Summary

TAPE: EF03/0520 IN_TIME: 03:06:15 DURATION: 2:17 SOURCES: POOL RESTRICTIONS: DATELINE: Normandy, 6 June 2003 SHOTLIST: Normandy 1 Various aerial views of Normandy beaches Colleville-sur-Mer 2 Various of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin (centre) and US Ambassador to France Howard H Leach visiting cemetery where US soldiers are buried 3 Various of Raffarin and Leach laying wreath and holding one minute silence Courseulles-sur-Mer 4 Canadian honour guard in front of museum 5 Various of Raffarin (left) and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien unveiling bronze sculpture 6 War veterans watch 7 Close-up of sculpture 7 Various of Canadian paratroopers landing with giant-sized Canadian flag 8 Raffarin and Chretien lay wreath, hold one minute silence STORYLINE: Nearly 700 Canadian veterans gathered at a beach in Normandy, France to mark the 59th anniversary of D-Day - the name given to the World War Two Allied assault to free France from the Nazis They were also commemorating the opening of the Juno Beach Centre, a museum and memorial honouring Canadians who fought in the Second World War For decades, the strip of sand on the Atlantic Ocean code-named Juno Beach, where 21,000 Canadians landed on June 6, 1944, has been overshadowed by nearby Omaha Beach, the bloodiest D-Day battle site Veterans groups sought to give Juno greater honor by opening a monument that is a testimony to the sacrifices of all Canadians, both on the battlefield and at home, during World War II Until now, there has been no Canadian memorial to mark these achievements, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said at a finely orchestrated ceremony At the Juno Beach Centre, our grandchildren and their grandchildren will learn what their forebears did for freedom Chretien and French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin unveiled a 25-metre (8-foot) bronze sculpture entitled Remembrance and Renewal that evokes the unity and camaraderie of the troops Every year on these beaches the French people honour the liberators, Raffarin said, while paying tribute to the determination and courage that drove them to liberate France In total, nearly one-thousand Canadians died that day A group of Canadian paratroopers in red and white jumped from a plane above the landing site on Friday, unfurling a giant-sized Canadian flag as they fell The flag is to flutter above the new memorial From helicopters overhead, 43,000 poppy flowers were dropped over the landing site, one for each Canadian soldier who died in the war The streets of Normandy towns and villages were lined with American, British, Canadian and French flags D-Day marked the first breach in Hitler's Atlantic wall, and eventually led to the defeat of Nazi Germany Few of the troops who landed that day had any combat experience, and thousands were gunned down by German machine gun and mortar fire Canadian troops led the assault at Juno, US forces stormed code-named Utah and Omaha beaches and British soldiers led an attack on Gold and Sword beaches Also on Friday, American veterans, choir singers and tourists came together at the Normandy American Cemetery in nearby Colleville-sur-Mer to honour the US troops who also fought and died on D-Day The cemetery contains the graves of thousands of soldiers, many of whom were cut down by enemy fire on Omaha