Juno Beach: Canada's D-Day victory: June 6, 1944 [Juno Beach: 3rd Canadian and 79th armoured divisions]
Though newly written and published in Britain and Canada, [Tim Saunders]'s book looks as if it was produced fifty years ago-small type face, muddy photographs, and bad maps. There is also ail unrelieved sloppiness throughout with Canadian regimental names spelled incorrectly-Fort Carry's H...
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| Published in: | International journal (Toronto) 2004-10, Vol.59 (4), p.868 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Though newly written and published in Britain and Canada, [Tim Saunders]'s book looks as if it was produced fifty years ago-small type face, muddy photographs, and bad maps. There is also ail unrelieved sloppiness throughout with Canadian regimental names spelled incorrectly-Fort Carry's Horse, the Sherbrook Fusiliers-and I knew we were in deep trouble when Toronto's Queen's Own Rifles were called a New Brunswick unit. Staff duties must have disappeared from the British army, or so Saunderss performance in getting the basics right unfortunately suggests. Nonetheless, Saunders is useful in pointing out-as Canadian sources invariably do not-that Juno Beach was really an Anglo-Canadian affair on 6 June. His title highlights the 79th Armoured Division, the "funnies" created by Major-General Percy Hobart. Only small British sub-units landed in the first waves on D-Day, but the flails that cleared mines and the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (or AVREs) that threw a 40-pounder shell at bunkers were critical in the success of the landing. So too were 48 Royal Marine Commando and other British troops, including military police who took charge of prisoners. Saunders's account of the German defences is also well done, not least because he details the enemy strongpoints (most of which still remain almost intact on the beaches 60 years after D-Day), and discusses the composition of the 716th Division that held Juno Beach. This formation was made up of the young and the old, the ill and those recovering from wounds, and from Ostruppen, Red Army prisoners conscripted into the Wehrmacht and ordered to defend the Atlantic Wall. The 716th had little transport, mostly employed captured heavy weapons, and had generally low-grade officers. But in mid-March 1944, Hitler's intuition told him something might be up in Normandy, and he posted a high quality division, the 352nd, into the region. This reduced the frontage assigned to the 716th Division and thickened up the defences. Even bad troops fighting in well-sited concrete bunkers could take a heavy toll, and they did. Saunders's research and analysis is very good here. |
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| ISSN: | 0020-7020 2052-465X |