The War in Europe

Ch 5

The end of appeasement

1938– Britain and France agree in Munich to let Germany have

part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler said it would be his last territorial demand and then in March of 1939 he broke the pact by taking Prague. Policy of Appeasement ended

1939– Germany and Italy sign a pact pledging support for each

other in a war– Germany and Russia sign a 10 year nonaggression pact

in Aug.– Sept – Germany invades Poland (Blitzkrieg) and Russia

invades for the east. Germany and Russia sign a treaty dividing Poland between them

Phony War

1939Phony War on the Western Front

Maginot Line would holdConfident British Navy could blockade Germany

German launches counter blockade with submarines, mines and depth bombs, sinking many allied merchant and passenger shipsSinking of the Graf Spree and the Royal Oak

Russian-Finish War. Russia invades Finland in November. Mannerheim line finally broken in March. Finland gives Soviet union important ports and industry

The Axis and the “phony war”

• The alliance of Germany, Italy (1939) and Japan (1940) became known as the Axis.

• Once war was declared, the Allies raced to get organized and prepared for battle.

• The Allies did not go to the aid of Poland, and German Nazi armies crushed Poland in less than a month by using dive bombers and tanks in a Blitzkrieg

• Allies were quickly stationed along the France/Germany border waiting for Germany to make the next move.

• Nothing happened for seven months. This period was known as the “phony war.”

Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”)

• The blitzkrieg was a powerful and successful war tactic: surprise attacks with lightning speed, German tanks would crash through enemy lines, while war planes would roar through the skies, bombing the enemy below.

• After Poland and the “phony war” Blitzkrieg turned into high gear.

• The Germans captured Denmark and Norway (April 1940), Belgium and the Netherlands (May) and France (June).

Blitzkrieg

SEE ANIMATION MAP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/wwtwo_map_fall_france/index_embed.shtml

Axis & Allies

• The Axis powers:• Germany• Italy• Japan

• The Allied powers:• Britain• France• Canada• USSR• America• Other Commonwealth

Countries

• World Map with the participants in World War II.The Allies depicted in green (those in light green entered after the Attack on Pearl Harbour), the Axis Powers in orange, and neutral countries in grey.

Evacuation at Dunkirk

• The Germans pushed through Belgium and on to France, and surrounded the Allied (mostly British) forces in the French port of Dunkirk.

• Britain was in danger of having to surrender hundreds of thousands of troops, so the Allies tried an evacuation by sea, on May 26th, 1940.

• Two days later, the German air force bombed the port of Dunkirk, making the evacuation even more difficult.

• Miraculously the British government was able to evacuate over 300,000 people to Britain in only a week.

• Unfortunately for the Allies, France was easily taken as a result of the pull out, and on June 22, 1940, France surrendered.

-Only Britain remained unconquered

- Hitler ordered his air force to attack military targets and then civilian targets in Britain

-The Royal Air Force, along with many Canadian pilots, fought back until the German air raids ceased.

-The “Battle of Britain” lasted 8 months and cost the lives of 40 553 men, woman and children.

-Hitler instead turned his army against the U.S.S.R.

-It was the first German defeat of the war.

The Battle of Britain (1940-41)

The Battle of Britain (1940-41)

• By 1940 almost all of Europe was in the hands of Germany and Italy. Hitler’s next goal was Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain.

• In an attempt to force the British to surrender, Hitler begins the Battle of Britain. Hitler’s air force attacks the island of England, bombing both civilian and military targets

• German planed bombed London and other cities, killing civilians and destroying buildings and streets. These raids became known as “The Blitz.”

Fighting Back

• The Royal Air Force, along with many Canadian pilots, fought back until the German air raids ceased.

• This battle lasted 8 months and cost the lives of 40 553 men, women and children.

• It failed in its purpose to demoralize the British people and had the opposite effect instead the allies became even more devoted to the concept of “Total War”

Defending Britain

• The British had a sophisticated radar system that gave them early warnings of German air raids.

• They used Spitfires and Hurricanes, fighter planes that were extremely effective defence planes.

• In May 1941, Hitler gave up his plans to invade Britain.

• The failure of Germany to dominate this battle is known as one of the biggest mistakes in the war which enabled support to arrive and the British to gain morale.

The Hurricane Fighter Plane

The War Spreads

• Shortly after Germany’s defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler launched “Operation Barbarossa” (“red beard”), the invasion of the USSR.

• Even though Germany and the Soviet Union had agreed (in 1939) not to invade each other, Hitler needed to conquer the USSR to fulfill his plans of a German Empire.

Germany Attacks

• The Soviets were surprised and unprepared for the attack.

• At first, the Germans were able to push the Soviet army deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union.

• The German troops were unprepared for the long and cold Soviet winter, and soon lost their advantage.

• In 1942, the German troops launched another offensive in the USSR, and they got as far as Stalingrad. They were once again stopped by the severe winter.

