definitions

Allied: the group of nations fighting against Germany, Italy, and Japan

Blitzkrieg (lightning war): A new tactic Germany had invented in the interwar period. It attacked using 3 military components: tanks, motorized infantry, air support. It was fast and short but it was efficient, deadly, and scaleable

motorized infantry: soldiers in jeeps

scaleable: easily changed in size or scale

Military Action: prioritizing the defence of Canada and overseas military would involve the RCAF first then the army

Economic effort: providing Britain with military weapons, raw materials, and food

Foreign relations: remain in careful consultation with America (limited liability)

Maginot Line: a series of French defensive walls on the France-German border

impassable: impossible to travel through

Operation Dynamo: the evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk

Luftwaffe: air weapons

armistice: an agreement made by the warring parties to stop fighting

puppet state: appears independent but is controlled from elsewhere

CWAC (The Canadian Women’s Army Corps): Non-combat, women’s service club that gave women training in the military drill and etiquette. They wanted serve in the war but they just replaced men so they could participate in combat roles

lobby: to attempt to influence politicians on an issue

stenographer: someone who transcribes speeches (court typer)

disparity: a large difference

Mary Greyeyes: the first native women in Canada to join the CWAC. She was asked to pose for a publicity picture because she was Cree and had an ‘Indian sounding last name’

adage: a saying (ex. out of sight out of mind- is a saying)

embargoed: an official ban on trading specifics things with a country

Tripartite Pack: a formal agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan that joined the countries to a defensive alliance

garrison: a body of soldiers guarding a particular location

unmitigated: absolute and complete

intern: to detain someone as a prisoner for political reasons

race riot: violence between two identifiable racial groups in a community

Nisei: a person brown in Canada to Japanese immigrants

restricted zone: a stretch off the coast of BC

plebiscite: referendum— all voters are asked to answer the question

volatile: liable to change rapidly, and for the worse

dry run: a rehearsal of a potential event

seawall: reinforced wall that is upright to prevent the sea from eroding an area of land

RAF: Royal Air Force

merchant ships: supply ships

naval blockage: to seal off a country to prevent supplies from entering

wolfpack: naval submarine tactic. German u-boats would spread out in a line and attack any sighted convoy simultaneously

u-boats: fast, low profile, German submarines

the mid-Atlantic gap: undefended area in the middle fo the Atlantic ocean

depth charges: method of attack for u-boats. weapons that when dropped in water they would explode after reaching a certain depth

sonar: underwater radar

ghetto: an area of a city in which Jews were forced to live

pogrom: a massacre of Jews by non-Jewish civilians. They target publicly visible symbols of Judaism.

the Wannsee Conference: where fifteen high-ranking German officials prepared a plan for the extermination of the Jewish people and to decide who counted as “Jewish”.

end game: the final stage of an event

piecemeal: done partially

comprehensive genocide: entirely complete murder of a particular ethnic group

liquidate: to empty it completely. the Nazi liquidated the ghettos by loading all Jews onto trains to labour or extermination camps, and by killing any Jews who ran or resisted

extermination camps: camps designed to kill as many Jews as possible at one; they were also referred to as death camps. They commonly had gas chambers

Einsatzgruppen: mobile death squads

institutional collaboration: non-governmental German institutions that didn’t speak out against the Holocaust or actively helped perpetrate the Holocaust because it benefited the

individual collaboration: individuals that claimed that they had no idea about the extermination camps or concentration camps. But accusing ordinary Germans of very serious crimes is inflammatory.

inflammatory: likely to cause anger

concentration camps: camps used to imprison Jews and force them into labour. Jewish prisoners would die due to starvation, disease, beatings, exhaustion, and execution. There were thousands of camps.

the Mediterranean Campaign: a series of Allied attacks in the Mediterranean Sea

Operation Mincemeat: an allied deception to divert Germany’s attention away from Sicily. The Allied faked a plane creams off the coast of Spain and left a body dressed as a Royal Marines major. The body had fake invasion plans hidden in a briefcase. The fake plan was an Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia and Germany took the bait.

