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Seth Wessing - D-Day 6 June 1944
Normandy, France
14,000 Canadian troops; 10,000 RCN sailors
Canadian Casualties - 1,074, including 359 killed -
D-Day
Secrecy and Planning Faced with formidable obstacles and battle-hardened German forces led by General Erwin Rommel, the Allies decided that surprise would be their greatest weapon. The Germans expected an invasion but did not know when or where, with the most likely place being the Pas de Calais. Instead, the Allies targeted Normandy. On D-Day, they aimed to land more than 156,000 soldiers on five beaches along a 100-km sweep of coastline and behind enemy lines. -
D-Day
American forces would assault Utah and Omaha beaches, British forces would attack Gold and Sword beaches, and a Canadian division would assault Juno Beach. Canadian, British, and US paratroopers would land behind German lines. This was the largest seaborne invasion in history, with more than 14,000 Canadian soldiers landing or parachuting into France. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 80 vessels, and the Royal Canadian Air Force contributed 18 squadrons in direct support of the assault. -
Seth Wessing - D-Day 6 June 1944
Hitler’s Atlantic Wall
The Battle of the Atlantic was largely won, the Allies were advancing through Italy, and the Soviets were pushing back the German war machine in Russia. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had long pressured the British and Americans to open another front in the war by invading occupied France. In the summer of 1943, the Allies agreed they were ready to launch the invasion the following year. -
Invasion On Normandy
The Invasion Begins
Most men in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade, who would go ashore at Juno Beach, had no combat experience but had trained rigorously in Scotland and England for over a year. The invasion, originally scheduled for June 5, was postponed by bad weather. In the early pre-dawn hours of June 6, waves of aircraft and gliders began delivering paratroopers into the country, some paratroopers drowned after landing in fields flooded by the Germans. -
Normandy - D-Day
The Battle of Normandy, commencing with the D-Day landing on June 6, 1944, was one of the most significant events of the Second World War. Canadian sailors, soldiers, and airmen were critical in the Allied invasion of Normandy, known as ‘Operation Overlord’. This operation marked the beginning of the bloody campaign to free Western Europe from Nazi occupation. -
D-Day planning continued
Secrecy and deception were crucial. A dummy force in southeast England convinced the Germans that the invasion would come at Pas de Calais. A second dummy army in Scotland suggested an assault against Norway. Fake radio transmissions and double agents fed the Germans false information. -
D-Day 6 June 1944
American General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of this unprecedented amphibious invasion, code-named Operation Overlord. The Allies needed a French harbor to supply and sustain their invasion force. The disastrous 1942 raid on the French port of Dieppe, where 3,367 Canadians were killed, wounded, or captured, convinced military planners that a seaborne assault against a well-defended port was folly. -
D-Day
Meanwhile, the real invasion force assembled in southwest England, with the area sealed off by military authorities. Soldiers pored over maps, photographs, and three-dimensional models of the invasion beaches to familiarize themselves with the terrain and objectives. -
D-Day
Much of the French side of the English Channel had been fortified by the Germans into the “Atlantic Wall” — miles of concrete bunkers, machine gun nests, and other fortifications overlooking beaches strewn with barbed wire, anti-tank ditches, mines, and other obstacles. -
Significant Victory
According to the D-Day Center, the invasion combined the forces of 156,115 U.S., British, and Canadian troops, 6,939 ships and landing vessels, and 2,395 aircraft and 867 gliders that delivered airborne troops. The Battle of Normandy and the D-Day landings were crucial in breaking the Nazi grip on Western Europe. The bravery and sacrifices of these soldiers played a significant role in this historic victory.