Third Canadian Infantry Division

Third Canadian Infantry Division. “The Water Rats”. Formed in 1940 by citizen-soldiers recruited to serve in units named for their home regions (e.g. Winnipeg Rifles, Regina Rifles, North Nova Scotia Highlanders, etc.), the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division was commanded by Maj. Gen. R. F. L. Keller. With the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade and other combat and combat-support units attached, the division grew to 20,000 troops, 200 tanks, and hundreds of wheeled and tracked vehicles (Force J). Its ambitious mission was to secure the Juno beachhead and attack ten miles inland to the railway line connecting Bayeux and Caen. At H-Hour, the division's 7th and 8th Infantry Brigade Groups, preceded by duplex drive (DD) tanks, would begin to land abreast in the Mike and Nan sectors of Juno Beach, the center of the British front. Their immediate task was to establish a five-mile-wide beachhead between Courseulles-sur-Mer and St. Aubin-sur-Mer, consolidate, then press the attack inland. That accomplished, the reserve 9th Infantry Brigade Group would land, join the attack to the south, pass through the 8th Brigade, and in conjunction with the 7th Brigade, secure the airfield at Carpiquet. , , In the event, Force J’s landing began at 0800, by which time the tide had been flooding for three hours and hiding more obstacles with each wave. Rough seas precluded the launching of the DD tanks supporting the 8th Brigade. They drove off their landing craft in the Nan sector behind the 8th Brigade's infantry, which met stiff resistance around Bernières. Crossing a 100-yard stretch defended from several undamaged strongpoints, the Queen's Own Rifles endured heavy casualties. The 7th Brigade's infantry touched down behind an ad hoc formation of 6th Armored Regiment DD tanks that had launched at sea, swum ashore, and neutralized enemy strongpoints in sectors Mike Red and Mike Green. Sergeant Leo Gariepy of the 6th Armor's 1st Hussars records his initial contact with the enemy: "The German machine gunners in the dunes were absolutely stupefied to see a tank emerging from the sea. Some ... ran away, some just stood ...and stared.... The element of surprise was a total success." , , If the tanks eased the 7th Brigade's landing, the subsequent two-mile inland drive of the Winnipeg Rifles and Regina Rifles proved hard and costly. Wounded on the beach, J. H. Hamilton of the Winnipegs, came to, staunched his bleeding, and started inland to find his company. "I saw a number of Canadian-Scottish that had been killed. They were laying about and the red poppies were in bloom then," which evoked his recollection of the opening couplet of John McCrae's 1915 poem, "In Flanders Fields": "In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row." “That certainly struck me, seeing the Canadian-Scottish laying dead amongst the red poppies blooming in the wind." , , Though the reserve 9th Infantry Brigade landed before noon, the execution of the planned passage of lines was delayed by congestion in the beach exits. Four miles from Caen, heavy machine gun fire interrupted the 9th Brigade's drive toward the airfield, which paused late that night about three miles short of Carpiquet. Despite suffering 1,074 casualties (359 of them fatal), Force J, by day's end, had established the Juno beachhead, landed more than 14,500 men, secured all the intermediate objectives, and made the deepest penetration inland of any Allied seaborne division. Months of hard fighting lay ahead, including the Scheldt Campaign in which General Montgomery would bestow the division's nickname, but on D-Day, the lessons learned at Dieppe in 1942 were applied with distinction. , , In tribute to the courageous men of the Third Canadian Infantry Division who stormed ashore at Juno Beach on D-Day. Given by Bdward and Barbara Kitas, Memorial Day 2006.