Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 29 "I arrived at Pier 21, in the darkness of night under the cloak of secrecy, boarded a ship, the Ile de France. We were kept in the dark for six days before arriving in Scotland," recalled George Couture. This is just part of a story Couture shared at an event in Halifax to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. Couture has fond memories of the crossing to Scotland. "Here was my brother - he was younger than me - in charge of a craps game making money. He cut me in, and we made a little bit of money. We had a good time and talked things over," he recalls. "I never saw him from that night, when we docked in Greenock, until after the war." On the morning of 6 June, 1944 - D-Day - George Couture was on a ship in the English Channel, preparing to land on the Normandy coast." They held a church service that morning - early - and you could see in the distance, ship after ship." Couture described how he watched soldiers load into the assault boats, waiting his turn. "They just threw a scramble net over the side from the big ship to try and go down to the little ones. Some of the men fell in the sea or fell between the boats and got crushed. That was quite hard on the nerves watching that." Warrant Officer (Ret'd) George Couture continued ... Seventy-seven years after he began his military career, George Couture found himself at Pier 21 reminiscing about one of the last times he was there. He was boarding a ship with his younger brother and was headed for Europe, and war.
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