CANADIAN HISTORY XIMajor Battles and Storming Juno Documentary

LIST OF THE MAJOR BATTLES FOUGHT DURING WWII Dunkirk Normandy Juno Battle of Britain

(“Operation Sea Lion”)

Invasion of USSR (“Operation Barbarossa”)

Battle of Stalingrad Pearl Harbour Invasion of Hong

Kong

• Dieppe Raid• Battle of the Atlantic• Invasion of Italy• D-Day (“Operation

Overlord”)• bombing of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki air land see

DIEPPE RAID French port

Troops should have been covered by aerial bombers (didn’t happen)

The commander of Canadian 2nd Division feared bombardment would block the streets

Politicians feared bombardment would cause unnecessary casualties among the civilian population.

DIEPPE The 1st operation was cancelled

due to bad weather. The operation was re-configured

with many new Canadians who did not receive proper training.

Encountered a German convoy. The confrontation alerted the German troopsUpset the timetable for the raid

Landing early in the morning the Germans pinned the troops on the beaches.

By 11am a withdrawal of all forces were ordered.

CANADIAN CASUALTIES

Number Embarked 4963

Killed 907

Wounded 586

Taken Prisoner 1874

CLIP ON THE DIEPPE RAID

BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC Britain needed food and munitions

from Canada and the USA

Germany’s objective was to cut off Britain’s lifelines to North America.

Convoys of merchant ships, protected by naval vessels, took what was needed across the ocean. Under the attack by the German U-boats

Corvettes – small fast warship used in convoys

INVASION OF HONG KONG Japanese forces attacked a prepared but ill-

equipped defense.  

Japanese aircraft attacked the Kai Tak airport, enemy advances forced units to fall back to the "Gin Drinkers' Line".

Shing Mun Redoubt was capturedHigh ground and strategic position on in the Gin

Drinker's Line. Attacked in the cover of darkness, but in the end the Japanese were victorious.

Their victory at night revealed how General Maltby had completely underestimated his enemy. He ordered the mainland troops to withdraw from the mainland.

INVASION OF HONG KONG The fighting in Hong Kong ended with

immense Canadian casualties: 290 killed and 493 wounded.

For more than three and a half years, the Canadian POWs were imprisoned in Hong Kong and Japan in the foulest of conditions and had to endure brutal treatment and near-starvation.

In the filthy, primitive POW quarters in Northern Japan, they would often work 12 hours a day in mines or on the docks in the cold, subsisting on rations of 800 calories a day.

BATTLE OF BRITAIN RAF made a surprise bombing on

Berlin.

As revenge, Hitler decided to Blitz the cities. He would terrorize the civilians into surrendering. However, this did not work. British

resistance grew stronger.

Hitler could not defeat Britain and Winston Churchill.

Britain used an advanced radar system and retained control of British air space

At sea, British ships torpedoed and sank the German battleship Bismarck in 1941.

PEARL HARBOUR Japan was gaining territory in Asia

In 1940, America stopped exporting gasoline and metal to Japan (embargo) in an attempt to stop the Japanese by hurting their economy.

In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Following this USA joined the war.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, coastal BC was “blacked out.” All lights had to be turned off or shielded so that cities and towns were invisible at night.

HIROSHIMA The atomic bomb was first used in warfare

at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Key in the ending of WWII.

The amount of energy 'Little Boy' generated when it exploded was the equivalent of a 15 kiloton TNT explosion

The explosion of 'Little Boy' also created alpha, beta, gamma and neutron rays. Gamma and neutron rays affected the

people of Hiroshima. Radiation poisoning killed many people in

the city.

NORMANDY (JUNO)Canadian Third Division of well prepared

men The Division was supported by a great

deal of artillery:BattleshipsCruisersDestroyers Specialized landing craft had been equipped

to fire rockets on the German defenders.Allied aircraft had extensively bombed

behind the German positions on the beaches, so as to prevent reinforcements.

D-DAY: OPERATION OVERLOAD 1944, British, American and

Canadian and free French troops invaded the French region of Normandy.

General Eisenhower was the commander

Allies had two advantages: The allies had sheer numbers. They had superiority of air power,

backed by the large armada ever assembled, as well as the ability to land upwards of 1 million ground troops within 2 or 3 weeks after the initial landing

D-DAY #2 The Allies kept the destination

of the invasion force a secret from the Germans until after it landed.

Part of the success rested on the appointment of General George Patton: a top field commander, to lead a

fictitious American Third Army in Southeast England.

Patton’s “force” consisted largely of dummy tanks, trucks, and a massive number of false radio transmissions.

The Germans, feeling that Patton was too valuable to kept out of important action elsewhere, believed totally in the deception.