D-Day Juno Beach

As I continued on my Normandy Tour, I took a one-day Canadian Beaches and inland tour. I had been to Juno beach before but felt since the tour was going to places, I wanted to revisit, I’d let someone drive for a day and hopefully gain some new insight into the Canadian Landings.

Driving around the US beaches gave me an appreciation of the size of the Normandy invasion. The 5 invasion beaches cover over 80 km of shoreline. I recently posted about the US Beaches and spent some time on Gold Beach which will be the subject of a future post. The map reminds us of the beach layouts. Juno, the Canadian Beach, lies in the centre of the British Sector.

Juno Beach

Organization

Juno Beach was assigned to the 3rd Canadian Division under MGen Rod Keller. The 3rd Division was part of the 2nd British Army commanded by Gen Dempsey.

The 3rd Canadian Division Consisted of:

7th Brigade

·       Canadian Scottish Regiment (CSR)

·       Royal Winnipeg Rifles (RWR)

·       Regina Rifles (RR)

8th Brigade

·       Queens Own Rifles (QOR)

·       North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment (NSR)

·       Le Regiment de la Chaudière (RdC)

9th Brigade

·       Highland Light Infantry of Canada (HLIC)

·       Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (SDG)

·       North Nova Scotia Highlanders (NNSH)

2ND Canadian Armoured Brigade

·       1st Hussars Regiment (Assigned to 7 Bgd)

·       Fort Garry Horse Regiment (Assigned to 8 Bgd)

·       Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment (Assigned to 9 Bgd)

3rd Division Royal Canadian Artillery

·        12th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA (Assigned to 7 Bgd)

·        13th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA (Assigned to 7 Bgd)

·        14th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA (Assigned to 8 Bgd)

·        19th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA (Assigned to 8 Bgd)

British Troops

·       48th Marine Commandos

·        22nd Dragoons (Royal Armoured Corps) (Sherman Crab Mine flail)

·       Royal Engineers – Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE)

There were many other specialized units involved as well.

Assault on Juno Beach

The Juno Beach Area is 10 km long and divided into Love, Mike and Nan Sectors. The sectors are named alphabetically from West starting with Dog Sector at Omaha Beach. Utah Beach was added later to the invasion plan so has Tara, Uncle and Victor sectors.

Love sector was not attacked, Mike Sector was subdivided into Green and Red, and Nan sector into Green, White and Red. The German strong points are shown as WN27 to WN33.

The strong point is not a single gun, but an integrated defence consisting of Anti-Tank Guns, Mortars, Machine Gun Tobruks and interconnected trenches to allow the Germans to move safely from position to position. For example, the layout of WN 27 in St Aubin is shown. This site contained 2 50 mm guns that fired down the beach and back into the town, multiple machine gun tobruks and mortar positions, flak anti-aircraft guns on the roof of houses and an extensive trench system. While clearing the strong points, the Canadians would clear one structure only to have the Germans pop up behind them and continue fighting.

The landing areas of Juno Beach were mostly populated areas with high sea walls. This area had not been heavily bombed before the attack since French civilians were still living in many of the houses. At 0530, the Naval Bombardment of the landing beaches started. In addition around 0730, the self propelled M7 Priest Artillery vehicles aboard Landing Craft Tank (LCT) fired from offshore. There were 4 vehicles per LCT, and they fired mainly at the strong points until 30 minutes before landing time. The LCT then circled around and landed with the second wave around 0900.

The US made Priests with a 105 mm gun were used by the Canadians from D-Day until the end of August. Although Artillery accounted for 80% of the causalities in the War, their actions are seldom described in detail. My good buddy Jim Pickell’s father was in the 19th Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery, and landed near St Aubin just after 0900 on D-Day so I have started to track his progress and highlight the key contributions of the Artillery regiments.

The landings were staggered due to tide conditions. The landings at Mike Sector were supposed to be at 0735 and Nan at 0745 as there were reefs in front of Nan Sector and higher tides were required for the landing craft to clear the rocks.

Courseulles-sur-Mer

The 7th Brigade started landing about 10 minutes late, with the Canadian Scottish landing at 0750 and discovering the main gun at WN 32 had been put out of action. The Royal Winnipegs were not as fortunate and were unable to progress until the tanks of the 1st Hussars landed a few minutes later, having swum in from 1,500 yards. Once the tanks were in place, the guns were quickly silenced.

