Mark Zuehlke’s eighth volume in his Canadian Battle Series bears all the hallmarks of his previous books: thorough research coupled with excerpts from regimental histories and war diaries, blended with the personal experiences of combatants at all levels.
Many Canadians are familiar — at least in basic outline — with 3rd Canadian Division and 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade’s D-Day landings on Juno Beach, France, one of five Allied assault divisions that stormed ashore on June 6, 1944. Zuehlke has chronicled that operation in his 2004 Juno Beach, followed in 2005 by Holding Juno, which recounted the story of retaining the beachhead against repeated German counterattacks.
Breakout From Juno follows, chronologically, the next step in the Allied strategy: the advance inland from expanded beachheads to the closing of the Falaise Gap. During this time, the Canadian commitment grew to include 2nd Infantry and 4th Armoured Divisions, under II Canadian Corps and First Canadian Army. By the end of the war, First Canadian Army had become the largest formation ever fielded by Canada.
The book opens with the bloody capture of the village of Carpiquet and ends 48 days later, when some 18,000 of the original 400,000 German defenders — minus most of their vehicles and equipment — escaped eastwards across the Seine River.
In between was perhaps the toughest sustained battle ever fought by Canadian soldiers; a daily tale of attack, defend and counterattack by overwhelmingly young and inexperienced volunteers against some of Hitler’s most experienced and battle-hardened troops.
Although a few Canadians were found wanting — including senior commanders, who had to be replaced — the vast majority adapted quickly to the demands of modern warfare and soon became as skilled as the enemy. The end result came at a high cost however: 18,444 Canadians killed, wounded, missing or taken prisoner.
Mistakes were made, even by the highly regarded Lieut.-Gen. Guy Simonds — in the opinion of overall land commander British General Bernard Montgomery. Yet the bombastic and egotistical Monty made his share of errors, although he had already become a master at changing history to deflect any adverse criticism of his actions.
One of the major advances in warfare occurred during the campaign and it was a Canadian innovation. At the time, one of the greatest shortcomings on the Allied side was the lack of rapid, protected transport for the infantry to accompany and attack with tanks. Apart from one motorized battalion in 4th Armoured Division equipped with half-tracks, the other 21 battalions in II Corps attacked on foot.
As Gen. Simonds pondered this problem in late July, he happened upon the self-propelled artillery of 3rd Division, which was temporarily equipped with "Priests." They were so named because of their pulpit-shaped machine-gun mounting, Priests were basically tanks from which the turret had been removed to accommodate a 105-mm gun.
It occurred to Simonds that if guns and other equipment were removed from the vehicles, "they would be sufficiently roomy and have adequate protection to provide the sort of vehicle" he had in mind. Work commenced immediately. Technicians stripped the guns from 76 Priests and filled in the gaps with armour steel, along the way replacing 28 engines.
The new vehicles were ready on Aug. 6. Initially called "Defrocked Priests," the name was soon changed to Kangaroos, "because they carry their young in their belly." Another 60 scrounged half-tracks allowed the leading infantry battalions to be motorized. Together, these two vehicles saved the lives of hundreds of Canadians. The modern armoured personnel carrier is a direct descendant of this Canadian battlefield advancement.
Breakout from Juno has 11 excellent maps, although some of the units shown on them and in the text are incorrectly named. Additionally, Zuehlke often mentions a soldier by name while noting only that he was killed, information that adds little to our knowledge of the individual. Still, the overall result is a fast-paced, highly readable account of one of Canada’s major Second World War campaigns.
John Boileau has visited the battlefields of the Normandy campaign.
