early stages of war: germany on the offensive after taking poland, germany turned towards northern...
TRANSCRIPT
WWII BATTLES
GERMAN AGGRESSION
Early Stages of War: Germany on the Offensive
After taking Poland, Germany turned towards Northern Europe.
In April, 1940 Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway. It took only two months to take these countries.
He then turned towards Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium in May. The Blitzkrieg proved to be too much for these countries as well.
Battle for France:
The Maginot Line
After WWI France had developed an intricate line of defense known as the Maginot Line.
This was a heavily armed tunnel system that spanned the entire border between France and Germany.
It made the French feel safe from any German attack.
On May 12, 1940 Germany invaded France.
Instead of attacking the Maginot line, the Germans simply went around it.
The Maginot line proved to be an expensive joke that was never used.
The ‘Miracle’ of Dunkirk When France was invaded Britain sent in troops to help defend the country. Both France and Britain were not prepared for the speed of the Blitzkrieg.
The German army forced the allies back to the French city of Dunkirk where they remained trapped.
The allies faced certain defeat while Hitler prepared the Luftwaffe for the final blow.
In his delay the British sent out a call for help. Nearly 900 ships (including fishing boats and passenger craft) came across the fogy English Channel.
Between May 27 and June 4 over 300,000 soldiers were evacuated to England from Dunkirk. It was expected that only 10,000 would have survived.
Thousands of men stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, France
The French destroyer sinks off Dunkirk while loaded with troops
Evacuation of Dunkirk
British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill: Speaking to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940 about the Miracle of Dunkirk.
... We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender ...'
Dunkirk
The Fall of France
On June 13, 1940 Paris was occupied by Germany and two weeks later
France surrendered.
The Battle of Britain On July 10, 1940 Hitler ordered an air attack on British ships in the English Channel signaling the start of the Battle of Britain.
Hitler’s plan was to destroy Britain’s fighter planes, factories and the morale of the people. This would allow him to mount a ground attack.
At first the German Luftwaffe was extremely successful by knocking out airfields and supply factories. The Royal Air Force (RAF) despite being badly outnumbered held it’s ground.
On September 7, 1940 two German planes bombed London which prompted Churchill to retaliate with a strike on Berlin.
An infuriated Hitler ordered an all-out assault on London which peaked on September 15th. This allowed the RAF time to recover and turned the tide of the Battle.
By the end of the summer Hitler realized that he could not win control of British air space. The RAF won the Battle of Britain
Hitler Invades the Soviet Union
On June 22, 1941 Hitler violated the non-aggression pact by invading Russia during Operation Barbarossa.
Why did Hitler invade?
Hitler believed that if the Soviet Union could be defeated quickly, Britain would be more willing to accept peace terms.
Up to this point, the Nazis had many quick successes , and felt as though they could quickly defeat the Soviet Union
The blitzkrieg was successful at first, reaching within 39 km of Moscow.
Russia used a ‘scorched earth’ policy in its retreat, which involved destroying all resources that could be of use to the enemy- livestock, crops, and supplies.
By winter, Hitler’s troops were ill prepared for the temperatures (-50 degrees Celsius) and they along with their equipment began to freeze.
Hitler thought his Nazis could defeat the Soviets within a few months, and had not prepared for a winter campaign
Germany suffered a terrible defeat at the Russian city of Stalingrad in January of 1943, and almost ¼ of Germany military troops surrendered
Battle for Stalingrad
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
WAR IN THE PACIFIC
Prewar
1932
1937
AB
C
D
“ABCD Encirclement”
1940
1941
Dec 8/7 1941
December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Invasion
Pearl Harbor, on the Island of O'ahu, Hawaii, (then a territory of the United States) was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy, at approximately 8:00 A.M., Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The surprise attack had been conceived by Admiral Yamamoto.
There had been no formal declaration of war. Day of Infamy Speech
Pearl Harbour
The US declares war Dec.8.1941
"Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.”
- Winston Churchill
1941
1942
Canadians at Hong Kong, 1941
Hong Kong was a vital British Colony
A small contingent of Canadian and Indian troops were assigned to its defence
The British had estimated that there were only 5,000 Japanese troops preparing to invade
However, there were 50,000 veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army waiting
The Japanese soldiers were ordered to make a series of suicide attacks against Canadian positions
The Canadian troops surrendered after 17 days on December 25th, 1941
290 soldiers were killed, 500 were wounded
Survivors were sent to Japanese Prisoner of War Camps and were treated harshly
Japanese soldiers had contempt for soldiers who did not fight to the death
POW’s were used as slave labourers, often tortured and beaten
267 Canadians died in Japanese POW camps
Rape of Nanking
In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city.
