In July 1944, Walter Charter, a gunner with the Royal Canadian Artillery in Normandy, was one of four brothers, Eric, who also survived the D-Day invasion, and was stationed just a few kilometers away. I learned that.
Charter was a motorcycle dispatch rider who had the dangerous job of transporting messages at high speed between the Canadian Forces command post near Juno Beach and the front lines. His commander gave him permission to visit his brother for one night.
“Then, on his way back to his unit, he hit a mine with his motorcycle and died there. It was quick, it was violent, and it was over,” his grandson Matthew Chater told CBC News.
Matthew and his brother Daniel Chater heard how their grandfather died in an explosion at the age of 32. They believe the story was brought home by their great-uncle Eric, who survived the war.
“It was passed on verbally,” Daniel Chater said. “My mother was told the story and she told me the story.
“Sadly, if you don’t tell your children this story, it’s over. I didn’t want that to happen.”
Walter Cheyter is now one of more than 330,000 soldiers killed around the world, and their biographies and war records are remarkable examples of what past wars were like for those who fought. It constitutes an archive that should be used.
The archive consists of selected pieces of information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Veterans Affairs Canada, and can be accessed through a proprietary app developed by Calgary-based technology company Memory Anchor.
Veteran Ryan Mullens said his company created the app to preserve the stories of those who fought and died, as the number of living conflict veterans continues to dwindle.
Mullens, who retired from the Reserve as a corporal in 2010, said, “For some of the soldiers of World War I and World War II, their memories are being erased along with many of their families.” spoke.
“As generations go on, it doesn’t get passed on to the next generation… We don’t want to lose the stories of these people and their sacrifices.”
Mullens said his team used artificial intelligence to remotely map more than 100 cemeteries in Canada and more than 10 other countries.
Scanning a veteran’s headstone using the Memory Anchor app yields a wealth of biographical information and, in some cases, military service records, stories, and photos.
Like many other gravestones at the Benny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in France, the charter marker only gives details such as age, unit and rank. But by using the app, visitors can now instantly view old photos of him riding a motorcycle and read some of the letters he sent home.
“Dad is doing well, but he wants to stay home with you and go on a picnic and have a good time,” one postcard Chater wrote to his son. It is written.
Mullens said the postcard struck a chord with him because it echoed the words he would say to his own son.
“It’s not just a name on a tombstone,” he says. “This is someone you can look into the eyes. It makes them a little bit more human.”
Mullens said if an app’s archives have few details about an individual soldier, AI can be deployed to show users where that soldier’s regiment was and what they were doing at the time of death.
“So we know a little bit about that heroic act that they gave their lives for,” he says.
The app has been available to the public for over a year and also features a navigation system that can direct users to specific cemeteries.
Mullens said it can be difficult for visitors to locate individual graves using registers, Roman numerals or a grid system.
Retired Major Harry Chadwick used the app in Normandy earlier this year to discover the burial sites of more than 180 1st Hussars. He was part of a group that placed the regimental flag on the grounds to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Without the app, he said, he would have missed “many” of these cemeteries.
Chadwick also used the app to pinpoint on a map where his great-uncle William Vernon Rattie was buried in Malta.
Rattie was killed in action at the age of 22 while flying with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Chadwick said no one in his family had traveled to the southern European island to pay their respects.
Using the app, Chadwick can see exactly where Ratti is buried in the heart of the Malta (Cappuccini) Naval Cemetery, and even see what his tombstone looks like.
“I was able to say to my cousin, ‘Please tell my nephew that he is in a place of honor,'” he said, adding that he would like to visit in person someday.
“I’m relieved. I’m sure he’ll forgive us for not being there yet, but we’ll get there.”
Daniel and Matthew Chater said they have preserved their grandfather’s war records and plan to share them with their children. But it’s still reassuring to know that my grandfather’s story lives on in a new form.
“He felt the need to stand up against something that wasn’t right in his eyes, and he did so,” Matthew Chater said.
“I’m proud of that. It’s brave.”
