WWII

By masonhalsan
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    (PM) William Lyon Mackenzie King

  • Voyage of the SS St. Louis

    The St. Louis left Hamburg, Germany with 907 Jewish passengers desperately trying to escape persecution. After being denied entry into Cuba, South America, and the United States, Canada was their last hope. But due to the recent change in immigration policy and Canada's refusal to let Jewish refugees into the country, the St. Louis was sent back to Germany where many later died in conventration camps.

  • Britian and France Declared War on Germany

    (WAR) In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.
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    Battle of the Atlantic

    When war broke out the Royal Canadian Navy only had 13 ships and 1819 soldiers. Canada was desperate and embarked on a massive building and training program. By the end of the war the RCN grew by 400 vessels and 100,000 troops. By 1941 the Battle of the Atlantic was in full swing and Canada's contribution was much needed.

  • (A) Canada Declares War on Germany

    Unlike in WWI when Britain declared war, Canada was automatically at war, Canada declared War on Germany with no such obligation. There was a vote held on September 8th on whether or not Canada should join the war. Two days later Canada declared war on Germany. Despite this, Canada was not prepared for the war. Most Canadians were still recovering or suffering from PTSD from the first world war. There were only a total of 4300 troops, not enough to go to war with.

  • (C) The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan

    Mackenzie King was hoping that Canada's contribution to the war would be mostly supplies and training, rather than troops. In 1939 Canada agreed to run The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The BCATP trained 130,000 pilots, navigators, flight engineers, and ground crew. The total cost was likely more that $2.2 billion, which Canada paid for 70% of.

  • Total War

    The demands of total war meant that the government became more involved in planning and controlling the economy, giving that all resources of a nation were mobilized for the war.

  • Germany Invades Western Europe

    Germany attacked in the west on May 10, 1940. Initially, British and French commanders had believed that German forces would attack through central Belgium as they had in World War I, and rushed forces to the Franco-Belgian border to meet the German attack. The main German attack however, went through the Ardennes Forest in southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. German tanks and infantry quickly broke through the French defensive lines and advanced to the coast.

  • National Resources Mobilization Act

    It was clear that with the number of Germans occupying Europe that thousands of soldiers would be needed to fight against the Nazis. Canadians demanded that their government do more for the war effort. In response, King's government quickly brought in the National Resources Mobilization Act which gave the government special emergency powers to take over the nations resources.
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    The Battle of Britain

    Hitler launched "Operation Sea Lion," his plan to invade Britain. In July a massive bombing campaign began, many areas of Britain were bombed by Germany. In retaliation, Britain bombed Berlin. This attack enraged Hitler, he ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb London and other British Cities. These raids were known as "The Blitz"

  • The Dieppe Raid

    By mid-1942, the Soviet Union had lost close to a million soldiers in the fight against invading German troops. Stalin demanded that the Allies invade Europe from the west to weaken Germany by forcing it to fight the war on two fronts.

  • RCAF Bombing Germany

    Throughout 1943 many night bombing attacks were lead on Germany, and the RCAF participated as a part of Britain's Bomber Command. The attacks were lead for a number of reasons.
    1. Retaliation
    2. Dimish German morale
    3. To destabilize German industrial centures

  • Battle of Sicily

    Allied forces invaded Sicily. Canadian forces proved themselves to be fierce opponents. They fought Italian and German soldiers through 240 kilometers of mountainous terrain, loosing 562 soldiers in the battle and capturing the island after 38 days
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    Battle of Ortona

    The Allies followed Germany as they retreated, after the Battle of Sicily, to Italy. Canadians were given the task of capturing the medieval town of Ortona. Before they could reach the town Canadians had to capture several smaller villages. Once they reached Ortona, advances were slow and battles were often fought house by house on the town's steep streets. Canadians captured the town by December 28th but lost 1372 soldiers.

  • D-Day (Juno Beach)

    14,000 Canadian soldiers arrived at Juno Beach as a part of the first wave of the attack. They had to make their way past German defences to take the beach. By the end of the day, the Canadians had fought their way inland about 9 kilometers. Although successfull, 359 Canadians died and 715 were wounded.

  • Battle of the Rhineland

    On this day, the Allies (175,000 Canadians) began their attack to drive the Germans back over the Rhine River out of the Netherlands. The battle was slow as soldiers struggled through mud and flooded fields. Nearly 23,000 soldiers were killed, more than 5300 being Canadian. The Germans lost 90,000 men. One month later on March 10th Germany withdrew to the east bank of gthe Rhine River, allowing the Canadians to continue north.

  • The War Ends