prelude: an event that introduces something more important

Operation Husky: When America, Britain, and Canadian troops landed in Sicily and attacked using an amphibious and aerial assault. The Allies moved through Sicily.

amphibious assault: an attack that begins in the sea and ends on land

sidelined: to be put into a non-influential position

Operation Baytown: the invasion of mainland Italy

urban warfare: fighting done predominantly in a city not a battle field

mouse-holing: blowing passages through the walls of buildings via explosives, tossing a grenade, then soldiers following behind. It allowed for movement through houses and buildings without being exposed

D-day: ‘the day on which an important operation begins’, the day the Allied forced invade Northern France

Operation Overlord: British, American, and Canadian amphibious invasion at the beaches in Normandy

beset: to be persistently threatened by problems

Cold War: the political rivalry between the Us and the Soviet Union and their allies.

the early war

Recap:

• Germany invaded Poland

• Britain gave Germany two hours to withdraw their troops from Poland

• When Germany didn’t respond Britain declared war on Germany

When did Canada declare war?

• when Britain declared war, Canada voluntarily joined Britain

• King wanted to avoid internal disunity so he presented it as ‘Canada entering the war to stop the spread of racism in Europe, and to stop Hitlers advance

  • by doing this the French speaking Canadian’s wouldn’t be against it because Canada is helping Britain, and how can the people disagree on stoping Hitler)

• Despite King’s best efforts, Canadians began to split again

  • French Canadians supported the declaration of war but opposed potential conscription

• Canada was not ready for this war because of the Great Depression, and the small size of their army, navy, and air force

• the first 9 months of the war was spent preparing and then Germany occupied Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Norway

• They used the Blitzkrieg and overwhelmed the defenders

• Canada’s war effort would be have three parts; Military Action, Economic effort, and Foreign relations

• Germany invaded France through the Maginot Line by assembling in the forest above the Maginot and making their way through into France.

• Franco-British forced failed to stop German advance

Dunkirk (1940)

• The Allies were pinned against the ocean at Dunkirk

• Germany stopped its advance temporarily, but then Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb the trapped Allied forces

• Germany’s delay allowed for the Allies to build beach defences and Operation Dynamo

  • The Royal Navy’s ships were too big to approach the beaches so smaller boats drafted in

• The Luftwaffe bombed the English Channel while the RAF defended the operation

• Many troops were rescued but many became prisoners of war

• Dunkirk was a victory and a defeat; Britain’s army survived annihilation but had to abandon all its military equipment

• In Canada, Dunkirk made limited conscription established.

  • It was limited in the sense that no conscription would be forced to server abroad so the government had not broken its no-conscription promise.

• Britain left France alone to fight the German invasion but then the German army deployed their blitzkrieg and took Paris

• The French government retreated to the south of France and asked Germany for an armistice, they surrendered.

• Italy took the opportunity to declare war on France

  • Italy invaded France but lost horribly and asked for an armistice

• the southern half of France appeared to be a puppet state but they actually voluntarily collaborated with Germany

• The Allies refused to recognize the Vichy France (souther half of France) government

• At this time Germany controlled all of Europe

the CWAC

• the CWAC gave recruits military training and taught them military useful trades

• most of the women in the CWAC (9 out of 10) did woman-occupied jobs

• The women in the CWAC were paid less then male soldiers and but only a few complained about the disparity for various reasons:

  • they are making more money then they would be at another job (even though they were being payed less than men)

  • they had been conditioned to expect and accept the fact that they are less than men

  • women didn’t feel like they were able to self advocate in the intense military environment

  • they were willing to sacrifice for one’s country

• The number of women being recruited dropped and to find out why the government commissioned two polls

  • women not intending to join felt that the CWAC would cause young women to lose their femininity

  • women that were going to join didn’t join because of the poor pay

• To convince women to enlist the government commissioned the propaganda film Proudly She Marches

