Juno Beach stretches alon either side of a small fishing port. Beyond its dunes lay a number of coastal villages fortified by Germans. Juno was assigned to the men of the Canadian 3rd Division.
The main problem with Juno was the presence of offshore reefs, which forced the troops to land at a later time, and by then most of the beach obstacles were covered by water and undetectable to the LC's. As a result of this a large number of the first landing craft were blew to pieces by the mines. Despite aerial bombardments enough Germans were still around to pour constant fire down upon the troops, as they ran for cover. the specialist armor divisions were delayed and thus exits could not be cleared. As the waves continued to land they had to pick their way through the increasing amount of debris in the water. The Canadians had a hard fight to get at St. Aubin, where they had to get teh Germans out of underground passages of a concrete stronghold. By the evening a bridgehead had been established linking the troops with the Brittish from Gold Beach. |
