World War II:Canada’s Role

Recap: The War Begins…• When did WWII

break out?

• What was Hitler’s last action before Britain and France declared war?

• What tactic did Hitler use? Why was it effective?

Enter Canada… • How did Canada’s entry

to WWII differ than her entry to WWI?

• What new law allowed Canada to make her own decisions?

• Prime Minister Mackenzie King was prepared to send roughly 40 000 troops and anticipated a role as the main supplier of food and war materials for Britain

The House of Commons on September 7, 1939, the first day of the special session in which Canada's Parliament decided to declare war on Germany. Canada declared war on Sept. 10, 1939

Phoney War…. Then War!

• Sept. 1939 – May 1940- called “phoney war”: due to lack of any military operation or attack by either side….

• THEN in 1940, Hitler’s modern army overran Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Soon, Hitler turned his attention to France.

The Miracle of Dunkirk

• Thousands of British troops raced across the English Channel to defend France. A contingent of Canadian soldiers remained in Britain to defend against the expected German invasion.

• Despite Britain's valiant effort, the Germans advanced rapidly into France leaving both British and French troops trapped.

• In May, 1940, British troops had to be evacuated from the seaport town of Dunkirk on the French coast.

• 300 000soldiers were rescued by boats of all sizes- in addition to the British destroyers, a makeshift fleet of sightseeing boats, river ferries, fishing boats and privately owned crafts sailed across the British Channel to return the stranded troops safely back to Britain.

• Despite the “miracle” it was a terrible defeat, much of the heavy British war equipment had to be abandoned and France fell in six weeks.

Movie Clip: Atonement

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCJJfOp8_Go&feature=related

The Move to Centre Stage…

• QUESTION: How would Hitler’s successes in Europe change Canada’s role in war?

• Canada’s role in WWII evolved to the centre stage:

-convoys became a vital lifeline to the survival of Britain

-more Canadian troops sent to Britain

-Canadian increased wartime industries such as food, guns, munitions, supplies and armed forces

The Russian Front• On August 23rd, 1939,

Stalin and Hitler signed a “Non-Aggression Pact” which vowed not to interfere in each other’s business

• On June 22nd, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union

• Having purged his military of many of its best officers, Stalin and the Soviets were not ready for war

The Eastern Front• Operation “Barbarossa”

– began on June 22nd, 1941

• The early days saw the Germans drive into the Soviet Union almost reaching Moscow by October

• The German army besieged Leningrad for what was to become a two year struggle ending in the death of more than one million civilians

• When the severe Russian winter arrived the Nazi offensive broke down and the German attack was halted

The Tide Turns• The Nazis needed supplies

and resources to continue the war so victory in the Soviet Union was essential

• From Sept. 14th, 1942 – Feb. 2nd, 1943 – the Germans and Russians fought for the strategic city of Stalingrad on the Volga River

• Hitler and the Nazis lost the battle – 500 000 German and other troops were killed or taken prisoner

• By the Autumn of 1943 the Germany army of 2.5 million soldiers faced an army of 5.5 million Soviet soldiers

Clips: Enemy at the Gates

• Chapter 1: watch first 20 minutes

What was the situation in 1944?The Russians have

defeated the Germans and are advancing in the East

The Allies are victorious in Africa and launch an assault on mainland Italy through Sicily

Italian Campaign

From July 10th to August 17th – the Allies including the Canadians fought and took Sicily from the German Army – Codenamed “Operation Husky”

The Campaign of Italy was designed to take the pressure off their Russian Allies and pull German troops out of north-western Europe readying the area for Operation “Overlord”

9th September, 1943 the attack began on Italy

The Canadians were forced to fight for every metre of the mountainous terrain as the Germans refused to give it up

Italian Campaign Animated Map

The Italians Surrender > Germany vs Allies

On the 8th of September, 1943, the Italian Government surrenders

When Italy formally surrendered on September 8th, the Italians separated into two camps, pro-Allied and pro-German factions.

By September 26 the Allies had built a force of 189,000 men and 30,000 vehicles.

