‘Sorry for throwing grenades in your cellar.’ The unusual fate of the first house liberated in...

Their target was an elegant, two-story villa sitting solitary on a misty beach. No houses stood nearby, just minefields, military pillboxes and enemy machine gun posts.

It was D-Day, and on that overcast morning on June 6, 1944, 10 boats filled with Canadian troops crossed the English Channel’s choppy waters to head for the 1,500 yard stretch of Normandy coastline where the house was located.