• Women’s participation did not change their status in society, this isn’t surprising but some is better than none

the defence of Hong Kong

• Japan wanted to expand and they were pursing the idea that it was their duty too

• Japan lacked natural resources and justified their actions via economic arguments

• When war broke out Japan invaded French Indochina (French colony) so, America embargoed all oil and metal exports to Japan

• Britain and the Netherlands began to worry about Japanese attacks on their pacific colonies

• As a result of American aggression, Japan signed the Tripartite Pack to threaten America

• British Hong Kong was an important holding in Britain’s colonial possessions

• Because the war had taken Britain by surprise, the colony’s defence was sparse. Because of the ongoing situation on Europe, Britain was unable to reinforce its Hong Kong defences— they needed to ask Canada for help

• Canadian solders reinforced the garrison in hopes to prevent a Japanese attack

• Japan shocked the world by attacking Pearl Harbour to stop the American navy

• Then they then attacked Hong Kong and demanded its surrender. They refused and continued to fight in a battle they know they were going to lose.

  • Canada lost because they underestimated Japan, and the soldiers were untrained\

  • In retrospect, because it took Japan so long to defeat Canadian troops, Australia was able to prepare

• Canada’s first battle during WW2 was a unmitigated disaster that affected Japanese-Canadians at home in Canada

the interment of Japanese-Canadians

• When Canada declared war on Japan a few fear of Japan attacking the west coast aroused.

• Under the War Measures Act, the internment of J-C became law and thousands of J-C were sent to labour camps (most of which were born in Canada)

• through an act of born and bred racism, a race riot broke out in which whites rampages through China town and Japantown

• BC then passed a law forbidding white women to work under an Asian man and Japanese people to vote in elections

• Canada declaring war against Japan made already existing hostility, worse. Nisei were accused of being spies and saboteurs, and were forcefully exempt from military service.

• To show their loyalty to Canada, Nisei bought bonds but their reward was being registered as Japanese aliens under the government. (they had registration numbers and their fishing boats were confiscated)

• the government removed all J-C from the restricted zone and sent them to labour camps

• The J-C were victims to the racism of the society in which they lived, to the uncaring government

  • the Canadian government failed to stand up for the ideals which its leaders claimed had taken the country into the war

• When the war ended J-C were forced to chose between settling in eastern Canada or being expelled to Japan

Dieppe (1942)

• Canada needed a bigger army but King promised no conscription. To avoid another country-wide, he asked a plebiscite to release the government from its promise. He asked if Canadians were in favour of allowing conscription once again. Even though Canadians voted yes, instituting conscription would be politically volatile. The army needed a greater production not as much more men, and King stated that conscription would only be used if necessary

• The Allies were planning to invade Europe. The Dieppe raid was a dry run for the Allies

What were the objectives of the raid? Which were achieved? destroy defences, get out, seize the major powers, gather intelligence. None of them were achieved

What roles did the RAF and the Royal Navy play in the raid? strafing, smoke screen, bomb attacks

What were the problems encountered at each of the beaches? they needed to cross over a bridge, and the beaches were very rocky

What went wrong?

• the raid lacked the element of surprise

  • the Allied ships ran into a German convoy and delayed the rain until morning

• the seawall destroyed most of the tanks

There are schools of thoughts:

1. Dieppe was an incredible waste of lives and effort

   1. more than half of the soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner

   2. 33 ships, 1 destroyer, and 106 planes were lost

   3. not a single objective was achieved

   4. the invasion of Europe had been put on hold indefinitely

2. valuable lessons were learned, that helped Allies later in the war

   1. bombers had to soften German defences first

   2. man and tank obstacles need to be destroyed

   3. the eleventh of surprise was neede

   4. vehicles appropriate to the landing location needed to be invented

   5. lightly-defended beaches should be targeted

consequences of Dieppe-

• surviving soldiers saw Dieppe as ‘jolt of realism’

• Canadian citizens saw only the failure and the casualty list

• pressure for an active role for Canada’s army began

the Battle of the Atlantic

• the longest, most important campaign. Canada’s naval participation was the country’s greatest contribution to the war effort

• Britain was in need of oil, food, troops, weapons, and raw materials from Canada.

