Transcript North Africa and Europe

Canadian History 11
 Because of widespread unrest, the period between
WWI and WWII has often been called the “long
armistice” (20 year period of peace was only
temporary)
 German new method of fighting was the
blitzkrieg (lightning war). It was a sudden,
swift, overpowering attack that used airplanes
to bomb cities and to machine gun soldiers and
civilians. Then, German ground forces would
rush into battle.
 Blitzkrieg tactics made Germany successful
during the early years of the war because they
caught other nations unprepared. Within a
week, they conquered Poland. Poland was
divided between Germany and the Soviet
Union.
 Hitler’s army advances on Denmark (1 day),
Norway (2 days), the Netherlands (5 days),
Belgium (18 days), and Luxembourg.
 Between 1930-34 France was
building forts along its eastern
border.
 Known as the Maginot line, it was
the key to France’s defense against
invasion.
 Germany went around the
northern end of the Maginot line
and marched unopposed into
Paris.
 Italy invaded southern France.
 France signed an armistice at




Compiegne, the same place where
Germany surrendered to France in WWI.
(6 weeks to defeat France)
Nazi forces would occupy most of
France; French resources and factories
were to placed at the disposal of
Germany.
A few brave French leaders flew to
England where they set up a “Free
French” government.
Led By Charles de Gaulle, the French
organized an underground movement,
The Resistance. It carried out secret
missions against the Germans.
After the defeat of France, Canada
became Britain’s main ally.
 Total War
 Prime Minister King
 In 1939 Canada was still in
the grip of the Great
Depression.
 By 1945, Canada had
become one of the world’s
foremost industrial nations.
 Government sold Victory
Bonds and increased
income taxes to help pay for
the war. These paid for
2/3rd of the cost of the war.
 To avoid inflation, Canadian






government introduced wage and
price controls (government
restrictions placed on wages paid
to workers and prices charged for
goods and services.)
They strictly regulated wages,
prices (to control inflation) and
production. They were given
rations books.
Gasoline and food was rationed.
The use of metal and rubber was
restricted.
Children collected paper, metal,
rags, rubber and bones. All these
things could be recycled into war
materials.
They had contests to see who
could make the biggest ball out of
aluminum foil.
Women replaced enlisted men in
the workforce.
 Women in War = Nurses, flying
airplanes, driving vehicles, running
communication equipment and
performing administrative support
work
 Women were recruited for all
branches (45000 enlist)
 Canadian Battalions were no longer
segregated during WWII.
 Natives had to get permission of the
Dept. of Indian Affairs, as they were
not citizens. They had to give up
their status as registered Indians.
Army
730 625
RCAF
249 624
RCN
TOTAL
Women
ARMY
21 624
AIR FORCE
17 018
106 522
NAVY
6 781
1 086 771
MEDICAL
SERVICES
4 518
DOCTORS
58
 Increase marriages, combined with postwar economic
prosperity and peace time stability, caused the largest
birthrate in Canadian History. These post war
children came to be known as the baby boomers.
 National Resources Mobilization
Act (NRMA), required all single
men over 18 to register for
compulsory military service.
They were for home defense.
 Became known as zombies =
term used for soldiers who were
conscripted into army but
refused to serve overseas during
WWII.
 1942, King had a referendum
(issue goes for direct vote by the
people).
 French vote = 73% no and
English vote = 80% yes. The
men were sent overseas.
 If you had roots linked to the enemy you had to
register with RCMP.
 There was a curfew.
 Interned if you were a Nazi sympathizer.
 Italian and German immigrants who became citizens
after 1922 had to register as enemy aliens and some
were sent to internment camps.
 1939-45 only 5000 Jewish immigrants were allowed in
Canada.
 St. Louis ship of 900 German Jews was not allowed to
seek refuge and was sent back to Europe where many
were detained and sent to death camps.
Secret War: Camp X
 It was located on Lake Ontario near Oshawa
 It was a top secret training post for spies,





secret agents and sabotage experts.
It was under the direction of Canadian mast
spy, William Stephenson.
Agents from the camp were dropped behind
enemy lines to spy and report by radio.
They connected with underground
movements in occupied countries to disrupt
enemy activities.
One agent who was trained at Camp X was
Ian Fleming. After the war, he wrote the
James Bond Spy Stories.
Station M was a vital part of Camp X. It was
staffed by forgers, safecrackers, chemists,
movie set designers and costume experts. It
provided agents with false passports and
money, battered suitcases and European
items.
Canadian Spies
 Among the 28 Canadian agents who went into Europe, 8 died.
 Guy Bieler’s spine was badly injured when he parachuted into France.
Even so, he organized a sabotage group. They derailed and blew up
trains carrying troops and arms. They sabotaged locomotives. In the
end Bieler was captured and shot.
 Frank Pickersgill was captured when he landed in France. Nazi double
agents had given him away. He refused to break under questioning.
When his captors switched from threats to bribery, he broke a bottle on
his interrogator’s desk, slashed the throat of an SS guard, and jumped
out a 2nd floor window before being stopped by 4 bullets. In prison
camp he organized resistance, helping prisoners regain some lost
pride. The Nazis finally executed him and 15 other agents by hanging
them from meat hooks.
 3 Canadian Services: The Army, The Royal





