The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division was one of three Allied divisions to assault by sea on D-Day, tasked with landing on Juno Beach near Courseulles-sur-Mer on 6 June 1944. Of all the D-Day beaches, the Canadians penetrated furthest inland on the first day, reaching the outskirts of Caen before being forced to consolidate.
The division's two assault brigades — the 7th and 8th Canadian Infantry Brigades — faced heavy German defensive fire but broke through the Atlantic Wall and pushed several kilometres inland. The 3rd Division's D-Day objectives were the most ambitious assigned to any seaborne force, and while not all were achieved, its performance set a high standard.
Following the breakout from Normandy, the division participated in some of the most intense fighting of the Northwest Europe campaign. It played a central role in the Battle of the Scheldt (October–November 1944), a gruelling campaign through the flooded polders of Belgium and the Netherlands that finally opened the port of Antwerp to Allied supply ships — a strategic turning point of the campaign.
The division ended the war in May 1945 on the German North Sea coast, having been in continuous contact with the enemy for nearly a year.