Transcript Canada`s Significant European Battles

Canadian Battles In WWII
The Battle of the North
Atlantic
The goal for the Allies in this war was to ship
supplies to England (weapons, food, medical supplies,
etc.). Germany used U-boats to sink these ships.
Canada used the convoy system to protect its
merchant ships. The Canadian-made ‘Corvette’
traveled in the convoy of 50-60 ships. This battle
went on over the duration of the war. It was vital to
the success of the allies.
A convoy of
Allied Ships
http://www.junobeach.org/images/english/flash/convoy39.html
August 19, 1942 The
Dieppe Raid (Canada’s first
major action in Europe)
At Dieppe Canada hoped to quickly attack the Germans
who had taken over France. The raid was a failure because
they did not arrive under the cover of darkness as planned.
As a result the Germans were ready for the attack and
easily mowed down soldiers as they landed on the beaches.
More Canadians died at Dieppe than on any other day of
the war. Of 5000 troops, 1400 were killed /wounded,
while approx. 2000 were taken prisoner.
This was a lesson for the D-day landing in Normandy.
The Dieppe Beachfront
Corpses on the
beach next to two
Churchill tanks of
the 14th Armoured
Regiment (Calgary)
stuck in pebbles.
Department of National
Defence / National
Archives of Canada C014160.
Officer and soldiers examining a Churchill tank stuck
on the beach in front of the boardwalk after the
battle, its left track broken. Wounded men lying on
the ground are about to be evacuated. Dieppe,
August 19th, 1942.
"The second the boat scraped the beach, I
jumped out and started to follow the sappers
(combat engineers) through the barbed wire. My
immediate objective was a concrete pillbox on
top of a 12-foot parapet about 100 yards up the
beach. I think I had taken three steps when the
first one hit me. You say a bullet or a piece of
shrapnel hits you but the word isn't right. They
slam you the way a sledgehammer slams you.
There's no sharp pain at first. It jars you so much
you're not sure exactly where you've been hit – or
what with."
- Lt-Col Dollard Ménard, Fusiliers Mont-Royal
Canadian
prisoners
escorted
by
German
guards
marching
through
Dieppe,
August
19th,
1942.
December, 1943 The Battle of Ortona
Canadian troops began their fight in Italy by
easily driving up the peninsula from the
Southern tip of Sicily in an attempt to drive
German soldiers back to Germany. German
forces made a stand at Ortona to try to
protect Rome from falling. Canadian troops
distinguished themselves at Ortona by
defeating elite German soldiers and
capturing the city on December 27. This was
one of Canada’s greatest achievements in the
war.
The Italian Campaign
Germans under fire in Ortona
Germans Defending a Street
Tanks Attack Ortona
Canadian Infantry in Ortona
Mussolini, after
being killed, was
hung at a gas
station along
with 15 other
leading fascists.
People were
allowed to
desecrate his
body in order to
take out their
frustrations
with his rule.
June 6, 1944 D-Day Invasion
“Operation Overlord” was the name given to the largest
allied surprise attack in WWII. The purpose was to
launch a massive invasion to regain control of Germancontrolled Europe in France. Canadian forces joined the
British and Americans and were assigned an Eastern
section of Normandy’s beaches called “Juno” beach.
Canadian troops successfully took Juno Beach from
German control. By the end of D-Day more than 155,000
soldiers and 6000 vehicles had landed in France. The
allies successfully destroyed the defending Germans and
began to move inland. This forced Germany to fight a war
on two fronts.
The Atlantic Wall!
Landing craft with Canadian troops
approach the Normandy beach.
Reinforcements arrive at a Normandy
Canadian soldiers land on Juno Beach
German prisoners captured on D-Day
1944-1945 The Liberation of Northern Europe
Once the Nazis were forced out of France, the
occupied countries of Europe needed to be
liberated. The Canadians were assigned the
Netherlands and Belgium. The Germans resisted
this liberation and were ordered to fiercely
defend their ground by Hitler. Despite this,
Canada freed these countries. On May 7, 1945
Germany surrendered to the invading allied
forces, known as VE-Day (Victory in Europe).
Crowd welcoming the Stormont, Dundas
and Glengarry Highlanders of Canada to
Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Infantry of the South Saskatchewan
Regiment lying down and firing through
a hedge near Dutch farmhouse.
German soldiers being disarmed by troops of the
Canadian Corps at a small arms dump in the
Netherlands, May 11th, 1945.