D-Day From the Canadian Perspective - the Juno Beach Landing

it's the early as the 6th of june 1944. on a naval vessel sailing across the english channel two men ponder the consequences of a coin toss their regiment has been selected as one of the first assault units to storm a certain beach in normandy to open a third front in a german-occupied europe and a simple coin toss has decided that the companies led by these two brothers in arms will be the very first to dash off the landing crafts and brave the enemy fire but charles and eliot share more than the same uniform they share the same surname they are not just brothers in arms they are brothers periods and best friends as well major charles dalton and major eliot dalton have accepted the cruel orders of fate they will lead them into battle possibly victory almost certainly death and they know that one of them heck probably both of them will not return home this is the kind of story that you might expect in a hollywood blockbuster with rugged yet humane heroes facing unsurmountable odds against the backdrop of american flag waving in the wind but this is not a movie script this is history and the dalton brothers do not fight under stars and stripes banner but under a red maple leaf this is the story of the juno beach landings when canada stormed the shores of normandy on the 6th of june 1944 d-day u.s general dwight d eisenhower launched the first phase of operation overlord the invasion of western europe to open a third front against nazi germany already engaged against the allies in the soviet union in italy the first phase of the operation consisted of an assault on the coastline of normandy northern france this was to be the largest seaborne invasion in history a total of 156 000 u.s british and canadian troops supported by naval artillery and airborne troopers who were tasked with storming heavily defended beaches to secure a coastal bridgehead from there the allies could amass reinforcements and supply trains before pouring southwards to liberate france the forces committed by canada to the d-day landings were smaller in comparison to the british and u.s troops involved but it was a considerable contingent anyhow especially in proportion to the demographics of the country in total 14 000 canadian soldiers and paratroopers stormed normandy all volunteers from the 3rd canadian infantry division and the 2nd armored brigade they were supported by 110 vessels of the royal canadian navy manned by some 10 000 sailors from above the royal canadian air force contributed with 15 fighter and fighter bomber squadrons the canadians were to land on an 8 kilometer stretch of beach code named juno defended by two battalions of germany's 716 infantry division judo beach was sandwiched between sword to the east and gold to the west both beaches would be stormed by the british further to the west lay omaha and utah to be attacked by the united states the objectives of the canadians were to establish a bridge head on juno by neutralizing german defenses concentrated mainly around three towns from east to west these were saint auburn bernier and queselle the latter expected to be particularly a tough cookie due to the presence of strong artillery batteries after silencing these guns the third infantry division and the second armored brigade were to proceed up to 18 kilometers inland to secure the car pk airfields and the railway's linking cane to bayo the german defenses along the normandy stretch of the so-called atlantic wall were strong but not as strong as they could have been operation fortitude and ingenious disinformation campaign had convinced the german high command that the allies would attempt a landing in calais with minor diversionary tactics in normandy the first phase of operation overlord kicked off on the 5th of june 1944 at 23 3100 hours with an intensive aerial bombardment of the german coastal batteries by 5 15 the next morning the royal canadian air force group and its allies had dropped 5268 tons of bombs that night french-resistant saboteurs alerted by coded message on the bbc launched more than a thousand actions swimming chaos and disruption behind enemy lines at midnight the recently formed first canadian parachute battalion commanded by brigadier james hill kicked into action the first battalion was dropped north of cane to secure the eastern flank of sword beach due to high winds and intense anti-aircraft fire the three companies of the battalion were scattered across a much larger area than expected and lost most of their heavy guns nonetheless they achieved their objectives company a captured an artillery battery in merville which directly threatened juno and company b blue bridge in robohon company c apparently had pulled the shortest straw as they had to neutralize their most formidable objective a garrison of varavil protected by bunkers trenches and a 75-millimeter anti-tank gun despite losing their own artillery the men of sea succeeded in storming the chateau covering their assault with mortifier on the early morning of the 6th of june the sky was overcast strong winds blew from the northwest and waves rose up to two meters high the weather on the channel and on juno beach was far from ideal but there was no stopping d-day the beginning of the end at 5 30 a.m naval destroyers unleashed a barrage on the german coastal defenses then the 31st mine minesweeper flotilla of the royal canadian navy cleared the waters in front of juno laying lanes of boys to indicate safe passage next it was time for the man of the third division and second armored grey to pour out of juno's sand carried by dozens of landing crafts or lcas the swarms of lcas rolled through choppy waters amidst a storm of steel fire and shrapnel pouring out from the german fortifications men were tossed around like crash test dummies as they succumbed to waves of fear adrenaline vomit the lcas were closely followed by 24 lcts