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

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

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

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.

Miracle of Dunkirk – May 1940 “Evacuation of Dunkirk” British rushed across the Channel to defend 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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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