Lest We Forget is translated in French by Souvenons-nous.
Still, I had to know what it was all about to remember…
In 2009, I had no idea that the Royal Canadian Air Force had a squadron named Alouette.
At the time, I thought I knew a lot about the Second World War. What I did know was what I could find on the United States’ feats of arms. There were a few French-Canadian heroes in the Canadian army, but when I was 10 years-old, my interest was mainly in the aircraft of the Second World War.
My interest in French-Canadian involvement began when I met my wife’s uncle in July 2009. A notorious liar, her uncle Pierre announced that he had been a sailor on the Athabaskan destroyer in the Canadian Navy, which was sunk on April 29, 1944 off the coast of France.
We had just mentioned his two brothers who were in the army. Jean, a member of the Fusiliers Mont-Royal, had been wounded on the beaches of Normandy, and Jacques had guarded German prisoners on Canadian soil.
At the age of 16, Pierre lied about his age to join the navy. He was fed up with the authority of his father, whom he had described as the « bonhomme » when we met.
Has he really enlisted? With the few details I had, I started writing his story on Souvenirs de guerre in September 2009 then on its English version Lest We Forget to validate what he had said.
Since 2009, I’ve been writing about all the unknown heroes I have come across.
RCAF 425 Alouettes III 