On June 1, 1944, the BBC broadcast what many thought was a rather odd piece. At various Allied headquarters, picked up by German listening posts, or over illegal underground radios in France, men did not hear the customary swing music of Harry James, Glenn Miller or Count Basie, no. They heard something quite, quite different.
Set to music by Reynaldo Hahn, listeners that day instead heard an 1866 poem, ‘Chanson d’Automne,’ by French poet, Paul Verlaine. In English, the first verse read:
With long souls
the violins
of Autumn
wound my heart
with languorous
Monotony….
German listeners dismissed the piece as more nonsense from an enemy that was clearly stymied and ineffectual. But the commanders of the D-Day invasion, and the French Resistance knew what playing that particular piece meant. ‘Chanson d’Automne’ was a signal – a secret, but official signal. After months of preparation, the assault on Occupied France was actually going to begin…in just days.
On June 6, 1944, this virtual last ditch attempt to bring down Hitler’s Fortress Europe, saw Canadian, British and American paratroopers, sailors, flyers and soldiers cross the Channel and hit the Normandy coast at five landing sites – Sword, Juno, Omaha, Utah and Gold. The Allies understood what was at stake: this was do or die. Those young men, transported in their flimsy landing crafts, would have to scramble over stoney beaches, up cliffs where machine guns were mounted, and break through formidable German defences. And, if they failed, the War could go for years more.
Canada’s boys attacked at Juno Beach. Parachutists hit the countryside ahead of the landing. 110 warships ferried the men to the shore. The Royal Canadian Air Force sent 15 fighter and fighter bomber squadrons to blast away at German fortifications and to disrupt any efforts to bring up fresh troops. The Canadian Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Armoured Brigade waded ashore under blistering fire. The invasion cost them 340 dead, 574 wounded. But by day’s end, on June 6, the Canadians had full control of Juno Beach, and they were already scrambling inland.
It’s been 80 years since that fateful day in 1944. Many of the warriors who stormed those beaches risking their lives and futures are gone. Yet our boys who fell at Juno decades ago are forever protected in beautiful, serene gardens like Beny-sur-Mer, where French school children tend their graves. Yet one wonders, sometimes, whether the young people of Canada in 2024 know anything about, or remember the sacrifices made all those years ago, to ensure a free and better world for them to grow up in. It would be a great tragedy if they forgot. They need to understand that cost of freedom has always been incredibly high.
This story began with a poem. Perhaps, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, it is right to end with one.
This poem, ‘Normandy,’ was written by a Canadian kid who went ashore at Juno Beach on June 6. He wrote these words about his close friend, a British boy, whom he saw cut down by German machine gun fire. Fatally wounded, his friend lasted only a few minutes, cradled among his buddies on the beach. Canadian Cyril Crain never forgot those last moments with his friend.
This is the end of Cyril Crain’s ‘Normandy….’ perhaps, in some ways, it reflects all the boys lost that day in June.
Will my soul go back to England
Will it reach old Blighty’s shore?
Will it find the little village
In the place where I was born
Tell me this before I die, Jim.
Will my soul in England be?
For I fought and died for England
For her Rights and Liberty…