Canadian ContributionsCANADIAN HISTORY 1201

Video & WorksheetoCanada and World War II (37:17)

The Defense of Hong KongoCanadians fought their first

engagement of the Second World War defending the British island colony of Hong Kong

oAfter the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the British decided that a strong force in Hong Kong might deter Japan from attacking the island

oCanada was asked to supply troops to support the British and Indian forces in Hong Kong

The Defense of Hong Kongo In October 1941, two barely trained battalions, the Royal Rifles of

Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers, sailed from Vancouver◦ The Canadian force totaled 1975 troops

oWith a force of only 14,000 British, Canadian and Indian soldiers, defending Hong Kong was an impossible task

oNevertheless, the vastly outnumbered Allied troops held out against the Japanese invaders from the 8th to the 22nd of December◦ When supplies and ammunition ran out the Allies were forced to

surrender

oThe cost of the defense of Hong Kong was high for the Canadian battalions, 290 were killed and another 500 wounded

The Defense of Hong KongoThe cost was to grow even higher, for the Canadian prisoners of

war lived in terrible conditions◦ By the end of the war another 260 had died

oOver ¼ of the Canadians who had been sent to Hong Kong did not return home

The Dieppe RaidoAlthough the Allied command was unwilling to respond to Soviet

demands for an all-out attack on the Western Front in Europe in 1942, they did respond with an attack on German fortifications at Dieppe, on the French coast

o In the early morning on August 19, 1942, a force of 6,000 soldiers, made up primarily of Canadian troops, supported by both the British and Americans, launched an attack on the beaches at Dieppe

The Dieppe RaidoVery little went right for the Allies, and of the 5,000 Canadians

involved in the attack, 1400 were killed or wounded and nearly 2,000 were taken prisoner

oMore Canadians died in the few hours at Dieppe then on any other day of the war

The Italian Campaigno In 1943 Allied forces landed in

Sicily and began the long march through Italy

oThe Canadian First Division landed with the Eighth British Army in the invasion of the Italian island of Sicily◦ They then moved into the

peninsula of Italy

oThe Canadian forces pushed northward with little resistance until they arrived at Ortona on the Adriatic Sea

The Italian CampaignoAt Ortona, the German army

took a stand and bloody fighting occurred throughout the month of December 1943

oThe German’s were finally driven back when the Canadians succeeded in breaking through the Adolf Hitler line, the last German defensive front before Rome

oThe Canadians continued north and smashed the last line of defence in northern Italy, the Gothic Line, in the fall of 1944

Operation Overlord: D-DayoOn June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord, the great Allied invasion of

German held Europe began with the Invasion of NormandyoThe plan was to use an aerial bombardment to knock out

German tanks, gun batteries and air bases◦ Then the landing could occur along the 80 kilometers of Normandy

beach

Operation Overlord: D-DayoAmerican forces assaulted the west end of the beach while

British and Canadians troops landed in the eastoA combined force of 15,000 Canadian and 9,000 British troops

were assigned the target of Juno beach, which consisted of 8 km of coastline◦ The plan was not a success

oGerman gun positions were not knocked out by the bombing and were able to pour artillery fire on to the beaches where Allied forces were unprotected

Operation Overlord: D-DayoCanadians suffered 1074 casualties, including 359 dead on D-DayoThe landing was completed, however and the invasion was

largely considered a successoThe Allies had a foothold in Europe and began the long campaign

to push back the German armies

Video & WorksheetoD-Day on Juno Beach (45:20)

Liberation of the NetherlandsoAfter D-Day, the Canadian troops distinguished themselves in a

year of long, hard fighting against some of Hitler’s crack divisionsoThe Canadian Third Division was assigned the task of capturing

Caen, France◦ Over 1000 soldiers were killed achieving this objective

Liberation of the NetherlandsoThrough the winter of 1944-45, the division moved northward to

clear German resistance out of parts such as Dieppe and CalaisoBy March 1945, Canadian forces had moved through Belgium

and pushed German troops in the Netherlands back across the Rhine River◦ Allied victory came in May 1945

o It was the Canadian command who accepted the surrender of the Nazi forces in the Netherlands

