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Philippe Rousseau, killed the first French Canadian D-Day

By Pierre Vennat

Unpublished text

The story failed to mention the name of the first French-Canadian military death in the invasion of Normandy June 6, 1944. This is the paratrooper lieutenant Philippe Rousseau, Montmagny, member of the 1st Canadian Parachute Regiment.

Philippe Rousseau

is his brother, Captain Maurice Rousseau, of the same regiment, who announced the death of the young officer to his family: "In-Gondeville sur-Mer, near Houidate in the department Calvados, Normandy, there is a tomb where rests Philip. There is also a cross dedicated to "the first French Canadian to die in the invasion to liberate France." The population has bred this cross and flowers are offered each day by the orders of the mayor. Service it was sung by the local priest, and this under the occupation of France by the Germans. "

member of a family of 12 children, Philippe Rousseau, after studying at Royal Military College in Kingston was joined Regiment de la Chaudière in 1942. He then asked transfer to the 1st Canadian Parachute Regiment. Besides his brother Maurice, he had another brother officer, Bernard, captain of the Regiment of Montmagny. Finally, another of his brothers, Jacques Rousseau, was well known as director of the Montreal Botanical Garden.

A few weeks later, in September, it was the turn of Lieutenant Maurice Rousseau to be killed while performing a mission behind enemy lines.

was not until February 1945 that the British authorities officially announced the death in combat, more than four months earlier, Lieutenant Maurice Rousseau.

Descended in Alsace, behind German lines in early September 1944, Lieutenant Maurice Rousseau could perform exactly the task that was entrusted to him and that his commanding officer called it, in a message of "Mission Extremely well done. " Missing a little later and alleged prisoner probably died from his injuries, he was buried in a cemetery Avricourt German in Alsace.

graduate. He, too, the Royal Military College in Kingston in 1940, Maurice Rousseau was entered, the same year as a lieutenant in the Regiment the boiler with which he crossed to England. Promoted to captain, he had applied for admission in the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion when it was established as independent battalion in 1943. Then in September 1944, shortly before his death, he had been transferred to the British Special Air Service. In 1943, he married a young Englishwoman overseas.

The first parachutist French Canadian: Marcel Côté

In August 1942 the first contingent of Canadian paratroopers, numbering 26, left for Fort Benning, Georgia, to undergo intensive training in a camp of American paratroopers highly specialized.

Upon returning home, these 26 men were to be the managers and instructors of a detachment of paratroopers that were trained at Camp Shilo, Manitoba.

Among them was the first French Canadian paratrooper, Lt. Marcel Côté of Montreal. Former member of the Officers Training Corps Canadian (COTC) of the University of Montreal and the 17th Hussars. He had then joined the Fusiliers Mont-Royal before being accepted into the new unit of paratroopers at the time where he was an instructor at Camp Farnham.

Another French group was part of the master H.-A. Fauquier, brother of Wing Commander John Fauquier, aviation hero, whose aerial victories no longer be counted.

Finally, the military was aware that two French Canadian brothers, the brothers of Saint-Pierre Saint-Hyacinthe, had almost become part of the contingent sent to Fort Benning, but we had to remove them, since they do not speak English fluently.

Brigadier General EG Weeks, Assistant Chief of Staff, announced the first income iqu'une time instructors trained at Fort Benning and the installation completed in Manitoba, the third of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion would consist of French Canadians and the coaching staff and officers of the unit would be bilingual.