This next section will briefly describe the air and Naval bombardment of Juno beach before the troops landed.
Bombing of the French and Belgium railway systems before D-Day had a great impact on German troop movements. The German transportation system was crippled and the army found it difficult moving supplies and troops to the Atlantic wall.
During D-day and for the remainder of the war the allies would maintain air superiority. The pressure from the severely hampered the movement of German troops through out the western front.
Before D-Day the American and British air forces would drop close to 6000 tones of bombs on the costal fortresses. The bombing didn't do much more than scare the Germans. The bombing was horriabitly inaccurate and few of the fortifications along the Normandy coast were hit. On Juno beach the bombing campaign didn't destroy any of the bunkers, pillboxes or targets.
0600 the British Royal Navy's cruisers and battleships opened fire on the strong points along Juno beach
0619 the destroyers joined in on the pounding of the beaches
0710 tanks and 25-pounder artillery start firing from the transport craft.
0730 the bombardment Stops to allow the troops to land without getting hit by friendly fire
Few of the shells that were fired that morning hit the planed targets. So many shells were fired that morning that a great amount of dust was kicked up and few of the gunners could actually see what they were shooting at. When the shelling stopped only %14 of bunkers on Juno beach were destroyed and the Germans had a half hour to prepare for the assault after the bombing stopped. The reason the Germans had so much time was due to the fact the infantry transports were delayed in landing by rough seas.
The next section will illustrate the actions and movements of the 3rd Canadian division on D-Day