While Allied troops were fighting to secure the Normandy beachhead on June 9, 1944, Canadian air and naval forces helped destroy what was left of the German surface fleet By June 1944, Hitler’s Kriegsmarine was a shadow of its former self.  Its mighty battleships had all been sunk or bottled-up in distant ports and the U-boat fleet, once so menacing to Allied communications, had been reduced to a mere nuisance by overwhelming air and naval superiority. But the Kriegsmarine was a proud service, and as soon as it learned of the Normandy landings, it threw what resources it had left into the fray.  On the morning of June 6, as Allied troops were pouring ashore in northern France, German Admiral Theodor Krancke ordered the three destroyers of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla, the most powerful ...