Vimy Ridge gave us our pride; Juno Beach gave us our identity. That’s the message Desaree Rosskopf, the Juno Beach Centre’s 2017/2018 Fellow, shares on the latest episode of Juno Beach & Beyond. Tune in as she recounts the varying experiences and memories of Canada’s Battle of Normandy in 1944.

Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery ca. 1955 (Source: Library and Archives Canada/National Film Board fonds/e011176110)

Guest Biography

Desaree Rosskopf is the 2017-2018 Juno Beach Centre Fellow and recipient of the Government of Canada History Award. She received her Master of Arts in History from Western University under Dr. Jonathan Vance and completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts with gold medal distinction at Tyndale University. She has presented twice at the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies annual Military History Colloquium on the collective memory of Vimy Ridge and Juno Beach. The Canadian Military Journal will publish Desaree’s article on the motivations of French Canadian volunteers in the First World War next spring.

Notes   

If you’d like to hear more about Jim Warford’s story, check out his interview with The Memory Project.  

To contribute to our GoFundMe campaign to bring Canadian veterans back to Juno Beach for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings go to gofundme.com/veteransforjuno75.

Do you know a Second World War veteran willing and able to travel to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day? Get in touch with us by email at jbca@junobeach.org.

The following links offer more information on the topics discussed in this episode:

Events

Landing at Juno Beach

Operation Husky 1943

People

General Andrew McNaughton

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Georges Regnauld

Adolf Hitler

Credits

Juno Beach & Beyond is hosted and edited by Alex Fitzgerald-Black, the centre’s Digital Projects Coordinator.

Mackenzie King’s speech to British Parliament from the British Pathé YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SlEvclY5LE&t=48s

Artillery firing sounds from the CBC News: The National YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsCSQ4uWR1Y

Female veteran’s voice (Eileen Green, née Short) Courtesy of The Memory Project, Historica Canada: http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/383:eileen-green-nee-short/

Winston Churchill’s “Finest Hour” speech from Jonathan Thomas’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB5wZtV1MWM

Spitfire sound effect from Jason Kirby’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZI4tAoMN0

Dramatic Interlude by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com

Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/