• In early 1943, the German army surrendered, the Soviet army went on the offensive, and took back much of the land that they had lost.

Canada Entering the War• -Statute of Westminster(1931) – gave Canada complete control over

its dealings with foreign nations.

• -One week after Britain declared war, King called Parliament and a declaration of war was passed.

• -King told the Canadians that Canada would not practice conscription and would send few soldiers, but would help the war effort in the form of food and manufactured goods.

-King did not want to divide Canada as in WWI.

• -Only after the defeat of France (1940) did Canada make a full-scale war effort

• -By then, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and other smaller countries had fallen to the Nazis.

-Britain stood alone and was in danger of defeat.

• -1941, Japan declared war on Britain and the USA-Canadian forces in Hong Kong were attacked and the survivors

taken prisoner. -As a result, Canada declared war on Japan. (see Pg. 157, grey

box)

A Canadian tank commander surveys the terrain below him.

Japanese Canadians• When Canada and Japan went to war (Dec/1941); British

Columbians feared a Japanese invasion.-They felt that Japanese Canadians (enemy aliens) might assist in such an invasion.

• Results: 1) 38 Japanese Canadians were arrested 2) 1200 fishing boats were seized by the government 3) All Canadians of Japanese origin were required to register with the government 4) All Japanese Canadians were refused when they

tried to join the Canadian army 5) All persons of Japanese ancestry were moved to

camps in the interior of B.C. 6) The government confiscated their property and sold it 7) After the war, approx. 4000 Japanese Canadians

were deported to Japan.

The War in the Pacific

• Japan was an Axis power, but not involved in the War in Europe.

• By 1941, it was prepared to invade the US and European colonies in Southeast Asia which were rich in resources.

• On December 7th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (in Hawaii).

• Then they bombed the Philippines.• These bombings stunned the Americans, and the

next day the US government declared war on Japan. Japan’s Allies, Germany and Italy, then declared War on the US.

World War II Chronology

• 1941– In Conjunction with the German invasion of Russia,

Japan moved against Thailand• U.S. and Great Britain protested• Tojo comes to U.S. to trick government

– Dec 7th, Japan Attack Pearl Harbor– Japan attacks Midway Island, the Philippines, British

Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam and Wake island.– U.S. declares war on Japan– Dec 9th – China declares war on Japan, Germany and

Italy.– Germany and Italy declares war on U.S. on Dec 11th and

the USA declares war on them in return

World War II Chronology

• 1942– Wake, Guam and Hong Kong (Christmas of

1941) fall to the Japanese– Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines falls

to Japan– Singapore, the Netherlands Indies, Burma

and parts of New Britain and New Guinea fall to Japan.

– Darwin (Australia) is heavily bombed

The Dieppe Raid

• By 1942, the Allies were making plans to retake Europe

• To accomplish this, the Allies launched a series of raids across the English Channel

• One of these raids was against the French town of Dieppe which was in enemy hands

• Canadian troops were given the job of capturing the town at night under the cover of Air bombings and tank landings.

Dieppe: The Problems

• On the morning of August 19th, 1942, one of the ships carrying Canadian soldiers to Dieppe unexpectedly met a small German convoy.

• They engaged in a brief sea battle, and the noise alerted German troops on shore.

• Delays caused the ships to land on the beach during daylight, and Canadian soldiers were easily machine-gunned by the waiting German soldiers.

Dieppe: The Problems

• Commanders in the boats could not see what was happening, and communication was poor, so they continued to send reinforcements onto the beach, who were unable to retreat.

• Of 4,963 Canadians who landed, 2,853 were killed or captured

• More Canadian soldiers died in those few hours at Dieppe than in any other day of the war

Canadians at Sea

• By 1941, the Battle of the Atlantic was in full force.

• Britain was almost completely dependent on Canada and the US’s food and military supplies, but the Allied ships bound for England were being sunk by German U-boats patrolling the Atlantic.

• To protect these ships, Allies sailed in convoys, warships escorted and protected vessels carrying supplies.

Conscription Crisis

• -Prime Minister King had promised that there would be no conscription, But as the fighting grew heavier, there were demands to send more soldiers overseas.

• -In 1942, King held a referendum.Referendum - submitting an issue to the direct vote of

the people.• -80% of Québec said no, 80% of the rest of Canada voted yes.• -King then decided not to send conscripts unless he was

forced to.• -By 1944, Losses were so high, King reluctantly sent the

conscripts overseas to fight• -The issue of conscription divided the country as it did in WWI,

however, the situation was not as severe as it had been in 1917.

Battle of the Atlantic

• Initially, things weren’t looking good for the Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic, German submarines were sinking Allied convoys at a rapid pace.

• But, by May 1942, the British had cracked the German naval code, and the Allies could now track German submarines.

• In December, the British cracked a second code, and the Allies were now creating ships faster than they were getting destroyed.

