profit with a board of directors since July 2008 and is working on attaining charitable status. It’s received substantial support from Legions where members’ memories are recorded. “The hardest part is getting funding,” Cameron said. He considers this his full time career “as I feel the veterans deserve at least that and more” and does freelance camerawork on the side to assist with the cost of the project.
He’s also talked to veterans of the North Novies back in Nova Scotia and is learning more about his uncles. Cameron is hoping anybody with North Novie connections in Alberta will get in touch with him.
It’s interesting, he said. He was doing an interview with a veteran in Innisfail, and after talking about his history, the veteran’s wife said her brother had been a member of the regiment but she didn’t know any more about his death in France. Cameron was able to find some information and provide it to her.
Then Cameron’s story goes back to his trip. “There were a lot of veterans over there. When you ask who they fought with, what happened that day, they can’t even talk, they’re very emotional. So you shake their hands, with tears in your eyes and say thank you and walk away. But they were thanking us as well.”
In the future is another trip, because he didn’t get to Tilly-la-Campagne. But for the time being, poppies brought back from the cemetery will be a reminder of the trip and he’ll continue recording the memories of veterans which are as clear today as the day they were on the battlefields.
“These guys are ducking bullets as they’re talking to me,” Cameron said of his recordings.