After finally defeating the Chinese at Shanghai in November, 50,000 Japanese soldiers then marched on toward Nanking.
After just four days of fighting, Japanese troops smashed into the city on December 13, 1937, with orders issued to "kill all captives."
Their first concern was to eliminate any threat from the 90,000 Chinese soldiers who surrendered. To the Japanese, surrender was an unthinkable act of cowardice and the ultimate violation of the rigid code of military honor drilled into them from childhood onward. Thus they looked upon Chinese POWs with utter contempt, viewing them as less than human, unworthy of life.
The elimination of the Chinese POWs began after they were transported by trucks to remote locations on the outskirts of Nanking. Smiling soldiers can be seen conducting bayonet practice on live prisoners, decapitating them and displaying severed heads as souvenirs, and proudly standing among mutilated corpses.
Some of the Chinese POWs were simply mowed down by machine-gun fire while others were tied-up, soaked with gasoline and burned alive.
• After the destruction of the POWs, the soldiers turned their attention to the women of Nanking and an outright animalistic hunt ensued. Old women over the age of 70 as well as little girls under the age of 8 were dragged off to be sexually abused. More than 20,000 females (with some estimates as high as 80,000) were gang-raped by Japanese soldiers, then stabbed to death with bayonets or shot so they could never bear witness.
• Pregnant women were not spared. In several instances, they were raped, then had their bellies slit open and the fetuses torn out. Sometimes, after storming into a house and encountering a whole family, the Japanese forced Chinese men to rape their own daughters, sons to rape their mothers, and brothers their sisters, while the rest of the family was made to watch.
Those who were not killed on the spot were taken to the outskirts of the city and forced to dig their own graves, large rectangular pits that would be filled with decapitated corpses resulting from killing contests the Japanese held among themselves. Other times, the Japanese forced the Chinese to bury each other alive in the dirt.
After this period of unprecedented violence, the Japanese eased off somewhat and settled in for the duration of the war. To pacify the population during the long occupation, highly addictive narcotics, including opium and heroin, were distributed by Japanese soldiers to the people of Nanking, regardless of age. An estimated 50,000 persons became addicted to heroin while many others lost themselves in the city's opium dens.
In addition, the notorious Comfort Women system was introduced which forced young Chinese women to become slave-prostitutes, existing solely for the sexual pleasure of Japanese soldiers.
Back To Europe
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
2000 Canadians were taken prisoner
"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 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
The Italian Campaign
Canadian soldiers took an active and important part in the campaign in Italy
They landed July 10, 1943 and despite the heavy cost, they proved themselves in battle
Italy surrendered unconditionally in September 1943 and Mussolini was taken out of power
However, the Germans immediately took control of the country
The Campaign of Italy was designed to take the pressure off their Russian Allies and pull German troops out of north-western Europe readying the area for Operation “Overlord”
September 9th, 1943 the attack began on Italy
The Canadians were forced to fight for every metre of the mountainous terrain as the Germans refused to give it up
Italian Campaign Animated Map
Battle for Ortona Ortona is an ancient city that
consists of narrow streets and connected houses
Much of Ortona was reduced to rubble, making it difficult for the Canadians to use tanks
The Germans barricaded themselves in houses and mined the streets
The fighting was house-to-house-literally – the Canadians blasted their way through walls to get from building to building.
The battle continued over Christmas Day, 1943 but three days later the Germans withdrew.
The Liberation of Rome Following the fall of Ortona the
Allies ground to a halt due to blizzards and drifting snow at the end of December
The Allied focus then turned to the western front where it was considered to have the best chance of a breakthrough towards Rome.
It took four major offensives between January and May 1944 before the Allies including British, US, French, Polish, and Canadian Corps broke through
Rome was declared an open city by the German army and the Allies took possession on June 4th.
The Move on to France
• Having the Germans occupied in Italy allowed the allies to move forward with their plan to open up the long awaited western front in Europe
The Plan Winston Churchill and
Franklin Roosevelt agreed it was time to open up a new front in the West through the beaches of France
The obvious choice for a landing area was the Pas de Calais so the Allies decided to attack in Normandy instead but believed they had to deceive the Germans they intended to attack elsewhere
Normandy It Is! Normandy
is a peninsula on the French Coast
It was chosen because the Germans expected the attack to be on the Pas de Calais
The Criteria1. The enemy must remain
ignorant of the proposed landing site
2. The enemy must be prevented from bringing up reinforcements quickly once the allies landed
3. Complete Allied air and naval superiority in the English Channel
4. Local defenses must largely be destroyed by air and sea bombardment
Operation “Overlord”
There would be five sectors that would be attacked:
1. Utah – American2. Omaha –
American3. Gold – British4. Juno – Canadian5. Sword - British
The Attack – June 6th, 1944• Operation Overlord Simulation
The Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by the Germans between 1942 and 1944
Built along the western coast of Europe to defend against an anticipated Anglo-American led Allied invasion of the continent from Great Britain.
