"Juno Beach" Topic

Wanting to know if anyone would know or where I could obtain the info. Was wondering if the streets on the coasta town at Juno beach was dirt, cobblestone, or paved?

fullmetaljacket

This seems to show dirt roads, however there were two settlements at either end of the landing area, plus other building in between

link

These maps give you some Intel:

junobeach.info/juno-3.htm

Hi there,
There are plenty of contemporary photos on line (try searching Bernieres-sur-mer, for example), many showing street views, or use delcampe.net, and search for the town name (e.g., Courseulles or Bernieres) under the postcards subheading. This quickly gives you very good road photos of many of the major streets and road junctions. In addition to the boardwalk around what is now Canada House, the streets around the railway station appear to be packed earth, although there is so much beach sand in that area it is hard to say from photos and it blows over everything. To the immediate west of Juno, there was once a municipal park that, I think, was called something like "Sand Dunes". For the major avenues, they were, I think, thin tarmac but would have been heavily coated in dusty sand that time of year. They still are!

Many of the original documents (battle diaries, etc.) are on line too, at Library and Archives Canada, if you are keen to look. There is also an excellent series of aerial photos – thousands of them – at the Wilfrid Laurier University Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, where the boxes are sorted mainly by French department (Juno was in the Calvados department, so box 87 at the search engine.), but you can search them any way you like.

Have fun with the search.

Wow Fred thanks for the info can most of those ideas be done online? I have searched and cant ever find much in photos besides the ones that come up thru google search.

Reason Im inquiring I'm doing a Juno beach landing game for a local con here in South Bend IN, in October I wish to get it as close as possible. I know it wont be totally accurate, but I will try. I will upload photos in the future.

I also have another question did the sea wall sit against the town and buildings? Or did it sit away for the town and a little bit out in the beach? I have seen pictures it looks like in one it sits against the town and others it looks like it sits a bit on the beach?

fullmetal

fullmetal

Dear fullmetal,

Most of this can be found online and searched easily. The Canadian official histories are online too, at the web site of the Directorate of History and Heritage, Canada's official history unit. Here is the link to the right volume by C.P. Stacey, called 'The Victory Campaign':

link

Pages 67-70 have a very good description of the German defences of 716 Inf Div, which were in general fairly thin and weak, but with concrete embrasures that were protected from the sea approach, but open to either side, to fire up and down the beaches. All the battle maps are there too, on the DHH site.

At Bernières, the sea wall is low and maybe 100 metres or less from the houses and esplanade, which are set back a bit from the beach. It was pretty low anyway, and curved up and towards the water, with a two-rail fence on top of it. In other words, the wall was a hindrance (6-7 ft, I think), but the concrete emplacements and associated trenches etc. were a whole other ball game. On line images of St Aubin give a good view of that area also.

Hope this helps.

Last question for now looking at maps I see a railroad did it come right up to the beach and dead end? I cant see if it continues thru town?

fullmetal