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In memory of:

Private Robert Cantin

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Military service

Service number: H/46557
Age: 24
Rank: Private
Force: Army
Unit/Regiment: Lake Superior Regiment (Motor), R.C.I.C.
Division: (Motor), R
Birth: May 1, 1920 Wabigoon Indian Reserve, Dinorwic, Ontario
Enlistment: June 12, 1941 Ontario
Death: August 28, 1944 Pont-de-L’Arche, Normandie, France

Burial/memorial information

BRETTEVILLE-SUR-LAIZE CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
Grave reference: XXIII. D. 5.
Additional information
Son of Charley Cantin and Annie Chief, of Dinorwic, Ontario.

This young Amerindian from the Objiway nation enlisted with the Canadian Forestry Corps Wing in Dryden, Ontario, and transferred to the Lake Superior Regiment, an infantry unit that became a motorized unit in January 1942. On August 22, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he left for Great Britain aboard HMT Strathmore with convoy NA-15, docking on September 1 at Trade Wharf in Glasgow, Scotland. On July 26, 1944, his regiment landed on the Red Beach section near Graye-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Delayed, he rejoined his unit on the 28th and made contact with the enemy on the 29th at If as a Vicker personnel transport driver, taking part in Operation Totalize. He was killed in action on August 28, 1944 at Pont-de-L'Arche on the road to Louviers by German 88 mm cannon fire or by an anti-tank gun. He was buried by the roadside before being exhumed and reburied at Bretteville-sur-Laize. He had served 1,174 days, including 738 overseas.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 267 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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BRETTEVILLE-SUR-LAIZE CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY Calvados, France

This cemetery lies on the west side of the main road from Caen to Falaise (route N158) and just north of the village of Cintheaux. Bretteville-sur-Laize is a village and commune in the department of the Calvados, some 16 kilometres south of Caen. The village of Bretteville lies 3 kilometres south-west of the Cemetery. Buried here are those who died during the later stages of the battle of Normandy, the capture of Caen and the thrust southwards (led initially by the 4th Canadian and 1st Polish Armoured Divisions), to close the Falaise Gap, and thus seal off the German divisions fighting desperately to escape being trapped west of the Seine. Almost every unit of Canadian 2nd Corps is represented in the Cemetery. There are about 3,000 allied forces casualties of the Second World War commemorated in this site.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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