Storming Juno
is the story of several Canadian soldiers and their roles in the Normandy Invasion. It is a Canadian TV movie from 2010, very low-budget by typical WWII combat movie standards.
Examples:
- Heroic Sacrifice: Threatened by Lt. Grayson when he captures the bunker. He pulls the pin on a Mills bomb, then holds the CO at gunpoint until others from the Regina Rifles show up.
- Hollywood History: As with most D-Day films, the actual length of the beach is understated. Instead of being a few score yards from the water to the defensive positions, Juno (and Omaha) is several hundred yards from water to bunkers.
- Improperly Placed Firearms: Lt. Grayson draws a Browning Hi-Power when clearing the bunker. The Hi-Power was introduced in 1935 and produced in Belgium before and during German occupation (at which time the plans were smuggled to Canada), but was not in service with any Commonwealth army on June 6, 1944. Canadian production by John Inglis & Company of Toronto began in late 1944, with those pistols being issued in time for Operation Varsity in March 1945.
- Irony: Though not shown, the major that tells Sgt. Gariepy that they wouldn't be launching due to the rough weather and most troopers not being able to swim, drowned when his tank went under.
- Suspiciously Small Army: It appears the only Canadians on Juno were Lt. Grayson's platoon and Sgt. Gariepy's tank.
- Tanks, but No Tanks: The 1st Hussars were equipped with Shermans, but they were M4A4s, the workhorse of Commonwealth forces, not M4A3E8s depicted here, which were never converted to Duplex Drive (US forces on Omaha and Utah were equipped with M4A2 converted DDs) and entered service in November 1944, months after D-Day (the Canadian Army also did not operate M4A3E8s until the Korean War). There's also the fact that DD Shermans were steered with an externally mounted tiller and not from the inside.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Mainly due to Rule of Drama, a lot is altered to tell the story. For one, fourteen of the 19 tanks landed, and had a shootout with the 88 at 200 yards. A 75 was on the right flank, and fired over 200 rounds before being knocked out. No tanks were lost in the fight. After breaking out from the beach, Gariepy, as detailed above, gunned down the 14 man crew of an 88, before being radio'd that a sniper was targeting Canadian tank commanders and had killed a friend. He put his beret on top of his headset as bait, then bore down in on the position, rather than simply being shot at, and his crew convinced him firing at it was not the best idea, rather than overtly disobeying an order. There was an elderly couple inside, rather than a young mother with infant child walking outside.