Following the Italian surrender, the German Army took control of the defence of Germany

OrtonaOrtona is an ancient city

that consists of narrow streets and connected houses

Much of Ortona was reduced to rubble, making it difficult for the Canadians to use tanks

The Germans barricaded themselves in houses and mined the streets

The fighting was house-to-house-literally – the Canadians blasted their way through walls to get from building to building called “mouseholing”

The battle continued over Christmas Day, 1943 but three days later the Germans withdrew.

The Liberation of RomeIt took four major

offensives between January and May 1944 before the Allies including British, US, French, Polish, and Canadian Corps broke through

Rome was declared an open city by the German army and the Allies took possession on June 4th.

The Move on to France Having the

Germans occupied in Italy allowed the allies to move forward with their plan to open up the long awaited western front in Europe

The Plan Winston Churchill and

Franklin Roosevelt agreed it was time to open up a new front in the West through the beaches of France

The obvious choice for a landing area was the Pas de Calais so the Allies decided to attack in Normandy instead but believed they had to deceive the Germans they intended to attack elsewhere

Normandy It Is!

Normandy is a peninsula on the French Coast It was chosen because the Germans expected the

attack to be on the Pas de Calais

The Criteria: lessons learned from Dieppe

1. The enemy must remain ignorant of the proposed landing site

2. The enemy must be prevented from bringing up reinforcements quickly once the allies landed

3. Complete Allied air and naval superiority in the English Channel

4. Local defences must largely be destroyed by air and sea bombardment

Operation “Overlord” There would be

five sectors that would be attacked:

1. Utah – American2. Omaha –

American3. Gold – British4. Juno – Canadian5. Sword - British

Hardships: The Atlantic Wall

The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by the Germans between 1942 and 1944

Built along the western coast of Europe to defend against an anticipated Anglo-American led Allied invasion of the continent from Great Britain.

• Early in 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was assigned to improve the defenses of the Wall.

• A string of reinforced concrete pillboxes were built along the beaches to house machine guns, antitank guns, and light artillery.

• Minefields and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches and underwater obstacles and mines were planted in the waters just off shore to destroy incoming craft

• By the time of the invasion, the Germans had laid almost 6 million mines in northern France.

The Attack – June 6th, 1944 Operation Overlord Simulation

The Time Has Come On the evening of

June 5th paratroopers dropped in to secure bridges for the allied advance

Heavy bombers dropped their payloads on what was supposed to be the beach defences

In the early morning the largest armada of ships left Britain for the French coast

The Canadians on D-Day Of the nearly 150,000 Allied

troops who landed or parachuted into the invasion area, 14,000 were Canadians

The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors in support of the landings while the R.C.A.F. had helped prepare the invasion by bombing targets inland

Canadians suffered 1074 casualties, including 359 killed.

Reasons for Success: D-Day

1. Element of surprise (date, location)2. Attack at low tide / first light3. Massive air and naval support

(paratroopers)4. Dividing of beaches (different

objectives based on geography, location, German defences)

5. Breaking of German defences with Allied tanks (pincers) and troops encircling Nazis

Movie Clips: Saving Private Ryan: Chapter 1 (first

30 minutes)

The Liberation of Northwest Europe

September 1944 the British captured the Belgian port of Antwerp (docking port for supplies)

Canadians given the task of securing the Scheldt Estuary (70-kilometre long Scheldt River estuary linking Antwerp to the sea)

After 5 weeks of difficult fighting, the 1st Canadian Army with support from other countries secured the Schedlt Estuary

By Nov. 8, 1944- Allies had cleared the ports but at a cost of 12 873 Allies casualties, half of them missing

The Battle of the Bulge

The Ardennes Offensive known to the general public as the Battle of the Bulge, started on December 16, 1944

Three powerful German armies plunged into the semi-mountainous, heavily forested Ardennes region of eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg.

Their goal was to reach the sea, trap four allied armies, and impel a negotiated peace on the Western front.

Allied forces fought Germans German losses were critical- reserves

gone, Luftwaffe had been broken and German army pushed back on two fronts (east and west) > Germany now retreating

The Final DaysIn April 1945, the

battle is coming to a close.

On the 30th April, Hitler commits suicide together with his mistress Eva Braun hours after they were married.

Hitler gave strict orders for his body to be burned, so that his enemies wouldn't do what they had done to Mussolini, who was publicly displayed hanging upside down.

