Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944

by Ted Barris

Book Overview

On June 6, 1944, nearly 15,000 Canadians - at sea, in the air, and on the ground - joined the long-anticipated D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on the Normandy beaches. The piece of ground on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887621333
• ISBN13: 9780887621338
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Thomas Allen Pub
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.2" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Anecdotal Account Of The Canadians On D-Day

There have been several books written by Canadian authors which include detailed accounts of the Canadian effort at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. And, almost without exception, they raise the incident at Abbaye d'Ardenne on June 7 when 23 Canadians, taken prisoner by the 12th SS, were summarily executed. This one is no different as author Barris relates the tale of Bert Thistle, one of a few who escaped execution thanks to a literally last-second intervention of a senior German officer. All the accounts also mention the arrest, after the war, of Kurt "Panzer" Meyer, the SS commander, his trial and death sentence, followed by commutation and a relatively brief imprisonment and then release, some lamenting the lenient treatment for so heinous a crime perpetrated under his watch by his troops. But none that I have found have ever mentioned an incident that took place the day before, during the height of the opening engagements, one that Cornelius Ryan related in his epic account of the historic invasion - The Longest Day. Says Ryan "Able Seaman Edward Ashworth, off an LCT which had brought troops and tanks in to the Courselles beach, saw Canadian soldiers march six German prisoners behind a dune some distance away. Ashworth thought that this was his chance to get a German helmet for a souvenir. He ran up the beach and in the dunes discovered the Germans "all lying crunched up." Ashorth bent over one of the bodies, still determined to get a helmet. But he found "the man's throat was cut - every one of them had had his throat cut," and Asworth "turned away, sick as a parrot. I didn't get my tin hat." Now, if THAT account was blatantly untrue in so famous a book, there would have been denials from every quarter in Canada. But not only have I never seen a denial, I have never seen it even remotely referred to anywhere else. Nor was the episode part of the film that followed the book. So, assuming it's true then, I have often wondered if word had not somehow reached the German reserves rushing to the front, including the 12th SS, that the Canadians were not taking prisoners. The murder of those six soldiers may have been seen by other German troops, perhaps prisoners themselves who later escaped in the mass confusion of the day [many did - on both sides]. This is certainly not meant to excuse the actions of the SS - they needed little provocation to commit crimes - but with emotions running high in the heat of battle could the murder of the six prisoners have somehow sealed the fate of some of the first Canadians taken prisoner the following day? Unfortunately author Barris, while mentioning the Abbaye d'Ardenne incident and some other similar SS crimes, makes no reference to that opening day Canadian crime. But what he does do is provide some fascinating insight into the men [and women] who took part in that monumental effort at Juno Beach both directly and indirectly - infantrymen, artillery and anti-tank gunners, tankers, bomber, glider, and fight

A people's history of the Canadian effort at D-Day

There is a growing and very popular segment of history books that are "People's Histories", wherein the author interviews or culls the diaries of the men (and, if applicable, women) involved in an historic event. The gathering of these stories, either by chronology or by type (one chapter for the navy, one for the army, etc.) in a coherent and enjoyable fashion is then the primary focus of the author. Perhaps the most popular author of this type (especially of WWII material) is the American Stephen Ambrose. Luckily for Canadians, Ted Barris has stepped up to fill the gap with this memorable and eminently readable people's history of the Canadian efforts on D-Day. Barris groups his stories by type - as mentioned by another reviewer, there are interesting chapters on much-neglected members of the war effort - the service corps and the journalists. There are also, of course, ample numbers of stories from paratroopers, naval gunners, and the average grunt thrust onto the beaches and into withering Nazi firepower. No Canadian D-Day commentary would be complete without a chapter devoted to Dieppe, and some of the most interesting (to me) passages are actually about that failed raid. Another impressive aspect of this book is the sheer number of primary interviews that Barris conducted - this is like the primary literature for Canadian D-Day soldiers. Finally, the section on the creation and dedication of the Juno Beach D-Day centre was interesting and informative, and is likely not well-known even to Canadians (unlike the enormous WWI monolithic memorials at Vimy Ridge and Ypres). Although Barris concetrates on the stories, like any good Canadian author he emphasises the size of the Canadian commitment to D-Day: Juno Beach was attacked almost solely by Canadians, there was a large Canadian naval presence, and Canadian paratroopers attached to the British 6th Airborne. Unfortunately, he completely ignores the Free Polish Brigade and the British Commandoes attached to the Juno Beach task force. While the number of Canadians as a percentage of the Allied effort would fall precipitously is the months that followed, it was because Canada sent ashore numbers of troops well in excess of its proportionate population on D-Day. Unfortunately, if the author emphasises the efforts of the common soldier, it is to the detriment of a cohesive overall picture of the battle and the war. Unlike the classic book on D-Day, "The Longest Day," there is no detail on the German forces opposing the Canadians at Juno. Similarly, the stories are almost all from enlisted men, non-coms, and very junior officers. Where is the information about the generals? Or even the majors? Granted - Barris would be unlikely to find living D-Day generals, but surely they left behind diaries and dispatches. For a more strategic (and a really good) read about D-Day and Juno Beach, I would recommend John Keegan's "Six Armies in Normandy," which has a large section on the Juno Beach

The story of the Canadian contingent on D-Day

It's fitting that I write this review on June 6, 60 years to the day after one of the greatest invasions of our, or any other, time. June 6 is, of course, D-Day, the day where the Allies put 130,000 troops onto the shores of Normandy against the withering fire of a firmly entrenched German army. No one who wasn't there can truly imagine the horrors of that day, the courage involved or the determination that resulted in the final Allied victory, the first of many to come before Hitler's war machine was finally destroyed for good. Five beaches were stormed that day: Omaha and Utah beach by the Americans, Sword and Gold beach by the British, and Juno beach by the Canadians. Often, the Canadians are bunched together with the British, and thus do not get the recognition that they so deserved. Roughly 15,000 Canadians put ashore that day. Almost 1,000 were casualties by the end of the day. Juno: Canadians at D-Day, by Ted Barris, is their story, finally out in the open.We were not there, so we cannot imagine the terror or the will to get past that terror as bullets ricochet around us. Ted Barris does the next best thing, however. He talks to the people who were there. Juno: Canadians at D-Day is nothing but remembrances either given to the author by those who were there, or culled from their diaries. Each chapter is divided into sections where the events are told by one man or another, time-stamped to give the reader an idea of when these events took place. This technique does give the book a scattershot feel that isn't always the easiest to follow, as Barris jumps around both in time and space, from 6:00 am that morning to 12:00 am the night before, from the beach to the villages where the paratroopers dropped, and even back to England where we get the air crews' stories. Barris covers everything, from some French villagers to the crew of minesweepers responsible for clearing a path through the minefields and onto the beach. Yes, it is disjointed, but it also adds to the personal feel of reminiscence that the book gives. Normally, I don't like disjointed narratives, but this was an exception. It kept me captivated, and each section was brief enough that it didn't wear out its welcome before moving on to something else. Barris returns periodically to some of the men, so the book does not gloss over their stories. It just tells them in its own way, like veterans passing war stories around the table.Given the way the Canadian story is often glossed over, the book shares many facts that aren't necessarily common knowledge. The Canadian troops were responsible for the deepest penetration by the end of the first day ashore. A company of Canadian paratroopers dropped with the British and were responsible for destroying every bridge that they had set out to destroy, in order to slow down any German counterattack. And one of the most famous pieces of newsreel footage from the invasion was shot by a Canadian, Sergeant Bill Grant. He had h