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Heroes Remember D-Day Videos Group Research and Presentation Instruction Sheet

This publication is available upon request in alternate formats. PDF Version

Instructions:

As a group, you will research, create and deliver a short presentation for your class on a Veteran of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.

Your presentation should include the following components:

  • Introduce your Veteran. You may wish to include place of birth and date of death (if deceased); childhood background; age of enlistment; and details of service such as the Veteran’s rank (private, lieutenant, etc.), branch (army, navy or air force), regiment, ship or squadron, and role or task during the war (infantry, skipper, pilot, etc.).  
  • Explain your Veteran’s role during D-Day or during another part of the Battle of Normandy (e.g., capture of Caen or Carpiquet, closing of the Falaise Gap). This part should begin by giving the class some background information of the event. For example, if your Veteran was a pilot who flew on D-Day, explain the role of the Royal Canadian Air Force on that day. If your Veteran was a soldier who helped take Carpiquet airfield, give a brief history of what the Canadians did there and why it was an important event. This part will require some research of secondary sources (see list of reliable websites below). Follow by explaining what your Veteran did during the event.
  • Share a touching, difficult or interesting experience that you heard when listening to the videos of your Veteran. It may be the same experience as the one in the video you choose to share with the class, but it does not have to be.
  • Introduce the video clip you will be sharing with the class. Explain any background information that the class should know, such as unfamiliar events referred to in the video or terms the Veteran uses.
  • Share your chosen video clip with the class. Note: If you wish to avoid streaming the video over the Internet, right click on the video and choose “save video as” to load it directly onto your computer. This will avoid problems viewing over a network.  

Steps to proceed and find the information:

  • Visit the Remembrance section of the Veterans Affairs Canada website at www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance. Click on “Heroes Remember Interviews” and then on “Do you know a Veteran by name”? to find your Veteran.
  • On the first featured clip, click on the “Description” and on the “Meta Data” tabs to find some background information on your Veteran. Are there any words or places you do not know in the description? Write them down and search them on the Internet to better understand the Veteran’s background. You may also wish to do a general search on your Veteran as some may have done other interviews for media. Unfortunately, you also may discover that your Veteran has passed away since the recording of the videos. The group can do this research together or divide the work and then meet to share what you have learned.
  • Watch your Veteran’s video clips listed below as a group (if you can) or individually. If you have time, you may wish to watch all of your Veteran’s clips available on the Heroes Remember website, but the video you choose for the presentation should be from the list. Write down any words, terms, phrases or places you do not know, similar to what you did in step 1. Research using secondary sources to discover what they mean (see reliable websites below). It may be helpful to add “Second World War” or “WWII” and “Canada” in the search. After you have searched the unknown words, listen to the clips once again to better understand the Veteran’s experience.
  • Next, as a group, discuss what you have learned and what you wish to present to the class as a whole. You might begin by picking your favourite video clip and choosing a relevant background topic or event (e.g., role of Royal Canadian Air Force on D-Day) to explain to the class.
  • Once you have completed any additional research required, create your presentation ensuring you have the five components listed above. If you are using presentation software such as Google Slides or PowerPoint, you should limit your presentation to a few slides and keep your text on the slides short. Avoid reading the text right off the slides. You simply want to have the text (or photos) as a visual aid for the class. For an effective presentation, most of what you say in your presentation should be memorized or on cue-cards.

Reliable websites for historical information:

List of Veterans and featured video clips:

Joseph William Ross - Infantryman - Army (Montreal, QC)

  • Bad Weather For Sailing
  • Crossing the English Channel to Normandy
  • Landing on Beaches of Normandy
  • More From the Beaches of Normandy
  • Horror of Hitler Youth

Bertram “Bud” Hannam - Stretcher Bearer – Army (Toronto/Ottawa, ON)

  • Path Taken in Preparation for D-Day
  • Pandemonium on the Beach
  • Casualty Clearing Station
  • Uncovering the Mystery Many Years Later
  • Reuniting After so Many Years

Ivan Doherty – Stoker and Depth Charge Loader – Navy (Charlottetown, PEI)

  • Dangerous Stoke Hold Makes for Jumpy Nerves
  • Protecting Convoys From The Wolf Pack
  • D-Day: Germans on the Run
  • Sinking of the Guysborough
  • Pride in Sacrifice

Roderick Smith – Pilot - Air Force (Regina, SK)

  • I’ll Never Master This
  • Dogfight Training and Confidence Building
  • First Mission
  • Prelude to Normandy
  • First D-Day Operation

Robert Bruce – Truck Driver – Army (Sturgeon Valley, SK)

  • The Art of Deception
  • The Treatment of Collaborators
  • Dead Livestock and Dysentery
  • Germany’s Defiance of Military Convention
  • Encounter at Beny-sur-Mer

Havelyn Chiasson - Signal Operator – Army (Bathurst, NB)

  • Training for D-Day
  • Maneuvering as a Wireless Operator
  • Hitting the Beaches on D-Day
  • Sixty Days of Battle
  • Dreams Still Haunt

John Henry Gorsline – Radar Operator – Navy (Collingwoood, ON)

  • Preparing for D-Day (Part 1)
  • Preparing for D-Day (Part 2)
  • Going Into Action on D-Day
  • One Landing Craft Survives
  • Ship Receives Casualties

Charley Fox – Pilot – Air Force – Pilot (Guelph, ON)

  • The Beast You Had To Get In
  • The Spitfire
  • A Look at the Channel on D-Day
  • Strafing Rommel
  • Fair Game

Robert Arthur Champoux - Gunner – Army (Hull, QC)

  • The Machine Gunner
  • Training After “The Raid” and Before D- Day
  • Mines in the English Channel
  • Crossing of the English Channel
  • Falaise Gap
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