THE HEROES OF NORMANDY

Born in Gaspésie in 1923, Private Emilien Dufresne was one of many Canadians taken prisoner by the Wehrmacht during the war. After landing in Normandy with the rest of the Régiment de la Chaudière, he was captured during the night and transported across France in animal convoys, ending up in a German prison camp. It was only on April 9, 1945, when the American army arrived at the camp, that Emilien was released from captivity and able to return home. Years later, he published his memoirs Calepin d’espoir.

Frank Bing Wong was born in Vancouver in 1919 but grew up in the small fishing village of Alert Bay, British Columbia. He enlisted in 1942, saying that he saw joining the army as an opportunity to show his loyalty to Canada, and hoping that he would gain the right to vote after the war, as he, like most Chinese Canadians at the time, did not have full rights in Canada. His service in an artillery repair unit brought him to Barrie, Ontario, Scotland, and finally to Juno Beach.

Frank landed on Juno Beach about a month after D-Day, and participated in the liberation of Caen, where he said he felt ill from the sight and smell of so many corpses. He went on to participate in the liberation of the Netherlands as well. After the war, Chinese Canadian veterans fought for their rights and, in 1947, the Canadian government repealed the ban on Chinese immigration and gave Chinese Canadian citizens full enfranchisement.

Bertha Annie “Bertie” Hull was born in 1917 in Winnipeg and served as a nurse during WWII. She enlisted in Halifax and was sent to England to join a team of 50 nurses who were responsible for a 500-bed hospital. She was in England during the Blitz, as German bomber planes flew over the hospital where she was working. When D-Day came, Bertie and her team were ready. She later recounted that D-Day was a sad time because the injured soldiers and officers that were returning from France were men she knew and may have danced with. Bertie continued her career as a nurse after the war, working at Sechelt Hospital in British Columbia for 35 years.

Everett Sylvester Cromwell was born in Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia in 1921. When WWII started in 1939, he saw the Army turning Black people away, but by the time he enrolled in 1941, he had no problems. He was put into the Royal Canadian Army Service Corp and was told he’d probably be driving vehicles, to which he replied, “I had never been inside a vehicle for a drive let alone drive one.”

After intensive training in England, however, Cromwell became an integral part of a munitions transport unit that landed on Juno Beach with 30 trucks. He and his team would load supplies off ships and drive them to the front lines, where they were in firing range of the Germans. On the return voyage, they would bring German prisoners of war back to the ships. After the war, Cromwell remained in the Canadian Armed Forces until retirement in 1971. He was also a founding member of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society in Nova Scotia.

James Francis “Stocky” Edwards was born in Nokomis, Saskatchewan in 1921. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940 and, after completing his training in England, became one of the rare Allied pilots to fight in all of the major Allied campaigns: the North African, Italian and North-West Europe campaigns. His record includes shooting down 19 enemy aircraft (plus 7 more “probables”) and destroying 12 aircraft and 200 vehicles on the ground. He was considered a flying ace and one of the Commonwealth’s top fighter pilots. Promoted to squadron leader after his actions in Italy, he and his team flew in support of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. Edwards remained in the RCAF until his retirement in 1972.