Submitted
Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 56 will be holding a grand opening/Open House event for the Branch 56 Museum on the 8th of July 2023.
Branch 56 would like to invite the public to come and tour the Branch 56 Museum and learn about Swift Current’s military history and our veterans through artifacts and documents. The grand opening will feature a ribbon cutting ceremony and the attendance of local dignitaries, veterans, and Legionaries.
The Legion will be open regular Saturday hours, opening at 11 a.m. on Saturday July 8 and the ribbon cutting will take place at noon.
The date chosen for the grand opening/ open house event is close to a historically significant date for the Swift Current area as our local unit during the Second World War, the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Canadian Hussars) departed the United Kingdom on the 4th of July 1944 and sailed to Normandy, France alongside their comrades of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. On the 6th of July the 8th Recce went ashore, met up with their Advance Party and spent the night regrouping. The next day they moved to Carapique Airfield near Caen.
It would be not long after having landed in Normandy that the 8th Recce would suffer their first combat fatalities. A short seven days after landing, three members of the regiment would lose their lives, all on the same day, the 13th of July 1944. Two members of the regiment would be killed near Le Mesnil, when an artillery shell hit the slit trench they
