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Introduction
Message from Juno Beach Centre President Garth Webb
Juno Beach Centre: Current and Upcoming Information
The Witnesses of History - The Témoins de l'Histoire
Alumni information (new initiatives, battlefield tours, etc.)
Resources
Book Review
Brick Campaign Updates
Teacher and Student Reflections on the Juno Beach Centre
Contact the Newsletter Executive
Introduction
The Roads of Freedom - Les chemins de la Liberté
JBC Professional Development Newsletter for Educators.
Our goal is to connect the teachers and history professionals from the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 summer tours and to continue to support the Juno Beach Centre.
Please pass this newsletter on to colleagues in your school, district or organization and give us your feedback. There has been a suggestion that we call ourselves the JBC TTV ... Juno Beach Centre Teacher Tour Vets.
Let me know what you think. Pam Calvert
Message from Juno Beach Centre President Garth Webb
2009 Professional Development Tour for Educators with a Passion for Canadian Military History
I am asking all previous Juno Beach Centre Summer Tour History Educators to promote the summer tour and share this information with colleagues and teachers in your district.
The Juno Beach Centre will be holding its 5th Annual Professional Development Tour for Educators from August 2 to August 11, 2009. This program is aimed at all educators but especially at high school level Canadian history teachers.
Deadline for 2009 applications - February 15, 2009
To learn more about this professional development opportunity and/or to submit your application, download the application and more information here:
Garth Webb
Juno Beach Centre: Current and Upcoming Information
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Since the opening of the JBC in 2003, how many Canadian school groups have visited the centre?
Answer: 425
Question: How many JBC Tour Teachers have returned with school groups
Answer: 2-5 groups each year
Question: What is happening at the JBC on June 6th, 2009 for the 65th Anniversary of D-Day?
Answer: Annual ceremony is planned at the JBC for 3pm. More details on major activities to follow.
Question: What exhibit is currently on display?
Answer: The Canadians in Italy.
The exhibit opened and was inaugurated on May 17th 2008 by Juno Beach Centre President, Garth Webb, and the Honourable Colonel Geordie Beal CD, 48th Highlanders of Canada. There were 31 260 visitors between May 17th and October 10th, 2008.
A quote from a family member about the Italian Campaign exhibit.
"My uncle Bob was a radio op 48th Highlander. I never knew what he experienced. Now I have a small glimpse of his brave service. Thank you. (as of Oct 1st 2008, he is still marching to the tune of the pipes).
Joy & Steve Prime, Toronto, Ontario.
For more information click here for a PDF version on The Canadians in Italy exhibit
(English, French).
Question: What Educational Activities are available for high school tour groups?
Answer: History at Your Finger Tips: In the multi-purpose room
"History boxes” are made available for students to discover contents such as artifacts, archival documents, pictures and historical texts related to themes presented in the museum (the Dieppe Raid, the D-Day tanks, war crimes, a soldier or an aviator’s biography, etc). Students then practice their communication skills by sharing the information they found with the entire group.
Go to the following JBC website link for School Group information.
Question: How will I find out more information about what is happening at the Centre?
Answer: An autumn email campaign was sent to all of the educators who took part in the summer tours.
Click here for a PDF version of the 2009 Group Sales Manual
(English, French).
Please submit any questions to: Pam Calvert
The Witnesses of History - The Témoins de l'Histoire
Les Témoins de l’Histoire
Nouvelles de Jean-Pierre
Bonjour chers collègues, I’ve the pleasure to share with you some news about OUR first newsletter. This wonderful initiative from our colleague Pamela Calvert will keep us in touch and will permit us to see what we are doing in our history classes. We’ve a lot to learn from each other and a lot to exchange between us on pedagogical matters and in personal ways. In this first issue, I’ve the pleasure to share with you some activities I arranged last May 2008 for my students.
D Day veteran visit: Mr. Jules Thiffeault visited my students last May to share his war stories with them. Mr. Thiffeault enlisted with Les Voltigeurs de Québec in 1941 and went overseas in 1943. The terrible battle of Casa Berardi in Italy caused Les Voltigeurs to be disbanded and most of the Voltigeurs were transferred to the Van Doos in Italy as reinforcements. Mr. Thiffeault, for his part, was sent to Le Regiment de La Chaudière. He took part in all of the great battles involving the Chauds until VE-Day: D-Day, Carpiquet, Boulogne, The Scheldt, the Rhineland and Holland. He told our students many details about the soldier’s sad way of life and the furious fights he lived through during WWII where a lot of his comrades died. All of the students found Mr. Thiffeault’s witnessing of history very interesting and they realized how much we are in debt to those men who fought for the liberty they have today.
