Juno Beach Wind Farm Angers WWII Vets

The site of one of the biggest and most consequential military operations of all time could soon host 1,000 wind turbines.

A handful of Canadian veterans who stormed the shores of Normandy on D-Day en route to liberating Europe from the Nazis are not pleased with French plans to install wind turbines off the coast of Juno Beach. France intends to erect 1,000 turbines in the windy waters just off the Normandy coast, the site of one of the most monumental military operations in human history. While Veterans Affairs and the surviving soldiers say the wind farm desecrates the memories of the 359 Canadian soldiers, who died there, the Juno Beach Centre, a museum honouring Canada's role in the D-Day operation, says it's fine with the plan. The winds off of Normandy are legendary (Juno Beach is now a noted wind-surfing location), as French officials say the wind farm could power 4.5 million homes. Not that this is going to happen, but should, say, the Germans decide to invade France again, and we have to liberate them yet again, pulling off an amphibious landing will be a lot harder with a thousand turbines in the way.