"There are streets named after the events; they know where the regiments went."
She said she was impressed with the number of people she was able to meet who were young men or women at the time and whose memories are still fresh, like the man who had led the soldiers to the corpses of their dead comrades.
"Another man told me how, as a little boy, he was allowed to play on a Canadian tank after the village was liberated. He's kept in touch with the one of the tank's crew members ever since. Another man I met actually knew Dad," she said.
Grayson said not many of the Regina Rifles had experienced battle prior to D-Day.
Her father was with the invasion team from June 6 to July 18 when he suffered a serious gunshot wound while crossing the Orne River near the village of Vaucelles. He spent the next four months in a hospital in England and was later sent home.
"Dad and Mom (Ellen, nee Christopherson) explained to us why Dad needed a cane. I was ready to hate the Germans because they had hurt him but they urged me not to feel that way, because they held out the possibility that Dad could have been hit by friendly fire as easily as he might have been hit by a German bullet. I admired them for that," she said in one recounting of earlier days.
But after the visit, "I got a whole new appreciation of who he was and where he went. I was able to visualize those young men moving up the beach (400 yards at low tide so as to expose the German-laid mines). Coming off the boats. Fewer than 40 from Dad's landing boat actually made it to the beach. He saw two friends die in front of him."
In the book, Look To Your Front Regina Rifles, written by veteran Gordon Brown, Lt. Grayson was quoted as saying that his distinct memories of D-Day on Normandy Beach "is what wasn't there - support."
There was no smoke screen, he recalled in one passage in the book. And the expected air and sea protection was missing. The Air Force missed the beach he was on with their rockets falling short of target. The landing was carried out in rough seas with most of the men aboard getting sea sick and because theirs was one of the boats in the second wave, when they landed they were greeted by "a gruesome sight."
The bunkers at Courseulles-sur-Mer were significant and well built. Lt. Grayson's daughter was able to get a first-hand look at one of them.
"I was struck by the fact I was seeing something of what my Dad saw," she said.
As far as the documentary is concerned, "I knew the story, but seeing a guy, an actor, acting it out, this dangerous situation that my Dad found himself in. I don't know how to explain it," said Grayson, referring to the small part of the documentary she was able to view prior to its release.
The writers and producers of the film were the ones who determined who they were going to focus on.
His daughter recalls that her father loved England.
He practised law in Moose Jaw at Grayson & Co. after his return. It was a law firm founded by his grandfather, and it was where his father had also practiced.
Bill Grayson served as the Veterans' Pensions Advocate for Saskatchewan from 1967 to around 1983 and was recognized for his contributions in that category.
"He was especially concerned with the lack of pension consideration for First Nations soldiers, for whom he had a great respect and admiration," said his daughter, noting that in the 1970s her father took Cree language courses to better enable him to communicate with First Nations veterans.
How A Military Cross was earned
The following is a documented retelling of Lt. Bill Grayson's activities on Juno Beach and beyond, confirmed twice by those who witnessed the action:
The Reginas were stopped at the seawall by enemy fire. Able Company commander Major Duncan Grosch was wounded.
Lt. Bill Grayson had a daredevil spirit and he didn't want to let his commanding officer down. Lt. Grayson ran through a gap in the barbed wire and made it to the side of a house. A concrete gun emplacement, blasting the beach, was down an alley. Between Grayson and the emplacement was more barbed wire and a machine gun nest. The machine gun fired on a fixed arc at regular intervals. Grayson calculated there was just enough time between bursts of fire to reach the emplacement.
The lieutenant made a made dash but got entangled in the wire. Perhaps the German gunner was surprised because the machine gun stopped. It was just for a few moments, but that was long enough for Grayson to tear himself free. He tossed a grenade through an aperture in the emplacement. The grenade exploded and the lieutenant dived in. He got to his feet in time to see the gun crew race out the back door. The last man threw a "potato masher" grenade. It landed between Grayson's feet. He picked it up and threw it back at the German, but the enemy soldier escaped before it exploded.
Lt. Grayson raced after the enemy through the back and into a trench that zig-zagged to an underground shelter. Down the hole, Grayson saw the enemy and heard shouts of "Kamerad." Grayson motioned with his pistol for the Germans to come out. They were trapped by one incredibly brave soldier. Thirty-five Germans surrendered and their artillery gun was destroyed.
By then, other men from A Company had reached the emplacement and they disarmed the prisoners and led them away. The 88mm gun was now out of action and A Company was able to push on into the town to clear Block 5.
For this daring action, Grayson was awarded the Military Cross.
Following the invasion, it was noted that about two-thirds of A Company were lost during the action. The Company was later reinforced with 100 new soldiers.
With the occupation of Bretteville, the Regina Rifles were the first and only unit of the invasion force to reach and hold its final D-Day objective.
