The last hotel room.
Children quickly locate the grave of Canadian Chaplin Reverend T.E. Mooney, killed 14th Sep. 1944.
Three trips to Canada's European battlefields over the last five years has left me with several unique experiences each visit. While I have fond memories of private tours of locations most do not see, meeting veterans and becoming close with others on the tour, I have a new favourite moment.
Read MoreHuge costal gun remains at Cap Gris Nez
As we advanced the timeline of First Canadian Army's progression through occupied Europe, the tour moved farther northward once again into Belgium.
Read MoreBernier-Sur-Mer, D-Day, on the 66th anniversary.
Words fail me. A simple thank you seems so little though every veteran I have ever met has said it is more than enough, too much even. Their modesty is astounding.
They were just doing their jobs, their duty, what needed to be done. Whichever way you cut it they were asked as young men to invade a continent to kill other young men.
Nothing simple about that. Nothing simple on either side.
69 years ago today the beginning of the end of the Second World War began.
69 years ago today the beginning of the end of so many young lives began.
Lest we forget.
The study of Canada's roll in World War Two began in the Upper Normandy region of France, on the rocky shore of Dieppe. The Dieppe raid of August 19, 1942 was Canada's first action in the Second World War and a costly one. The decision to mount the ill fated raid is still a hotly contested one among historians and a question posed to the trip's students prior to their arrival in France.
Read MoreLets start this off by admitting I have a bit of a backlog here. Wireless internet or "WE FE" as people in France seem to refer to it, is in my experience crappy at best in hotel's. Coupled with growing exhaustion from a prolonged trip I really wasn't able to reliably get posts up like I would have preferred to.
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