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Second World War (1939-1945)
The Navy in European Waters  - D-Day and the Normandy Landings

Over 100 Canadian warships and some 10,000 Canadian sailors supported D-Day, the 6 June 1944 landings in Normandy. Canadian ships and sailors helped protect the invasion fleet, cleared German minefields, and ferried Allied troops across the Channel.

Chaudières Embarking for Normandy Assault
Chaudières Embarking for Normandy Assault

In Harold Beament's painting, members of the Régiment de la Chaudière board the Canadian infantry landing ship HMCS Prince David prior to D-Day.

A former passenger liner and armed merchant cruiser, Prince David had been converted to a Landing Ship Infantry (Medium), and given its own flotilla of landing craft for transporting soldiers ashore. Prince David would transport the Chaudières and British troops across the English Channel before loading them into Landing Craft Assault (LCAs) for the final run to the beach. Many of Prince David's landing craft were subsequently lost to either damage by German beach defences or mortar fire.

Chaudières Embarking for Normandy Assault
Painted by Harold Beament
Beaverbrook Collection of War Art
CWM 19710261-1000





HMCS Caraquet Model
Oropesa Minesweeping Float
Tangled Float, No.2
Chaudières Embarking for Normandy Assault
Third Canadian Division Assault Troops
260th Landing Craft Flotilla, Southampton, England
Officers of the 260th and 262nd Flotillas
The Crew of LCI(L) 135
D-Day
LCI(L) 249, Bernières-sur-Mer, 6 June 1944
LCI(L) 249 at Bernières-sur-Mer, 6 June 1944
LCI(L) 135 on Juno Beach
LCI(L) 249 in Drydock, Portsmouth, England
White Ensign, LCI(L) 250
Chaplain James Harold Graven's Pyx
Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando Battle Dress Blouse
Lanchester Sub-Machine-gun
Southampton Pub, D-Day Plus One
Rescue at Sea
The Gale of Hurricane Force on the Normandy Beach