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World War II, War comes to Canada
● 3 major powers were upset
over the outcome of WWI:
● Germany – mad about the
treaty of Versailles
● Italy and Japan– Mad about
land claim
● The start of the war:
● Sept. 1 – Germany attacks
Poland
● Sept. 3 – Brit/France declare
war on Germany
● Sept. 10 – Canada declares
war on Germany
German Aggression
• Warfare: Blitzkrieg – lightning war,
try to knock the enemy off balance
and never let them regain their
balance
• 3 elements of blitzkrieg 1) Speed 2)
Surprise 3) Coordinated Air/Tank/
Infantry Attack
• U-Boats had penetrated the Gulf of
St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence
River where they sank over 20
merchant vessels and warships,
including one less than 300
kilometres from Québec City
• By May 1942, German U-boats
operated in the approaches to
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia
• In 1944 and 1945, German
submarines returned and sank
Canadian warships just off Halifax
harbour.
The Germans Advance
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Germany goes into Poland and conquers
it by Sept. 27
Soviet Union goes into Poland Sept. 17,
1939
From Oct-April not much is happening on
the western front British newspapers call
it the phony war
April – Germany goes through Denmark
onto Norway (1940)
The Germans decide to avoid the maignot
line and go the through the ardennes
forest – surprising the allies
Battle of France is underway (May 20,
1940) Germans are pushing the allies
back into retreat
Canada sends strong military forces to
Britain as soon
as possible
For a full year, until Germany attacked
the Soviet
Union in June 1941, Canada was Britain’s
principal
remaining ally in the struggle against
tyranny.
The Battle of France
● Germans go through the
Ardennes Forest to avoid the
maignot line May 20, 1940
● Surprise the allies and push them
back to Dunkirk
● http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war
/wwtwo/launch_ani_fall_france_
campaign.shtmla
● The Fall of France – France
surrenders on June 17, 1940 and
a Free France was set up at
Vichy (Veechy)
Dunkirk
● Allies forced to retreat in the
Battle of France
● Desperate for an evacuation at
Dunkirk
● The last days of May saw the
allies have time to catch their
breath dig in and get rescued
● Of the 500,000 pushed there,
350, 000 were rescued,
150,000 taken as P.O.W or
casualties
● Hitler's first mistake
The Battle of the Atlantic
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Germans were using UBoats to cut off British
overseas lifelines and starve
them out
It was a race of technology
German wolfpacks
Canadians – important role
as escorts and defence
against the U-Boats
Code breaking was a
crucial element in the allies
conquest of the axis powers
http://www.mariner.org/atla
ntic/gg.htm
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If Germany's U-boats had
closed the Atlantic to Allied
shipping, the Allies could
have lost the entire
war (Duration of the war)
considered won by allies in
1943
The Battle of Britain
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Germans had to cross the
English Channel to get to
Britian
Germans tried to win air
superiority (Operation
Sealion)
London Blitz begins with
accidental bombing
British start to bomb
Germany
Hitler decides to take out
London (and its citizens)
Hitler's second mistake
Hitler “postpones” the
battle when Britain gets the
upperhand
The Battle of Britain and the Blitz
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The Luftwaffe lost a total of 1,733 aircraft from July to October, the RAF 915. The
Germans were actually winning the battle of attrition but, frustrated by the unexpected
numbers of Allied planes opposing them, switched in early September to night bombing
of cities. This was a fatal mistake.
The Blitz, as it was known, continued after the Battle of Britain had finished. During
the Blitz, between September 1940 and May 1941, the Germans dropped more than
35,000 tons of bombs for the loss of 650 aircraft. London was attacked 19 times with
18,800 tons of bombs.
Switching to attacks on London took the German fighters to the limit of their range and
brought them within range of 12 Group, defending the Midlands. The switch to city
bombing also allowed Fighter Command to recover.
