ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the Canadian Battlefields Foundation (CBF) has developed an awareness of the Canadian wartime presence in Normandy. The CBF, created in 1992, has drawn support from veterans, generous patrons and donors, as well as historians, for a series of commemorative sites and activities. This includes a Canadian Garden, opened in 1995 on the property of Le Mémorial in Caen. The CBF has also supported two lieux des memoires (sites of memory) south of Caen. Point 67 is an elevation that lies on the western edge of Verrières Ridge, the site of bitter fighting in July and early August of 1944. The other site overlooks the village of St Lambert sur Dives, where in the final days of the Normandy battles in late August, a small group of Canadians under the command of Major David Currie fought to close the last escape route of two German armies. Major Currie’s actions resulted in him being awarded Canada’s only Victoria Cross of the Normandy campaign. Since 1995, the CBF has also sponsored a tour of university students led by Canadian academics through the battlefields of northwest Europe. These endeavours have sought to nurture an ‘informed memory’ of the Canadian involvement in the Normandy campaign.
