Nostalgia USA June 2016 Nostalgia USA June 2016 | Page 11

JunoBeach
By AUTHOR OF ARTICLE
At Juno, Allied landing craft once again
struggled with rough seas, along with
offshore shoals and enemy mines.
Upon finally disembarking, Canadian
soldiers were then cut down in droves
by Germans firing from seaside
houses and bunkers. The first hour
was particularly brutal, with a casualty
rate approaching 50 percent for the
leading assault teams. In the
confusion, an Allied tank inadvertently
ran over some of the wounded,
stopping only when a Canadian
captain blew its track off with a
grenade. Other Canadians lacked any
tank support at all. After fighting their
way off the beach, however, German
resistance slowed immensely, and the
march into the interior went quickly. In
fact, the Canadians advanced further
inland than either their American or
British counterparts. Though they
didn?t quite meet their objective of
taking Carpiquet airport, they captured
several towns and linked up with the
British on adjacent Gold Beach.