Canadian Navy, The Royal Canadian Air
Force
1939 Canada’s navy was the 4th largest in
the world.
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was the
4th largest in the world
RCAF Training Plan – trained airmen from
all across the Commonwealth at more than
200 sites across Canada.
BCATP provided bases, aircraft and
instructors to train Commonwealth air and
ground crew
The Lancaster Bomber was the largest fourengine plane flown by the RCAF. During
the war 7,374 were made and many of them
in Canada.
 The Luftwaffe made countless bombing raids.
 At one point every British fighter was in the






air.
RAF made a surprise bombing on Berlin.
As revenge, Hitler decided to Blitz the cities.
He would terrorize the civilians into
surrendering.
However, this did not work. British resistance
grew stronger.
Hitler could not defeat Britain and Winston
Churchill.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) fought back.
Britain used an advanced radar system and
retained control of British air space
 At sea, British ships torpedoed and sank the
German battleship Bismarck in 1941.
 Germany reneged on its non-




aggression pact (an agreement
between nations not to launch a
military attack against one
another) and attacked the Soviet
Union.
Hitler decided to attack the Soviet
Union as he needed oil and wheat.
He used the Blitzkrieg.
This attack was a costly mistake,
because he began a 2-front war.
It also made the Soviet Union and
England allies.
 Britain needed food and munitions




from Canada and the USA
Germany’s objective was to overcome
Britain by cutting off its lifelines to
North America.
Convoys of merchant ships, protected
by naval vessels, took the needed
across the ocean constantly under the
attack by the German U-boats (known
as wolf-packs)
Corvettes – small fast warship used in
convoys
Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian
merchant marines played a crucial
role.
 USA started to sell war materials
to England and France.
 Roosevelt also had a lend-lease
agreement where he would lend
military equipment and those
nations could pay for the
equipment after the war.
 Churchill and Roosevelt also
drew up the Atlantic Charter,
which promised that neither
Great Britain nor USA wanted to
gain territory after WWII.
 French port
 Despite the original plan for the
troops to be covered by aerial
bombers, this was not the case.
 The commander of the Canadian
2nd Division feared bombardment
would block the streets, making it
difficult for his tanks to pass
 Politicians feared bombardment
would cause unnecessary
casualties among the civilian
population.
 In July, the 1st operation was cancelled due






to bad weather.
In August, the operation was re-configured
with many new Canadians who did not
receive detailed training for the raid.
The raiding force set sail and as it
approached Dieppe it encountered a small
German convoy.
Shots were exchanged which alerted the
German troops in Dieppe and this upset the
entire timetable for the raid.
They planned for the 1st landing to be at
half-light, but it happened in early morning
at 6am.
With good visibility, the Germans pinned
the troops on the beaches.
By 11am a withdrawal of all forces were
ordered.
Number Embarked
4963
Killed
907
Wounded
586
Taken Prisoner
1874
 Japan was gaining territory in Asia. In
1940, America stopped exporting gasoline
and metal to Japan (embargo) in an
attempt to stop the Japanese by hurting
their economy.
 In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in
Hawaii.
 USA declared war on Japan, Germany and
Italy declared war on USA and the USA
declared war on them.
 After Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, coastal
BC was “blacked out.” All lights had to be
turned off or shielded so that cities and
towns were invisible at night. There was a
fear in Canada that we could be attacked by
navy vessels or aircraft.
 Lost civil rights
 In 1941, 23,000 Japanese were living in




Canada. 14,000 were born in Canada.
They were established fishers,
agriculturalists and professionals.
Many volunteered for the armed forces
at the start of the war.
After Pearl Harbour, a wave of hysteria
swept across North America.
1942: 22,000 Japanese Canadians were
displaced from their homes and
evacuated to internment camps in BC
and labour camps in Prairies
 They were allowed 1 suitcase of possessions.
 The rest of their things were sold in public




