Canada in World War II - Part 6: D-Day

D-Day was the big one. The largest naval armada ever put together was to storm the beaches of Normandy against a dug in, exceedingly well defended German force that had been occupying France for years. Both sides had prepared in endless training regiments for this day, and if the Germans held it could very well turn the tide of the war. With 6,900 vessels including 1213 warships (we had 126 of those between the two categories) it felt like an all-or-nothing battle. Both sides had

I know, I know, this is an American photo at Omaha beach,
and it's part of Canadian culture to be fiercely not
anti-American but not-American. But it's one heck of
a photo. So... slag off.

advantages; for the allies, the Luftwaffe was all but destroyed, rendering their air support useless and making reconnaissance a mess. Also, a series of successful spy network ploys - "accidental" leaks of Canadian documents - meant the Germans believed they were attacking elsewhere. The Nazis, however, had the age-old advantage of being in a prepared defense. Typically, attacking forces would want a tremendous numbers advantage if on the assault as an even footing would make a very lopsided battle if one had to move towards the other.

With everything prepared, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Canadian infantry divisions, with 18,000 troops in the 3rd division - the tip of the spear. These soldiers had been training for years on how to take Normandy, and they would be focussing on Juno beach, one of five beachheads between two divisions of British soldiers. On the day of the attack 21,000 Canadians would make it ashore with 2,000 vehicles, joining 130,000 other allied soldiers. To prepare themselves for this, some sang raunchy songs, one ship had their padre have a quiz over the intercom system of the boat to take their minds off things, and others shaved their heads or styled it as a Mohawk in what they called "assault haircuts". (I wonder if any of the Mohawk haircut guys had an awkward conversation with the quiz guys after asking what they did to prepare. Varying levels of intensity, I suppose.)

For the Nazis, a sunny stroll through the barricades
was a delightful way to spend an afternoon.

After all the preparation, training, prayers, songs, and what-have-you, the ships began firing on the beaches at 5:30 a.m. Naturally, the Canadian beach got the least amount of shelling. Their goal was to take a port and two small cities in front of them which were to be leveled by tanks and infantry pushes which still held heavy amounts of defenders in spite of the bombing. To show that training only went so far, one soldier remarked "They don't teach us how to react when someone suddenly becomes a lot of pieces in front of you." Men that would have spent years learning how to assault the beach would be killed before they even landed, sunk in landing crafts or shredded by machine gun fire the moment they got out. Many of the casualties came in the first brutal fifteen minutes of landing.

A major help to the ground forces were the addition of specialty tanks, collectively called "funnies" due to their strange looking or unconventional nature. These included a flame-throwing tank called a Crocodile (Because how do you make a tank scarier? Add fire!), armoured bulldozers, and flail tanks. The lattermost was a tank that had a massive apparatus that came in front of the machine tha

A flail tank in action. I bet they gave these tanks cool
nicknames, like the "Tickler". Or the "Whip-it". Or
the "Spinning Jenny". I'm here all day, folks.

t spun large chains at a very high speed. These chains would whip the ground, setting off mines that would otherwise blow the legs - or worse, as they often went waist height - off the soldiers. The Americans neglected to use the "funnies" and sorely regretted the error.

Eventually reaching the towns, the French Canadian soldiers greeted the occupied citizens that had been under Nazi control for 1,453 days in their own language. Of course, the citizens and the soldiers were thrilled to free them, but the day was far from over. The final goal was Carpiquet airfield fourteen kilometres from the original landing site. We weren't able to reach it, but that is no knock on the Canadian forces; we went the furthest distance at 11 kilometres, but at the cost of 359 killed adn 715 wounded. While those numbers are high, it was half of what was anticipated.

The HMS Belfast firing on Juno Beach. The
fire on the right is live ammunition; the left
is a bonfire used for marshmallows, smores,
and other such tasty treats.

The next day the Canadians dug in and awaited the expected counterattack. The Nazis would want to push them back to the beaches, effectively cutting off reinforcements and ending the battle. Fortunately for Canada, the Germans were left wanting for soldiers, having depleted their supply over the years of fighting. Their response was to send teenagers - the Hitler Youth, or Hitler-Jugend. Although young, the Hitler Youth showed great tenacity and fought as ferociously as any other, and the counter attack cost both sides dearly. The Canadians managed to hold, but barely.

The next while was a return to form in slow pushing tactics, and by June 11th 2,831 Canadian soldiers were casualties. The Canadians - with British support - finally took the airfield with an artillery concentration that exceeded the historic battle of Vimy Ridge by far. But this was just one of many. After countless small skirmishes and a few large scale battles, the allied forces eventually took Normandy after 77 days. 200,000 casualties would be for each side, with the Germans losing another 200,000 in prisoners. 18,000 of those casualties were Canadians.

With Normandy taken, the allies were ready for the final push - the long-awaited stab at Germany. With Russia closing in on Berlin as well, it felt only a matter of time before the war was over, but how many more would die in the process? With Hitler refusing to surrender (in spite of a few assassination attempts) the war seemed to continue on forever.