World War II Letters

1. World War II Letters Your chance to improve your marks

2. Your letters • You should hand in the planning – If I can’t find the answer for something in you letter but it was in the planning I gave you the mark • You must hand in3letters • If you would like to re-do your letters you can complete and or resubmit them for February 22, 2011 There will be no letters accepted after this date!

3. Letter #1 • You have to choose your person • Where do they live in Canada? If it is Quebec this will effect your second letter. If they are from BC this will effect another part of letter 2. • You have to choose what force they will fight in • Air Force • Navy • Army (infantry)

4. Letter #1 • If you choose Air Force • You will have been trained in the BCATF • You will fight in one of two battles • Battle of Britain • Battle of the Atlantic as a bomber escort • Battle of Britain (Before Sept 1940) • We have better planes than Nazi’s & radar to track them • We were fighting to control the airspace of Britain and save the infrastructure of Britain

5. Letter #1 • Battle of Britain (After Sept 1940) • You LATER went on night bombing raids over Germany • Bombing factories so they could not produce more battle goods, and infrastructure so they cannot get around as well • Battle of the Atlantic (After 1941) • You flew long-range bombers looking for U-Boats • You protected the convoys from Nazi “Wolf Pack” attack

6. Letter #1 • If you are in the Navy • You fought in the Battle of the Atlantic • This was for control of the shipping lanes between Europe/ Africa and North America • You could be on one of the corvetts (small warships) that protected the merchant marine • You use sonar to track and find the Nazi U-Boats • How does a “Wolf Pack” Attack work? • You will likely continue to work on this battle making numerous trips back and forth

7. Letter #1 • If you are in the Army • You fought in either Dieppe or El Alamein (NORTH Africa) • If you fought in Dieppe (August 1942) • You took a boat over – Battle of the Atlantic – 5-6 Days • It is likely that you got injured • It was a one day raid that was a major failure • There were very few who got off the beach in retreat – most died and the rest got taken P.O.W. • Why/ How did the Nazi’s know that the Canadians were coming?

8. Letter #1 • If you fought in North Africa/El Alamein (Sept 1940) • You took a boat over – Battle of the Atlantic – U-Boat attack? Preventative measures? • You fought against the Italians in Egypt • You preserved the use of the Suez Canal for the Allies • You prevented Hitler from getting oil resources • You saw terrible close combat with little sleep working through extreme heat and bad food

9. Letter #1 In General • You are all very against the war – people volunteered to do this – it was/is an honour • You all seem to have a sick grandmother – would you really ask this? And apparently you have dogs – what about the cat lovers? • I want gory and specific details – don’t disguise this for me – I want to know that you know specifically what was happening over there

10. Letter #2 • Where is this person located? This will affect how you answer different questions. Be specific and clear • “The weather in BC is great this week.” • The people of axis country origin • “Enemy Aliens” Germans, Italians, Japanese • They might be spies so they had to register with the government • They banned the Canadian Nazi party • They rioted against the religious pacifists who did not want to go to war

11. Letter #2 • People of axis country origin • They did not want any Jews coming in from Europe “None is too many” • The Japanese (mostly those who lived in BC, b/c it is close to Japan) were rounded up and placed in internment camps • Their stores were looted and white Canadians often took over their prospering businesses and stole their possessions that were not taken to camp

12. Letter #2 • What does this person do for work? • If they were unemployed, they now have a job and are working more hours • This is partly because of the NRMA • Any one who is able bodied had to help Canada with the war effort • The factories would be running 24 hours a day, and you would have 3 x 8 hour shifts instead of shutting it down every night

13. Letter #2 • The NRMA • If they are a farmer they would be sending their produce to Europe – Canada is on strict rationing • If you were making pots and pans you were likely changed into an ammunitions factory • They created Crown Corporations so many more people would be working for the government

14. Letter #2 • The conscription plebiscite happened when? • April 27, 1942 • No conscripts were sent over until 1944 – it takes a long time to train the men adequately • Only 12,000 men were sent and for less than 6 months • If you lived in Quebec you felt highly betrayed that they would ask to send men over seas • If you were in the rest of Canada you were all for it and voted yes to sending men over

15. Letter #2 In General • You need to answer all of the questions asked by the first letter – many forgot • Think of what the implications of the NRMA could be – you will have to consider things outside of the box • This is more of an information exposé than the other letters, so give me lots of information!!!

16. Letter #3 • If you are in the Army • You either fought in D-Day or in the Italian Campaign • D-Day (June 6, 1944) • This was the largest Canadian military of WWII • Canadians landed on Juno Beach • They took the beach and in a week had a strong hold on the area • In a month they had over 300, 000 troops and 200,000 vehicles

17. Letter #3 • After D-Day • You will push forward and possibly liberate Holland or take Germany straight through to Berlin • The Italian Campaign • This happened after North Africa had been cleared • You take the island of Sicily in July 1943 • You are opening up a successful second front to take the pressure off of the Soviets • They did an amphibious attack (similar to what they used in D-Day) • This became the staging area for troops to go up Italy and into Europe

18. Letter #3 • The Italian Campaign • They fought close range battles moving forward very quickly with little sleep and poor living conditions for 4 months • They got stopped at Ortona and fought there for one solid month suffering many casualties • The French Canadian unit was the most feared in the area – Vandoos • They were the first to get through to Rome • It was hoped that they may be able to meet up with the other allied troops in France after D-Day to push the Nazi’s to German territory, but this never happened because the fighting was more intense than expected

19. Letter #3 • If you are in the Navy • You are still fighting the Battle of the Atlantic • Canadians are doing much better at this now • They are making more ships than are being destroyed • They are working with the merchant marine now • You will now be dropping depth charges on the U-Boats • The use of the convoys rendered the wolfpack attacks less effective

20. Letter #3 • If you are in the Air Force • You just finished clearing the way for the allied troops to land in Normandy • You took out communications and various infrastructures in advance so supplies could not reach the battle front • You are starting to out number the Nazi fighters and are destroying more of their airplanes than they can produce (their factories are getting destroyed)

21. Letter #3 In General • Not many people got to even the planning for this so I did not have much to go off of • Don’t get too sentimental – I still need to know the information and a lot of people that did get that far said a lot of very sentimental nothing and very little information