I am trying to find out how many British Soldiers died on Juno beach on D/Day. It is very easy to establsh how many Canadians died but for some reason much more difficult for the number of British. Anyone any ideas or where I can find out.
Why do you want to know? There is no definitive list. In WW2 the casualty reporting systems were by unit, and not by geographic location. "Juno Beach" was just an entry point to the Normandy Battle area. Juno Beach matters to the canadians because it has become a symbol of Canada's part in the Liberation of France. Someone has made an estimate or a calculation and put that forward as a number. The US Army does not know how many soldiers perished on Omaha beach on D Day. The Corps casualty returns are for D Day and D+1. If you want to make your own estimate do the following:- 1. Check the detailed landing plan so you know exactly which units were scheduled to land on D Day on Juno Beach. 2. Cross reference these with the CWGC .database and see if you can find them. of course some units landed on more than one beach. You may also find some solciers from units which did not appear to be in Normandy at all. These may have been som,e special force, e.g. commando. Good luck.. .
I was asking because my Great Uncle died on Juno beach. When I visited the Juno Beach centre this year I found that the 359 Canadians who had lost their lives the same day were commemorated and felt it was a great shame that the British soldiers who died weren't commemorated in a similar way. Although Juno beach was Canadian led, it should be remembered that 8000 British soldiers ie 33% of the total were part of the overall force. It seems that it is much more complicated than first thought to try and identify the numbers let alone the individuals and given the process you descibe to achieve this it will probably never happen. A shame. Thank you for your reply.
There will be a total somewhere, most likely in a post war report on the Normandy Landings in the National Archives. What file though, I have no idea. Have you asked forum member Trux? He's pretty clued up on all things Normandy Landings.
Hi, There is a report on casualties, it is “Casualties and effects of fire support on the British beaches in Normandy”. There are copies in each of the WO/CAB/DEFE series of documents. It does not give a break down by unit. Totals and percentages only and mainly covers the assaulting units in the various sectors, Nan, Mike, Queen etc. There is no quick way of checking the casualty numbers by unit but it could be done as Sheldrake has said. Not an impossible task if someone has the time. Regards Danny
The above report gives an estimated figure of 805 casualties on JUNO on D-Day 'on the beaches alone'. It doesn't say it, but I assume this figure is dead and wounded. Against this, the figure of 359 Canadian dead looks rather high as you'd expect there to be a significantly greater number of Canadian wounded even before adding in British casualties. It's probably safe to say that no two sets of casualty data were derived in the same way so trying to combine them is likely to be frustrating. As has been mentioned, the longhand way is to tot up figures from individual units. One problem is that war diaries don't always record casualties as these already had to be reported through different channels. However, CWGC or, better still, Geoff's Search Engine should make a reasonable stab at figures for 6 June fatalities, if you have a list of units involved. So here's one (from Ken Ford's Battle Zone Normandy: JUNO Beach):
Re the above plaque: Yes there a few memorials of this type, but they tend as this one does, to commorate individual units rather the combined contribution of all British units on Juno, of which there were a number. I suspect that the placing of these is as a result of efforts by veterans or their families. What the Markers memorial at Juno beach for the Canadians does is commorate each of the 359 Canadians who died on Juno. I do understand though that this memorial is to be removed in November.
