D-DAY

• Landing of Normandy

Brief introduction

• The D-Day refers to the day of the landing of Normandy. It took place on Jun.6, 1944 in Normandy, France.

• It is a well-organized plan.

• Soldiers from different countries were being assigned different sections of the beach. Canadians were responsible for the Juno beach. On the morning of Jun 6, over 30,000 Canadians arrived there.

3

objectives

- Establish a beachhead along the five miles Courseulles and St-Aubin-sur-Mer.

- Push through the gap between Bayeux and Caen.

- Penetrate to Carpiquet airfield around eleven miles inland.

- Beachhead- a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a beach by sea and begins to defend the area until reinforcements came.

- Courseulles- a small fishing port.

Some numbers

• 14,000 Canadian soldiers were to land on the beaches.

• 516 Canadian Paratroopers were to drop behind enemy lines by parachute or glider.

• The Royal Canadian Navy supplied ships and about 10,000 sailors.

ADVANTAGES

• Allied troops had massive air and naval support

• They managed to keep the details a secret from the German.

Results

• Nearly 200,000 Germans were killed, wounded or missing and also nearly 200,000 were taken as prisoner.

• Over 5000 Canadians were killed on the shores of Normandy, and there were more than 200,000 Allied casualties.

Diary of a solider on D-day

• “D-Day, it being 07.25 hours this morning. Rose and went for a walk on deck. Feeling pretty rough. Ship rolling pretty bad.”

• “Couldn't face any food. Arrived at our location 'somewhere in France' 13.30hours. Began to load on to Rhinos. Assault troops broke through beach head and advancing rapidly. No Sleep.”

• “News still that we are advancing further in the mainland. Beaches getting cleared of obstacles. Lost all my kit, blankets and money and my GS watch has given up.”

• Rhinos-- landing crafts used during D-day.

• There has been a mistake and

• the rhinos are in far deeper water

• than they should be. When the landing happened,

• the water has been chest-high,

• they also have to carry their rifle

• above their head to keep them dry.

Injured soldiers waiting to be transferred back

to casualty clearing station for treatments.

A small landing craft during the Normandy

landing.

Canadian soldiers waiting to aboard an L.C.I in June 6 1944.

Canadian soldiers on their way to land on the Juno

Beach.

Significance

• The landing of Normandy was the largest Canadian military operation of the ww2 (14,000 Canadian soldiers, 100 ships, and 36 bomber squadrons from the Royal Canadian Air Force)

• Though both sides suffered a lot, it can be said as a success on the Allies side. German suffered catastrophic losses, resulting it to have a limited number force to call on future battles.

Thank you!