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The regiment which arrived in England of July, 1941, when
the tide of Allied Fortune was at a very low ebb, brought with
them a fighting spirit, good heart, and a sense of high respon-
sibility. For nearly three years this force concentrated its
resources into the welding of a highly-trained fighting team.
There was much to lear[inserted] n [end inserted]New tactics, new weapons to master, new
machines - with their maintenance and handling - and finally
developing into perfection the most difficult battle technique
of all - the assault landing against Hitler's Atlantic Wall.

In May and April of this eventful year the Regiment took
part in Exercise after Exercise. Time and again the men dashed
from assault boats up the beaches of Studland Bay, Bournemouth,
practicing the grim role they were later to play. The experience
gained from Combined Operation rehearsals at Inverary, Scotland,
was reviewed, rehearsed, for when the chips went down this
amphibious force must succeed in its part of the invasion.

[underlined] THIS IS IT [end underlined]

Finally all was ready. The regiment went into a concentra-
tion area near Southampton. There behind a well-guarded barbed
wire enclosure the Briefing began. Company after Company,
platoon and section, filed-in their turn to the Briefing Room.
There, from a huge model, from maps and aerial photographs,
the men studied their tasks. Then all was ready. Armed and
equipped with the best that the total resources of the Democracies
could provide the men began the journey to the boats:
Science, Training, every sort of supporting weapon, tremendous
air power, mastery of the Channel waters, -- all these were on
the side of the North Shore men. Now it was up to them. Be-
cause of the fate of this tremendous enterprise lay in the hands of
small sub-units, sections, even single individuals, the sum total
of their efforts would add up to disaster --- or the foundation
of victory.

[underlined] ALLIED LINE UP [end underlined]

Excercise, "OVERLORD", as this immense enterprise was called,
envisaged a landing on a Corps Front, i.e., the part of the
operation for which the British were responsible. Accordingly,
First Corps was to assault with the 3rd Canadian Division on the
Right, and the 3rd British Division on the Left, the 51st Highland
Division being the follow-up Division. In the First Corps
also were the famous 6th Airborne Division and 1 special Service
Brigade.

St-Aubin-Sur-Mer was the area of the French Coast given
to the Battalion -- the section of the beach to be assaulted being
referred to by the code name of "NAN RED" beach. The assault
was to be made in two waves with two companies in each. Accordingly
Able Company was allotted the right sector, Baker the left, following
closely behind them Charlie Company and Dog Company pass through
and exploit inland.

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