Arsenault, Joseph Francis

Normandy Massacres

Date of birth:: August 7th, 1913 (Summerside/Prince Edward Island, Canada)
Date of death:: June 7th, 1944 (Authie/Somme, France)
Mentioned on:: Commonwealth Memorial of the Missing Bayeux
Service number:: F/50414
Nationality:: Canadian

Biography

Joseph Francis Arsenault was born to Fidelle and Elizabeth Arsenault. He grew up in a close-knit Acadian family. In his late twenties, he married Julia Ann Arsenault of Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island.

On 20 January 1941, Arsenault enlisted in the Canadian Army at Amherst, Nova Scotia. He was assigned to the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, part of the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps. After years of training in Canada and the United Kingdom, the Highlanders were among the Canadian units chosen to take part in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

Private Arsenault landed in France on D-Day, 6 June 1944, as part of the assault on Juno Beach. The following day, 7 June, during the fierce fighting inland from the beaches, he was captured by elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division “Hitlerjugend.” Along with other Canadian prisoners, he was executed in cold blood near the village of Authie, one of several war crimes committed by the division in the days following the landings. He was thirty years old.

Because his body was never recovered, Arsenault is commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial in France,

Do you have more information about this person? Inform us!