Annually on June 6, the western world commemorates the Second World War’s D-Day, the largest amphibious assault in history. Code-named Operation Overlord, the 1944 military campaign saw 135,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy in France.
Germany had occupied much of western Europe for almost four years, and with Nazi and Russian forces deadlocked on the Eastern Front, the Allies sought to relieve some of the pressure on the Soviets by opening another front in western Europe, commencing a push to liberate the continent from Adolph Hitler’s grasp.
The Normandy invasion was divided into five coded beach areas, with the Americans assigned to Utah and Omaha, and the British attacking Gold and Sword. Juno was assigned to the Canadians, commanded by Major-General Rod Keller. Allied forces were under the supreme command of United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with British General Bernard Montgomery leading the Commonwealth forces.
It is well known that of the five invasion beaches on D-Day, the heaviest casualties were suffered by American troops at Omaha. But the next deadliest beach was Juno.
Some 14,000 Canadians — members of the 33rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade — stormed ashore, braving artillery, explosive mines, and withering machine gun fire from the Germans holding the high ground. The Royal Canadian Navy had 110 warships and 10,000 sailors participate in D-Day, and the RCAF contributed 15 squadrons to the assault.
By nightfall, Canadian troops had secured a beachhead, at the cost of more than a thousand casualties, including 359 killed. Hundreds of Canadian paratroopers also landed in Normandy before dawn to target German positions further inland. Over the course of the next 10 weeks — culminating with the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944 — 5,500 Canadians perished in combat.
In recent years, thousands of their countrymen have made a pilgrimage to the beaches of Normandy to commemorate their sacrifice. For many, it is a symbolic journey that goes beyond the simple duty of remembrance.
Two weeks ago, Pelham history enthusiasts Bev and Harold Beamer joined a group of some three dozen Canadians from British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario on a 12-day, 80th-anniversary D-Day battlefield tour, led by prolific Canadian journalist and author Ted Barris. The group retraced the steps of our soldiers on that fateful day, and visited cemeteries where fallen Canadians were laid to rest.
“This was our second trip to Normandy, as we were also there for the 70th Anniversary, on June 6, 2014,” said Bev. “Our first stop was the Compiegne Forest Museum, where the WWI Armistice was signed in a railway car, and where France was forced to surrender to Adolf Hitler in WWII on June 22, 1940. Our next stop was the museum at Pegasus Bridge where our paratroopers landed in gliders in Ranville at midnight to secure the bridge over the River Orne, so the German Panzer divisions could not counter-attack and impede the progress of our troops coming inland from the beach. Later we visited the Juno Beach landing area, stretching eight kilometres along the French shoreline that included the coastal villages of Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, Bernières-sur-Mer, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Graye-sur-Mer, where the Third Canadian Regiment came ashore under heavy fire from German troops stationed along Hitler’s fortified Atlantic Wall. We marveled at the Sherman duplex-drive amphibious tank on display, and had a personal tour of Canada House, which was one of the first houses liberated in France on D-Day.”
Why “Juno” Beach, you may ask.
The code names for the beaches to be taken by British and Commonwealth forces were named after types of fish: Goldfish, Swordfish, and Jellyfish, which were abbreviated to Gold, Sword and Jelly. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill voiced his strong disapproval of the name Jelly for a beach where so many men would inevitably give their lives, and insisted on a change to the more dignified name Juno.
Canadians were sent in to capture the port and suffered the highest rate of casualties in any military engagement before or since
The Beamers and their tour group traveled north along the Normandy coast to Arromanches to see the remnants of a Mulberry Harbour, nicknamed “Port Winston,” which was a prefabricated, portable harbour developed by the British Admiralty to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto the Normandy beaches. The structures, which were constructed in great secrecy and towed across the English Channel as the invasion began, were composed of sinkable piers, floating pontoons, and even sunken ships.
“We also visited the Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery to pay our respects to the Canadians who sacrificed their lives during the Normandy operation,” said Bev. “The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains the Allied cemeteries, and they are always kept in immaculate condition. We had a great guided tour of the Canadian Juno Beach Centre, which features a pentagon shape in the outline of a maple leaf, and with its five points—it also represents the five D-Day beaches in Normandy. We rode in some WWII army vehicles around the French countryside, and stopped at the D-Day Academy Museum where the owner has a fabulous collection of artifacts and memorabilia.”
The Juno Beach Centre, opened in 2003 and located in Courseulles-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast, is an interactive educational facility and museum offering information about Canada's role in the Second World War. The Centre was constructed with the support of Canadian veterans who participated in the D-Day landings and the subsequent battles in Western Europe, with ongoing financial support from the Canadian government.
In addition, a 400 kilometre Canadian Remembrance Route has been created to preserve the legacy of Canada’s sacrifice in Europe during WWI and WWII, which passes through Vimy, Beaumont-Hamel, Dieppe, Juno Beach, and Canadian war cemeteries. Half a million Canadian soldiers fought on French soil in the two World Wars.
“We finished off our tour of Normandy at the Omaha Beach Museum and the Dieppe Museum,” said Bev. “We walked the beaches of Dieppe, where on August 19, 1942 Canadians were sent in to capture the port and suffered the highest rate of casualties in any military engagement before or since.”
Bev said that Harold’s father’s cousin Alonzo Comfort was captured at Dieppe that day.
“He was a stretcher bearer for the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, and spent the remainder of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag IXC. The raid was poorly planned and executed, but lessons learned from it made the landings of D-Day more successful. It was the Canadians who moved inland the farthest on the first day of the Normandy attack.”
Bev said that the group also paid their respects to the Canadian prisoner-of-war soldiers who were executed at Abbey d’Ardenne by the infamous Nazi General Kurt Meyer and the fanatical Hitler Youth in the 12th SS Panzer Division.
“As many as 156 Canadian prisoners of war are believed to have been executed in the days and weeks following the D-Day landings.”
An official Government of Canada delegation will participate in a series of events in Normandy from June 4-9 to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
“As one stands on the beaches of Normandy, a feeling of immense respect is elicited for our Canadian forces, which assisted in the liberation of Europe at a very high cost,” said Bev.
“More than 45,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives during the Second World War. Our generation is extremely blessed to have the memories of our Canadian heroes passed on, so that they will never be forgotten. The Juno Beach Centre helps to preserve their legacy of courage and freedom.”
