canada and wwii - mr. · pdf filecanada and wwii wwii lasted from ... 1000 soldiers with...
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Canada and WWII
WWII lasted from ______ to ________.
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1. Blitzkrieg
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2. Phoney War... 7 months of “inaction”
after surrender of Poland Sept 30, 1939, there was not much fighting - just fear and anticipation (esp. in England).
This Phoney War ended May 10th,1940 when Germany began its Western offensive by attacking France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
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Maginot Line
a several hundred kilometre line of concrete fortifications built by the French between the wars (named after the French Minister of Defence)
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Maginot Line
The French Maginot line.
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The Line comprised of over 500 separate buildings but was dominated by large forts (known as ‘ouvrages’) which were built about nine miles from each other. Each ouvrage housed 1000 soldiers with artillery. Between each ouvrage were smaller forts which housed between 200 to 500 men depending on their size.There were 50 ouvrages in total along the German border. Each one had the necessary fire power to cover the two nearest ouvrages to the north and south. They were protected by reinforced steel that was inches deep and capable of taking a direct hit from most known artillery fire.http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/maginot_line.htm
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3. Germany’s Western Offensive
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Using “Blitzkrieg tactics - on May 12, 1940 Germany punched through the Maginot line near a town called Sedan, France and quickly moved 1 million troops and 1500 tanks through what the French intelligence thought was the “impenetrable” Ardennes Forrest.
The Netherlands surrendered in 4 days; France in 5 weeks.
Germany occupied most of Europe by 1940 (all the grey countries).
The French mistake was to be too
defensive minded.
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Winston Churchill
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By late May, 1940 - 400 000 French and British troops
were now trapped in Northern France.
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4. Dunkirk Evacuation• This meant the Allied forces were
surrounded in the French port of Dunkirk.
• They had to be rescued but how?
• All sea-worthy vessels were sent across the channel to France to pick up as many allied troops as possible.
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Transportation
Both passenger lifeboats and massive British and French Destroyers answered the call.
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Process of Evacuation" Evacuation began on May 26th, 1940, and
concluded June 4th, 1940.
Number of men rescued (in chronological order):
• 27 May (7669 men)
• 28 May (17,804 men)
• 29 May (47,310 men)
• 30–31 May (120,927 men)
• 1 June (64,229 men)
• 2–4 June (up to 54,000 men)
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Losses
" Despite the success of this operation, there were significant losses.
• Heavy equipment and vehicles were abandoned on Dunkirk side.
• Several thousand French troops captured near Dunkirk
• 6 British, and 3 French destroyers were sunk; 19 severely damaged.
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• The rescue of the British troops at Dunkirk provided a psychological boost to British morale which ended any possibility that the British would seek peace terms from Germany
• For every seven soldiers that escaped through Dunkirk, one man was left behind as a prisoner of war
• The very significant loss of military equipment abandoned in Dunkirk reinforced the financial dependence of the British government on the United States
• Even though there was noteworthy loss, this was considered a miraculous operation on the Allies part.
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5. The Battle of Britain(July - Sept ‘40)
Luftwaffe raids on England’s cities - 40 000 civilian deathsReading...FILM Clip
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6.Barbarossa Code name for German attack of the USSR - beginning June 22, 1941
Leningrad was sieged by German troops - lasting 872 days
Stalingrad was also sieged from July 1942-February 1943 claiming 1.5 million lives
• German troops were eventually routed out of the USSR by July 1944
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About 400 000 Soviet women saw front line duty! Bernard A. Cook (2006). "Women and war: a historical encyclopedia from antiquity to the present
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Battle of the Atlantic 1941-1945Britain was dependent upon Canada + US for food + military supplies
100’s of allied merchant ships were sunk by “Wolf packs” of German U-boats merchant vessels sailed in convoys
Corvettes (Canadian vessels) were created to assist by escorting the convoys
small, quick, maneuverable but tippy
by 1945 - there were 400 ships & 100 000 sailors in our navy (half of all escorts by Canadians)
5th largest navy.
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8.Canadian Contribution in the AirBritish Commonwealth Air Train Plan (BCATP) - trained more than 170 000 air crew
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) included 250 000 people
48 overseas squadrons (4th largest)
took part in bombing raids - Europe, N Africa, S E Asia, Italy.
in 1943 - participated in some controversial bombing raids such as bombing of Hamburg.