or landing craft tanks these were specially designed amphibious assault crafts designed for landing armoured vehicles not just any vehicle but the duplex drive tanks also known as dd danks or donald duck tanks these were equipped with flotation devices and propellers which should have allowed them to negotiate the muddy shores and reached the beaches ahead of the infantry that juno the 24 lcds carried also four artillery regiments for a total of 96 guns with a caliber of 105 millimeters for one hour and a half the artillery units pounded the german fortified positions a saddlebar bernier and corsair offering covering fire for their friends on the lcas as they reach the shore the first unit to reach the shore were the troops at the seventh infantry brigade tasked with assault saying corsu the german strong point stationed there was defended by six field guns twelve machine gun pill boxes and fortified mortar nests when the seventh landed the high tide had submerged most of the german defensive obstacles hiding them from view as a result 30 of the lcas were destroyed or damaged the men of the seventh pressed on nonetheless losing almost 50 percent of their unit in the first waves of the assault despite the nighttime bombardment in the naval barrages it seemed as though the germans had maintained all their firepower all they could do was run as fast as they could toward their objectives nineteen-year-old francis william gordon later recalled the experience crawl and run and crawl and run and one thing you couldn't do was stop on juno beach if your buddies got hurt you couldn't stop you had to keep going if you stopped well you were a dead duck too so you had to keep going which was a hard thing to do because the beach was something like ketchup that's how blood red the beach was to make matters worse the infantry was expecting support from the donald ducks but most of the amphibious tanks were launched too far away from the shore from that position they could offer little cover many were even swamped by the tall waves but where tanks and heavy artillery failed the men of the seventh brigade compensated with ingenuity grit and a bit of luck take the case of lieutenant bill grace and company commander with the regina regiment while his company was pinned down by machine gun fire and artillery grayson managed to advance taking cover behind a house facing the sea from there he took note that only one machine gun position stood between him and the strongest enemy artillery battery the 88 millimeter gun position he also took note that the german machine gunner fired bursts at regular brakes taking advantage of the intervals grayson sprinted toward the pillbox and chucked a hand grenade through the aperture the german inside managed to escape zig-zagging through a network of trenches toward the main pillbox which serviced the deadly 88 millimeter grayson gave chase pistol in hand and burst into the fortification taken by surprise and probably expecting a larger force 35 german soldiers surrendered immediately to the lone canadian gunman grayson was awarded the military cross thanks to this feat which allowed the rest of his company to clear the strong point [Music] to the east the town of bernier was taken by the men of the queen's own rifles this is where our friends the dalton brothers saw action the rifles landed ashore at 8 12 am harassed by heavy machine gun fire they too had been left unprotected by the donald ducks nonetheless their first assault wave raced 200 meters forward taking out two large field guns shortly after 9am the rifles were joined by self-propelled guns or spgs of the 19th and 14th artillery regiments but the increasing number of vehicles jamming juno beach made it difficult for the spgs to maneuver the rifles would have to face without artillery cover also their next obstacle a sea wall reinforced by pillboxes and concrete bunkers from where the germans fired their mg-42 machine guns and mortars 65 casualties were claimed by a single machine gun emplacement alongside the sea wall which had pinned down bee company company commander major charles dalton tried to silence the pill box with carefully aimed shots from his sten submachine gun he realized that he could not fire directly into the slits on the pillbox walls instead he climbed onto a ladder positioned against the seawall from there he fired at an angle against the machine gun shields placed in front of the fortification hoping that his bullets would ricochet inside the emplacement the staring tactic seemed to pay off as the german gunners fell silent for a minute before dalton could celebrate a german officer stepped out of the pillbox and fired with a service pistol the bullet perforated charles's helmet and struck his head luckily the slug glanced off his skull after a medic bandaged him charles decided to take care of the machine gun position for good revolver in hand he sprinted toward the enemy running into the blind spot of the german gunner's vision he managed to reach the back of the pillbox and tried the handle of the entrance door surprisingly the soldiers inside had not bolted it shut that sealed their fate dalton kicked open the door and fired his revolver taking out the german gunners for this action major charles dalton was awarded the distinguished service order while b company was clearing the sea wall defense's a company was also making progress under the command of charles's brother major elliot dalton the spearhead of their attack was the squad led by sergeant charles martin flanked by rifleman betridge and shepherd martin took out an enemy machine gun nest before they encountered a barbed wire fence laying low martin threw his wire cutters to betridge and asked him to throw them to shepherd shepherd was supposed to brave enemy fire to cut an opening in the barbed wire with typical canadian politeness shepherd shouted to betrid you tell him to [ __ ] himself he's making