The Canadians against the 12th SS Hitler youth, advancing from Juno beach

After making good headway on d-day the 6th june, the Canadians came face to face with the Hitler youth 12th SS. The most fanatical SS troops. The day ended in tragedy for many. Kurt Meyer was tried as a war criminal.

Free Legend to the maps in the videos.

The details in this video mostly come from the trilogy by Mark Zuehlke on Juno beach and the battle of normandy.
especially
Holding Juno Mark Zuehlke

Juno beach Mark Zuehlke

More Merch and goodies

In these videos we will visit D-day sites as if I was guiding you.



Visited sites - as of date of upload
Why D-Day
Pegasus bridge
Omaha beach
Sword beach
Pointe du Hoc
American airborne
Utah beach
Juno beach
Gold beach
British airborne
Saint Marie du Mont
Waverly Wray
Abbey d'Ardenne and the Canadian 7th June advance
Band of Brothers
La Fierre
101st airborne
Michael Wittman - Villers Bocage - Gaumesnil

Projected visits -



Merville gun battery
General Falley
Longues gun battery
Arromanches and the Mulberries
82nd airborne
Donald Burgett
Totalise
Worthington Force
Falaise pocket
Taking St Lo
Operation Cobra
Graignes massacre
Joe Beryle
Ed Shames
Angoville au plain
Battle of Bloody gulch
The Malmann line
Taking Cherbourg
Maisy gun battery.
Hillman
Douvre radar station

Photo credits
US national archives
Bundes archives

Kurt Meyer, Canadian 7th brigade, North Nova Scotia highlanders, Sherbrooke fusiliers, Hitler Youth, 12th SS, Authie, Abbaye d'ardennes, Ardennes abby, Masacre, Firefly, Sherman, bren carrier, Carpiquet airfield, Caen, Villons les buissons. Kurt Meyer visited General Richter in his bunker which is now under the Caen Memorial museum.

0:00 Intro
01:20 Night Attack
02:38 Panzers
03:40 Richters Bunker
06:00 Carpiquet Insight 12th SS attack
07:51 Back to Authie
09:50 Lt Veness - Orchard Authie
11:50 Panzers in Authie
12:49 Holding Buron
14:05 German radio message
15:11 Kurt Meyer off his Motorcycle
16:15 Last stand Villons
16:55 Radley Walters tank charge
18:33 Abby d'Ardennes
21:30 Escape from train

[engineco.]

Great video! My grandfather and 2 great uncles were in the Queens own rifles of Canada which saw heavy combat out of the gates , all 3 survived the war and the 4th brother served in the RCN he survived as well.

[don]

I have had the opportunity to visit the Juno Beach area on two occasions. I do appreciate the opportunity to revisit this part of France a walk our Army fought in 1944. You have done a wonderful job telling their story.

[kerrydennison]

Your fans here in America just love this website military historians especially I think next you should do a series perhaps following general Patton from the D-Day beaches to VE Day or maybe general Maurice Rose of the third armored division from their landing to his death enjoy your series very much

[stevethompson]

I'm a Jerseyman and so know the Cotentin and Normandy fairly well especially the western part of the penisnsula. My grandparents lived through the German occupation and over the years I've gathered a collection of books and literature on D-Day and following events in 1944 _ i've used google maps to get an idea of exact areas but your videos are hugely valuable and interesting to better visualise what happened back then. Thanks and congrats on your hard work - I really appreciate it.

[CatBack]

Love your channel, been binge watching them all! Keep it up

[TheLoachman]

I just stumbled across this video, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

BGen Radley-Walters, two other Canadian Veterans, and one ex-12th SS Division (Hitler Jugend) Officer accompanied our group of about sixty junior Officers on a three-day battlefield tour from the beaches to Falaise, with a side-trip to Dieppe, in May 1992.

We ate lunch in the town square in Buron (seen at 22:14) - almost-impossible-to-chew baguettes provided by our hotel in Caen, softened slightly with wine - on one of those days.

