name – Jelly – sounded inappropriate. The code names for the beaches to be taken by British and Commonwealth forces were named after types of fish: Goldfish, Swordfish and Jellyfish, abbreviated to Gold, Sword and Jelly. Churchill "disapproved of the name Jelly for a beach on which so many men might die". He insisted on a change to the more dignified name Juno. Planning and preparation German defences While the German army had seen its strength and morale heavily depleted by campaigns in Russia, North Africa and Italy, it remained a powerful fighting force. Despite this, most of the German divisions along the French coast in late 1943 were composed of either new recruits or veteran units resting and rebuilding from the Eastern Front; altogether some 856,000 soldiers were stationed in France, predominantly on the coast. An additional 60,000 (voluntary helpers), USSR and Polish members of the German army, served on the French coast. Under the command of Field Marshals Erwin Rommel and Gerd von Rundstedt, the defences of the Atlantic Wall—a line of coastal gun emplacements, machine-gun nests, minefields and beach obstacles along the French coast—were increased; in the first six months of 1944, the Germans laid of steel and of concrete. Rommel also surrounded the coast with four million anti-tank and anti-personnel mines and 500,000 beach obstacles. On Juno, the defences of the Atlantic Wall were greater than at many other landing sectors. The Germans assumed that the Allies would land during high tide, to minimize the distance during which they would be exposed on the beaches and created "a 'devil's garden' of beach obstacles ... deployed in rows between above the low-tide mark". Strongpoints of machine-gun positions, antitank and anti-personnel artillery and bunkers were located every , manned by several platoons with mortars. Minefields were deployed surrounding these strongpoints, and additional defences were present in the Courseulles harbour. The Calvados beaches of Normandy were defended by the 716th Static and 352nd Infantry divisions, with the Canadian landing zone defended by elements of the 716th. It was formed mostly from soldiers under 18 or over 35, comprising 7,771 combat troops in six battalions (as opposed to 9 or 12 battalions of Allied divisions). While the 352nd was considered a first-rate division, the 716th was "accounted a better-than-average static division"; these divisions generally had very few vehicles or tanks and had to rely on infantry and field regiments. On Juno the 736th Grenadier Regiment deployed four infantry companies, 7 Kompanie held what was to become "Mike Sector", the 6th was stationed in Courseulles, the 5th was at Bernières and the 9th held Nan sector and Saint-Aubin. A second line of four infantry companies and one panzer company was stationed inland. The 21st Panzer Division was deployed south-east of Caen and two battalions of Polish and Russian conscripts were stationed on the flanks of Juno adjacent to Sword and Gold. Canadian preparations Canadian training for D-Day had begun as early as July 1943, when Lieutenant-General Andrew McNaughton of the First Canadian Army informed Harry Crerar, commander of II Canadian Corps, that the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division might play a role in the invasion of France. Initial training was demanding, and complicated by the lack of any landing craft to practice with, either LCAs or LCTs. Field exercises in Scotland commenced in August and September 1943, and succeeded in establishing unique techniques and equipment for use by armoured and artillery regiments in storming the beach; the most significant were the amphibious "Duplex Drive" tanks (DD tanks). Mechanisms were also developed to allow artillery to bombard the beach while still aboard their