more money than we are he had a point martin decided to ignore the insubordination and cut through the fence himself leading what was left of his platoon into the bernier train station there martin's men faced a dilemma targeted by mg-42 volleys they had to run to clear the area but if they ran they risked stepping on one of the many land mines in a surreal moment martin's platoon decided to walk slowly across the station praying that a bullet put them out of their misery before a land mine blew them to pieces somebody listened to martin's prayers just as he stepped on a land mine a slug pierced his helmet by sheer miracle he was not wounded and the impact of the shot was so strong it knocked him out of the blast's way after more than an hour of hard combat the queen's own rifles reinforced by quebec's regimen de la chaudiere broke through the german defenses and entered bernier with more than 60 killed in action this was the single costliest engagement on juno beach the easternmost sector of juno beach was the battleground for the north shore regiment which landed at eight ten hundred as one of the first men to set foot on the sand was 21 year old lieutenant fred moore as soon as the doors of his landing craft swung open he led his men into a mad dash towards the village of samban as he recalled they were surrounded by mortars falling bullets and shells exploding smoke everywhere somehow through this reign of death i reached the sea wall i lost several men before we reached it but that was just the beginning of the carnage in a predicament experienced by all landing parties moore's company realized that the preliminary artillery barrage had done little damage the german defenses a fortified position by the sea wall still intact was pounding the north shore regiment with 50 millimeter anti-tank shells mg-42 bursts and mortar rounds the men in the south orban sector however were luckier than their brothers in arms elsewhere on juno as they could count on close artillery support they were supported by a six-pounder anti-tank gun two-inch mortars and later even by donald duck tanks and armored vehicles of the royal engineers the latter were armed with the devastating petard mortars firing flying dustbin demolition rounds the batards took out the 50 millimeter gun emplacement and several pill boxes but more german defenders seemed to pour out of nowhere later it was discovered that the fortifications at san juan bar were supplied via a network of hidden tunnels eventually the germans seemed to give up and several white flags appeared on their positions but it was a trap as soon as the canadians approached to take the enemy prisoner they opened fire again the canadian armor moved in again targeting the treacherous enemy white flags pit again later in the day but as the regiment's historian wrote the north shore had enough of that trickery and went in with bombs cold steel and shooting they inflicted many times the casualties the enemy had inflicted on them and cleaned out the place the main positions had been overrun by 11 15. the north shore regiment poured into soundbar and proceeded to methodically mop up every last german soldier in operation which was concluded only that evening all the units landed at juno beach were moving inland by around noon that day now that the shores were cleared the reserves of the third division were consolidating their hold on the bridge head we will not go into the details of the following actions of the canadian armed forces in europe but we may cover them in the future if you let us know you want to hear that in the comments below in brief the canadians distinguished themselves fighting alongside their u.s and british allies in normandy they first endured violent counter-attacks by ss panz divisions which had been redeployed from calais after resisting the onslaught the canadians fought back again pursuing the enemy out of normandy after 76 days a bitter struggle in northern france the canadians participated in the liberation of belgium and the netherlands before invading germany but let's remain focused on the aftermath of d-day itself and how it affected two of our protagonists the dalton brothers after single-handedly taking out a german pillbox charles had been taken to a field hospital the round to his head only grazed his skull but he had suffered a serious concussion nonetheless and was breeding profusely that very morning he had pondered with his brother elliot which one of them was doomed not to return as he lay in his hospital bed he suppressed tears when he heard that elliot had indeed been killed near bernier luckily it was just a rumor elliot had survived and while regrouping with his company after the battle the word had gotten to him that it was charles who had actually died mercifully both dalton boys had survived the ordeal but many more had not been so lucky in less than 10 hours of fighting the third infantry and the second armored brigade had suffered 1074 casualties of which 359 were killed the adversaries of the 716th division had lost almost 6 000 men killed or captured the contribution of the canadians to the d-day landing is often overlooked at least outside of their home country overshadowed by the large deployments of forces at omaha utah sword and gold but what they lacked in quantity they surely more than compensated for equality as the d-day landings drew to their conclusion the canadian forces had managed to advance quite deeply toward the town of cruelly colombia certhiel and annasee their furthest advance point was still roughly nine kilometers away from their main assigned target the carpake airfield nonetheless the canadian landing should be considered a resounding success as they had pushed further south than any other allied unit on d-day [Music]

Channel: Warographics

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Id: yhDLA6ROozg

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022