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Stormy weather on June 5 forced a postponement of the invasion with many
units already embarked and at sea. Conditions did not promise to improve
substantially, but Allied meteorologists predicted a small window of opportunity
on the 6th. Aware that the moon and the tides would not be favorable again for
some time, General Eisenhower gave the go ahead. There could be no turning back.
PHOTO:
Personnel of the Highland Light Infantry of Canada aboard
LCI(L) 306 of the 2nd Canadian (262nd RN) Flotilla en route to France on D-Day
Canadian airmen and sailors were among the first into action. The Royal
Canadian Air Force had already been involved for several months in bombing key
enemy targets in the invasion area: roads, bridges, railways, airfields, and
command and communications centers. Now they flew as part of the 171 Allied
squadrons that attacked on D-Day. As H-Hour approached, RCAF Lancasters of No. 6
Bomber Group dropped thousands of tons of explosives on German coastal defenses.
Canadian fighter pilots fought the Luftwaffe in overcast skies,
contributing in large measure to the achievement of Allied air supremacy. As
well, they protected the soldiers on the beach, and attacked German formations
on the ground. The first Allied planes to operate from French soil since 1940,
RCAF squadrons No. 441, 442, and 443 continued to ravage enemy columns and
support offensives throughout the campaign, helping to tilt the tactical balance
in the Allies' favor.
PHOTO:
Canadian troops in course of D-Day landings in northern France
The Royal Canadian Navy provided 109 vessels, and 10,000 sailors as its
contribution to the massive armada of 7,000 Allied vessels which put to sea on
D-Day. Battling choppy waters and rain, they kept the German fleet bottled up in
its ports. Canadian minesweepers assisted in the tricky but crucial job of
clearing a safe path across the English Channel for the invasion fleet. The guns
of Canadian destroyers like HMCS Algonquin and HMCS Sioux silenced
enemy shore batteries and continued to fire in support of ground attacks in the
days to come. The armed merchant cruisers HMCS Prince Henry and Prince
David carried Canadian troops and the landing craft in which they made their
run to the beaches; they later returned to England with Canadian wounded. RCN
flotillas of landing craft transported infantry and tanks to shore and provided
additional fire support for them.
PHOTO:
Personnel of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade landing
from LCI(L) 125 of the 3rd Canadian (264th RN) Flotilla on 'Nan White' Beach on
D-Day
While it was still dark in the early hours of June 6, Allied paratroopers,
including 450 Canadians, jumped from aircraft or landed in gliders behind the
German coastal defenses. Separated by gusty winds, outnumbered, and only lightly
armed, they nevertheless captured a German headquarters, destroyed a key bridge,
and seized an important crossroads, all the while sowing confusion and disorder
within enemy ranks.
Meanwhile, the Canadian soldiers scheduled to land at Juno Beach warily
approached the coastline in their landing craft. Wet, cold, and seasick, they
were also confident. On "Mike" sector, most of the 1st Hussars' tanks managed to
get ashore in good order to provide covering fire as the Regina Rifles touched
down just after 8:00 a.m. That was fortunate since the preliminary bombardment
had failed to knock out many German defensive positions. The near invulnerable
pill-boxes could be destroyed only by direct hits through their observation
slits but, working in tandem, the tanks and infantry succeeded in fighting their
way off the beach and into the nearby town of Courseulles-sur- Mer where they
became engaged in house-to-house combat. They were moving inland by late
afternoon. Other Reginas never reached the beaches a reserve company suffered
terrible losses when its landing craft struck mines hidden by high tide.
The company of Victoria's Canadian Scottish and most of The Royal Winnipeg
Rifles at "Mike" made it ashore without much trouble, the beneficiaries of
accurate naval gunfire which neutralized the German battery that dominated their
area of the beach. The Winnipeg company at the western edge of Courseulles was
not so lucky. There the bombardment had missed its targets, and the landing
craft came under brisk gunfire while they were still far offshore. Although
forced to "storm their positions cold' [they] did so without hesitation", the
unit's war diary noted. Many men died the instant they waded into the chest-high
water. Nonetheless, the survivors advanced past the beach defenses, cleared the
minefields, and occupied the adjoining coastal villages. The victory did not
come cheaply. In a few hours, the company lost almost three-quarters of its men.
