In Desperate Battle : Normandy 1944

From the outset of the Second World War, it had been clear to Britain that air superiority would be the decisive factor in the battle against Hitler's Germany. At airbases all over England and in the skies over Europe, more than 50,000 Canadian airmen served in the campaign to bomb Germany. Ordered to drop their payloads on a remote and faceless enemy below, the airmen of Bomber Command had a thankless job. For those who survived, the sheer terror and sense of helplessness left an indelible scar.

In the autumn of 1941, nearly 2,000 Canadian soldiers were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British government. Most of the soldiers were inexperienced and poorly trained, but Britain's military leaders thought a symbolic show of strength would deter a Japanese attack on the colony. Canada's soldiers found themselves in the midst of a desperate battle they could not hope to win. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British colony of Hong Kong officially surrendered to Japan. The surviving defenders became prisoners of war. Over the next three and a half years, many of them would come to envy the dead.

Près de cinquante ans après l'invasion par les Alliés dans la France occupée, un tournant majeur dans la guerre contre l'Allemagne hitlérienne, des analystes militaires continuent de s'intéresser à certains aspects de la campagne. À l'aide de films d'archives, de scènes reconstituées et de comptes rendus, ce film livre une information stupéfiante sur le traitement réservé aux prisonniers de guerre des deux camps, sur les conditions de vie atroces imposées aux soldats, et met en lumière le courage de ces hommes qui se sont battus et sont morts pour leur patrie. La Bataille de Normandie est le troisième volet de la série La Bravoure et le Mépris portant sur le rôle du Canada lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.