Transcript File

Canadian Battles In WWII
A Power Point Presentation
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 Uboats 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
• A depth
charge
exploding
http://www.junobeach.org/images/english/flash/convoy39.html
The Battle of Hong Kong
December 8-24, 1941
Canadian soldiers first engaged in battle while defending
the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong against a Japanese
attack in December, 1941. The Canadians at Hong Kong
fought against overwhelming odds and most had limited
military training. They had virtually no chance of victory,
but refused to surrender until they were overrun by the
enemy. Those who survived the battle became prisoners
of war (POWs) and many endured torture and starvation
by their Japanese captors. In all, more than 550 of the
1,975 Canadians who sailed from Vancouver in October
1941 never returned.
On December 24, the Japanese overran a
makeshift hospital in Hong Kong, assaulting and
murdering nurses and bayoneting wounded Canadian
soldiers in their beds. After the colony
surrendered, the cruelty would continue. For more
than three and a half years, the Canadian POWs
were imprisoned in Hong Kong and Japan in the
foulest of conditions and had to endure brutal
treatment and near-starvation. In the filthy,
primitive POW quarters in Northern Japan, they
would often work 12 hours a day in mines or on the
docks in the cold, subsisting on rations of 800
calories a day. Many did not survive.
August 19, 1942 The
Dieppe Raid
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.
Dieppe Video
The Dieppe Beachfront
Corpses on the
beach next to two
Churchill tanks of
the 14th Armoured
Regiment
(Calgary) stuck in
pebbles. Behind
them, thick smoke
coming from LCT
5.
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 through the barbed wire. My
immediate objective was a concrete pillbox on top of a 12foot 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
German under fire in Ortona
Germans Defending a Street
Tanks Attack Ortona
Canadian Infantry in Ortona
Mussolini, after
being killed he
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.
Video
The Bomber Offensive
• The heavy bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces reached
England in 1942 and began to bomb Germany by day. The
Americans went after individual industries using
formations of heavily-armed bombers, and lost heavily to
German day fighter attacks, particularly before they
developed a long range escort fighter. In July 1943, a
series of British and American raids created a firestorm
which consumed the city of Hamburg, killing some 30,000
inhabitants, most of them women and children.
• The bombing killed some 600,000 German civilians, but
did not succeed in breaking their morale. German war
production fell drastically only at the very end of the war.
Forever gone, though, were many of the cultural treasures
of Europe, works of art destroyed by Allied bombs.
Royal Canadian Air Force
• RCAF bomber squadrons formed a major part of
Bomber Command, and even more RCAF aircrew
served in RAF bomber squadrons. In January
1943 the RCAF squadrons were brought together
to become No. 6 (RCAF) Group. In its first year
of service, the Group suffered staggering losses,
particularly in the long-range raids of the Battle of
Berlin in the fall and winter of 1943-1944. In all,
over 8,200 Canadian aircrew in Bomber
Command died.
Royal Canadian Air Force
bombing newspaper.pdf
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 German
controlled 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.
D-Day Summary
D-Day Footage
WW2: The D-Day Landings
Animated Map: Operation Overlord
The Atlantic Wall!
Mulberry Harbor
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
Armoured Warrior Game
British Special Operations Executive (SOE):
Tools and Gadgets Gallery
Gallery of Spy Tools
Secret Agents and D-Day Success
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 8, 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, the Netherlands
Infantry of the South Saskatchewan
Regiment lying down and firing through
a hedge near Dutch farmhouse
German soldiers being disarmed by troops of I
Canadian Corps at a small arms dump in the
Netherlands, May 11th, 1945.