3. Juno Beach
The Juno landings were judged necessary to provide flanking support to the British drive on Caen from Sword, as well as to capture
the German airfield a Carpiquet west of Caen. Taking Juno was tasked to the 3 rd Canadian Infantry Division and commandos of
the Royal Marines. Close support on the beaches was to be provided by the 2 nd Canadian Armored Brigade, but due to bad
weather, only a handful made it to the beach, the others were sunk. The landings initially encountered heavy resistance from the
German 716th Division; the preliminary bombardment proved less effective than had been hoped, and rough weather forced the
first wave to be delayed until 07:35. The Beach had been taken in 42 minutes, this was the first of the 5 beaches taken by the
allies. Those of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the Queens own Rifles of Canada, took heavy casualties in the first minutes of the
first wave. On June 6th 1944, the Canadians got the furthest inland with taking 359 casualties, 574 wounded and 47 captured.
We were Victorious
4. Facts
- Omaha beach was the most fortified beach of the landings.
- The only bunker destroyed from naval fire was just off of Gold beach.
- 43000 men were sent to Omaha beach
- When the allies were bombing bunkers, Germans put telephone poles in
unfinished bunkers to make the allies bomb away from their real guns.
- The allies suffered 120 000 casualties while the Germans suffered 113 059.
- The D-Day operation was originally planned for June 5 th but due to bad weather it
was postponed to June 6th.
- Black and white markings on allied aircraft from WW2 indicate that they took part
in the D-Day operations.
- Men from different races, were forced to fight for the Germans. (eg. Koreans)
5. Why was D-Day Important?
D-Day was important because it was the
advancement of allied forces moving into Nazi
occupied France and eventually moving further
into Europe making their way to Germany. This
had been attempted before by the British and
Canadians in August of 1942, but were defeated
by the Germans due to poor planning and
underestimating the Germans.
8. Battle for Caen
Whilst the Americans headed for Cherbourg, a unit of troops led by the British moved
towards the city of Caen The first wasoperation perch which attempted to push south
from Bayeux to villers-bocaqewhere the armour could then head towards the Orne
and envelop Caen but was halted at the Battle of Villers-Bocage. After a delay owing
to the difficulty of supply because of storms from 17 June until 23 June, a German
counterattack (which was known through ultra intelligence) was forestalled
by operation epsomoperat Caen was severely bombed and then occupied north of the
River Orne in operation charnwood from 7 July until 9 July. An offensive in the Caen
area followed with all three British armoured divisions, codenamed operation
goodwood from 18 July until 21 July that captured the high ground south of Caen while
the remainder of the city was captured by Canadian forces during operation atlantic A
further operation, operation spring from 25 July until 28 July, by the Canadians
secured limited gains south of the city at a high cost.
9. Battle for Pegasus Bridge
The control of Pegasus Bridge gave the Allies the opportunity to disrupt the Germans ability to bring in re-enforcements to the Normandy
beaches, especially those that the British and Canadians were landing at – Gold, Juno and Sword.
10. Battle for Pegasus Bridge
The control of Pegasus Bridge gave the Allies the opportunity to disrupt the Germans ability to bring in re-enforcements to the Normandy
beaches, especially those that the British and Canadians were landing at – Gold, Juno and Sword.