The Regina Rifles landed east of the Selles River just behind the 1st Hussar Tanks. The 88- and 75-mm guns were taken out quickly, but the machine gun inflicted heavy casualties on the infantry.

The second wave of troops started landing soon after 0800 but the rising tide meant several landing craft struck mines. Once the strong points were silenced, the battle became urban warfare as the troops had to clear each house.

The Duplex Drive Tanks had an inflatable flotation skirt to allow the tank to be launched in open water. The Canadian tanks were launched much closer to shore than their American counterparts at Omaha Beach, so the majority of tanks made it to the beach safely.

A DD tank swimming to shore. In the background, most of the crew except the driver stood on top of the tank so that if it sank, they had a chance to escape.

Once the tank made it to shore, they dropped their flotation screens.

The Site were the Winnipegs landed is now home of the Juno Beach Centre. The centre has excellent displays of the landings and the Canadian military and civilian efforts throughout the war and is a must see for any Canadian visiting the area.

There are a number of bunkers still on site that can be toured. The sand dunes have shifted significantly since the landings and several bunkers were completely buried and forgotten until one day a dog was wandering the site and suddenly disappeared. He popped up later in another location and the bunkers were rediscovered, completely full of sand. With strong community support over 30 tons of sand was removed from the bunkers.

Bernières-sur-Mer

A and B company of the Queens Own Rifles (QOR) touched down at 0812 and faced heavy fire. B Company landed directly in front of WN28 and suffered more than 60 casualties in the first few minutes. Due to heavy seas, the tanks of the Fort Garry Horse were let off close to shore and as a result were behind the infantry.

The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment (NSR) landed in chest deep water in front of WN27, which had not been impacted by the preliminary bombardment and suffered many casualties to mines during their sprint across 100m of beach. The 50mm gun took out several tanks before being put out of action by an Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineer 230 mm Petard.

The next wave also suffered heavy casualties from the landing craft hitting mines that were hidden by the rising tide.

The Allies landed just after low tide in attempt to avoid the beach obstacles. Rommel’s asparagus was strewn over all of the landing beaches.

Many of the stakes had mines on the top. The mines were wired together so that if one went off, several in the area also exploded. The mines were a significant factor for the later waves as the tide rises very quickly on Juno Beach.

Beach View

The Queens Own Rifles liberated the house that would become known as Canada House, the first house liberated in Bernières.

Canada House is still in the same family and contains many keepsakes and plaques from returning servicemen.

The plaque out front reads:

In Pace Paratus (In peace prepared)

This house was liberated at first light on 06 Jun 1944 by the men of the Queens Own Rifles of Canada who were the first Canadians to land on this beach. It may well have been the first house on French soil liberated by seaborne Allied Forces. Within sight of this house, over 100 men of the Queens Own Rifles were killed or wounded in the first few minutes of the landings.

The 50mm gun emplacement at WN28. The bunker provides protection from seaborne shelling and allows the gun to fire down the beaches or into town.

The QOR badge is mounted on top of the bunker.

A machine gun Tobruk (with the access hole cemented over, part of WN28. The Tobruks on the shore line caused a great number of casualties on the beach. The gunner had a clear line of site of the entire beach. The tide is at a level similar to that encountered by the first wave of troops. The troops had to cross a few hundred metres of beach to reach the sea wall.

At Canada house today you can step off the boardwalk to the beach.

This was not the case during the war as shown in this D-Day photo. Over 8 ft of sand has piled up in several locations.

At St Aubin, the strong point WN27 is built into a massive seawall and provided a tremendous obstacle to the NSR.

Again, the fields of fire can be seen. The gun controlled the beach.

The 50mm gun knocked out several tanks before being taken out by an AVRE. The 230mm, 40 pound round was called the Flying Dustbin because of its size and shape. The round was used for destroying seawalls, buildings and taking out strong points.

An example of the AVRE is shown below.

The strip of beach the North Shore regiment had to traverse under fire.

Vehicle Memorials

There are two main vehicle memorials on Juno Beach. The first is the DD Tank Bold located near the Regina Rifles landing point. This tank sunk just offshore on D-Day. A Canadian tanker, Leo Gariepy moved to Courseulles after the war and remembered seeing the tank sink. In the late 1960’s Leo led the effort to recover and restore the tank, and it is now adorned with the crests of the units who landed on D-Day.

