On June 6, 1944, nearly 15,000 Canadians -- at sea, in the air, and on the ground -- joined the long-anticipated D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on the Normandy beaches. The piece of ground on which the Canadians fought so hard against heavily armed and embedded German troops was codenamed Juno. On that day, the Canadian infantry fought their way farther inland than any other Allied troops. For Canada, and all Canadians, this was a coming of age, an extraordinary moment of courage and sacrifice.

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, Barris takes us back to those momentous few hours that forever changed the course of our history in the voices of those who were there. In what might be described as Canada's longest day, we follow the course of action hour by hour, minute by minute, as we meet and follow the soldiers who leapt off landing craft into the shallow waters off Normandy, who were strafed by machinegun fire before they could even reach the shore. We meet the airmen who flew fighters and bombers in the early hours of the summer morning, as well as the sailors who manned the guns of the ships offshore.

Ted Barris has interviewed hundreds of veterans to piece together one of Canada's proudest days, and one of the most significant battles of our time.

Not a soldier, but the soldier’s storyteller, not a veteran, but recognized by vets as keeper of the flame, TED BARRIS has published eighteen non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. He has worked as a broadcaster in electronic media in Canada and the US for forty years. He is a full-time journalism professor at Toronto’s Centennial College and the author of the online column the Barris Beat. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 CLA Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year. His latest book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen in the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, is a national bestseller. 

Ted Barris' profile page

[Barris] seamlessly interweaves the remembrances of veterans to make his book a compelling tale that never loses either the pace of the remarkable story or the broad sweep of the larger picture of the invasion..."Juno" is a remarkable book that should be required reading in every Canadian school.

National Post

The veterans' stories are skillfully interwoven with sufficient strategic and tactical detail to make this a useful book for budding historians, and an interesting addition to more traditional histories. There is some sense of a missed opportunity in the fact that Barris makes no conclusions about the citizen-soldiers and what, if anything, defines them and their time. Also, the book lacks maps sufficiently detailed to support such a finely drawn Canadian portrait of that day.

Quill and Quire

Barris has pulled off a remarkable piece of work here...he has written a book that's as full of tension as any novel. Even, one might say, as any Hollywood war movie...Read this book. More importantly, make your kids read this book.

Edmonton Journal

The voices of the Canadians [Barris] writes about come through loud and clear. Through their stories we begin to understand their pride, their fears, their glory and their heartache.

St. Albert & Sturgeon Gazette

Any author that chooses to collect the stories of veterans is doing history a great service, and Barris has a respectful but confident touch handling their memories.

Metro Toronto

Barris' approach to writing about D-Day is excellent...This book puts a human face on a seminal event that we cannot fully understand...It is a book that I would recommend for professional and amateur alike.

Frontline

...collected stories are deftly combined to present a cohesive, riveting picture of the Normandy invasion that ultimately, combined with the Soviet advance from the east, led to victory.

Fast Forward Weekly, Calgary

Barris has drawn upon the stories of participants through their written accounts or by interviews, and his crisp writing style paints a poignant word picture. This is history from the sharp end...

International Journal, Canadian Institute of International Affairs

... a remarkable book, the first comprehensive retelling of Canadians at war on a day that changed history. Interweaving the memories of those who came back with an hour-by-hour record of the battle for the beac, Barris has created a book that is both timely and necessary.

Owen Sound Sun Times

...a comtemporary Canadian masterpiece... Barris's writing has a highly readable style...Read Juno and rejoice in the contribution of Canada to the successful conclusion of the Second World War...

The Telegram, St. John's

Ted Barris has created a contemporary Canadian masterpiece in Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The Telegram

You won't find any book that better captures the Canadian experience at 'the sharp end'... A welcome addition to the literature of the Canadian military in the Second World War.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record