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Declaration of War
Britain, France, and the Commonwealth; including Canada, New Zealand and Australia began to organize itself as a force of the Allies. The Axis was the alliance of Germany, Japan, and Italy. During the time period of 7 months between October 1939 and April 1940 allied troops stationed along with Germany on France's border as they waited for Germany's next move. As time time passed people began to doubt that the there would be a war, therefore this time period became known as the "Phony War." -
Blitzkrieg
Germany used an extremely successfully war tactic known as the blietzkrieg that used surprise and speed to attack and conquer Denmark and Norway. The success was reached by removing vital communication links and overwhelming the enemy using German tanks (panzers) to crashthrough enemy lines, move out key enemy supply and positions, as soldiers parachuted into enemy terrritory, leaving defense army confused and surrounded. Within weeks Germany conquered Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium. -
Dunkirk
German forces made an attack on france through belgium making their way to the French port of Dunkirk where they surrounded allied forces. If Britain had surrendered, they would have lost a bulk of it's army. Therefore Britain made an evacuation rounding up every capable boat to go across the channel for dunkirk.This "miracle" rescue brought 340 000 allied soldiers to safety.Two days after the beginning of evacuation, the German Luftwaffe bombed the port of Dunkirk.On June 22 France surrendered. -
North African Campaign
The Axis began a three year campaign in the deserts of North Africa as Italy wanted to expand its territories for valuable resources and strategic positions. Once Italy joined the Axis in war, British cavalry and tank regiments invaded the Italian colony, Libya. For the Axis to have any hope of victory they planned on dominating the Mediterranean for the waterways would give their army access to oil-rich Middle East. Over the three years,neither won victories until May13 1943 the Allies had won. -
Battle of Britain
After the fall of France, Hitler's plan was to defeat the Royal Air Force in order invade Britain. As the Luftwaffe aimed to destroy England's harbours and shipping facilities there was an occassion where it bombed several areas of London.The city of Berlin, was in retaliation, attacked by the RAF.Hitler enraged, ordered a series of raids known as "the Blitz" which would bomb several cities in Britain killing 23 000 civilians.September 1940 Hitler gave up as the RAF had a more advanced airforce. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler saw the Soviet Union as source of materials, land, and labour and took this into account in plans for a new German Empire. As he desired to conquer, he launched "Operation Barbarossa" a massive attack which broke the non-aggression pact that Hitler had signed in 1939 with Stalin.Unprepared for the attack,Soviets lost much of Russian territory until Winter had hit.After 300 000 casualties,Germany surrendered onFeb2 1943 as Russians regained territory and guaranteed to join the Allies side. -
The Dieppe Raid
As the Soviet Union applied pressure onto the Allies, the Allies still wanted to postpone a European invasion and instead decided to have a "trial run" to test out new techniques and equipment. The planned raid was supposed to be 4 predawn attacks while instead they attacked in daylight making them easy targets. As a brief sea battle occured it prepared the Germans on shore. The steep pebble beach and terrible communication made this attack a tragedy with the death of 907 canadians in 9 hours. -
The Italian Campaign
Now that the Allies have learned from the tragedy of Dieppe British Prime Minister Winston Churchill thought of new strategies in order to recapture Europe. The victory of North-Africa made it possible to attack from the south into Italy, what they considered "the soft underbelly." Which they would soon learn was not quite so soft, as the invasion lasted two years and costed thousands of lives. -
Battle of Sicily
On July 10 1943 Canadians proved themselves once again as fierce opponents as Allied forces invaded Sicily. After fighting Italian and German soldiers through 240 km of mountainous terrain for 38 days they had at last captured the island and lost 562 soldiers. -
Battle of Ortona
As Germany began to retreat back to mainland, the Allies followed.The Canadians soldies task was to capture the medieval city on the Adriatic Sea, Ortona.Before reaching Ortona, they had to capture smaller villages and cross the river of Moro, and fight German-occupied territory for several km.Once they had reached heavilyfortified Ortona, battles were fought houseby house in the steep rubble-filled streets.On December 28 Ortona was successfully captured by Canadians whohad alsolost 6000soldiers -
D-Day: The Normandy Invasion
After the success of Italy the Allies launched "Operation Overlord" which would be the full-scale invasion of Europe.This attack was spread along the 80 km coast of five beaches in Normandy of northern France.With massive air and naval support, each small detail was rehearsed and planned perfectly led to their success.Key elements were that they dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines, disrupted communication and transprtation and were most importantly, able to keep it a secret from the Germans. -
Juno Beach
On June 6 1944, 14 000 Canadians arrived to their future victory, Juno Beach. Their obstacles in order to take over the beach were to make way past German defences, concrete barriers, barbed wire, and land mines. Within that day the Canadians fought their war inland by nine km with still a high amount of casualties, with 359 dead, and 715 soldiers wounded. -
Battle of Scheldt
During October at Sheldt River in Belgium, Canadians received the task of clearing enemy troops as this was an important river which connected Antwerp to the North Seas. As Antwerp was already liberated by the Allies, the Germans still had control of the Sheldt River and access to the sea. After a month of bitter fighting Canadians had reached their goal and were able to bring in more supplies for their final push forward into Germany. -
Battle of Rhineland
The Allies including 175 000 Canadian soldiers slowly struggled through mud and flooded fields as they began to drive the Germans over Rhine River and officially out of the Netherlands. With the death of 5300 Canadians amongst the 23 000 Allie casualties, and 92 000 Germans killed with 52 000 taken prisoner, on March 10 1945 Canadians headed north to liberate Holland after successfully getting the German army to withdraw over the east bank of Rhine River. -
Lasting Gratitude
Eventually Germany after another month of fighting the Allies, was driven out of Netherlands. On April 28 1945 a truce was negotiated between Germany and the Allies which agreed to allow the Allies to bring convoy trucks which would carry tonnes of food, fuel and much needed supplies for the Dutch civilians. Netherlands cheered for the end of the war and for the Canadian heroes that became known and welcomed as the liberators of Europe. -
Liberating Netherlands
Once Allies reached Rhine River and Germany, a seperate task was assigned to Canadians; to liberate the Netherlands. Earlier on the Allies had a failed attempt to free Holland as German troops destroyed ports of cities in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and flooded much of the countryside. By the end of 1944 food and fuel supplies were cutoff resulting in many people starving to death. These already difficult conditions became even worse during the bitter cold winter. -
Fascist Italy's Downfall
Once the Allies had attacked the island of Sicily, and successfully captured it, it led to the downfall of Mussolini's power as he was overthrown and eventually killed leading to the total collapse of fascist Italy. Even though the new Italian government surrendered, Germany continued to defend their territory. -
Victory in Europe
The Allies declared May 8 as the day of Victory in Europe after Germany had finally surrendered from being attacked from the north and west by the Allies and from the east by the Soviet Union on May 7 1945. Before Hitler could be captured, he committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin.
