Dennis Trudeau Canadian Paratrooper D - Day

[caappy]

The day before Dennis Trudeau parachuted into Normandy, he wrote his parents a letter saying he was about to go into battle but they shouldn't worry.

"Everything is going to be fine and dandy," he wrote. "After all, I'm not scared."

Trudeau had joined the Canadian military at 17 and became a paratrooper, in part because they were paid an extra $50 a month.

He's 93 now, living in Grovetown, Georgia. But his memories of D-Day - and the day before D-Day - are undimmed.

On June 5, 1944, he and the other paratroopers sat on the tarmac and joked about how they'd be in Paris by Christmas. But when they climbed into the plane, the chatter stopped.

Trudeau's position was by the open jump door; he could look out across the vast array of planes and ships powering toward Normandy. Planes were strung out across the horizon.

He prayed: "I just kind of told the Lord, 'Let me see one more sunrise.'"

And then, he jumped.

Trudeau landed in water up to his waist in a flooded field. In the dark, he rendezvoused with other paratroopers. They were on the way to their objective when friendly fire hit - an Air Force bomb.

Thrown into a ditch, Trudeau heard a dying friend nearby, calling out for his mother.

"You train with him and you ate with him and you slept with him and you fought with him. And in less than three hours, he was gone," he said.

Within hours, combat would be over for Trudeau, as well. He was captured by German forces and spent the duration in a prisoner-of-war camp. By the time the war was over, he had gone from 135 pounds to about 85.

He returned to Normandy in 1955 to see the graves of eight platoon members who didn't survive. This time, he'll say a prayer over their graves.

"They're the heroes. They're the ones who gave everything they had," he said.

Sent him 2 photos on 3 Jun and got them back signed on 19 Jun. He also sent a note telling me that he was a member of the 1st Canadian Para BN with the 6th British Airborne Div. Their mission was to blow up 2 bridges, destroy communication center, secure the drop zone for the remainder of the unit..

Dennis Trudeau
404 Williams St #3
Grovetown, GA 30813

__

[admin]

Hi again caappy

Thank you for your feedback

Would you have a scan of the envelope and picture you received please?
If so, you are in the run for the $10 gift certificate.

Fanmail