Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2006, p. D1
Used with Permission.
Through their eyes, We saw war
Dave Brown, Citizen Special
At full strength during the Second World War, there were 60 members of the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit. More than 20 would become casualties, six of them fatal. The number of survivors of the little-known unit dropped to five with the death Feb. 8 of Charles "Bud" Roos, 92, in Victoria, B.C.
He will live on as part of a video recently released and available at the National War Museum, a 50-minute production called Shooters, by Ottawa actor and writer James O'Regan. Mr. Roos is one of those interviewed in the work, which should be considered a piece of Canada's military history.
The producer is the son of the late Brian O'Regan of Ottawa, a member of the unit and a man who played a role in what is considered one of the most significant and repeated film clips of the war. It shows Canadian soldiers going ashore on D Day, and the three-storey house in front of them has become a symbol of Juno Beach. The film was shot by the late Ted (sic) Grant, and it was believed by most that he was the first member of the unit to go ashore that day. Mr. Roos explained to Mr. O'Regan that wasn't the case.
That craft was landing almost six hours after the first assault. Mr. Roos had the official records to show he, a still photographer, was on the beach at 6:12 a.m., just 12 minutes after the invasion fleet began firing.
Officially, he was ashore at H Hour plus 12 minutes.
"A lot can happen in 12 minutes of war," said Mr. O'Regan. He said by the time he went ashore the beach was already littered with dead and knocked-out equipment. A near miss destroyed his cameras and he didn't get a picture that morning.
That his first-to-land record wasn't played up didn't bother the veteran. In an e-mail to Mr. O'Regan in January 2005, he said he didn't care. The important thing was that the war was over and he survived. Even 60 years later, survival was the important thing.
But he almost didn't.
On June 9, 1944, near the Orne River in Normandy, he was in a house being used as a headquarters when it was shelled. He was blown out of the building, but rushed back in to get his camera.
Although wounded, he did his job and shot pictures of the action, packaged the film for shipping, and then collapsed from loss of blood. "He told me he didn't remember a thing after that until he woke up in England."
He would recover and return to the business of covering the war.
George Powell had been a reporter for the wartime army newspaper The Maple Leaf. In 1998, he wrote a story for the Citizen lamenting the history of the film unit was unknown. It had paid much attention to the contribution of other units, and its own went unrecorded.
James O'Regan of Orleans decided to do something about that. He knew Ted (sic) Grant shot the famous film of the landing and, in the manner of the times, addressed the exposed film and dropped it on the beach. Gunner Brian O'Regan, a film unit courier, found it and got it back to headquarters. It was probably the greatest news scoop of the war, and seen on thousands of movie theatre screens of the day. It has since been shown countless times on television, and is probably, internationally, the most familiar clip of the war.
Norm Quick of Ottawa was part of the unit, and says the war photographers remained a close-knit bunch after the war. The other four survivors are Chuck Ross of Edmonton, Gord Petty of Saskatoon, Ken Dugan of London, and Lionel Clarke of Moncton.
Photography was a rapidly expanding technology in the '40s, and Mr. Roos, originally from Orillia, like most of his fellows, stayed in the photo business after the war. He was a news photographer until retirement.
Shooters has been slow earning a spot as an important piece of historical work. Produced two years ago, it didn't catch attention until the approach of last Remembrance Day. Then it was shown on national television a few times, and in the Barney Danson Theatre in the newly opened war museum. It is now available at the museum gift shop. It can also be found by going to Mr. O'Regan's website at www.jamesoregan.com .
Erratum: Ted Grant is actually Bill Grant