An RCMP Black Hawk helicopter flies over the National War Memorial as the formal 2025 National Remembrance Day Ceremony concludes. [Aaron Kylie/LM]

Where Canada remembers: The National War Memorial hosts its 85th annual ceremony in tribute to military sacrifice

STORY BY AARON KYLIE

Beyond the grounds of Parliament Hill, there may be no other location as synonymous with Canadians gathering en masse as the National War Memorial. Since 1940, thousands have flocked annually to the country’s cenotaph, known as “The Response,” to pay their respects to those who have served, and continue to serve, Canada in uniform.

Coincidentally, design proposals for the monument, with a budget set at $100,000, were first sought 100 years ago in February 1925. The tribute was to evoke “the spirit of heroism, the spirit of self-sacrifice, the spirit of all that is noble and great that was exemplified in the lives of those sacrificed in the Great War, and the services rendered by the men and women who went overseas.”

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The 29th (Canadian) Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla conducts an exercise in May 1944. Weeks later, it would participate with the British during the invasion at Sword Beach on D-Day [LAC/3204508]

The Canadians at Sword Beach: Part 1

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

We all know the story, or at least a version of it.

The success of D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the result of a combined arms operation spearheaded by U.S., British and Canadian forces. These three Allied nations, the oft-cited tale goes, were assigned five heavily defended sectors between them.

The British were tasked with landing at the beaches codenamed Sword and Gold; the Americans took on the mantle of assaulting Utah and Omaha beaches; and the Canadians squared off against German resistance on Juno Beach.

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