Members of the Royal Regina Rifles along with many dignitaries gathered on the grounds of the legislature Saturday for the first look at a new memorial statue.

The statue honours the sacrifice of the Regina Rifles and their sacrifice during WWII and was unveiled to the public for the first time.

The intensity that is on that statue is what you see on the faces of young Canadian men and woman when they serve in far off places in the world,” Ed Staniowski, Former Commanding Officer for the Royal Regina Rifles, said.

Two CT-155 Harvard II aircrafts with the Royal Canadian Air Force began the commemorative ceremony by doing a flyover of the legislative grounds.

The statue stands at 8-feet tall, and was crafted by Don Begg, an Alberta based sculptor who owns Studio-West Foundry in Cochrane, Alta.

I look at it that when you make something in bronze, its going to last for thousands of years after we are long gone. So, you always try to do your best because you wont be around to make excuses.

Begg said he wanted the statue to be truly authentic to what the soldiers looked like while defending Canada.

They were very good about giving us the helmet and the jackets and the boots and everything to make it authentic for what they were wearing at that time in 1944.

The June 6, 1944 D-Day landing on Juno Beach is considered the largest land, sea and air invasion in military history.

To help fund the creation of the statue, the Royal Regina Rifles put together an 18 month long fundraising campaign.

We felt that there was something that needed to be done to commemorate the regiment, the Royal Regina Rifles did on those beaches of Normandy along with other regiments, very proud regiments, Canadian regiments and the air men and woman above and the navy that was supporting rom the sea, Staniowski said.

The statue will be flown to France later this spring.

It will be unveiled at the 80th commemoration of D-Day on June 6 at Juno beach where it will be permanently installed.

Bringing this statue on this beach is also a way to mark that, please dont touch it and remind people what happened there in June 1944,” Michel Miraillet, the Ambassador of France to Canada, said.