Episode 08 - Out of the Clouds: Paras in Normandy
The story of the first Canadian paratroopers who land in Normandy before D-Day to hold off the Nazi counter-attack.
In Normandy, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion proved itself to be in the vanguard of the best-trained and toughest units in the Allied forces. Established in 1942 - predominantly recruited from the cream of young and adventurous volunteers who boasted long experience in manual labour and contact sports - on the early morning of D-Day, 6 June 1944, the paratroopers, the only Canadian unit in the 6th British Airborne Division, were dropped behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France, equipped only with what they could carry.
They fought surrounded by the enemy, with no guarantee that reinforcements would ever reach them. In spite of heavy casualties, they met all of their objectives and successfully held the eastern flank of the invasion, ensuring the Germans did not break through to counter-attack the Allied landing beaches.
