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Saskatchewan said goodbye to a statue made in honour of some of its WWII veterans on Friday afternoon.
The eight-foot-tall bronze rifleman was created to honour the Royal Regina Rifles (formerly the Regina Rifles Regiment), who played a crucial role in the liberation of France from Nazi occupation.
On June 6, 1944, the Rifles made it farther inland than any other infantry unit.
The statue is scheduled to make a quick overnight stop in Trenton, Ont., before heading to Juno Beach in Normandy – the same place the Rifles stormed almost 80 years ago.
There, it will be officially unveiled for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The Royal Regina Rifles statue being loaded onto a plane.(Daniel Reech/980 CJME)
People in Regina had an opportunity to get a sneak peek of the statue outside the Legislature this past April.
“Bon voyage soldier, bon voyage,” said retired lieutenant-colonel Ed Staniowski at a media event.
Lt.-Col. Staniowski has been the lead planner for the project from its inception which has been dubbed “Operation Calvados”.
“It feels great, it’s (been) like two years of really hard work by a great committee and the Regiment and a whole bunch of people supporting the initiative,” Lt.-Col. Staniowski said.
It will be the last time Lt.-Col. Staniowski sees the statue until its official unveiling in Normandy.
“It’s about the legacy of the regiment and what they accomplished in two world wars in Europe,” Lt.-Col. Staniowski said.
Lt.-Col. Staniowski added that it was also a salute to members of the Rifles that served throughout history and today. The Rifles made up about 1,000 of the 14,000 to 15,000 Canadians that landed on the beaches on D-Day.
Sculptor Don Begg said the statue was designed to be noticeable from a distance. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)
458 members of the Rifles died during the war. Kelsey Lonie, military historian with the Royal Regina Rifles trust committee, said that 15 current members of the Rifles will be in attendance at the unveiling ceremony in France.
She said a lot of detail went into designing the statue (which was created by sculptor Don Begg.) “We took a helmet from D-Day over to the sculptor so that we could get it just perfect. He reconstructed a rifle load of wood – a Bren gun so that he could get it to scale,” Lonie said.
“Everything is very accurate and the detailing on his face shows determination as he’s pushing forward to storm the beaches.”
The statue was also supposed to be previewed in Peepeekisis Cree Nation in April, but Lonie said it was unable to make the trip because the crate had been compromised. Instead, a small version of the statue was presented there during the ceremony.
Lonie said Indigenous soldiers represented about 20 per cent of the regiment’s soldiers from across Saskatchewan.
“There’s just so many stories of brave men who stormed the beach that day; being able to be a part of preserving their memory is (an) incredibly great honor for me to be a part of,” Lonie said. “I just hope that the legacy continues (and) the statue promotes further recognition of what Saskatchewan men did during the Second World War.”
