The 80th anniversary of D-Day was commemorated on June 6.
On that morning in 1944, more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast of France, split between five beaches, and invaded Nazi-occupied Europe. The event is regarded as the largest seaborne invasion in history, as well as a pivotal moment in the Second World War.
Although the moment is historically significant, only a few young Canadians are familiar with how everything happened, according to Alyssa Anklewich, a Grade 10 student at Westwood Collegiate.
The 15-year-old took commemorating the event into her own hands — literally — with the construction of a 2.5-by-4-foot model depicting the events of the day.
The project, which she completed with the guidance of her artistically inclined parents, is a full 3-D representation of the invasion, from beach to town. It’s fitted with everything from whitecaps on the water to smoke billowing from planes shot down by the Germans.
It was put together with a variety of different materials, from foil to cotton balls, and features models of the watercraft which were used to invade Normandy.
“I didn’t know what D-Day was, so doing this research actually helped my understanding of (it),” she said. “I’ll be honest, not a lot of people know (a lot) about what D-Day was like (or) what it was about, and especially the weather conditions that they were put in. Because, me, I thought the water was gonna be nice, smooth, you know, early hours in the morning, not gonna be too rough — no.”
In fact, the water was so rough that morning that many soldiers died because they got off their boats too early, she said.
The model was made for Anklewich’s Canadian history course over several months.
The original assignment for the class was a research essay, Anklewich said, but she was able to convince her teacher, Kelly Hiebert, to do a physical diorama instead. But there was still a large research component to the project. Anklewich turned to pictures the most, she said, visiting archives, sifting through historical photography, and gaining a well-rounded understanding of the conditions of that day.
The project was “a lot of sleepless nights, tears, and stress,” Anklewich admitted, but she’s proud of how it turned out — if a little overwhelmed by the attention it’s received.
“There’s always challenges, no matter what kind of assignment or assessment students do,” said Hiebert, who teaches humanities and history. “But I knew at the end that the benefits were going to outweigh the frustrations. And you learn from it. (Anklewich) kind of went on this journey with these men. And (she) pushed through to give them a voice.”
“If we want to get kind of deep here, these were people,” he said, addressing the model’s soldiers. “They had families … Many men had wives. I think the average age was 22 years old. And so many people don’t know anything about it (the event), and it’s a shame.”
Hiebert was happy to jump on the chance to give a student agency, he said, to create something in a medium she felt strongly about. Without that agency, the model wouldn’t have existed in the first place.
“She never showed me any of the kind of progress pictures. She kind of wanted to surprise me, I guess,” he said. “And so when I went to go help her and her dad carry it from her car, I was blown away. I used maybe some words I shouldn’t have. Pleasantly surprised.”
“It kind of shows how I’m able to do things,” Anklewich said. “I’m not really just a quiet kid in my class… I get joy out of this when something works and it finally all comes together.”
Emma Honeybun
Emma Honeybun is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. She graduated RRC Polytech’s creative communications program, with a specialization in journalism, in 2023. Email her at emma.honeybun@freepress.mb.ca
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