If one person can tell everybody how to live, then we’re not a free world anymore, and as I stated before I think we’re rolling back to that. “What can happen when one man and one idealism can try to take over the world and tell everyone else in the world what to do, and that’s what was defeated at the end of the second World War. I think the importance will be lost unless we continue to tell their stories. “We talk about the Normandy invasion, but there were several other invasions that took place within weeks and months around that which contributed to the end of the war. The Allied victory in Normandy stemmed from several factors, including deceptions undertaken in Operation Fortitude and the allied forces achieving and maintaining air supremacy, which meant the Germans were unable to make observations of the preparations underway in Britain and therefore were unable to interfere via bomber attacks.Īlden says when you think about it, a lot of work went into Operation Overlord. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day, with 875,000 men disembarking by the end of June. “Those kinds of stories and things that you experience, you carry them with you for the rest of your life.” To talk to a guy who stood beside one of the houses where he was shot at by a sniper and for him to tell me that his best friend was shot right behind him and died on the spot. “To stand there for six and a half hours on the beach, and to witness the veterans at that time out there, it was something that will live with me forever. That’s more lives lost, and it’s a concern for the veterans that I’ve talked to.”Īlden has a unique connection to the anniversaries, and that’s because he was actually in the 40th anniversary of D-Day parade in France. “It’s easy now to argue that your pigs are more important than our cows and that sort of thing, but when it comes down to it, some of this rhetoric could lead to another war. “They fought for our freedoms, and we see a lot of countries arguing about petty things.”Īlden says they feel that they’re giving up the freedoms that were fought for because some leaders have lost sight of the cost of freedom. “If you’ve been watching TV at all in the last few weeks, veterans are concerned,” he continued. Why recognizing the 75th anniversary is so important relates to the world today, according to Alden. ![]() “They’re very interested and want to continue sharing the stories of what happened for future generations,” he added. The local winner takes part in the annual Remembrance Day program, and Alden believes the history of the World Wars is not lost on the youth. I believe this year we had five or six of these young people where their artwork went forward to the national or district levels in Alberta.” “Every year we ask all the schools to contribute, they can draw posters, they can do poetry, and they submit lots of drawings. One of those young people was Tyler Black, a student from LCI, who gave a short talk about his experiences visiting Juno beach.Īlden says the LCI program is very active, as well as some other schools that are active in their poster and literary program. The Royal Canadian Legion upholds the act of remembrance across Canada with many community ceremonies big and small.Įach is equally important to foster a sense of pride and pass on to young people today the history of past military service, sacrifice and commitments that Canadians have made and continue to make in defence of Canada. They’re frail, and it means a lot that we can provide a service to bring them out and allow them to tell their stories,” Alden said. These gentlemen don’t have a lot of energy to come out, and we were very fortunate to get them to come out today. This will probably be the last major anniversary for these veterans to get out and attend. ![]() “These are the last remaining veterans of the Second World War. To have veterans come out for the ceremony meant a lot to Alden and other members of the Legion. We felt it very important at the local level to do something.” ![]() “As witnessed on the Cenotaph, we do have several soldiers from the area that did go into the second World War, and as I mentioned, Mr. Lethbridge Legion Branch Manager Jeff Alden explained they had decided several weeks ago that they should do a local ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary.
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