END OF WORLD WAR II D-DAY TO SURRENDER

AMERICAN ENTRANCE After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, the American forces were very damaged in the South Pacific; Damage or destruction of 18 warships, 188 aircraft and 2,333 US servicemen were killed and another 1347 wounded; The Japanese had only lost about 29 aircraft; Deemed a victory for the Japanese, it hardened the resolve of the Americans to help end the war;

AMERICAN ENTRANCE The US fleet was out of commission for over a year, however three main aircraft carriers were not in the Harbour at the time of attack; Most of the damaged ships were later restored for use in the war in the South Pacific; The absence of a third wave of fighters against Pearl Harbour by the Japanese would have destroyed fuel supplies and made it harder for the Americans to recover as quickly;

AMERICAN ENTRANCE The Japanese victory was short lived, as the American government used the emotion of the attack to solidify the American home effort to enter into the war; FD Roosevelt referred to the attack as a day of infamy and encouraged the American people to bring the full power of the military into the war to defeat the Axis of Evil;

AMERICAN ENTRANCE Immediately after the Pearl Harbour attack, Hitler declared support for their Japanese Allies and declared war on the US; By doing so he drew the Americans into the fight in Europe, where they would bring much needed reinforcements and supplies to the battered British Commonwealth and Russian forces; The American entrance into Europe drew some of the Nazi forces from the East and allowed Russia to push forward;

AMERICAN ENTRANCE The Canadians and the Americans at home had to play important roles in helping those in Europe as well as accounting for protection at home; Mackenzie King and Roosevelt discussed defense plans for North America and signed the Ogdensburg Agreement in August 1940 dealing with air, sea and land defenses;

AMERICAN ENTRANCE By 1941 the war was taking a financial toll on the British and Canadians, while the Americans maintained neutrality; In April 1941 the Lend-Lease program was developed between the three allies in order to help the war effort, but keeping the Americans neutral; The US would lend war materials to the Allies, and gain access, through leases, to British owned military bases; This allowed the US to aid the Allies with important materials, but still appear to be outside the activities of war - mostly to avoid a drop in public opinion;

SPIES AND POWs The Camp X located between Whitby and Oshawa; For two years the Camp produced 500 graduates, half of whom became spies, secret agents and guerilla fighters; The training was tough: –Night parachuting, explosives training, coded communications, civilian resistance, resist torture;

SPIES AND POWs Two Canadian secret agents were GUSTAVE BIELER –First Canadian Special Operations Executive (SOE) working in occupied France; –Captured in January 1944 –Endured torture by the Gestapo; –Sentenced to death in Sept 1944 by firing squad – not hanging (usual for prisoners);

SPIES AND POWs HENRY FUNG –First Chinese-Canadian agent parachuted in Malaya in June 1945; –He was 19-years old working with the SOE blowing up telephone lines, railway bridges and harassing Japanese road convoys; –Contracted malaria and jaundice and had to be shipped home by the British to Canada;

SPIES AND POWs ENIGMA CODE –In 1939, Polish agents escaped to Britain with information regarding the German coding machine called Enigma; (Greek for mystery) –The British were able to break the code using another machine called Ultra; –This enabled them to obtain vital information about military activities of the Nazis; –The Nazis were unaware of the advances of the British and Americans in this regard;

SPIES AND POWs Allied forces in Hong Kong were British, Indian, Canadian and Chinese soldiers; Canadians arrived in November 1941 to join the other forces and all were forced to surrender to the stronger Japanese forces by December 1941; They were all kept in brutal prisoner of war camps on mainland Chine until 1945 when Japan was defeated and they were liberated; Most were forced to work in Japanese war industries;

D-DAY – OPERATION OVERLORD Complex and risky operation that called for coordination of air, naval and land forces from Canada, Britain and the US in order to invade Europe and get a foothold; The attack was separated into three phases in order to best utilize resources and make the greatest impact against the Nazi forces in Europe;

D-DAY – OPERATION OVERLORD PHASE I Air Bombing and Parachuting –Aircraft bombing German defences; –Drop paratroopers and glider shock troops to seize vital roads and bridges; –Looking to secure the skies over Normandy in order to facilitate more troops safety being sent in to Europe to overtake the forces;

D-DAY – OPERATION OVERLORD PHASE II Naval Clearing and Delivering –Operation Nepture involved an armada of 7000 ships clear lanes of minefields and bombarding the Nazi positions; –Also had to convoy assault troops to the Normandy beaches, vehicles and a array of equipment; –All had to be at the right beach at the right time;

D-DAY – OPERATION OVERLORD PHASE III Land Forces, Assaulting and Securing –First US Army was assigned to Utah and Omaha beaches, –The second British Army was to hit Gold and Sword beaches; –The Canadians were assigned to Juno beach; –The main objective for all was to secure a position in France from which further offensives could be launched;

VE-DAY – VICTORY IN EUROPE Canadian Efforts: July – August 1944 – closing the Falaise Gap Nazis were trying to keep an escape route open through the French town of Falaise as they retreated from France; This position was between the American and Canadian advancing forces; Allied planes bombed continuously through the day as the Nazi troops moved; By the end, Nazi troops were captured and all of Normandy was in Allied possession;

VE-DAY – VICTORY IN EUROPE Battle of the Scheldt October – November 1944 First Canadian Army had to clear the Belgian port of Antwerp to allow access to Allied forces; British bombers blasted the area dams and flooded the region allowing the amphibious vehicles to be used; Although the Canadian losses were high (6367 lost) but the difficulty of the attack won praise from the British; Nazi forces in Antwerp surrendered in November 1944;

VE-DAY – VICTORY IN EUROPE END OF THE WAR February – May 1945 –Early activities were more like WWI trench warfare than WWII; –Western Allies cross the Rhine River in March and