A family returns to France to trace the ambush that changed a Canadian soldier's life

Don Levers is wrestling with an extraordinary number of "what-ifs" as he, his daughter and granddaughter embark on a personal pilgrimage to the beaches of Normandy to find the spot where, 80 years ago, his father almost lost his life.

On June 6, 1944, Rifleman Gerry Levers of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles came ashore with the second wave of troops taking part in the Allied liberation of Europe. He actually made it off Juno Beach and a few kilometres inland.

Hours later, a German machine gunner sprayed his platoon as it advanced on the village of St. Croix sur mer, about five kilometres inland from the landing sites.

Wounded in the right thigh, he hobbled back to the beach, where he was evacuated to England. He was among the first Canadian casualties to be interviewed by CBC Radio after the Normandy landings.

He later rejoined his unit and fought on until VE-Day in May 1945. Hardworking and down to earth, he went on to raise a family and live a good life.

On Thursday, 80 years to the day after Gerry Levers reached the beach, his family plans to retrace his footsteps in the region of Courseulles-sur-mer, to find the salt-sprayed field where he was wounded.

Along with the enormous pride he feels, Don Levers cannot help but marvel at the hand fate dealt his father. 

Gerry Levers, who died in 1986, never returned to Normandy. His son, who has had a lifelong fascination with his father's service (and even wrote a book about it), attended the 75th anniversary commemorations in 2019.

Don Levers returned home determined to pass along that sense of wonder and serendipity to his now-teenage  granddaughter in Victoria B.C.

"I was showing her the pictures and then said, 'I want to take you back there, I want you to realize how lucky we are to be here,'" Levers said, his eyes welling up. "And that if [D-Day] had turned out differently, none of us would be here."

In the years after the war, Levers' dad used to joke that had his D-Day wound been a few centimetres higher, he never would have been able to have children.

It's one of those what-ifs that keeps nagging at Don Levers. He wonders whether fate actually was looking out for his father when that machine gun blast kept him out of some of the most savage fighting that followed the invasion.

Levers wonders whether his father would have been present when — on June 8, 1944 — the 12th SS Hitler Youth Division launched a fierce counterattack toward the positions the Royal Winnipeg Rifles were defending at the village of Putot-en-Bessin.

The German attack cut off several Canadian companies. Several soldiers from the Winnipeg Rifles were executed after they surrendered.