• Normandy Massacres

Date of birth:

November 3rd, 1923 (Green Lake/Saskatchewan, Canada)

Date of death:

June 9th, 1944 (Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, France)

Buried on:

Canadian War Cemetery Beny-sur-mer
Plot: IV. Row: E. Grave: 9.

Service number:

L/74212

Nationality:

Canadian

Norman Joseph Morin was raised in a Cree-speaking community. Norman grew up bilingual in English and Cree, and completed Grade 4 at public school before leaving formal education at the age of sixteen. Prior to his enlistment, he worked as a labourer and had no formal trade or professional training, though he expressed a postwar ambition to become a mechanic.

On January 9, 1942, at the age of eighteen, Norman enlisted in the Canadian Army in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was assigned regimental number L-74212 and began his military service as a private. His early training took place at various Canadian Army training centres, including Dundurn and Shilo, and he was later transferred to the Regina Rifle Regiment. Over the course of his service, he was posted to multiple units and training centres across Canada before embarking overseas in December 1942.

Norman served in the United Kingdom from late 1942 until June 1944, where he underwent further training and was granted the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with clasp. On June 6, 1944, he landed in France as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Just three days later, on June 9, 1944, Rifleman Norman Joseph Morin was murdered by Waffen-SS soldiers during the early stages of the Normandy campaign. He was twenty years old.

Initially buried in the courtyard of the Vice Mayor’s house in Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, his remains were later reinterred with full military honors on the Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in France. His mother, Exilia Morin, was named sole beneficiary of his estate, which included modest pay and allowances. In 1947, she received a photograph of his grave from the Canadian military, along with a letter from a French family who had adopted his grave in remembrance.

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