Transcript World War II, War comes to Canada

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
● 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
● 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
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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
● November 1941, Canada sent 1975 troops to
British colony of Hong Kong.
● Plan to deter Japanese aggression, the
Canadians were not fully equipped and still
undergoing training.
● On 7 December 1941, Japan entered the war
with a series of successful offensives in Asia
and across the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese
invaded Hong Kong on 8 December and
overran its 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 in action and
hundreds wounded. The survivors were all
taken prisoner. Suffering from malnutrition,
disease, overwork, and brutality, nearly 300
more Canadians died in captivity.
Pearl Harbour, Dec. 7, 1941
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Japanese were afraid of an
attack by the 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 – Britain
must come and get it and 2)
Lend – Lease – give it back
when you are done borrowing
it
Dieppe, August 19, 1942
● 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/1931disaster_e.htmli
D-Day June 6, 1944
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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
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Japan offered to surrender on August 10, 1945.
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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