Involvement and participation of Canada in the Second World War

Dieppe Raid

• Occurred on August 19th, 1942 in Dieppe, France

• Allies planned to draw the German Air Force away from the Russian front, the Dieppe raid was to test the Allies’ abilities to mount amphibious attacks on the Germans

• It failed with many Canadian casualties and took only half a day

• They learned that the Allied Forces needed to have more naval artillery support, dominance over the skies, and heavier firepower. They also needed better intelligence reports of battle ground conditions, better communication between onshore and offshore military, and more specialized landing crafts and tanks

Hong Kong

• The Canadian Troops

  • 1,945 soldiers

  • 1,050 casualties

  • 554 total deaths

• Dates: 12/8/1941 - 12/25/1941

• Hong kong leaders underestimated japanese army and reassured neighboring nations falsely

• The japanese were very brutal

Air War over Germany

• More than half a million German citizens and 80k pilots died from air war

• Spring of 1945; 1221 US and British bombers set out for Berlin

• Out of 54 large cities (more than 100k inhabitants ), 4 survived without a lot of damage - Lübeck, Wiesbaden, Halle, and Erfurt

• Worst damaged was Würzburg- 75% destroyed, then Dessau, Kassel, Aunz, and Hamburg

• Out of 151 medium sized cities (25k-100k) ⅓ lost 20% or more of housing stock

1. Battle of the Atlantic

• 72,000 allied deaths and 30,000 German Deaths

• Wolf packs: the German U-boat strategy used against the allies; it was very effective

• Corvettes: the small, cheap, and quickly produced boats that Canada made for the battle

• Started on September 3rd 1939 and ended on May 8th 1945

• Longest continuous battle of WW2

Battle of the Scheldt

• General Graham Crerar led the First Canadian army, the largest army ever led by a Canadian general, of 135,000 against the German forces of 90,000 in battles along the Scheldt river.

• Started on October 2 1994 and ended November 8 1944 and it took place in Northern Belgium and Southwestern Netherlands

• Why? Because the allies needed supplies sent further into Europe and needed a way to access the seized port of Antwerp

• Considered one of the hardest battles fought because of the swampy terrain around the river

• 12,873 casualties, 6,367 were Candains and 41,043 German soldiers taken prisoner

D-DAY

• 1: After the Dieppe Raid, The Allies Prepare for D-Day

  • The Dieppe Raid also known as Operation Jubilee and was meant to be a good foothold in the beginning

  • Deception plans

  • The Allies conducted several minor operations designed to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the Allied landings

  • 2: The D-Day Landing Beaches

  • Juno Beach

  • Omaha Beach

  • Utah Beach

Number of casualties

• Total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself

  • 2,501 Americans

  • More than 5,000 wounded

  • 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded

  • Roughly 20,000 French civilians were killed

Sicily Campaign

1. The Allied Invasion of Sicily aka Operation Husky aka the Battle of Sicily was a major campaign of World War ll where the Allied forces invaded Sicily and took it from the Axis powers. It began with an airborne campaign and was followed by a six week land campaign. Italian Leader Mussolini was forced to step down leading to a mass amount of Nazi German soldiers being sent to Southern Europe and led to 9,003 Axis deaths compared to only 5,748 Allied deaths.

2. The assaults by the Allied powers were to be supported by naval gunfire, strategic bombing, interdiction (forbidding or prohibiting certain commodities), and close air attacks by the two air forces. This operation requires strategic combinations of naval, land, and air forces. Axis powers used grenades and tanks primarily and in early July, their military consister of 32,000 German troops and 200,000 Italian troops. However by late july, Germany called for reinforcements increasing the number to 70,000

3. Deception operations (Operation Mincemeat): Allied forces used deception as a key strategy to their success. Operation Mincemeat was used to distract the Axis forces and send them to Greece weakening their troops in Sicily. A british corpse was dressed and disguised as a British Marines Officer carrying a briefcase containing fake legal documents stating that “Operation Husky” has to be help in Greece. This sent many German and Italian troops to Greece and overall weakening their combat strength in Sicily.

4. Airborne landings

• 147 paragliders were dropped in order to mark landing zones for troops intending to invade. However despite only 12 making it successfully and landing on target, this was wildly successful as they attacked the most vital points and created mass confusion

Seaborne landings

• Allies were able to advance north because of the limited forces on the shores because of Operation Mincemeat and the disputes between Italy and Germany during their attempt at counterattack

Land attacks

• After the fall of italian leader Mussolini - italian forces removed themselves and attempted to align with the allies weakening the Axis troops allowing the allies to move further north in Sicily

• Allies ultimately were successful and the axis powers surrendered and left their forces before the allies could fight the last battle.