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October 2024

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Peter Wheeland
2
No safe harbour? Then build one!
The construction of two "Mulberry" harbours on D-Day beaches was an engineering and tactical marvel, planned in secrecy … and almost obliterated by a…
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Peter Wheeland
The first battle of D-Day
The glider-borne assault of two German-held bridges was also the first victory of the day as 180 British light infantrymen landed behind enemy lines…
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Peter Wheeland
The house that Canada… shot
The first French home liberated on D-Day was captured by a squad of Canadian soldiers 20 minutes after landing on bloody Juno beach. Today it's known as…
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Peter Wheeland
1
From beach to bunker
Many Canadians would become heroes in the Battle of Normandy, but many more would be haunted by what they saw—and sometimes by what they did—on the road…
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Peter Wheeland

September 2024

Inspiration sur-la-mer
A detour down the Normandy coast takes me to the Fécamp hometown of William the Conquerer and the iconic cliffs of Étretat.
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Peter Wheeland
2
Remembering the disaster at Dieppe
Two years before D-Day, Canadians led the charge in a poorly-planned raid on the French coastal port that would be their costliest battle of the war.
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Peter Wheeland
"You Can't Kill a City"
But an estimated 3,000 citizens lost their lives while two-thirds of the French city of Caen was destroyed by Allied bombing in July, 1944
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Peter Wheeland
1
Le Havre: A city reborn
The port city, still held by the Nazis for more than three months after D-Day, was razed during 132 separate Allied bombing missions. Its post-war urban…
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Peter Wheeland
© 2024 Peter Wheeland
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