auctions and the profits were used to pay for
internment camps.
Housing was un-insulated shacks with no
running water or electricity. Men and boys
were separated.
If you protested, you were sent to
concentration camps in Ontario and he had
to wear a uniform with a large red circle
Men were put to work on roads and were
paid .25 a day.
Women, children and seniors were confined
to the camps until the end of the war.
 After the war, many were forced to resettle in the
Prairies and Ontario.
 4000 were deported
 This was considered a violation of their civil rights and
in 1988 the government agreed to pay 21,000 in
compensation to each surviving evacuee.
 4 main theatres of war = Europe, North Africa, Asia
and the Pacific Islands
 Japan = Guam, Wake Islands,
Hong Kong, British Malaya, the
Philippines and the Dutch East
Indies.
 In 1941, 1,900 Canadians went
Hong Kong to help the island
defend itself against Japan.
But they were unsuccessful.
 Nazis had advanced as far as
Stalingrad (Soviet Union). In
North Africa Germany reached
Egypt and threatened the Suez
Canal and the British naval
base at Alexandria.
Pacific
 American flyers led a surprise attack on Tokyo
 Battle of Coral Sea = stopped the Japanese threat of
invasion of Australia
 Midway Island = Japanese were defeated
North Africa and Europe
Germany was driven out of Egypt and eventually out of Africa.
Allies invaded Sicily including the Canadian First Division.
The Italian campaign was long and difficult.
The battle for Ortona was a difficult for Canadians.
The Germans turned it into a series of house-to-house fights.
Canadians found it too dangerous to fight their way up the
streets, so they found a way to move directly from one building to
another.
They would blast a hold through a connecting wall in a top
storey. Before the smoke cleared, troops raced through the hole
throwing grenades and firing machine guns.
The technique was called “mouseholing,” and soldiers worked
their way down entire blocks without ever going into the street.
Canadians became known as experts in street fighting.
It took a month to capture the town.
650 Canadians were killed or wounded.
Allies’ Turning Point
 Soviet Armies, aided by a bitterly cold winter, made a
heroic stand at Stalingrad and stopped the Nazi advance.
 Allied planes made a series of round-the-clock raids on
German factories. The German people realized how
terrible was could be and what Hitler caused.
 1944, British, American and
Canadian and free French
troops invaded the French
region of Normandy.
 General Eisenhower was the
commander.
 Allies had two advantages:
 #1 was sheer numbers. They
had superiority of air power,
backed by the large armada ever
assembled, as well as the ability
to land upwards of 1 million
ground troops within 2 or 3
weeks after the initial landing
Air
6000 planes, 3000 fighters, opposed by just 300 German planes
Sea
4000 ships of all sizes – battleships, cruisers, destroyers, troop
transports, and landing craft – with 200,000 sailors. Canada
provided 110 ships and 10,000 men
Army
An initial force of 107,000 soldiers, with reserves in England of over 1
million. Canada contributed an infantry division and an armoured
brigade; another infantry division and two armoured divisions were
in reserve in England.
 #2 The Allies kept the
destination of the invasion force
a secret from the Germans until
after it landed.
 Part of the success rested on the
appointment of General George
Patton, a top field commander,
to lead a fictitious American
Third Army in Southeast
England.
 Patton’s “force” consisted largely
of dummy tanks, trucks, and a
massive number of false radio
transmissions.
 The Germans, feeling that
Patton was too valuable to kept
out of important action
elsewhere, believed totally in the
deception.
 Canadian Third Division
 Men were well prepared
 Supported by a huge amount of
artillery – Battleships, cruisers,
destroyers and specialized
landing craft had been equipped
to fire rockets on the German
defenders.
 Allied aircraft had extensively
bombed behind the German
positions on the beaches, so as to
prevent reinforcements.
 Allies began the offensive that






took them across France to
Germany and final victory.
1944 Allied soldiers liberated Paris
Germans made their last counteroffensive in Belgium in Dec. 1944.
This was known as the Battle of
the Bulge. 76,000men killed. The
Allied forces won and moved into
Germany.
1945 Allied armies advanced into
Germany.
Canadians were given the job of
the liberation of Holland.
6300 Canadians killed or wounded
By mid-April, most German units
had surrendered.
 War ended in 1945
 Roosevelt died suddenly, Mussolini was shot by anti-
Fascists and Hitler passed his last days hidden in a
bombproof shelter. He killed himself when the Soviet army
entered Berlin. Fighting ended in Italy on the same day.
 May 8th 1945 victory in Europe was proclaimed (known as
V-E Day)
 Japanese defeat was near. Philippines and island of
Okinawa were captured. The Atomic bomb was used
on Hiroshima (Little Boy) and Nagasaki (Fat Man).
The next day, Japanese surrendered.
 Sept. 2, 1945 the Japanese signed the agreement which
ended the war.
Army
22 910
RCAF
17 047
RCN
1 981
Total
41 938
 United Nations was formed to be the new





global organization for maintaining peace.
Free elections would be held in Eastern
European countries
Poland was to given German land in
exchange for Polish land to be taken in the
east by Russia.
Germany was divided into American,
British, French, and Soviet military zones.
Trials of Nazi war criminals were to take
place
July 1945, the Allied leaders met in
Potsdam, Germany where they agreed on a
peace settlement with Germany and drew
up plans for Japan’s surrender and
occupation.
 1947 Canada became the 1st Commonwealth Country
to define its citizens as Canadians first and British
subjects 2nd.