3. Allies
• Great Britain ( +all commonwealth countries)
• France
• Canada
• United States
• Soviet Union
*not exhaustive
4. Canadian Mobilization
• Only 4500 troops at beginning of war
• No one cheering in the streets
• Still, Canada had many volunteers
– September alone- 58 330
• After Depression, some Cdns attracted to $1.30 a
day, plus $60 for a dependent spouse, and $30
per child per month
• Many still felt strong ties to Britain
• Others yet felt a sense for new-found nationalism
5. Total War
• Total war is a war in which the participants
engage in complete mobilization of full
available resources and population.
• Example: bombing civilian areas.
6. Total War- Germany Attacks
• in April and May of 1940, Europe felt the full
extent of the German military’s attack -
“blitzkrieg”(lightening war)
• April - Denmark and Norway fell...
• May - Netherlands and Belgium fell...
• June - France surrenders on June 22
- “Vichy” government (German/French)
established
7. The Blitz
• Strategic bombing of Britain by Germans
• 7 September 1940-10 May 1941
• London bombed for 76 consecutive nights
• Over 23,000 civilians killed
8. 1940- Dunkirk
• May, German troops reached the English Channel and Allied Forces
were surrounded at the French port of Dunkirk
– Allied troops had to escape before the Germans took the town
– decided to try an evacuation at sea
• GB navy rounded up every boat they could capable of navigating
the Channel- fishing boats, ferries, merchant ships…
- Hitler decided to give the “victory” to the German
airforce(Luftwaffe)over the army (Wehrmacht)....but the fog rolled
in....no planes flew...
• evacuation began on May 26...while the Luftwaffe bombed the
town
• by June 4, nearly 340,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated
9.
10.
11. 1940
• In September 1940, Hitler launched “Operation Sea Lion”
- Germans collected barges to ferry troops to England
- Luftwaffe bombed London as well as military bases and radar
stations and other cities (The Blitz)
- used high explosives and incendiary bombs
=this became known as the “Battle of Britain”
- Royal Air Force (RAF) was not destroyed (sophisticated
radar systems)
- Polish, Czech, French, Norwegians etc.... joined the RAF
- after months of battle, the Germans were beaten back -
GB won and
• 1941- Hitler suffered his first major defeat
12. 1942
• by 1942, Hitler had turned his attention
towards the Soviet Union
• - broke the Germano-Soviet Pact
• German army surrendered early 1943
13.
14. 1942
• by 1942, the Allies were making plans to re-
take Europe
- Canadian soldiers had been sitting in British
training camps – wantedto see action
- the Allies decided to plan an invasion of the
European continentand“test” German
defences with a series of raids across the
Channel
- one raid was against the town of Dieppe…
