A statue on display in Regina, Sask. honors Indigenous and other veterans who were vital to D-Day operations.
REGINA, Sask.—In April, The Royal Regina Rifles (RRR) unveiled a statue honoring troops who landed on the beaches at Normandy, France on D-Day-including the quarter of the regiment who were First Nations.
Of the Indigenous soldiers in the RRR, most were from the Peepeekisis First Nation.
"The contributions of Indigenous veterans have really been overlooked for a long time,"historian Kelsey Loney told APTN News. "We are so proud to include the Indigenous perspective on this story, and you know, it's just an incredible piece of our provincial history."
Then called The Regina Rifle Regiment, they were one of the first infantry regiments to storm Juno Beach as part of the Normandy D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Nicknamed "The Johns," the regiment was made up of young men from across Saskatchewan. The Battalion landed on the western side of Juno Beach, destroying gun positions on the beach and successfully clearing the village of Courseulles-sur-Mer before pushing further inland. The Royal Regina Rifles would go on and liberate the town of Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, about 20 km from the beach.
The eight-foot bronze statue, created by sculptor Don Begg, depicts a member of the Rifles charging ahead into battle. Begg said he tried to convey on the face of the soldier the "fear, a determination, the unknown, but you had a job to do, you were asked to do it and you were going to do it."
The statue is on display at Regina's legislative building and will eventually make its way to the former battlefield for the 80th anniversary of the attack. The Government of Saskatchewan provided a $40,000 grant to support The Royal Regina Rifles Trust's Battlefield Tour of Honour, Operation Calvados, for the 80th Anniversary of Operation Overlord (D-Day) taking place in June 2024.
A group of active and retired Royal Regina Rifles servicemen and women will accompany the statue to Normandy, participate in the unveiling and continue on a 10-day battlefield tour, stopping at significant places in France, Holland and Belgium before being put in the memorial to the Regina Rifles Regiment in Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse.
"Finally, we're getting our recognition here because in our communities it's of course the veterans that are our heroes. They were the ones that came back with leadership skills." Peepeekisis member Pat Deiter told CTV News at the Regina unveiling.
During the unveiling ceremony in Regina, tribute was paid to one veteran Nick Kazuska, age 104 of Saskatoon, who took part in the Second World War as an anti-aircraft gunner. French ambassador Michel Miraillet presented Kazuska with the French Legion of Honour medal.
Charles Bird was one of the other people named in the ceremony. Bird was a Peepeekisis veteran, part of the Canadian force that stormed Juno Beach as part of Operation Overlord.
"He was wounded there and went back to heal, but after he healed they sent him back out to the war again where he carried on," explained Bird's son, Allan, to CTV News. "He was a major part, along with Canada, to make that change towards D-Day . . . I'm so proud of my dad and I'm so proud of the veterans."
