6•6•44

CP SD70ACU 6644 wears the camouflage colours applied to Royal Canadian Air Force "Spitfire" fighter planes flown at the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944 — 79 years ago today.

The moon rises above Canadian Pacific 6644 on Remembrance Day 2019 in Calgary, Alberta.

 
So much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide.
— President Barack Obama on the 65th anniversary of D-Day
 

On a moonless night, CP 6644 meets a train in the inky darkness at MacTier, Ontario.

  • Their bodies and parachutes hung from the trees

    Near a church tower in Normandy at St Mere Eglise

    Eighty Second Airborne from a tracer filled sky

    The dice roll of fate choosing those who would die

    There are hundreds and hundreds on Omaha Beach

    The cliff tops above them now forever out of reach

    With mortars and machines guns and 88s as well

    It’s a wonder that any could’ve lived through that hell

    Gliders troops from the Sixth took the bridges at Orne

    But some never saw that first breaking of dawn

    They held out through daylight as the Panzers attacked

    But they never retreated, they never fell back

    The Eagles were screaming as they took Carentan

    They didn’t all make it, but the Germans, they ran

    Clearing the streets as the mortar shells burst

    Dying in scores were the Hundred and First

    Canadians that fought near the town of Courseulles

    Torn up and mangled by huge jerry shells

    They all knew the danger, some knew that they’d fall

    As they ran through the bullets to breach the sea wall

    British Commandos at Ouistreham, Queen Red

    The bridgehead they took there was paid for in dead

    Advancing inland as the day carried on

    Fewer and fewer with a lot of mates gone

    If you visit years later and hear the sea roar

    Don’t forget those who went there in June 44

    For all those that fought there and the many that died

    Appreciate your Freedom and Remember them with Pride.

Appreciate your Freedom and Remember them with Pride.

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