Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 107 continued ... In the west, the first assault troops of the 7th Infantry Brigade landed shortly after 0800 (8:00 am) near Courseulles-sur-mer. Somewhat further east, in the sector of the 8th Brigade, the North Shore Regiment set foot on the Saint-Aubin beach at 0810 (8:10 am) and the Queen’s Own Rifles started to march on Bernières at 0812 (8:12 am). As they ran under heavy enemy machine-gun fire, the men were quick to forget their nausea due to choppy waters and rolling ships. But bad weather still had an impact on the operations: landing the tanks was hindered and the LCTs had to move in closer with the risk of hitting a submerged mine. As they set foot on the beach, men of the “B” Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles had to run 200 metres against a German defensive position spared by the saturation fire earlier on. They suffered most from the delayed arrival of the DD tanks; Sherman tanks equipped with floating devices that the height of the waves had rendered useless. On the run-in Doug Reed and I were standing up eagerly, watching for shore. We began singing “The Bells Are Ringing for Me and My Gal” and continued until we saw the steeple of the church at our landing site. I said, “Doug, there’s the church, I thought it wasn’t supposed to be there.” It suffered one shell hole in the steeple. We soon saw the big hotel that is a famous painting now. Then we saw the five pillboxes mounted on top of the sea-wall. These were our first objective. About five hundred yards out, they had us in the sights of their small arms and began shooting. We had never been under real fire and realized it when bullets were hitting our assault craft. I said to Doug, as if we should be surprised, “they’re shooting at us” and we ducked down below the armour. – Doug Hester, Queen’s Own Rifles, from Canadians, A Battalion at War, p. 3 continued ... 1st Hussars tanks and men of the 7th Infantry Brigade landing on a crowded beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer, June 6th,1944. Photo by Ken Bell. Department of National Defence / National Archives of Canada, PA-128791.
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