Fighting them on the Beaches by Nigel Cawthorne

Author:Nigel Cawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcturus

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JUNO BEACH

THE CANADIANS LANDED on Juno Beach which lay between the two British beaches, Sword and Gold. It centred on Courseulles-sur-Mer, which was the most heavily defended point in the British sector. And at the extreme left of the beach there were the strongpoints of Langrune and St Aubin. They faced nine medium batteries, comprising mainly 75mm guns, and eleven heavy batteries of 155mm guns. However, only two of the fortified bunkers housing them had been completed. The others stood in roofless bunkers and in open earth-banked gun pits. The guns were sighted along the beaches, which were strewn with obstacles just below the high-tide mark.

However, the German strongpoints were a kilometre apart and the 716th Infantry Division, under General Wilhelm Richter, only had horse-drawn transport to haul their guns and supplies. The men manning the strongpoints were mainly under eighteen or over thirty-five. There were some veterans of the Eastern Front in their mid-twenties, but most of them were badly injured or disabled. The numbers were made up by Ost battalion troops from Poland, Russia and Soviet Georgia. As one of General Richter’s staff officers pointed out, ‘We are asking rather a lot if we expect Russians to fight in France for Germany against the Americans.’ But fight they would. They had German NCOs to make sure of that and the barbed wire and minefield around the gun emplacements were there as much to keep the Ost troops in as to keep the Canadians out.

Certainly, the German troops were no match for the young, tough, fit and well-trained Canadians, who were highly motivated. Canadians had suffered the bulk of the casualties at Dieppe in 1942. The raid was a national disaster and Juno Beach was the place where the Canadians were going to pay the Germans back, and the odds were in their favour, as they outnumbered the defenders six to one. The first wave would put 2,400 Canadians on the beach to face just 400 German troops.

On the morning of 6 June, some 366 ships assembled in an area just five miles wide by ten miles deep off Juno Beach. At 0530, the slowest LCTs, carrying the amphibious tank squadrons began their run in. An hour later, the heavier support craft, with a destroyer escort, set off. Next came the engineering groups who would knock out the beach obstacles. They were followed by the assault tanks, the flail tanks and other specialised vehicles deigned to cope with the beach defences. Behind them were the first wave of the infantry, with two companies of each battalions. The other two companies followed up in a second wave fifteen minutes later. Behind the infantry spearhead were the LCT carrying rocket launchers. Following them were the self-propelled artillery regiments, who would fire three shells every two hundred yards as they sped towards the beaches.

The Canadians were due to land at 0745 hours, but heavy seas made them ten minutes late and most of the assault troops were seasick. They had been given

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