This Tuesday, January 25, Denis Renaud, a Canadian archaeologist will officially receive a curb chain and a medal at the Juno Beach museum, in Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados). Preventive excavations carried out in 2014 during a construction site in Fleury-sur-Orne had made it possible to unearth these relics of the Second World War.
In July 1944, after liberating the town, a thousand Canadian soldiers had to continue fighting on the heights of Fleury. They had then dug small cavities there to shelter from the night bombardments. It was in one of these holes that the objects were discovered. The curb chain bore the soldier's initials and on the back this enigmatic inscription: "From Rose".
A gift from his British girlfriend
After two years of research, the Canadian archaeologist had found the identity of their owner but also its history. "This is Harry Edward Fox, a Canadian soldier, who took part in the Liberation of Caen then from northern Europe to Germany where he was injured, on March 6, 1945, before returning to Canada , where he died 60 years later, in 2005 ”, explains the Normandy Cultural Affairs Department. As for the curb chain, it was a gift that the soldier had received from his British girlfriend, probably in 1943…
Mr. Fox's family wished to donate the curb and medal to the War Museum in Ottawa. It is the archaeologist Denis Renaud who will be responsible for the repatriation.