June 6th 1944 was a major turning point for the Allied forces in World War II. This date marks the largest amphibious attack in history. Operation Neptune was when the Allied forces invaded Normandy and is more commonly known as D-Day. On D-Day the US 4th infantry division landed on Utah Beach, the 1st and 29th US infantry divisons landed on Omaha beach, Gold Beach was invaded by troops from the British 50th division, the British 3rd Infantry division invaded Sword Beach, and the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade landed on Juno Beach. Throughout my research one thing that stuck out to me and made me proud to be Canadian is how many times i read that Juno Beach and the Canadian troops was one of the most successful D-Day attacks. This of course made me wonder: how did the axis defence and attack strategy at Juno Beach compare to those at the four other D-Day beaches?

The five different beaches attacked on D-Day were all defended similarly, but each had differences. The beach that was most heavily guarded was Omaha beach and this attack did have the most casualties. The main objective here was to obtain a beachhead between Port-en-Bessie and the Vire river and to advance south from there towards St. Lo. The Axis had strong defences on this beach. The crescent shape allowed for protection from all directions, and there were 12 strongpoints that could direct fire on the incoming troops. Along with that, on the beach there were 3 types of obstacles: 10 feet tall gate like structures approximately 250 yards back from the water when it was at high tide, then 200 yards away from shore there were logs at an angle in the beach, which mines stapled to the ends. Finally there were 5 1/2 feet tall metal hedgehogs. The defences on this beach were very well planned by the Germans which made it so the American troops didn’t manage to meet their objectives on D-Day, but they did manage to gain a small foothold.

The other beach that Americans were tasked with attacking was Utah beach. The beginning of this attack made it seem like the day would be disastrous for the Americans. The day started off with a lot of confusion. The currents forced the naval troops off track, and they ended up landing 2km off of their target. Luckily, the area where they ended up landing had sparse defences because the low lying lands behind where they landed were flooded due to German controlled locks. Though the troops didn’t achieve many objectives, throughout the day the Americans managed to move 4 miles inland and were quite successful considering their rocky beginning.

One of the most important D-Day tasks was at Sword Beach, where the British troops were tasked with both taking back Caen, while protecting the entire eastern flank against a possible German counter attack. At Sword Beach they managed to effectively use the DD tanks, as 33 out of 40 of them made it to shore. The British Armour helped the infantry make it across the dangerous beach with relatively low casualties. The battle for the beach lasted for about an hour. The 1st battalion which was on the right side of the beach cleared it much faster than the 2nd battalion, on the left side, so they quickly reduced the number of German strong points behind the sea wall. By the end of the day, the British troops were only a few miles short of Caen, and had landed 29 000 troops on the beach at the cost of only 630 casualties. They did meet the objective of repelling the German attack, so it was a relatively successful attack.

Taking Gold Beach was also the responsibility of British troops, their objectives being to meet up with Omaha Beach and capturing Bayeux, and the Caen-Bayeux road. The forced them to land an hour later than the American troops had, which meant they suffered through more naval bombardment, weakening their forces. When they did land, the wind had concealed most of the land obstacles, luckily the air and naval forces had managed to soften defences. Along with that, many of the Axis troops were Russians, who weren’t as likely to put up as much of a fight. There was street fighting until 10, but the British troops eventually managed to take the town and continued from there. By the end of the day they had moved 6 miles inland and managed to meet up with the Canadian troops at Juno Beach, forming the largest beachhead of the day. While they didn’t meet their objectives of capturing Bayeux, or meeting up with the troops at Omaha, they managed to meet up with Juno Beach and captured Bayeux the next day, making it the first inland French town to be freed. All in all, the D-Day attack on Gold Beach was very successful.

Bayeux

Bayeux

Bayeux War Cemetery

All of the attacks on D-Day were quite important, and while some were more successful than others, in the end they each played a huge role in freeing Normandy and turning the war around. But the Canadians on Juno Beach got the furthest into France and met most of their objectives. They were supposed to land at 7:45, but bad weather conditions forced them to delay, which allowed the tide to rise enough to make some of the German obstacles effective. This delay also made it so there was a gap between the naval attacks and actually landing. The most dangerous part of the attack though, was crossing the beach when they did land. The journey from the shoreline to the sea wall had the most casualties at Juno Beach on D-Day, but by 9:30, Canadian troops were advancing through the practically undefended French countryside. One tank unit even managed to meet the D-Day objective and made it to the Caen-Bayeux road, but had to pull back due to a lack of support. The Canadians had made it quite far and managed to meet up with the troops at Beach. They technically did reach the objective of reaching the Caen-Bayeux road, but they did have to pull back. The only objective they didn’t reach was meeting up with the troops at Sword Beach. The Canadians at Juno Beach were very successful.

On D-Day the Canadians accomplished many objectives and were one of the most successful beaches of the day. All of the beaches we quite similar, Omaha being the most heavily defended. The two most successful beaches were Juno and Gold. This day may not have gone exactly as planned, but the Allies did make a lot of progress, and from there, went on to free the parts of Europe that were taken by the Axis.

Juno Beach

Juno Beach

Juno Beach

(the photos of Juno Beach and Bayeux were taken by me and/or my family)