Chapter 11

Chapter 11

World War II

Hitler’s Rise April 10: Hindenburg is re-

elected President by a small margin over Hitler.

June: An international conference effectively ends German reparations obligations

July 31: National elections, called by Chancellor to strengthen his position in the Reichstag, results in doubled Nazi representations.

Hitler’s Rise Jan. 30: Hitler becomes Chancellor Feb. 27: Fire partly destroys the Reichstag building. The

government increases persecution of the opposition parties.

March 5: In national elections the NSDAP wins 44% 1934: Hitler becomes president in an 88% vote

Union with Austria “Anschluss” 90% of Austrians were

German speaking Austria would welcome

German aid due to economic downturn

1934—Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss rejects Nazi overtures, assassinated by Nazis July 1934

Italy sends 100,000 troops to Austrian border to defend Austria, Hitler retreats

Rome Berlin axis of 1936

Union with Austria

Union with Austria 1938: Hitler and Mussolini in

agreement Nazis bomb public buildings

in Vienna to stir up fears March 8: Chancellor

Schuschnigg forced to resign by Nazis, replaced by Nazi sympathizer Seyss-Inquart

March 11: Germany marches into

Austria Orders troops to retreat

The Policy of Appeasement Sudetenland Crisis—Reasons for Takeover1) To prevent war on two fronts (Russia)2) Resources3) Possible Russian attack through Sudetenland4) Hatred of Slavs

The Policy of AppeasementHitler instructs Sudetenland leader Henlein to

demand separation from CzechoslovakiaStages protests and riotsMunich, September 27 1938—Chamberlain,

Hitler, Mussolini, and Daladier of France (Czechoslovakia and Russia not invited)

“How horrible is it that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel far away between people we do not know.”

The Policy of AppeasementMarch 23: Hitler takes

Memel from LithuaniaAppeasement is no

longer viableAugust 1939: Nazi-

Soviet PactSeptember 1: Poland

Wartime Europe

World War IIBlitzkrieg—Maginot Line1930’s—Switzerland to

BelgiumPhony War / SitzkriegBritish secure in the

safety of the Maginot Line—war of trenches—WWI

World War IINorway, April 1940—iron ore, naval basesMay 1940—Chamberlain resignsMay-June—Belgium and HollandDutch open their canals, but the Germans

drop soldiers behind the linesHolland surrenders in 5 days

World War II: Key Battles

World War II Dunkirk: 380,000 British troops,

“Miracle of Dunkirk”—340,000 rescued

Battle of Britain: July-September 1940

Operation Sea Lion—the need to secure the air before launching a sea attack

Britain lost 857 planes, Germany lost twice as many

September 7: Operation Barbarossa

3 million Germans attack the Russian border

January 31, 1943: 200,000 German troops surrender at Stalingrad, General Von Paulus of Germany ignores Hitler’s orders to fight to the last man

World War IIJune 1943: 3,000 German tanks attack Kursk

—lose 2,000 tanks and 70,000 menAugust 1942: Dieppe—no air cover, and

limited naval supportJune 6, 1944: Deliverance Day, Operation

OverlordCanadians live in a fireproof house, far from

inflammable materialsA vast ocean separates us from Europe—

Senator Raoul Dundurand

World War II Isolationism and a policy of

appeasement Mackenzie King—overrides

the Canadian ambassadors attempt to include oil in the Italian embargo. Claims to have saved Europe from war.

Creates a Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion in answer to the Spanish civil war. Many communists and CCF members join.

1600 volunteers in total, and one half killed

War declared on Sept 1, 1939, but Mackenzie waits one week—September 10.

On the Battlefield Hong Kong 1941: a symbolic defense by Britain. 1900 Canadian troops are sent to defend Hong Kong from the Japanese.

December 18: Canadian, Indian and British troops are swarmed. Sergeant-Major John Osbourn dives on a live grenade, and Brigadier John Lawson runs at the Japanese to allow his troops to escape.