The War at SeaoAt the beginning of the war the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN)

consisted of 13 ships and about 3,000 soldiers◦ By the end of the war it had expended to include 370 ships and

almost 100,000 personnel

oRCN activities ranged from submarine warfare in the North Atlantic to defense of the West Coast from a feared Japanese invasion

oGermany attempted to cut off all supplies to Britain from Canada and the United States in the hopes of starving Britain into submission

oThe British and Canadian navies became committed to ending the Germany submarine threat

The War at Seao In the first years of the war, German submarines, hunting in

teams called “Wolfpacks”, were highly successful in sinking slow moving merchant ships that were carrying essential supplies to Britain

The War at Seao In 1942, U-Boats sank the SS Caribou, a Nova Scotia-

Newfoundland passenger ferry with the loss of 136 lives◦ Mr. Gilbert’s Aunt was killed in this attack!!

oThe Germans quickly gained control of the Atlantic and were sinking ships faster than they could be built

oThe answer to the U-Boat attacks was to send merchant ships in Convoys with Canadian warships◦ These convoys were met in the

mid-Atlantic by British convoys that would escort the ships the rest of the way to Britain

The War at Seao In 1941, Newfoundland became the centre of the Atlantic force

and the Newfoundland Escort Force was foundedoThe RCN Corvettes provided much of the protection in these

convoysoUnfortunately, Canadian shipbuilders could not produce these

Corvettes fast enough as even larger “Wolfpacks” continued hunting in the waters off Newfoundland and across the Atlantic routes

o In November 1942, the Germans scored a huge success, sinking 15 ships of a 42-ship convoy and damaging others

oDespite the German victory, the tide began to turn in the Allies favour

The War at Sea

The War at SeaoThe British provided more destroyers (a larger class of escort

ship) to protect the convoyso In order to better protect the convoys improvements were made

◦ The training that the escort crews received was improved and the small Corvettes were refitted with better anti-submarine weapons, which improved the escort protection for the convoys

◦ More ships were also added to the escort fleet and the crews were given time to rest and recuperate in between missions

◦ The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was provided with long-range bombers that could cover the convoys until they reached British airspace

The War at SeaoBy 1944-45 the

“Wolfpacks” were far less effective

oThey suffered heavy damage from depth charges dropped by Allied ships and bombs dropped by Allied planes

oThe importance of the RCN’s role in keeping shipping routes open cannot be understated

The War in the Airo The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)

began the war as a small force of 4,000 in 1939 but grew quickly◦ By the end of the war, almost 250,000

men and women served

o Individual Canadians served in Britain’s air force, the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Battle of Britain

oApproximately 86,000 Canadians passed through the British Commonwealth Training Plan and many pilots remained in the RAF for the duration of the war

The War in the AiroAs late as 1944, six out of every 10 Canadian pilots served in the

RAF rather than the RCAF◦ The largest Canadian involvement was in Bomber Command

oGermany had angered the Allies by bombing British cities during the Battle of Britain as well as during frequent bombing raids thereafter◦ The Allies responded in kind, bombing German cities in relentless day

and night attacks

oThe official position emphasized that military targets were the primary objective, but the truth was that the bombing inflicted terrible civilian damage◦ More than 1 million German civilians were either killed or wounded

The War in the AiroCanadian fighter pilots helped protect / escort bombers on their

way to targets deep inside German territoryoCanadian bombers helped support the invasion of Europe and

also engaged in bombing German cities toward the end of the war

oThe Canadian bomber group became known for both its accuracy and its low casualty rate

The War in the Airo Ferry Command

◦ Shipping was taking too long so the alternative was to start transporting goods via air

◦ Britain, Canada and the United States cooperated to fly nearly 10,000 airplanes from North America to Britain

◦ Gander and Goose Bay were developed as the jumping off points for the dangerous non-stop trans-Atlantic flights