Canadians in the Air

The Royal Canadian Air Force grew quickly after the war began, and played many important roles.

Canadian Air crews participated in bombing raids in Britain, North Africa, Italy, Northwest Europe, Southeast Asia and did night bombings over Germany.

The Tide Turns

• In 1942, the Allies gained strength with the US declaring war on Japan.

• They began to win the Battle of the Atlantic and made important advances in the Pacific.

• The Allies had cleared the Axis forces out of North Africa and now wanted to focus on Europe.

The Invasion of Italy

• British PM Winston Churchill felt that the best way to attack Europe was through Italy and Sicily.

• In 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily, and were successful after two weeks of fierce fighting.

Battle Of Ortona1943

• BBC - History - Animated Map: The Italian Campaign

• (see Pg. 116)

July 11,1943: General Bernard Montgomery standing on a "duck" speaking to Canadian troops, Pachino peninsula, Sicily.

The Invasion of Italy

The advances were slow, fighting was often house by house and it could take weeks to take a city.

Perhaps the most important Canadian-Axis conflict was Ortona, where Canadians fought for a month, and lost 1372 soldiers before the Germans withdrew.

The Invasion of Italy

• The Allies advance through Italy was difficult, but eventually they took Rome on June 4th, 1944.

• The fighting continued in Italy until the spring of 1945.

• Over 75,000 Canadians were active in Italy during the campaign.

D-Day• D-Day was June 6th, 1944.• “Operation Overlord” was launched on D-Day,

and was the biggest Allied invasion of the war, an attack on Europe across the English Channel.

• The Allies had learnt from their mistakes made at Dieppe, and this invasion involved almost one million soldiers.

• British, American, and Canadian troops stormed ashore along the entire coast of the French province of Normandy.

Operation Overlord

• There were five landing points along an 80 km stretch of beach: Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah.

• Juno Beach was the Canadian Objective

Juno Beach and Beyond

• Although the Germans had anticipated an attack, they did not expect the Allies to attempt in such bad weather.

• Canadian troops struck at first light, pouring out of their landing craft and advancing across the sand up into the town of Caen

• The Allies had taken back part of the French soil, D-day marked the beginning of the end for Germany

• Canadians continued to fight for months in order to also take back all the French ports along the English Channel

• The Battle of the Sheldt was a key event in this period.• Allied soldiers fought right into Germany through the

Rhineland

Liberating the Netherlands

• One of the most important moments in the history of World War II for Canadian Soldiers.

• Canadian troops had been fighting in France, Italy, Belgium, and in Germany since the D-Day landing.

• These troops were moved to the Netherlands to push the German troops occupying the northeast back to the sea and to drive German troops in the west back into Germany.

• As a result of their efforts, the German invasion of the Netherlands was reversed and the Dutch people were freed.

• Canadian troops and pilots gave food to the people of Holland, the people of Holland send thanks to this day for the help they received in World War II

Germany Surrenders

In March of 1945, Allied forces attacked Germany. • The Allies were attacking Germany from the

West, and the Soviet Union was attacking Germany from the East.

• Germany surrendered on May 7th, 1945.• Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed

suicide in a bunker in Berlin.• As the Allies pressed closer to Germany, they

began to discover the extent of the Holocaust.

The Red Army in Berlin

By May 2,the Reichstag, the old German parliament, had fallen and Berlin surrendered to General Zukhov, who received the honour of being the conqueror of Berlin.

• The battle for Berlin had cost the Soviets over 70,000 dead. Many of them had died because of the haste with which the campaign was conducted.

The US and Japan

The key tactic for the Americans was to “Island hop” between South East Asian countries

• They also fortified around larger Japanese held territory• In June 1942 the Japanese tried to take Midway Island

and failed. The casualties were significant.• This was a key turning point, because the US now had

more naval vessels.• The Americans also cracked the Japanese code allowing

them to know Japanese naval positioning and predict attacks

The Atomic Bomb

• The atomic effort, codenamed “The Manhattan Project,” was done jointly by Americans, Brits, Canadians and ironically, a German.

• US Air force dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima August 6th 1945. Three days later they dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki.

• 140,000 and 70,000 people died respectively.• Japan surrendered 6 days after the second

bomb was dropped ending the war.

Is the Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction Ever Justified?

Read the counterpoints section on pages 120-121 in your textbook.

Answer questions 1-4: “Analyzing the issue”

What the War Meant to Canada

• In Canada, the economy boomed as it produced war goods (aluminum, paper, petroleum products)– Agriculture was overtaken by manufacturing– GDP (Gross Domestic Product) increases– Many new jobs are created

• Canada’s economy transformed from rural to a modern industrial nation

What the War Meant to Canada

• Society also changed as women were employed in greater numbers

• After the war, Canada’s role on the global stage grew. It was now a “major player” in the world.

- had world’s 3rd largest navy, and 4th

largest air force