Two old men coming out of an alley saw us sitting around in uniform, turned around and disappeared, then returned a little later with two folding tables which they loaded up with snack foods, soft drinks, and juice boxes for us, purchased with their own money. They said that, had they known that we were coming, the whole village would have been out to greet us and a feast would have been laid on.

I'll be watching your other videos as well.


One nit-pick - the correct abbreviation for Private in Commonwealth Armies is "Pte", not the American "Pvt".

[MICHAEL-wglh]

Excellent this mate, thanks for your efforts here 👍

[nateweter]

I’m currently doing a big project on the Battle of Norrey-En-Bessin on June 9th 1944 between the Regina Rifles and 3 Kompanie 1st Battalion SS Panzer Regiment 12 and the 15recon Kompanie of SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 25. It was after this battle that the famous photos of the unit were taken south of Rots near the Highway. I would love to see a walkthrough of these locations to better serve my diorama construction. Thabks!

[jamesallen]

Such wonderful depth of information. For me, the numerous Subscribe overlays were distracting. The battle audio was often louder than
your words. Great stuff.

[kerrydennison]

I have always thought that if you look at the post-war as far as involved in the Canadians they got the shaft, they were not even given a zone of occupation even though they contributed so much more than the French did. And if you read Marshall Montgomery's famous book, he tends to marginalize the contributions that the Canadian military did to final victory. And if you look at the transcripts of the record of the trials of the SS that killed the Canadian soldiers, the Canadian government was not even given a voice in the trial not even a voice when it was made the decision to release many of the perpetrators very early from their imposed prison terms. If you carefully review the history of Canadian military there were absolutely no reason that they should not have been allowed to fight under Canadian leadership instead of British leadership. Same as the valiant Australian army in the Southwest along with the Canadians they had a very solid leadership core that was in place way before the war, and I'm quite sure the Australian government was very happy to relieve their soldiers out from under general Montgomery's overall command and sent them to the campaign in new Zealand, you should have covered in more detail what happened in the village square were the Canadians were trying to refill your water bottles and got ambushed by the Germans s s, a&d horrific atrocities of driving their tanks back and forth over the dying Canadians and wounded Canadian, and The valor of many of the French civilians that attempted to drag the wounded Canadians out of the road that were round up and shot by the s s. There is no need to sugarcoat a story just for your German fans. History is history no one can change history I am sure the French people get very offended by their lack of mentioned and many of the virus actions were they laid down their lives protecting Americans and Canadian British soldiers.

[nickraschke]

Love these films. Great work. I imagine covid has put your work on hold.
Looking forward to seeing more down the track.

[suzyqualcast]

A friend of mine was Ox&Bucks/Airlanding Brigade, Comm Driver. They got 'stuck' at Benouville with 12 SS HJ entrenched over at Ranville, they were causing sniping bother at snap and ablution time, routed them in good time, finding one of their snipers tied into his position up a tree.

[sebastianp.]

Thank you for this greatly detailed and educational video. It really made the events come alive, especially with the stories from my grandpa in mind (who served in the 12th Waffen-SS). The Canadians were valiant, tough and brave soldiers and respected for that by my grandpa and his comrades. And believe me, they were not easy to impress lads. Because of the high regards with which they viewed the Canadians and the rather easy-going dealing with Canadian prisoners he had seen, he always had a hard time to believe the story of the atrocities against Canadian prisoners. He could not comprehend how and why people he knew would act against their standards especially with an enemy they viewed as honorable and equal. (for instance, they had much much less respect for the white American soldier)

[simonrooney]

Great video, Mark - I have visited some of the sites you show- thanks for expanding my knowledge.

[kevthecontrarian]

My father was in the Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders of the 9th Canadian Brigade.

[mossbrg]

I’ve been to the abby courtyard and indeed it is a solemn place. Thank you for the video.

[paulmcewen]

"Stopping the Panzers" by Marc Milner is the best resource on these battles I have read thus far.

[francisjohnification]

Very interesting info. Looking forward to your future work. 👍

[ToddSauve]

Are your going to do a video on Bretteville and Putot?

[Alan-pvbi]

I enjoy your Canadian content. Your voice was difficult for me to hear at times.