December 25: the surrender of Hong Kong begins the Japanese brutalities

Dieppe Prime Minister Winston

Churchill and Chief of Combined Operations Lord Mountbatten—Operation Jubilee

Poor reconnaissance, inaccurate field reports and no attempt at early shelling.

August 19, 1942: 6000 troops including 5000 new Canadians

Incorrect landing sites, an attack in broad daylight, and tanks breaking down on rocky shore lines

Battle plans over 100 pages in length

Dieppe Royal regiment of Canada—secure a beachhead, eliminate coastal defenses, cross a 12 foot sea wall and rows of barbed wire, scale a 200 foot cliff, and take out heavy machine guns and coastal batteries in under 30 minutes.

3,300 casualties including 900 dead. Dead bodies floating onto shore for days

1900 Canadian soldiers were sent to prison camps. Germans found memos ordering the Canadians to bind the hands of the German captives so that they could not destroy information or battle plans—Canadian soldiers had their hands manacled for a year in retaliation.

Deliberate incompetence?

Ortona July 1943: A Canadian

infantry and tank division begin the march up Italy

Sea side village of Ortona—two German divisions in a naturally defended city

Montgomery personally visits to demand success

Mouseholing 502 dead and 1,837

casualties one morning, the Germans simply left

Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord June 6, 1944: 107,000

men attack French soil, including 14,000 Canadians with 110 Canadian warships

In total, more than one million Canadians fought in World War Two, and 45,000 gave their lives. 55,000 were wounded.

The Homefront C.D. Howe—Minister of

Everything (Minister of Munitions and Supply)

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. 131,500 airmen trained in Canadian skies

Battle of the Atlantic: Canadian fleet grows from 13 to 373 ships. 1200 Canadians died during the battle of the Atlantic

Malta and George “Buzz” Beurling: 31 kills and among Britain’s’ top ten aces

The HomefrontConscription if necessary, but not necessarily

conscription—1942 a plebiscite is held on whether Canadians should release the government from its’ promise

Quebec votes 73% against conscription and the rest of Canada votes 80% in favour.

King decides to draft the National Resources Mobilization Act (NRMA) volunteers—those that had volunteered for home services (Zombies)

Quebec is satisfied that King tried to keep his promise, and few Zombies are ever harmed in the promise. 100,000 are called up, but over half desert. 13,000 are actually sent overseas, and 2,500 actually make it to the battlefield. 69 are killed in action.

The Holocaust Immigration numbers during 1933-45

Britain: 195,000 USA: 200,000 Argentina: 50,000 Brazil: 25,000 Canada: 4,850

“…to keep this part of the continent free from unrest and from too great an inter-mixture of foreign strains of blood.”—King

Abbe Groulx denounces Jews as a “race that refused to be assimilated.”

Adrien Aucoin (fascist leader) demands that quotas be restricted even more

McGill instills quotas in university…

Japanese Canadians B.C Asiatic Exclusion League— “Stand for White Canada” Ian Mackenzie, Minister of Pensions and Health: “Let our

slogan be for British Columbia: ‘No Japs from the Rockies to the sea!’”

All Japanese who refused to leave would be imprisoned Sept. 1942: 22,000 (75% were Canadian citizens) had been

moved inland as well as 660 Germans and 480 Italians Loyalty commissions were held at the end of the war to

determine who to let back in—in the end, over 4000 Japanese were hounded out of Canada—1/3 were children who did not speak Japanese

NOTE: Canada’s action contravened the new United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

Japanese CanadiansDeportations based on racial grounds were actually

declared as crimes against humanityKing writes in his diary after the atomic bomb was

dropped that he was glad this happened to the yellow people, and not the decent white people

Government studies show that the Japanese lost at a minimum $443 million in property.

1988 government awards an apology, full pardon to all those wrongly convicted, as well as $21,000 compensation

1990—Canada apologizes to all Italians who were imprisoned, but no compensation