Since Britain was one of the major Allied powers, if it was defeated, it would have brought devastating effects toward the Allies. In helping Britain withstand the German assaults, Canada played a pivotal role in the airborne counter-attack and supplying the man-powers including the equipments. In July 1940, Hitler started to prepare for Operation Sealion, which involves the seaborne invasion of Britain. However he sent the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) first because he felt that it was essential to weaken Britain’s Royal Air Force to achieve air superiority. Since Britain lost its principal ally, France, Britain had to depend on the Dominions and itself. Noticing Britain might fall under German force, Canada provided one of the largest contingents of pilots (112) to aid Britain. On top of that, Britain had only weak troops to endure the hardships of German assault, so the 1st Canadian Division provided a variety of equipments and later became part of the 7th British Army Corps. By creating a new formation of the army, Britain was able to intensely prepare for the counter-attack against the German force. Also, many Canadians pilots with the experiences became flight instructors in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan which trained 167,000 air personnels, including more than 50,000 pilots in Canada, which became a major help throughout the …show more content…
Approximately, one in ten Allied soldiers on D-day was Canadian. Alongside with the major powers of U.S.A. and Britain, Canada made its identity much stronger and gained many respects from the other countries. Juno Beach was one of the five beachheads in Normandy which Canada had to invade. Landing at Normandy was the first step to begin the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany. At 6 a.m. of that day, the surprise attack began, and amazingly, the troops cleared most of the coastal defences within two hours of landing. The beach was heavily reinforced with mines, pillboxes, razor wires, constant fortress of guns and other obstacles, both in the water and on the beach. If the Allies could defeat the Germans in Normandy, they could start pushing them down out of France and back into Germany. There was 3-phase assault in Juno Beach on the German forces. The first phase was the air assault. The aircraft in the early morning began bombing, targeting German defenses while the paratroopers were being dropped behind the enemy lines in France. The second phase was the naval assault. Over 7,000 ships cleared lanes through submerged minefields and bombarded German positions. Also, the ships were used to deliver the troops to the shore and all of the equipments and supplies needed for the battle