CHC 2DI – Battles of WWII - Ms. Strong

1. CHC 2DI – Battles of WWII - Ms. Strong 1939-1945

2. Steps to War… • The 1930s may have meant simply Depression for Canada, but around the World, countries were asserting their power and threatening others • All of this came to a head on Sept 3 1939 • After Poland was attacked, Britain and France realized that a World War is forthcoming • Both Britain and France declare war on Germany

3. 1939 • Sept. 1 - Poland invaded by Germans • Sept. 3 - Britain & France declare War • Sept. 4 – British Air force attacks Germany • Sept. 5 – US declares neutrality (isolationism) • Sept. 10 – Canada declares war • Sept. 27 – Russians invade Poland

5. 1940 • April - July 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Netherlands & other European countries • June 14, 1940 -Germans enter Paris. • June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice (temporary suspension of hostilities) with the Nazis. • August – December 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain. • blitzkriegs (“lightning wars” – swift, sudden, overwhelming, violent surprise offensive attack) • Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis Powers) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan (Hungary, Romania) • Dec 9/10, 1940- British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.

6. Miracle of Dunkirk – May 1940“Evacuation of Dunkirk” • British rushed across the Channel todefend France, but had to be evacuated in May, with equipment abandoned • Canadians stayed in Britain to defend it • DEFEAT for Allies • Churchill called it a “colossal military disaster” • Used Blitzkrieg • . As Churchill pointed out, "wars are not won by evacuations," but the Miracle at Dunkirk enabled the British to regroup and eventually defeat Germany

7. Battle of Britain (August 1940) • Luftwaffe (German air force) began nightly air raids on England (blitzkrieg) – part of Operation Sealion • WIN for the Allies – shot down approx. 3 000 Nazi planes • Canada: Canadian fighter pilots helped with the victory

8. 1941 • April – June 1941 - Nazis invade Greece, Yugoslavia • May 10/11 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg. • June 22, 1941 – Germany attacks USSR – Operation Barbarossa • Sept 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz, Poland.(zyklon B) • Dec 7, 1941 – Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor (US naval base in Hawaii) – Preventative action • Dec 8, 1941 – US & Britain declare war on Japan. • Dec 11, 1941 – Germany declares war on US

9. c) Pearl Harbour (Dec. 7, 1941) • The bombing of Pearl Harbor removed the US’s Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's expansion • Canada: declared war on Japan; defends Hong Kong (China), fights Japanese invasion • DEFEAT for Allies

10. 1942 • June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz. • July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland. • August 1942 • Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow. • First all-American air attack in Europe. • Dieppe Raid) allied attack on German occupied area of Dieppe, northern France) • Nov 11, 1942 - Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.

11. d) Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) • Canadian & British Troops would be sent to France to attack German troops there • Germans from the cliffs shot down Allied forces; couldn’t move on the wet beach – most killed • DEFEAT for Allies

12. e) War in the Atlantic • Britain was blockaded by the Germans • U-boats patrolled the Atlantic – 20 cargo ships sunk a week! • Canada: small navy, but important in convoy system

13. 1943 • Feb - Nov 1943 - Germans defeated at: Stalingrad, Tunisia, North Africa, Ukraine • July 19, 1943 - Allies bomb Rome. • July –Sept. - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls, Italian surrender • Sept 1943 - Germans occupy Rome, rescue Mussolini & re-establishes a Fascist government. • Oct 13, 1943 - Italy declares war on Germany (after a conditional surrender of Italy to the Allies – on the verge of losing the war) • Nov 18, 1943 - Large British air raid on Berlin

14. f) The Italian Campaign (Battle of Ortona 1943) • July - Allied forces attack Sicily • Canada – captured 650 enemy soldiers • Mussolini driven from power • Germans began to attack from the North

15. 1944 • Jan 17, 1944 – First attack toward Italy • May 12, 1944 - Germans surrender in Ukraine, Italy and West Germany • May 15, 1944 - Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line. • June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings. • Oct 14, 1944 - Allies liberate Athens

16. g) D-Day (June 6, 1944) • General Dwight Eisenhower led close to 3 million allied forces across the beach in Normandy (N. France) • First successful large scale invasion in Europe • 30 000 Canadians participated (landed on Juno Beach) • WIN for the Allies – more than 300 000 troops arrived on shore

17. h) The Liberation of Europe • 1944 – Allies retake France, Italy; overrun German missile launching sites • Canadians cleared German forces from the Channel ports and the Netherlands and fed the starving people • Russians arrived in Berlin by 1945 • Mussolini had been hanged in Milan • April 30, 1945 – Hitler shot himself