Visit of two soldiers coming back from Afghanistan: Last year my students got in touch with four of our former students serving with the CANADIAN ARMED FORCES in Afghanistan with the Valcartier troops’ tour. They sent e-mails to them and a Christmas gift to each of them. It was a great experience for my students and a great moral booster for our soldiers. Last May, two of these soldiers visited my students to thank them for their precious support and to share with them their experiences in a war zone in Afghanistan. It was a touching meeting. Bombardier Steve Gauthier spoke about his service as a gunner with 5ème Régiment d’Artillerie Légère du Canada, and Corporal Daniel Gagnon told them details about how he saved many lives as a stretcher bearer with 5ème Ambulance de Campagne linked with the 2nd R22èR. Photos of our former students who served in Afghanistan are displayed on an Honour Roll board in our school. The students now can realize that some young local boys, former students of their own school, serve with honor in this mission.
Tour 2005 teachers helped a French colleague: In the Spring of 2008, some Tour 2005 teachers responded to a request from a French teacher, Mr. Christophe Collet, teaching at Lycée Victor Lépine de Caen in Normandy, asking for Canada’s provincial flags. These are impossible to find in France. They were needed for his students’ commemorations to pay tribute to Canadian soldiers who died during WWII in Normandy that is organized each year. A special thank to Patty Blight (Nun.), Brent Shieve (B.C.), Tim Court (AB.), Curtis Kleisinger (Sask.), Clint Lovel (ON.), Jean-Pierre Frigon (Qué.), John Fugère (N.B.), Monique Brisson (P.É.I.), David Denike (N.S.) and Jonathan Williams (Nfd.)who gave a flag from their own province to Mr. Collet. JBCA provided Northwest Territories, Yukon and Manitoba flags. This was a wonderful example of Canadian solidarity to help a noble cause.
Jean-Pierre Frigon, Tour 2005
Alumni information (new initiatives, battlefield tours, etc.)
PUYS - Blue Beach
Wednesday, August 19, 1942 dawned clear off the coast of France. For many of the soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Canada, crouched low in the landing craft surging toward the stoney beach at Puys, it would be a bloody and painful last day.
Two kids with local connections were on those craft; Allan Anderson, born and raised on a farm near Egypt, and Don Smith, a Toronto lad whose widow would later make Keswick her home. They had signed up in 1940 and spent the last two years training for the moment when they would take the battle to Hitler’s “Fortress Europa”.
The plan called for the Royals to subdue the enemy forces at Puys, capture the eastern headland overlooking Dieppe and thereby prevent enemy fire from the cliffs being directed at the main assault force. But, tragically, they were seventeen minutes late.
As their boats approached the beach the German defenses were alert and waiting. The full weight of enemy fire was reserved until the LCAs (Landing Craft Assault) grounded on the pebbles, the bow doors opened, the ramps kicked down and the men sprinted out to the open beach. What happened then can only be described as slaughter.
From the LCAs grounding on the beach to the sea wall was perhaps 50 metres, but very few got that far. Most were cut down on the beach or fell back into the sea, or were killed on the ramps as their LCAs were raked with fire as they sprang from the boats. Within a few minutes Blue Beach was carpeted with dead and wounded men.
Of the 546 men who came ashore only 2 officers and 63 men got back to England. Several stripped and swam out to sea, all the time under intense machine gun fire, but determined not to die on that beach. The rest were casualties. Don Smith and Alan Anderson, bravely serving their country never came back.
In August 2008 three volunteers from the Georgina Military Museum (Philip Craig, John Cannon and Bill Rouse) had the privilege of visiting Dieppe as part of the ‘Juno Beach Centre’s Professional Teacher’s Development Tour’.
To honour what Alan Anderson and Don Smith had done they took ‘Cards of Remembrance’, signed by MP Peter Van Loan, MPP Julia Munroe, Mayor Rob Grossi, Chief Donna Big Canoe and museum President Phil Craig, along to place on their graves to say, ‘Thank You’.
They also took personal mementoes. For Alan a vial of soil from his farm was taken and spread on the beach where he died and on his grave. For Don, a picture of himself and his bride Elizabeth was left on his grave. He shipped out after a two-week honeymoon at Orchard Beach and Elizabeth never saw him again. Sixty five years later they were symbolically re-united.
As the ceremony of earth-spreading on the beach at Puys concluded the party was approached by an elderly Frenchman. As a young boy he was at Puys on the day of the Dieppe raid and was one of the locals conscripted by the Germans to remove the dead Canadians from the beach. In emotional tones he described the day, “When we went down to the beach to pick up the dead soldiers the rocks ran red with Canadian blood”.
NEVER FORGET
Phil Craig - Georgina Military Museum (Keswick, ON)
Resources
The Boys From Barrie
Since 2005, The Year of the Veteran, I have been assigning names from our local cenotaph to classes of Grade 10 Canadian History students.
