Juno Beach: Canada’s D-Day Victory: June 6, 1944

By dawn of June 6, 1944, the rough seas facing three small resort towns in Normandy bristled with an immense armada. More than 6,500 ships prepared to disembark Allied troops in a do-or-die effort: D-Day. The 14,500 Canadians among them were to take “Juno Beach,” a five-mile-long stretch protected by a seawall, barbed wire, underwater obstacles, hundreds of mines and heavily armed German forces inside concrete bunkers, fortified houses, and trenches.

This book recreates this pivotal day of World War II, from planning through attack. Falling through a black night, praying to land on target were the newly trained Canadian paratroopers, among the first Allies on French soil. Canadian soldiers, most untested in battle, crossed the English Channel during a night storm and ran off landing craft into a deadly sea. Juno Beach is their story, shared at last in the rich detail their achievement deserves.

Published by Douglas & McIntyre, 2004: 414 pages.

Awards:
Editor’s Choice Award Winner for 2004 by Stone and Stone World War II Books.

2005 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize Finalist

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Reviews:

Quill & Quire

destined to become the defining popular history of Canada’s D-Day battle. No other battle narrative comes close to the breadth and depth of detail, nor the clarity of presentation.

Ottawa Citizen

a fine literary accomplishment. Zuehlke successfully recreates that fateful day.

Edmonton Journal

An exciting and moving narrative.. It is distinctive in elevating the Canadians from footnote status to tell their own story.

About The Author

Mark Zuehlke

About the Author

Mark Zuehlke is an award-winning author generally considered to be Canada’s foremost popular military historian. His Canadian Battle Series is the most exhaustive recounting of the battles and campaigns fought by any nation during World War II to have been written by a single author.

In recognition of his contribution to popularizing Canadian history, Mark was awarded the 2014 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media: The Pierre Berton Award. In 2007, his For Honour’s Sake: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace won the Canadian Author’s Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History. The Canadian Battle Series Holding Juno captured the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize in 2006. Mark is also an award winning mystery writer, whose popular Elias McCann series has garnered much critical praise in Canada and abroad. Set in storm-swept west Vancouver Island village of Tofino, the series follows the reluctant community coroner Elias McCann. Hands Like Clouds, the debut in this series, won the Crime Writer’s of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for the 2000 Best First Novel and the third instalment, Sweep Lotus, was nominated for the 2004 Arthur Ellis Best Novel. When not writing, this Victoria, British Columbia resident can often be found tinkering around the Fernwood heritage house he shares with partner and fellow writer Frances Backhouse. He enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling, kayaking, travelling, and cooking.

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