'A high price for our freedom': One Manitoban's special connection to D-Day

Amongst the roughly 13,000 Canadian soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, was a Manitoban who never forgot what he saw that day.

“It’s just so hard to put into words. He just experienced something a 24-year-old son should not have to experience,” said veteran Peter Martin in an interview with CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.

His father Paul Martin was a familiar figure to Manitobans. He gave his life to public service as a former councillor and mayor of Transcona in the 1950s.

He was also a fixture in classrooms leading up to Remembrance Day.

As Padre of the Transcona Legion, Paul was dedicated to teaching the next generation about the sacrifices thousands made on D-Day and throughout the Second World War.

“He spent his life trying to overcome what he experienced,” Peter said.

Veteran Paul Martin is shown in an undated image.

Paul joined the Royal Winnipeg Rifles in 1939. According to his son, he spent four years training in England, forming unbreakable bonds with his comrades.

Eighty years ago, he went ashore on D-Day and never forgot the horrors that unfolded.

Roughly 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches that fateful day to begin an effort now remembered as the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

In all, 4,414 Allied troops were killed on the first day of the invasion, including 381 Canadians.

June 6 marked just the beginning of the 77-day Battle of Normandy and the start of the Allied liberation of France.

“To land on Juno Beach to watch his friends, his comrades, his buddies being shot down, hurt, crying, asking for my dad’s help and him not being able to help them,” Peter said.

“I just think of the personal lives of each individual soldier, a son, a brother, a father, an uncle. They lost their lives for something very special.”

Paul died in 2016, and is commemorated by Paul Martin Drive.

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, his son Peter continues to spread his father’s legacy and message.

“It was a successful mission overall, but the individual soldiers paid a high price for our freedom,” Peter said.

“His story is not unlike all stories, but it’s one for me that’s personal, that I need to keep carrying on dad’s mission.”