Juno Beach
"Juno" was the code name for the second beach from the left of the five
landing areas of the Normandy Invasion. The beach was approximately
6 miles (10 kilometres) wide and stretched on either side of the small
fishing port of Courseulles-sur-Mer. Two smaller villages, Bernières and
Saint-Aubin, lay to the east of Courseulles. Smaller coastal villages lay
behind the sand dunes and had been fortified by the occupying Germans
with casemates and adjacent fighting positions.
The initial hazard for the invaders at Juno, however, was not the German
obstacles but natural offshore reefs or shoals. These forced the assault
waves to land later in the morning than desired: H-Hour was set for
0745 hours (7:45 A.M.), so that the landing craft could clear the reef on the rising
tide. (It was later discovered that some of the "shoals" were actually
seaweed.) Elements of the German 716th Infantry Division, particularly
the 736th Regiment, were responsible for defense of the area, and the
seafront houses offered them excellent observation and firing positions.
Juno Beach was part of the invasion area assigned to the British 2nd
Army, under Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey. The beach was
divided by the Allied command into two designated assault sectors: Nan
(comprising Red, White, and Green sections) to the east and Mike
(made up of Red and White sections) to the west. It was to be assaulted
by the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, the 7th Brigade landing at
Courseulles in Mike sector and the 8th Brigade landing at Bernières in
Nan sector. The objectives of the 3rd Division on D-Day were to cut
the Caen-Bayeux road, seize the Carpiquet airport west of Caen, and
form a link between the two British beaches of Gold and Sword on
either side of Juno Beach.
The first assault wave landed at 0755 hours,
10 minutes past H-Hour and fully three hours
after the optimum low tide. This delay
presented the invading Canadians with a
difficult situation. The beach obstacles were
already partially submerged, and the engineers
were unable to clear paths to the beach. The
landing craft were therefore forced to feel
their way in, and the mines took a heavy toll.
Roughly 30 percent of the landing craft at
Juno were destroyed or damaged.
As the troops waded ashore,
there was little fire at
first--mainly because the
German gun positions did not
aim out to sea but were set to
enfilade the coastline. As the
Canadian soldiers worked their
way through the obstacles and
came into the enfilading killing
zones, the first wave took
dreadful casualties. Company B
of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles
was cut down to one officer and 25 men as it moved to reach the
seawall. In the assault teams, the chance of becoming a casualty in that
first hour was almost 1 in 2. By mid-morning, hard fighting had brought
the town of Bernières into Canadian hands, and later Saint-Aubin was
occupied. Progress inland past the towns was good, and, as some
armoured units arrived in later waves, they briefly interdicted the
Caen-Bayeux road. One Troop of the 1st Hussar tank regiment was
thus the only unit of the entire Allied invasion to reach its final objective
on D-Day.
By evening the 3rdDivision had linked up
with the British 50th Division from Gold
Beach to the west, but to the east the
Canadians were unable to make contact with
the British 3rd Division from Sword
Beach--leaving a gap of 2 miles into which
elements of the German 21st Panzer Division
counterattacked. The Canadians suffered
1,200 casualties out of 21,400 troops who
landed at Juno that day--a casualty ratio of 1out of 18.