Soviet Union Invasion
● After Hitler wins France, he turns
his attention to the Soviets and
plans to attack
● Hitler attacks on June 22, 1941, it
was to be over in a matter of
months but went on for 4 years
● Grew into the largest and most
costly conflict in all history.
● Stalin remained convinced that
Hitler would not risk an eastern
war as long as the British Empire
remained undefeated – he was
wrong
● Struggle between the 2
dictatorships, cost to Soviets – 27
million dead
● Cost to Germany – WWII
victory?
● Hitler's third mistake
Canada goes to defend the
impossible: Hong Kong
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November 1941, Canada sent 1975
troops to British colony of Hong Kong
Plan to deter Japanese agression, the
Canadians were not fully equipped and
still undergoing training
On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan entered the war
with a series of successful offensives in
Asia and across the Pacific. The
Japanese invade Hong Kong on Dec. 8
and overrun the meagre defences in 17
days
In their first land combat of the war,
Canadian troops fought valiantly in a
vicious, unequal struggle
Losses were heavy: 290 killed and
hundreds wounded. The survivors were
all taken prisoner. Nearly 300 die in
captivity.
Pearl Harbour, Dec. 7, 1941
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Japanese were afraid of an
attack by Americans in the
Pacific
Surprise attack – to eliminate
their aircraft carriers, Amerc.
Have them moved, 2400 die
This gives the Americans the
justification they need to enter
the war
Before this the US policy was
1) Cash and carry – but Britain
had to come and get it and 2)
Lend Lease – give it back
when done borrowing it
Dieppe, August 19, 1942
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In the summer of 1942, the Soviet Union,
reeling under a ferocious German assault,
asked for help. The Canadian Army eagerly
accepted a British plan to strike at Dieppe and
distract the Germans.
At dawn on 19 August 1942, nearly 5000
Canadian troops supported by 1500 British
assaulted the French coastal town of Dieppe
which turned out to be a catastrophe.. The raid
was a disaster: the German defences were fully
alerted and stronger than expected and the
Canadians lacked adequate naval and air
support.
In Canada’s worst single-day loss of the
war,900 were killed and 2000 were captured.
Some historians insist that the lessons learned
at Dieppe contributed to the success of later
Allied landings; others argue the raid was just a
poorly-planned blunder.
Text adapted from:
http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/chrono/1931d
isaster_e.htmli
D-Day June 6, 1944
● The Royal Canadian Navy provided 109 vessels, and 10,000 sailors as its
contribution to the massive armada of 7,000 Allied vessels which put to sea on
D-Day
● While it was still dark in the early hours of June 6, Allied paratroopers,
including 450 Canadians, jumped from aircraft or landed in gliders behind the
German coastal defences
•http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/launch
_ani_d_day.shtml
Animation of D-Day battle
The Atomic Bomb
Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945
Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945
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"My God, what have we done?" - Robert Lewis, the co-pilot of the
Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb.
"Little Boy" (despite weighing in at over four and a half tons)
In an instant, 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 injured by a 10kiloton atomic explosion.
On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki fell to the same treatment. Missed it's
target by over a mile and a half, it still leveled nearly half the city. In a
split second, Nagasaki's population dropped from 422,000 to 383,000.
Over 25,000 people were injured.
Over 500,000 people would die suffering the effects of radiation in the
next 10 years
Japan offered to surrender on August 10, 1945.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050300a.htm
The End of the War
● Germany was fighting simultaneously against the world's three
greatest powers, only a miracle could have staved off defeat, and
none was forthcoming. From 1942 on, Germany could only hang
on and try to exhaust its enemies, but their superior resources and
increasingly skilled armies made the outcome first predictable and
then inevitable.
1. This was a situation that Hitler created. Where the Allies had a
clear strategic concept, he had none. Ultimately he believed that
war was his only tool, that his armies would win the war simply by
winning battles, and that they would win battles in large part
because of their racial and ideological superiority.
2. In the end, the Soviets were closing in on Berlin, Hitler commits
suicide and the Canadians begin to liberate Europe.
Text taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/hitler_commander_05.shtml