Juno Beach

On June 6, 1944 the greatest armada in history stood off Normandy and the largest amphibious invasion ever began as 107,000 men aboard 6,000 ships pressed toward the coast. Among this number were 18,000 Canadians, who were to land on a five-mile long stretch of rocky ledges fronted by a wide expanse of sand. Code named Juno Beach. Here, sheltered inside concrete bunkers and deep trenches, hundreds of German soldiers waited to strike the first assault wave with some ninety 88-millimetre guns, fifty mortars, and four hundred machineguns. A four-foot-high sea wall ran across the breadth of the beach and extending from it into the surf itself were ranks of tangled barbed wire, tank and vessel obstacles, and a maze of mines. Of the five Allied forces landing that day, they were scheduled to be the last to reach the sand. Juno was also the most exposed beach, their day’s objectives eleven miles inland were farther away than any others, and the opposition awaiting them was believed greater than that facing any other force. At battle's end one out of every six Canadians in the invasion force was either dead or wounded. Yet their grip on Juno Beach was firm.

Survivors. Vets. Comrades. A single day changed their lives forever. From the producer of the documentary Victory from Above, Lance Goddard's D-Day, Juno Beach: Canada's 24 Hours of Destiny is a montage of first-hand accounts, memories, and a pictorial archive of that day, sixty years ago. It captures all of the pride, patriotism, and collective will of Canadians who served and endured the horrific events of that day for a greater cause - for freedom, to defeat Hitler, to liberate Europe. From the beginning, at 0000 hours, to the end, 24 hours later, the voices of over thirty veterans unravel the battle with recollections, tactical details, and, often, self-effacing humour - but always at the very heart of Goddard's D-Day: Juno Beach, Canada's 24 Hours of Destiny, the message, sixty years later, is clear... lest we forget.

Following his national best-seller, Juno Beach, and with his usual verve and narrative skill, historian Mark Zuehlke chronicles the crucial six days when Canadians saved the vulnerable beachheads they had won during the D-Day landings. D-Day ended with the Canadians six miles inland — the deepest penetration achieved by Allied forces during this longest day in history. But for all the horror endured on June 6 every soldier knew the worst was yet to come. The Germans began probing the Canadian lines early in the morning of June 7 and shortly after dawn counter attacked in force. The ensuing six days of battle was to prove bloodier than D-Day itself. Although battered and bloody, the Canadians had held their ground and made it possible for the slow advance toward Germany and eventual Allied victory to begin. Holding Juno recreates this pivotal battle through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it, with the same dramatic intensity and factual detail that made Juno Beach, in the words of Quill & Quire reviewer Michael Clark, “the defining popular history of Canada’s D-Day battle.”

During World War II, Canada stood alongside its allies, summoning all its human, industrial and financial resources, and mobilizing the mightiest military force in its history. At sea, on land, and in the air, Canada was involved in the great campaigns that led to the fall of the German Reich and brought back peace. Through short narratives and original archival photos, Juno Beach: A Window on Canada in WWII tells the story of Canada's important role from 1939-1945. Juno Beach (a code-name thought up by an unknown planner) was the landing point for Canadian soldiers on June 6, 1944-D-Day. This offensive has since entered the history books as one of the nation's proudest military accomplishments. In 2003, on the 59th anniversary of D-Day, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, along with hundreds of World War II veterans and their families, opened the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. The Juno Beach Centre is not only a memorial dedicated to the Normandy invasion, but also an educational facility recognizing all of Canada's military and civilian contributions during World War II. Along with narrative and photographic accounts of Canadian soldiers who took part in World War II, this unique package includes an interactive CD-ROM containing a virtual tour of the Juno Beach Centre along with links to the companion website at www.junobeach.org.

A highly illustrated and detailed study of the Gold and Juno Beaches Landings Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, was the greatest sea-borne military operation in history. At the heart of the invasion and key to its success were the landings of British 50th Division on Gold Beach and Canadian 3rd Division on Juno Beach. Not only did they provide the vital link between the landings of British 3rd Division on Sword Beach and the Americans to the west on Omaha, they would be crucial to the securing of the beachhead and the drive inland to Bayeux and Caen. In the fourth D-Day volume Ken Ford details the assault that began the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe.

The ninth book in the Canadian Battle Series, Breakout from Juno, is the first dramatic chronicling of Canada's pivotal role throughout the entire Normandy Campaign following the D-Day landings. On July 4, 1944, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division won the village of Carpiquet but not the adjacent airfield. Instead of a speedy victory, the men faced a bloody fight. The Canadians advanced relentlessly at a great cost in bloodshed. Within 2 weeks the 2nd Infantry and 4th Armoured divisions joined coming together as the First Canadian Army. The soldiers fought within a narrow landscape extending a mere 21 miles from Caen to Falaise. They won a two-day battle for Verrières Ridge starting on July 21, after 1,500 casualties. More bloody battles followed, until finally, on August 21, the narrowing gap that had been developing at Falaise closed when American and Canadian troops shook hands. The German army in Normandy had been destroyed, only 18,000 of about 400,000 men escaping. The Allies suffered 206,000 casualties, of which 18,444 were Canadians. Breakout from Juno is a story of uncommon heroism, endurance and sacrifice by Canada's World War II volunteer army and pays tribute to Canada's veterans.

On June 6, 1944, nearly 15,000 Canadians – at sea, in the air, and on the ground – joined the long-anticipated D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on the Normandy beaches. The piece of ground on which the Canadians fought so hard against heavily armed and embedded German troops was codenamed Juno. On that day, the Canadian infantry fought their way farther inland than any other Allied troops. For Canada, and all Canadians, this was a coming of age, an extraordinary moment of courage and sacrifice. On the eve of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, Barris takes us back to those momentous few hours that forever changed the course of our history in the voices of those who were there. In what might be described as Canada’s longest day, we follow the course of action hour by hour, minute by minute, as we meet and follow the soldiers who leapt off landing craft into the shallow waters off Normandy, who were strafed by machinegun fire before they could even reach the shore. We meet the airmen who flew fighters and bombers in the early hours of the summer morning, as well as the sailors who manned the guns of the ships offshore. Ted Barris has interviewed hundreds of veterans to piece together one of Canada’s proudest days, and one of the most significant battles of our time.

A small café near Cussy, outside Caen, beckons heroes and villains of both sides: Canadian and German. Behind it all are the beautiful, women super-spies who weave their way into the lives of the men they meet and cause unforeseen changes. Love and romance follow and becomes more important than anything else, even life itself for these daring men and the women who face death daily. Many conflicts arise during the race to Paris. In the city itself, Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces must first drive the Germans out, and then secondly stop a takeover by a dedicated French Communist Party. This story of a wireless detachment of the RCCS (Royal Canadian Corps of Signals) gives a uniquely Canadian look at the way soldiers spoke, acted, and thought while in Normandy. Although the men in the trenches the infantry, are often lauded as the main heroes of a war, many of those in the other services performed their duties just as valiantly and gallantly. And, too, their deeds were often just as dangerous and, perhaps, just as thrilling. Overall, it doesn't matter, because everyone present that year had the same purpose: achieve an overall victory and go home. Each person who was in Normandy in the summer of 1944 has his or her own story. This is one of them: