70th Anniversary of D-Day - Drive a CMP to Canada

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I will be remembering the accomplishments of 5th Field Company RCE. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Mr Stanley Fields, Cpl (retd) who landed on Juno Beach at HHr minus with the simple job of removing explosives and other obstacles. He and his men dashed ashore and then spent 2 hrs under fire before a meddlesome German MG could be destroyed. They then got out from behind the seawall and on with their job.

5th Field was distributed into sections and platoons all across the Canadian front. Their end of the day War Diary losses were reported in the dozens until two small landing craft filled with men who had been stranded offshore were able to land and join up with the HQ.

Before going to speak to Stanley, I read about their work in the 2nd volume of the Engineer's history and some of the excellent on-line histories of the landing. Mr Fields was the honoured guest at a recent unit mess dinner and although I was not able to attend, he was the star of the show. At age 95, every DDay survivor is a bit of a war hero.