The second vehicle is an Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) 1 Charlie, located at the western end of Juno Beach. This vehicle came ashore on D-Day. As the troops were moving forward off the beach a large crater was blocking a road. The AVRE went to fill the hole with a fascine, a large bundle of wood use to fill holes or provide a temporary mat over marshy ground.

The vehicle was hit during the attempt, and four of the crew were killed and the other two wounded. Another AVRE pushed 1 Charlie into the crater, and bridging material was placed on top the AVRE to allow tank passage. 1 Charlie remained as part of the road for more than 30 years before being dug up and refurbished.

Painting of the Juno Beach Landings

I was fortunate to go the Canadian War Museum on 06 June to watch a screening of D-Day: Normandy 1944 a documentary released in 2014 and narrated by Tom Brokaw. The documentary was recorded in IMAX, and is currently available on Apple TV. After the presentation, War Museum staff featured some of the D-Day paintings they possess. A number of artists landed on Juno Beach on D-Day and painted battle scenes on the day.

The first shows the chaos and beach obstacles during the initial assault.

The second shows the beach later in the day as landing ships and vehicles stack up.

The third shows the battle late in the day as the units get off the beach and start to encounter the Panzers.

The final poignant picture shows a D-Day survivor returning to the beach decades after the battle and remembering his fallen comrades.

Off of the Beach

Once the strong points were silenced, the units fought house to house to clear the towns. There was a number of fortified houses and a great deal of rubble so clearing the towns was a major issue.

The delays in clearing beach obstacles and exits off the beach resulted in traffic jams as the follow-on waves landed.

By the afternoon, the units were all pushing south and reached their intermediate objectives by nightfall where they dug in anticipating a German counterattack. The Canadians did not reach their stretch goal of the Carpiquet Airport and would spend the next month in brutal battles to take the ground. The Canadians did progress the furthest inland of any of the Allies.

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There are two excellent You Tube videos, each about 10 minutes long, describing the action at Juno Beach on D-Day. I recommend watching them both as one tell the story using maps and the second tells the story using photos. You can tell I liked both as many of the images in this post were taken from the two videos.

Beny-sur-Mere Canadian War Cemetery

We stopped off at Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, a few km south of the landing beaches. The cemetery holds 2,048 burials all but 7 of them Canadian and 19 unidentified. The majority of those killed on D-Day (297 of 394) are buried in this cemetery. The cemetery, like all CWGC cemeteries, is immaculately kept.

Whenever I am in a WW2 cemetery, I look for members of the Queen’s Own Rifles who suffered greatly on D-Day. I did a post last year on Thomas Easton of the QOR. There are 168 QOR buried here, 60 of whom died on D-Day. Rifleman Donald Bailey was killed on D-Day. His epitath reads:

Sleep on Dear Don

And take your rest

We miss you most

Who loved you best.

Don was 23 years old, Son of Robert George and Ada Louise Bailey; husband of Violet Jean Bailey, of Brantford, Ontario.

This cemetery has a pair of towers that you can climb to get a better view, but it is impossible to capture the expanse of the cemetery. I always get emotional at these cemeteries, to overlook more than 2,000 Canadian souls who gave their lives for freedom is a powerful feeling.

On D-Day, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division suffered 340 men killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner. The Queen's Own Rifles suffered 143 casualties, the most of any battalion, the Royal Winnipegs 128, the North Shore 125 and the Regina Rifles 108. Over 85% of the first wave became casualties, with the casualty rate dropping dramatically as the day went on.

In terms of total casualties, Juno Beach was the second most deadly beach after Omaha. In terms of casualty rates, it was the highest suffering 1 in 18 casualties, slightly higher than Bloody Omaha at 1 in 19 casualties.

Of the landing craft used on the run-in to Juno, 90 of 306 were lost or damaged. By the end of D-Day, 3,200 vehicles, 2,500 tons of material and over 15,000 men had been landed at Juno Beach.

Many people think that after D-Day the Canadians liberated the Netherlands and fought their way into Germany. The next post will cover the Canadians’ struggles as they moved inland.

The Battle for Normandy turned into a brutal struggle with heavy loss of life on both sides. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties. Canadian casualties in Normandy exceeded 18,700. Over 5,000 Canadian soldiers were killed.