The Soviets Arrive – Berlin Falls

By 2 May, the Reichstag, the old German parliament falls and Berlin surrenders to Marshall Zukhov, who receives the honour of being the conqueror of Berlin.

The battle for Berlin cost the Soviets over 70,000 dead. Many of them died because of the haste with which the campaign was conducted.

VE-DayThe major Allied ground

offensive from the west against German territory began on 8 February 1945

In April, Canadian troops liberated most of the Netherlands

The Germans formally surrendered on 8 May 1945, known as Victory-in-Europe, or ‘V-E’ Day

Why was the US Fighting Japan?

September 1940. The U.S. placed an embargo on Japan by prohibiting exports of steel, scrap iron, and aviation fuel to Japan, due to Japan's takeover of northern French Indochina.

June 1941 through the end of July 1941. Japan occupied southern Indochina. Two days later, the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands froze Japanese assets.

The U.S. wanted to stop Japanese expansion but the American people were not willing to go to war to stop it.

Pearl Harbor Prior to December 1941, Japan

pursued two simultaneous courses: try to get the oil embargo lifted on terms that would still let them take the territory they wanted, and to prepare for war.

Their greatest concern was the the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based in Pearl Harbor so the Japanese navy planned to cripple the Pacific Fleet by a surprise attack.

The U.S. had broken the Japanese diplomatic code and knew an attack was imminent. A warning had been sent from Washington, but it arrived too late.

The Attack! On December 7th 1941 the first

wave of Japanese airplanes left 6 aircraft carriers and struck Pearl Harbor a few minutes before 8 AM local time.

Over the course of two hours, they killed or wounded over 3,500 Americans and sank or badly damaged 18 ships - including all 8 battleships of the Pacific Fleet

At least 1,177 lives were lost when the Battleship U.S.S. Arizona exploded and subsequently sank.

Both USA and Canada formally declared war on Japan following attack on Pearl Harbour

Movie Clips:

Pearl Harbor: Chapter 20

War in the Pacific

Now that Germany had unconditionally surrendered (VE Day), the Allies could now put all effort to fighting Japan in the Pacific

Memories of Pearl Harbour still resonated with Americans who wanted revenge

After Pearl Harbour, both USA and Canada interned Japanese- Americans and Japanese Canadians

Was the United States Justified in Dropping the Atomic Bomb? Following FDR’s death, Harry

Truman becomes President of the United States

Truman decided to use the bomb on Japan--- why?

What do you think? Justified or Unjustified?

Pros and Cons to Dropping the Bomb

YES- JUSTIFIED Strategic and conventional

bombing part of WWII Japan refused to unconditionally

surrender to Allies The alternative to using the

atomic bomb (bombardments / blockade) would have had devastating effects on the Japanese population and would have prolonged the war and their suffering (starvation).

The Japanese military were preparing a desperate defense of their homeland that would inevitably produce high casualties on both sides (estimated 500 000 Allied soldiers)

NO- UNJUSTIFIED Unethical and immoral- new

weapon with harsh effects (radiation poisoning). William D. Leahy, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff stated: “My own feeling is that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”

High civilian death toll (150 000) By 1945, Japan was crippled as a

result of the Allied blockade and bombings and neared collapse = surrender was immiment

Americans wanted to show USSR they had atomic bombs = ushered in the Cold War

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

United States decided to use atomic bomb on Japan

Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki chosen because of its military and industrial significance and concentrated population (maximize the damage)

These are the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare

Fat Man and Little Boy On August 6th, 1945 a lone B-29

Superfortress called the Enola Gay by its crew took off and headed for Hiroshima

At 8:15am the atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima

Within seconds two thirds of the city was flattened and thousands were dead

On August 11, a bomb called “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki at 11:02 am

At noon, August 15th, 1945 – Emperor Hirohito spoke directly to his people to tell them Japan had surrendered

Atomic Bomb Clip

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rHrV2QhArA

Effects

The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945,with roughly half of those deaths occurring on the days of the bombings.

Amongst these, 15–20% died from injuries or the combined effects of flash burns, trauma, and radiation burns, compounded by illness, malnutrition and radiation sickness

Since then, more have died from leukemia or cancer attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.

Why Did the Allies Win?

Complete material superiority – weapons etc.

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