Pte Earl Roderick Palmer (Service # G28691)

Earl Roderick Palmer was born on January 20, 1924, in St. Stephen, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, the son of George Hazen Palmer and Teresa Minerva (Spearin). Earl was one of eleven children and the family attended the Baptist Church. In 1939 Earl’s father died and that same year Canada declared war on Germany. The following year, at age sixteen, Earl left school.

On May 4, 1942, Earl enlisted with the Canadian Army in Fredericton. Basic Training was completed at Fredericton followed by training at Trois-Rivières, QC, and Utopia, NB.

In May 1943, Earl was shipped overseas and on July 16 he was placed with the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment. The regiment spent the next eleven months in intensive physical training and rehearsing beach landings in England and Scotland.

On D-Day (June 6, 1944), Earl landed in Normandy near Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer with C Company under the command of Major Ralph Daughney. Upon landing, C Company was to follow and pass through A Company, then move south and establish a defensive position at their objective Église Saint-Aubin. Afterward, they would clear the streets and buildings on the west side of the town.

A and B Companies were the first units to come ashore. At about 8 a.m. their landing craft doors opened and the men poured out under heavy fire from artillery, mortars, and machine guns. They scrambled over barriers, mines, and boobytraps and ran for the security of the seawall. C Company followed behind A Company as planned. They came ashore a few minutes afterward and crossed the beach with few casualties. With wire cutters, they eliminated barriers and were now into the village. At this point, they reassembled with Major Daughney and proceeded south to the church. Église Saint-Aubin was captured and the rectory was used as a medical aid station for both civilians and soldiers. By 8:45 a.m. they had established a defensive position on the regiment’s southwestern flank and continued clearing the streets and houses.

The War Diary records that by 11:15 a.m. the German defenses had been eliminated, all company objectives had been achieved, and the NS(NB)R was in control of Saint-Aubin. The regiment now pushed inland to capture the village of Tailleville and a German command centre that was still controlling artillery fire on the beach. C Company led the advance south.

Approaching the village, they came under intense machine-gun fire. C Company then responded with mortars and eliminated a machine-gun nest. Patrols were now sent into the village to clear the buildings. These patrols had to be repeated as the Germans would constantly relocate via trenches and tunnels.

At about the same time, LCol Donald Buell and Major Archie MacNaughton led a small group of NS(NB)R soldiers into the village via a cluster of farm buildings. Machine-gun fire from a loft in a barn then caught them by surprise and killed Major MacNaughton and several others. Shortly afterward a C company platoon led by Major Daughney attacked from a different direction and silenced the machine gun.

The Fort Garry tanks then smashed their way into the farm compound and eliminated the German defenses. The fighting continued, however, with grenades, flame throwers, and hand-to-hand combat, and it was 9:00 p.m. when they finally had control of Tailleville.

The North Shore (NB) Regiment suffered 124 casualties on D-Day (34 dead and 90 wounded) Historian Will Bird wrote that Pte Earl Roderick Palmer was killed by artillery fire during the advance to Tailleville. He was twenty years of age.

For his service to Canada, Pte Earl Roderick Palmer was awarded the following medals;

the 1939-45 Star,

France and Germany Star,

Defense Medal, War Medal 1939-45,

and Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Clasp.

Pte Earl Roderick Palmer is buried in Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Calvados, France, Plot I. C. 2. His name is also engraved on one of the monuments to the Canadians killed on D-Day, which stands along the seawall in Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer.

In 2019, during the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Tailleville, an additional memorial was installed in Tailleville to commemorate the North Shore (NB) Regiment soldiers who died here on June 6, 1944. The inscription is written in Mi’kmaq, French, and English.