• Germany was stopping supply ships from reaching Britain and they realized that they could stop Canada from sending food

• U-boats were used for naval blockades and they would attack Canadian and American convoys mid-ocean through the wolfpack tactic

• Germany found that the weak spot in the supply lines was the mid-Atlantic gap

• In order to close the ‘black pit’, the Allies realized they needed to use technology

  • a very long range aircraft was invented to bridge the mid-Atlantic gap

  • depth charges

  • sonar

• The effectiveness of the wolfpack was reduced because of the Allies’ technical advancements

the beginnings of the Holocaust

• Nazi Germany established Jewish ghettos to hold Jews until they could be deported

• ghettos became convenient launching points for deportation to concentration and death camps

• Iin 1939, 1000 Jews boarded the MS St. Louis in a desperate attempt to immigrate. America, Cuba, and Canada refused them entry (even though Torontonians welcomed them), and they were forced to return to Europe

• Canada took very few Jewish refugees and the Canadian government said that ‘none was too many’

• At first the killing of the Jews was piecemeal, but the Wannsee Conference made the persecution of the Jews a comprehensive genocide

• The plan work broken into three parts;

  • liquidate the ghettos

  • constructing the extermination camps

  • the organization of the Einsatzgruppen

• the mobile death squads (Einsatzgruppen) had slaughtered 1.3 million Jews

collaborations and concentration camps

• Nazi Germany wouldn’t be able to kill as many Jews as they did without institutional and individual collaboration

• the Nazi Chief of Police said publicly that there was a need for more camps for the racially inferior types

• many ordinary Germans were anti-Semitic which allowed them to justify what was happening

• Many Jews would die in the trip from ghettos to camps because they would days or weeks with no food or water

• Concentration camps were dehumanizing

• When the invading Allied armies liberated the camps, the Jews were too weak to eat solid foods

the Mediterranean campaign

• The Allies’ plan to retake Europe had taken shape:

  • The weak link would be targeted— Italy

• Operation Mincemeat was a success and preluded the assault on Sicily began, called Operation Husky

• At the Quebec Conference it was decided to focus more forces in Italy to force a surrender

• As a result of Operation Baytown, the Italians overthrew Mussolini, and switched sides

The order of the Mediterranean Campaign is:

1. Operation Mincemeat

2. Operation Husky

3. Operation Baytown

• The Canadians fought their way up through Italy, against heavy resistance form the German army

• At Ortona, the German 1st Parachute Division prevented Canadian tanks from advancing and killed any soldiers in the street. To counter this Canada invented a new tactic called mouse-holing

• The Canadian’s arrival at Ortona withdrew the Germans further north.

• The Italy campaign forced Germany to fight a two-front war (this is where the tide turns, Germany was winning until this moment)

D-Day (June 6 1944)

what happened on D-Day?

• The Allies convinced Germans that they were going to invade Pas-de-Calais, too catch them by surprise

• At midnight Canadian Paratroopers dropped behind the lines but they were blown off course because of the bad weather

• heavy bombers hit German defences to to pave the way for the boats

• The Americans landed at Omaha and Utah; the British at Gold and Sword; the Canadians at Juno

• The Canadians secured Juno and advanced inland

• The Americans had a tough battle at Omaha because the bombers had missed the German defences and Omaha had high cliffs that give the Germans an advantage

• On the first day the objectives to secure all the beaches in Normandy had been achieved

• Germany was now fighting a three-front war (tide turns for the Allied again)

• Germany surrendered after Hitler killed himself in his bunker, and the war was over

what were the consequences of D-Day?

• the world became bipolar

  • you were either with the US or the Soviet Union

• The two engaged in the Cold War

  • they were the ones to dictate how the world moves forward from this point

• The world created the UN