Juno Remembered

By Edward J Denning, on November 11th, 2011

On June 6, 1944, five beach heads were breached in Normandy, France against a German defence system that knew the invasion was coming. It was the beginning of the end for Hitler’s regime.

Two of those beach heads were American: Omaha and Utah beaches. Two were British: Sword and Gold beaches. The fifth beach was Juno beach and the Canadians.

Historians have stated that Omaha and Juno were two of the fiercest fought battles on that stormy morning in 1944. I’ve done reading on both and the Americans probably received the worst of it with the Canadians a very close second. At about 7:30 AM, fourteen thousand Canadians, complete with artillery and tanks, assaulted the German fortifications on Juno beach in Dieppe, France. Six thousand more followed shortly after. Ten thousand Canadian sailors manned the navy at sea while the Royal Canadian Air Force fought in the air and bombed key German positions.

On the beach, 914 young men were wounded or lost their lives, many before they were even out of the water. Many more would lose their lives in the coming days. One little known fact about the Canadians on D-day: despite the horrific toll on the beach, they were successful on their march inland to the point they had to stop pushing ahead because they were farther inland than either the Americans or the British who flanked them. The Canadians risked being surrounded because support had not come as quickly as anticipated from their flanks. On that day, the Canadians were the only ones to reach their objectives.

During the Second World War, there were just over 1 million Canadians active from a country with a population of 11 million. Nine percent of our country went into active service.

Germans interviewed after the war have stated that the Canadians were the fiercest of their adversaries.

From the main article: Juno Beach

The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 14 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. The first wave suffered 50% casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads. The use of armour was successful at Juno, in some instances actually landing ahead of the infantry as intended and helping clear a path inland.^[24]

Personnel of Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando “W” landing on Mike Beach, Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead. 6 June 1944.

Despite the obstacles, the Canadians were off the beach within hours and beginning their advance inland. A single troop of four tanks managed to reach the final objective phase line, but hastily retreated, having outrun its infantry support. In particular, two fortified positions at the Douvres Radar Station remained in German hands (and would for several days until captured by British commandos), and no link had been established with Sword Beach.

By the end of D-Day, 15,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force, despite having faced strong resistance at the water’s edge and later counterattacks on the beachhead by elements of the German 21st and 12th SS Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) Panzer divisions on 7 June and 8 June.