We began with WWII as it is still in living memory and we are currently finishing profiles of our WWI fatalities. The students didn't just read history they wrote it! Each is now a published writer. Moreover, emails and highly emotional telephone calls continue from all over the world. Deep friendships have developed between young students and the sisters of the boys killed long ago.
Please Google "The Boys from Barrie" to see all 62 of our WWII profiles published on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial by Veterans' Affairs Canada.
Click here for a film we made showing each of our WWII dead. We hope the video will be shown by local television stations as well as city council. We also produced a poster featuring photographs of each of our fallen which we distributed throughout our community on Remembrance week 2007. Please note, the link goes to YouTube.com. While our content is intended to respect and honour our fallen heroes, we cannot take responsibility for any other content posted on YouTube's site that they deem as "related."
When the poster was featured on television news a retiree caught it on his satellite dish in Florida. He was stunned when the camera panned over the poster and stopped on the face of his older brother killed in Italy at the age of 21.
He found me and I found the soldier who actually buried his brother in an Italian churchyard that night in 1944! I brought the younger brother and the veteran together this past summer. For 60 years Bill Ford had waken up at night thinking of Jack Shortreed, the shattered young man he buried in 1944. The next edition of the senior's newspaper Focus 50plus will feature profiles of our local WW1 dead written by the students as well as portraits of their WW1 ancestors.
On October 21 I took two busloads of kids to see the film Passchendaele. We are bringing along local WWII veterans who visit our classrooms. They are the sons of WWI veterans. Meanwhile, I hope to get a vigil going here in Barrie at which Grade 10 students could read the profiles of "their" soldier.
Email: Clint Lovell - Phone: (705) 728-1321
Book Review
And No Birds Sang - by Farley Mowat
A resource for teaching the Italian Campaign. An easy and informative read for your students.
From the Publisher:
In July of 1942, Mowat was an eager, idealistic infantry lieutenant barely out of his teens, bound for Europe on a troop ship and impatient to see action. This powerful true account of the action he saw, and against all odds survived, evokes the terrible reality of warfare with an honesty and clarity fiction can only imitate. Here is the agony and the antic humour, the tragedy and the tedium, the special camaraderie shared only by those who have fought a war. Here, too, is the impassioned anger …
Brick Campaign Updates
The Halton Juno Beach Memorial Brick Campaign
Many students across Ontario are actively raising money to purchase JUNO BEACH CENTRE Bricks for WWII soldiers whose names are on their local cenotaphs. The Brick Campaign document, financially supported by the Canadian Department of Heritage, was designed to support your Remembrance Day activities and to raise awareness of the contributions made by the soldiers from your community who died in WWII. Please consider undertaking this important JBC initiative in your school or district.
For more information please contact: Pam Calvert
Teacher and Student Reflections on the Juno Beach Centre
Canadian Students Visit JBC - March 2008
“Going on the 2008 WWI and WWII Battlefields Tour was a once in a lifetime opportunity and to be able to see the impact of Canada's history on other countries was something I will never forget."
Over March Break, students from our school had experiences of a lifetime in Belgium and France. We visited numerous battlefields and historic sites that allowed us to see Canada’s contributions overseas in WWI and WWII. At Beaumont Hamel Memorial Park we learned about the terrible losses of the Newfoundland Regiment. At Essex Farm Cemetery we visited the site where John McCrae wrote his poem, “In Flanders Fields”. In the historic city of Ypres we took part in the impressive and solemn “Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate”. Even the pouring rain did not dampen our enthusiasm for the newly restored Vimy Ridge Memorial.
We took an unplanned detour to Dieppe and tried to understand the tragedy that happened on that beach in 1942. The Juno Beach Centre was a tour highlight and we stood on the beach where Canadian troops came ashore on D-Day. We recognized two OTHS soldiers killed just after that battle at the Beny-sur-Mer Cemetery. Everywhere there were monuments and memorials to our Canadian troops. It was an amazing experience that we will treasure forever.
Kathleen Bishop – Oakville Trafalgar High School. Oakville, Ontario
Contact the Newsletter Executive
Please contact any of the newsletter executive about our 1st newsletter. What would you like to see in the March edition? Please send us your article, pictures, resources and feedback. There is so much we can share with each other!
Sandi Baxebanos - baxebanossa@hdsb.ca
Pam Calvert - pamcalvert@cogeco.ca
Christa Culhane - cculhane@mail.scdsb.on.ca
Phil Craig - canscot@rogers.com
Patrick Easton - patrick.easton@ottawacatholicschools.ca
Jean-Pierre Frigon - jfrigon@hotmail.com
Carole Whelan - whelan@sympatico.ca
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