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Declaration of War
Britain and France declare war on Germany for invading Poland.The two sides created were the Allies and the Axis. The Allies consisted of Britain, France and commonwealth countries which included Canada. The Axis was formed by Germany, Italy and further on Japan. -
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Duration of World War Two
The war lasted six long years, with the loss of over millions of lives. It had officially started when Germany invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war on Germany 2 days after, and finally ended after the Allies invades Germany and they surrendered as well as when U.S.'s atomic bomb had "convinced" Japan to surrender as well. -
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The "Phony War"
This was the period that had followed the declaration of war. Despite the fact there was a war, little military action had taken place during this time period. This had resulted in Britain and France, who was supporting Poland, to wait for Hitler's next attack. -
Blitzkrieg-End of The "Phony War"
The "Phony War" was ended when Germany hadattacked Denmark and Norway using a German war tactic of surprise attacks by the use of German Panzers and fighter planes, known as Blitzkrieg. The attacks had progressed quite rapidly, resulting a quick victory by the confusion for the defending army and they were quickly surrounded. After quickly conquering Normay and Denmark, within weeks Hitler soon went after the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium. -
Evacuation at Dunkirk
With German Panzers having surrounded Allied troops in the port of Dunkirk in France, Britain had to find a way to help them escape or it would have lost a large chunk of its army. As a result, the British navy had gathered up as many boats as possible that was capable of sailing across the English Channel. This had resulted with over 340000 soldiers rescued and brought to safety. -
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North African Campaign
This was mainly a dispute over the controling of valuable resources and the Strait Of Gibraltar as well as the Sueze Canal, which were access points to the Mediterranean Sea. If the Axis were successful, they would ave access to the oil-rich middle east. -
The Battle Of Britain
Hitler's "Operation Sea Lion" was an unsuccesful plan he had launched shortly after taking over France to invade Britain. One of its main goals was to defeat the Royal Air Force in order to allow German troops across the English Channel to invade Britain. But when the Germans had bombed a part of London, the RAF bombed back Berlin, which only outraged Hitler and led to "the Blitz". In the end, the Luftwaffe couldn't defeat the RAF and Hitler gave up on this operation. -
Operation Barbarossa
This operation was launched by Hilter, to conquer the Soviet Union. The benefits to this was a source of raw materials, agriculutral land, labour for the Axis and was benificial in his plans for a new German Empire. This had broken the non-agresion pact Hitler signed with Stalin. Overall, The Germans had lost, particularly due to notbeing prepared for the harsh winter climate and a lack of reinforcements. This resulted ultimately in the Soviet Union switching to the Allies side. -
The Tide Turns
With Japan bombing Pearl Harbour due to the fact there was a U.S. Naval base, the U.S. had joined the war on the Allies' side. The U.S. had helped gain ground in the North-Africa Campaign and helped with the War in the Sea agaisnt German U-Boats. Things were shifting over to the Allies' side with the U.S. on their side. -
The Dieppe Raid
This was an Allies' trial run of a full scale invasion of Europe from the west. It would allow them to test new technology and weapons. The plan was to launch attacks on four points along the coast.What went wrong was the delay, in which it wasn't predawn anymore, and an Allied vessel ran into a German convoy which alerted the Axis, the plans also weren't new so it may have been leaked. Overall, the raid was a complete failiare and man slaughter. 927 were killed, 600 wounded, 1946 were POW. -
Battle of Sicily (Italian Campaign)
Part of Churchill's plan to recapture Europe through the "soft underbelly" of Europe. Sicily was thefirst place they've invaded, the Allies had succesfully captured the island within 38 days. The Allies had battled through 240km of mountain terrian, and overall lost about 562 soldiers. This "soft under belly" wasn't as easy of a victory as they thought. This event had also led to Mussolini being overthrown out of power. -
Battle Of Ortona (Italian Campaign)
The Allies had given Canadian troops the task of capturing the town of Ortona. This had slow advances due to the fact the fighting occured house by house in a rubbled filled setting. To reach Ortona, troops also had to along the side capture several other villages and fight across other German occupied lands. Although the task was completed, over 1372 soldiers were lost, about 6000 of them were Canadian. -
Candians At Juno Beach
Juno beach was the beach Canadian troops were asigned to. They succesfully made their way through German defeness and got about 9km inland. This was an important event due to the fact that Canadians were assigned their own beach to invade, showing Canada's significance in a world conlfict/event. In teh end there were 715 wounded soldiers and 359 Candian lives lost at this battle. -
The Normandy Invasion (D-Day)
This was one of the Allies' biggest invasion throughout the entire course of this war. This like, Dieppe, was a full scale invasion of Europe, but this time was planned and rehearsed down to every little detail to ensure success, along with the fact details of this were kept secret from Germans.5 beaches (Utah,Omaha,Gold,Juno,Sword) was were the attacks were to be launched. Due to a storm, the German defenses were poorly coorindated to the Allie's advantage. -
Battle Of The Scheldt (11 month campaign)
Canadian troops were once again given a task, this time it was to clear enemy troops from the Scheldt River in Belgium due to the fact it had connected Antwerp to the North Sea.Canadian troops had regained control of the river and access to the sea within a month. This was significant as Candians had successfully completed the task which allowed crutial supplies to be brought to Allied troops before they advanced into Germany. -
Battle Of The Rhineland (11 month campaign)
The Allies has started invading Germany, first by driving German troops back over the Rhine River and out of the Netherlands.Soldiers had faced difficult terrain as there was a lot of mud and flooded fields during fighting. About 23 000 Allied soldiers were lost while 90 000 German soldiers were lost on the other hand, with 52000 taken as POW. Eventually after a few months, Germans had withdrew from the area which allowed Canadians to move along to liberate Holland. -
Liberating The Netherlands
Despite the fact Allied troops had previously failed to liberate Holland, this difficult task has been given to Canadian troops. It was difficult due to the fact German troops had destroyed port cities, flooded much of the countryside and there was a harsh winter as the Canadians had fought for months. In the end it they were victorious, and the Dutch had viewed Canadian soldiers as heros as during the during, crutial food and fuel supplies were cut off and the Canadians had came to their rescue -
Victory In Europe
May 7,1945 was the day Germany had surrendered to the Allies.Germany had been invaded from the North,West (by Allies) and East side(Soviet Union). In attempts to escape being captured, Hitler had even comited suicide in Berlin. This signified the end of the war in Europe and May 8 was declared Victory In Europe Day. -
Japan Surrenders and the Manhattan Project
On August 14,1945, Japan surrenders in fear of the U.S. tagetting them by the use of more atomic bombs. The Manhattan Project had developed he first atomic bomb, with Canada supplying uranium. Two atomic bombs had been dropped in Japan befor ehtey had surrendered. This had shaken up the world as it was the first time in history that such a mass destructive weapon was used.
