The footage was captured from video cameras mounted onto the landing crafts with magnets, and Canada was the only country to use this technique. The hope was that if the landings failed, some cameras could be recovered so that the Allies could get an idea of what went wrong. At least one camera was destroyed when the boat it was in was blown up by German artillery. This footage is from the very first wave, and if you look carefully you can see gunfire at the top of the beach. The men were walking slowly because the Germans laid a minefield in the beach, but they were the first to land.
>Unlike the American and British beaches, the Canadian landings at Juno Beach were shot from inside the landing craft providing a visceral “first person” perspective, according to Dan Conlin, a historian and curator at the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax. Conlin said much of the footage, like that provided to The Canadian Press by the Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, was shot from magnetized cameras attached in the belly of the landing craft that would run automatically when activated by the boat’s coxswain. “It really gives it this amazing point-of-view quality,” said Conlin. “I mean, you feel like you are in the assault craft with those guys waiting agonizingly for the shore to get closer and for those doors to be open.” The cameras were obtained from the Americans by a Canadian Army unit that became renowned for its film and still photo work during the Normandy campaign. Conlin wrote a 2015 book on the unit titled War Through the Lens: The Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit 1941 to 1945.
>He said the majority of the surviving and most well-known footage from the landing craft is of New Brunswick’s North Shore Regiment, which was part of the first wave of the Canadian assault on D-Day. That includes perhaps the most famous film sequence shot in Normandy — that of a Canadian soldier anxiously looking behind him as he is patted reassuringly on the back by a comrade from the regiment’s No. 3 Platoon, A Company. It’s a moment that was recently commemorated on a silver dollar struck by the Royal Canadian Mint. “That one sequence is the classic one,” said Conlin. “It’s a wonderfully human moment as the guy turns around, and his buddy pats him on the shoulder with the wedding ring on the finger.”
>Conlin said a significant quantity of the original film didn’t survive Juno Beach because of water damage, or in at least once case, because the landing craft was blown up.
Also, here’s the newest heritage minute which is about the D-Day landings. "This Heritage Minute tells the story of 47-year-old Major Archie MacNaughton, a First World War veteran and leader of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment’s A Company."
GlitchedGamer14
This image is a still taken from this video
This is a video of a Canadian vet who landed at Juno describing what goes on in this footage, and a few other clips as well
This is an article about the revolutionary technique used to film this landing
TL;DR
The footage was captured from video cameras mounted onto the landing crafts with magnets, and Canada was the only country to use this technique. The hope was that if the landings failed, some cameras could be recovered so that the Allies could get an idea of what went wrong. At least one camera was destroyed when the boat it was in was blown up by German artillery. This footage is from the very first wave, and if you look carefully you can see gunfire at the top of the beach. The men were walking slowly because the Germans laid a minefield in the beach, but they were the first to land.
>Unlike the American and British beaches, the Canadian landings at Juno Beach were shot from inside the landing craft providing a visceral “first person” perspective, according to Dan Conlin, a historian and curator at the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax. Conlin said much of the footage, like that provided to The Canadian Press by the Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, was shot from magnetized cameras attached in the belly of the landing craft that would run automatically when activated by the boat’s coxswain. “It really gives it this amazing point-of-view quality,” said Conlin. “I mean, you feel like you are in the assault craft with those guys waiting agonizingly for the shore to get closer and for those doors to be open.” The cameras were obtained from the Americans by a Canadian Army unit that became renowned for its film and still photo work during the Normandy campaign. Conlin wrote a 2015 book on the unit titled War Through the Lens: The Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit 1941 to 1945.
>He said the majority of the surviving and most well-known footage from the landing craft is of New Brunswick’s North Shore Regiment, which was part of the first wave of the Canadian assault on D-Day. That includes perhaps the most famous film sequence shot in Normandy — that of a Canadian soldier anxiously looking behind him as he is patted reassuringly on the back by a comrade from the regiment’s No. 3 Platoon, A Company. It’s a moment that was recently commemorated on a silver dollar struck by the Royal Canadian Mint. “That one sequence is the classic one,” said Conlin. “It’s a wonderfully human moment as the guy turns around, and his buddy pats him on the shoulder with the wedding ring on the finger.”
>Conlin said a significant quantity of the original film didn’t survive Juno Beach because of water damage, or in at least once case, because the landing craft was blown up.
Also, here’s the newest heritage minute which is about the D-Day landings. "This Heritage Minute tells the story of 47-year-old Major Archie MacNaughton, a First World War veteran and leader of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment’s A Company."