Will old war stories fade away?

D-Day's anniversary spurs excitement around Normandy, but how will memories last after the final few veterans have passed on?

- ALLAN WOODS

On a recent Sunday morning, a group of young French people gathered in front of a Second World War monument, wrapped themselves in the flags of Canadian provinces and army regiments, and set off on a solemn march — one inspired 80 years ago by the exploits of a 19-year-old soldier.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, Montreal’s Bill Ross stepped onto Juno Beach in the Normandy town of Bernières-sur-Mer to scenes of horror.

A low-flying British fighter plane was hit by friendly rocket fire and crashed. A sergeant took a sniper’s bullet through the throat. Ross had his own brush with death, when he nearly stepped on a mine.

But his section made it ashore and pushed up the road toward the local church. They fought through German tanks to reach the villages of Beny-sur-Mer, Basly and Anguerney.

And as night fell, they dug a trench and slept a few weary winks in Anisy, having made it further than almost any of the other Allied liberators in one of history’s greatest military battles — one that would push the Nazis out of western Europe and toward an eventual defeat.

The commemorative walk retraces the path travelled by Ross, who died eight years ago, at the age of 91 — one in a cascade of Canadian veterans who outwitted war but have been toppled by time.

In the days before this week’s DDay anniversary ceremony, which will bring the world once again to the Normandy shores, the emotion was palpable, as the two-dozen teens and young adults set off on a six-hour, 12-kilometre walk through wheat fields and horse pastures and along streets named for those who graced the ground with their bravery and their blood.