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9. Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbour Dec 1941- Newspaper
This attack was planned with meticulous detail for months in advance
high level bombers dropped bombs from 3 kms until accuracy could be guaranteed
torpedo planes practiced diving to within meters from sea level - if necessary lead planes were to crash into torpedo nets below surface
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Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbour
• 6:00 am ...230 kms north of Oahu, 6 Japanese aircraft carriers stopped after a week long sail from Japan in radio silence
• 6:10 am - the first wave begins: 185 planes take off from Akagi (43 fighters, 49 high level bombers, 51 dive bombers)
• they circled for 15 minutes until the last plane was in the air, then flew in formation for 1.5 hours to their target (Pearl Harbour Naval Base)
• as many took off an hour or so later in second wave
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so...the first wave flew from the aircraft carriers from 6:20-7:50
then attacked
then flew back and landed on aircraft carriers at 10:10 (4 hours in the air)
after the second wave the damage was:
a destroyed 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 4 auxiliary ships, 87 planes and killed 2403 US serviceman
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radar at P Harbour did detect planes but a delivery of 17 new B17’s were expected from San Diego that very hour so nothing was done to intercept
It was definitely a surprise attack!
the US Army and Navy Commander were preparing to go golfing
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Japanese Internment
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followed Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec 7, 1941
Britain requested a Canadian army be sent to Hong Kong (British colony) a few months earlier
by Christmas Day 1941, Hong Kong “fell” to Japanese forces
all 1975 Canadians were killed or taken POW
555 Canadians dead by war’s end - half while prisoners - terrible conditions...
10.Hong Kong Disaster
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11.Dieppe Raid - 19th Aug 1942Much of mainland Europe had been Nazi occupied since 1940
a re-invasion was necessary
2nd Canadian Div chosen for trial run on French port of Dieppe
to test new techniques
reconnaissance mission
a decoy for a highly secret (sub)mission to obtain German code machine (Enigma)
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Dieppe Disasterin the 9 hour battle:
907 Canadians killed (more than any other day of fighting in entire war)
506 wounded
1874 taken prisoner
4131 (total) men killed, wounded or captured most from Canadian 2nd Div.
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Why did Dieppe raid fail?one of the vessels carrying Canadian troops met German convoy of ships
a small naval battle ensued - alerted German troops on shore
element of surprise lost - now it was daylight
poor communication b/w ships and land - more men sent ashore thinking first raid a success
German troops strategically perched along cliffs - with machine guns
tanks had poor traction on gravel shores
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12.Italian Campaignin summer of 1943 there was still no second front in Europe - Stalin angry - his Soviet troops were fighting Germany in eastern Europe alone
Churchill suggested invading Europe from “soft underbelly” of Italy - turned out to be a gruelling battle.
Canada played large role
July 10, 1943 - Sicily was invaded - taken in 2 months
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Mainland Italyhouse by house
street by street
town by town
eg: Ortona - took a month & 1372 dead Canadians before Germany surrendered this town
by June 1944 - Rome was taken back by allies
http://www.canadianbattlefieldsfoundation.ca/Route_of_Honour/Text/Ortona.htm
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13. D-Day Invasion June 6, 1944code name - Operation Overlord
What? Invasion to take Europe back via Normandy, France - largest allied invasion
Where? 5 landing points in Normandy, France
1 million troops landed in 3 weeks
a success due to element of surprise
one of the 5 landing points - Juno Beach - was assigned to Canadian troops
16 000 Canadians landed on Juno Beach on D Day Canadians penetrated further than other allies
1000 Canadian casualties (359 killed) that day - jarMonday, 17 November, 14
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Storming Juno
26. 30 min
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14. Liberation of Netherlands
by Fall 1944 - the Netherlands was in serious trouble - ie - civilian starvation
in April 1945 - Canadian troops liberated this nation at cost of 6300 of our men
air drops (food) followed
Canadians were hailed as heroes there
Mr. Koehlman will tell us more
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15. German SurrenderOn May 7, 1945 - Germany surrendered to Allied forces -
USSR had fought from East and the rest of Allies from West
Adolf Hitler and his wife - suicide in their bunker just before this
other NAZI leaders tried at famous Nuremberg trials after the war
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16. Japan’s Surrender
Japan surrendered after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (140 000 killed) and Nagasaki (74 000) this was in August 1945
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17. Holocaust
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How did WWII Change Canada?
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