D-DAY TO CARPIQUET

Military history
D-DAY TO CARPIQUET: The North Shore Regiment and the liberation of Europe, Marc Milner, Goose Lane Editions, Fredericton, NB, 138 pages, photos, maps, index, bibliography. $16.95
The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment is little known today; seldom mentioned even in official accounts of Canadians in the Second World War. Yet their heroic front-line achievements during the early days of the liberation of Normandy deserve far more recognition. Now at last, proper homage is paid to them in this authoritatively written study by well-known military historian Marc Milner.
The NFR was an unassuming outfit, composed of sturdy farmers, fishermen, lumbermen, and millhands, who made ideal infantry soldiers. After three years of training in Britain, they landed on Juno Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and fought their way inland. Milner includes many personal accounts of combat experiences, which vividly convey their bravery in face of carnage.
Clear maps help the reader to follow description of various actions during this short but costly campaign. Over 200 NSR men were killed or wounded during the bloody battle for the village of Carpiquet that lasted just six days, and became known ever after as the “regiment’s graveyard.”
The book includes numerous photographs of members of the regiment, often identified by personal names. Another photographic feature is the inclusion of printed frames from film footage of the regiment’s landing on D-Day, printed on successive pages that can be “played” in motion by fanning them from front to back.
-- Sidney Allinson.