History and pictures of the beach

Juno Beach is the second of the three invasion sectors of the Commonwealth forces. Here land the Canadians. The Juno beaches are located 1.5 kilometers east of Gold Beach and are located between the localities of La Rivière, in the West, and of Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, in the East, that is to say a total distance of nearly 8 kilometers.

Allied ships on the way towards the objective: Juno Beach.

Involved forces

Juno Beach is composed of 3 great sectors, from west to east: “Love”, “Mike” and “Nan”. The first soldiers who must land on this beach on D-Day belong to the 7th Brigade (composed of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles regiment and the Regina Rifle regiment) and to the 8th Brigade (the Queen Own Regiment and the North Shore Regiment). These men belong to the 3rd Canadian infantry division, itself under the authority of the 1st British Army corps of Lieutenant General John Crocker. These units are supported by the british troops of the Royal Marine Commando 48 who are to land in the West of Sword Beach, “Oboe” sector, opposite to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer.

Landing craft with canadian soldiers and their bicycles.

Juno Beach is defended by elements of the 736th regiment of the 716th German infantry division, composed of 29 companies and armed with 500 machineguns, 50 mortars and 90 various types of guns.

Anti-aircraft defence above a German bunker on Juno Beach.

The attack

This attack is preceded, as on the other invasion beaches, of an air raid then of a naval bombardment, two hours before the beginning of the landing, which must start at 07:35 a.m.
On Sword Beach, as on Gold and Juno, frogmen are charged to open several accesses to the beach, 20 minutes before H Hour, while removing elements of the beach defenses, in order to facilitate the navigation of the landing crafts.

Canadian assault wave moving towards the beach.

The sea in front of the sector of Juno is, in the early morning of June 6, 1944, extremely surging. There are very many underwater rocks in front of Courseulles-sur-Mer, Bernières-sur-Mer or Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer and the waves increase progressively during the approach of the beach. Moreover, the storm in the English Channel is still not over, even if it is definitely less powerful than the day before.

The attack, which must start at 07:35 a.m., is delayed by the strong swell and the lack of visibility which prevent the british sailors from operating well. Because of the high tide which covers the beach defenses, many landing craft are destroyed. The amphibious tanks called Duplex Drive are also submerged by the water passing above the floating system.

French Canadian soldiers of the La Chaudière regiment just before the landing on Juno.

Another Omaha Beach?

The rocks in front of Juno Beach form a series of extremely dangerous reefs dangerous for the navigation, and the sea, surging, submerges them. The landing crafts run up against these rocks which destroy the metal structure of the transportation boats which sink.

This bad weather is immediately synonime of delay: the sappers, who are charged to open and mark out breaches through the forest of beach defenses, cannot work in an optimal way with such a sea: very quickly, they have to face nearly half an hour of delay and as on Omaha Beach, they cannot carry out enough exits before the arrival of the tanks and the landing crafts transporting the reinforcement.

German 75 mm gun in a blockhouse on Juno Beach.

Up

Canadian landing at Bernières-sur-Mer.

Despite the risks, the ships transporting the amphibious tanks (Landing Craft Tank, LCT), approach close to the beach in order to limit the losses. Thus, some tanks must cross a distance of 600 meters, but the waves remain dangerous. This is why some LCTs directly land the infantry support vehicles very close to the beach.

This delay makes it possible for the Germans to reorganize and prepare the defense of the beaches. They wait until the landing crafts are at the good fire range to shoot with all they have: machineguns, mortars, anti-tank guns… The Canadians face a frightening Atlantic Wall, like the Americans at Omaha.

Canadian landing at Bernières-sur-Mer, “Nan” sector.

On the 306 landing crafts, 90 are destroyed before even reaching the Normand ground. The 7th and 8th brigades are facing heavy losses and a serious delay: 10 minutes for the 7th, 20 for the 8th. The infantry lands before the tanks and operates without support in front of Bernières-sur-Mer: the men of the Queen Own's regiment are welcomed by an extremely heavy shooting..

Canadian landing in front of the locality of Bernières-sur-Mer.

The attackers see in front of them an anti-tank wall of more than 2 meters height, hiding the many access paths connecting the ennemy strongpoints. They are blocked in front of this device, without the support of the tanks. During more than fifteen minutes, the Canadians try to cross this obstacle, but without success: the arrival of the amphibious tanks changes the things. The tanks destroy the German defense points one by one and allow to the men belonging to the first waves to tackle the enemy positions inside the grounds and the reinforcements to land.

Landing of the canadian Sherman tanks on Juno Beach.

If the tanks had not arrived in time, the landing on Juno Beach could had been a catastrophy: the beach is encumbered by hundreds of destroyed vehicles, shredded bodies, various material abandoned during the attack.

At high tide, the beach disapears almost completely under water.

Assessment

The success on Juno Beach is mainly due to the presence of the special tanks which supported after their arrival the Canadian infantry. If all the objectives initially envisaged are not achieved yet, the beachhead is firmly installed in Normandy and the junction between the 3rd canadian infantry division and the british soldiers of the 50th infantry division landed on Gold Beach is carried out (the beachhead is then at this place almost 19 kilometers broad). But in the west, with the british troops landed on Sword Beach, no true contact could be established and a broad corridor from 3 to 6 kilometers separates the two beachheads.

German prisoners kept near their fortifications.

The Canadian forces reached in the south the villages of Anisy and Mathieu, 12 kilometers away from the beach. One of the objectives, the airport of Carpiquet, is still at more than 5 kilometers away, just like the town of Caen. Canadian tanks controlled at the end of the afternoon a portion of the Caen-Bayeux road, but the lack of support in infantry forced the armoured tanks to retreat to the North.

Canadian reinforcements travelling towards Normandy.

On June 6, 1944 at the evening, even if nearly 3.200 vehicles were landed, the losses of the 3rd infantry division are very high: 1.074 soldiers were killed or are wounded. It is the heaviest ratio of losses of the three invasion beaches for the Commonwealth forces.

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