But none of the "Little Black Devils", as the regiment was nicknamed, "had
flinched from his task, no matter how tough it was [or] failed to display
courage and energy and a degree of gallantry." They had not been alone. The
Winnipegs' commanding officer later paid tribute to The 1st Hussars' "gallantry,
skill and cool daring" in coming to the assistance of his battalion "time and
again throughout D-Day, without thought of their own safety or state of fatigue.
..."
At "Nan" sector on Juno Beach, The North Shore Regiment and The Queen's Own
Rifles also encountered enemy gun emplacements that had survived the preliminary
bombardment. One concrete bunker and its defenders inflicted heavy casualties on
the North Shores and destroyed several Sherman tanks of The Fort Garry Horse
before being silenced. The North Shore's other companies made it ashore without
incident, but needed six hours and armored support to take the town of
Tailleville.
Toronto's Queen's Own Rifles received the worst battering of any Canadian
unit on D-Day. The initial bombardment on their sector of "Nan" had barely
dented the enemy's fortifications. The DD tanks, supposed to "swim" in ahead of
the infantry to diminish German resistance, had been forced by high waves to
land after them--"within a few hundred yards of the muzzles of the beach
defense
guns", one tank commander recalled afterward. Only a few made it into action.
A half-hour late, the landing craft carrying the Queen's Own hit the
beach more or less intact. Then the bloodbath began, the men making a mad dash
from the shoreline to a seawall 183 meters away with no cover in between. A
hidden German 88 opened up on the lead platoon of one company, decimating
two-thirds of it before being silenced. Only a handful survived to get off the
beach.
A second Queen's Own company landed directly in front of an untouched enemy
strongpoint and very quickly lost half of its men, until three riflemen
eliminated it with hand grenades and small arms fire. The price had been high,
but the Queen's Own moved off the beach. The war diary of this, one of the
oldest regiments in the Canadian Army, reflected the unit's unflagging spirit
under onerous conditions.
The reserve units of the Canadian Scottish and the Chaudières arrived on the
heels of the initial assault. The Scottish suffered the lightest casualties of
any Canadian battalion on D-Day. But, coming in on the rising tide, many of Le
Régiment de la Chaudière's landing craft struck concealed mines, and their
occupants had no option but to throw off their equipment and swim to shore.
Soon, both regiments were surging forward. By noon, the 9th Infantry Brigade was
on its way to the beaches to exploit the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division's
hard-won gains.
Although only one Canadian unit reached its D-Day objective, the first line
of German defenses had been completely smashed. By evening, Canadian troops had
progressed further inland than any of their Allies. It was a remarkable
achievement but, despite casualties being less than expected, it was an
expensive one, too. "The German dead were littered over the dunes, by the gun
positions", a Canadian journalist reported. "By them, lay Canadians in
bloodstained battledress, in the sand and in the grass, on the wire and by the
concrete forts. ...They had lived a few minutes of the victory they had made.
That was all." To ensure that D-Day would succeed, 340 Canadians had given their
lives. Another 574 had been wounded and 47 taken prisoner.
And a resounding success it was. The British and Americans had also
come ashore and pushed inland; the Allied beachheads soon formed a continuous
front. By the end of D-Day, the Allies had landed as many as 155,000 troops in
France by sea and air, several thousand vehicles, hundreds of guns and about
4,000 tons of supplies and, astonishingly, had achieved complete surprise in
doing it. The Atlantic Wall had been breached. But the battle had just begun.
The bridgehead had to be secured and expanded to prevent the Wehrmacht
from driving the Allies back into the sea.
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