A string of reinforced concrete pillboxes were built along the beaches to house machine guns, antitank guns, and light artillery
Minefields and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches and underwater obstacles and mines were planted in the waters just off shore to destroy incoming craft
By the time of the invasion, the Germans had laid almost 6 million mines in northern France
The Atlantic Wall!
The Time Has Come• On the evening of
June 5th paratroopers dropped in to secure bridges for the allied advance
• Heavy bombers dropped their payloads on what was supposed to be the beach defences
• In the early morning the largest armada of ships left Britain for the French coast
The Canadians on D-Day Of the nearly 150,000 Allied troops who landed
or parachuted into the invasion area, 14,000 were Canadians
The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors in support of the landings while the R.C.A.F. had helped prepare the invasion by bombing targets inland
Canadians suffered 1074 casualties, including 359 killed.
The Battle for Normandy For the first month following the
D-Day landings, a stalemate developed during which the Allies built up their forces
By August 21, the Germans had
either retreated or been destroyed between the Canadian-British and American efforts.
Liberation of Holland
March 1945 Canadian Corps arrived from Italy to replace British Corps in Holland
Canadian Corps pushed north to the isolating German forces in west Netherlands and then east into Germany
When hostilities ceased on May 5 1945, it fell to the Canadians to liberate Holland
The Dutch there had suffered through an extremely harsh winter, short of food and fuel
The Canadians were welcomed enthusiastically and the joyous "Canadian summer" that ensued forged deep and long-lasting bonds of friendship between the Dutch and Canadian peoples.
The Final Days In April 1945, the battle
was coming to a close.
On the 30th April, Hitler commits suicide together with his mistress Eva Braun hours after they were married.
Hitler gave strict orders for his body to be burned, so that his enemies wouldn't do what they had done to Mussolini, who was publicly displayed hanging upside down.
The Soviets Arrive – Berlin Falls
• By May 2, the Reichstag, the old German parliament falls and Berlin surrenders to Marshall Zukhov, who receives the honour of being the conqueror of Berlin.
• The battle for Berlin cost the Soviets over 70,000 dead. Many of them died because of the haste with which the campaign was conducted.
VE-Day The major Allied ground
offensive from the west against German territory began on 8 February 1945
In April, Canadian troops liberated most of the Netherlands
The Germans formally surrendered on 8 May 1945, known as Victory-in-Europe, or ‘V-E’ Day
The Pacific Theatre of World War II
The Final Year The US retakes the Philippines in a long and costly campaign.
Borneo, Iwo Jima and the Okinawa fall, with heavy losses on both sides.
The military leadership of Japan refuses to give up, in spite of the loss of the bulk of their forces.
An edict is issued, ordering civilians on the main Japanese islands to construct bamboo spears and meet the invaders on the beaches.
US Bombers produce a firestorm in Tokyo, killing 100,000 people in two days.
The US, Britain and China issue the Potsdam Declaration, demanding Japan’s surrender.
Manhattan Project & Atomic Age
The United States, led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer, developed an atomic bomb under the secretive Manhattan Project.
By mid-1945 there was a belief by the Americans that the Japanese were too proud to surrender.
This led American President Harry S. Truman to order the dropping of the atomic bomb.
On August 6, 1945 the U.S. bombed Hiroshima. More than 70,000 people were killed and 61,000 were injured instantly. Many people were vaporized, and radiation burns scorched others.
The Japanese refused surrender and on Aug. 9 the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. Aug. 10, 1945 Japan surrenders ending WWII.
This signaled the beginning of the nuclear arms race and the Cold War.
The patterns of clothing were permanently burned into the skin because of the intense flash of light.
Hair loss due to radiation exposure
Japan Surrenders
Representatives of Japan’s Foreign Ministry, Army and Navy appear to sign the surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay
The Cost
• 2,000,000 Japanese Soldiers dead• 300,000 Allied Soldiers dead• 600,000 - 1,000,000 Japanese civilians dead• 11,000 American civilians dead• 60,000 Korean civilians dead• Mass devastation of Japanese infrastructure• Indigenous people of north and western Pacific
islands devastated by disease, cultural contamination, collateral damage, and atrocities.
• The list continues…