World War II Battles Timeline
D-Day
Where did it take place?
- Normandy (Northern France)
Battle of Britain
The Dieppe Raid
Battle of the Atlantic
Where did it take place?
- Took place in the Atlantic ocean (submarines, U-boats etc)
Casualties?
- 23,000 people were killed in the blitz, most were british civians
- RAF lost 1250 aircraft, including 1017 fighters
Where did it take place?
- The beaches of Dieppe (France)
Who was involved?
- Canada, U.S.A, UK, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Netherlands, New Zeland, Norway, Poland, Czechslovakia against Germany
Who was involved?
- Canada, UK, Poland, Free France, Poland, USA against Germany
Casualties?
- German: 4000-9000
- Allies: 1200 men, over 1900 aircraft operators
Who was involved?
- Italy, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom
Casualties?
- 3367 killed of wounded canadians
- 550 british casualties
- 311 german casualties
Casualties?
- 30,000 sailors were killed on each side.
- Allies lost around 3,500 supply ships and 175 warships
- Germans lost 783 submarines.
Who was involved?
- Canada, France, Poland, USA, UK, Netherlands, Brazil, Norway, Belgium against Germany and Italy
Significance?
- Provided valuable lessons for the subsequent allied attacks on Africa, Italy and Normandy
Impact on Canada/the war?
- With the success of D-day, this lead the allies into being steps further to reaching their ultimate goal: to defeat Germany
- Canada demonstrated great tenacity and bravery which reflected on the country
Significance?
- The allies proved that they learned from the defeat of Dieppe and manged to improve, which lead to victory
- D-day was the largest military operation by sea
What happened?
- The allies launched a major raid on the french coast port of Dieppe
- Operation Jubilee was put into effect by Vice-admiral Louis Mountbatten to test the german defenses and tactics
- The plan was to stage five frontal attacks along a ten mile stretch of beach
- The raid was a disaster; over 3000 canadians were killed or injured due to poor communication, weather, limited air support etc.
What Happened?
- First shots were fired just hours after Britain declared war on Germany
- The battle for control of the key shipping routes between Europe and North America had begun
- Canada joins the war one week later, and their primary role was to transport duty for the hundreds of convoy in Halifax, Sydney, Nova Scotia etc.
- In the early years, the U-boats were clearly winning, because they used strategies such as travelling in "wolf packs" (groups of submarines)
- Canada's navy then formed their own hunter groups, and managed to sink 8 U-boats
- U-boat technology was advancing, but three weeks before the end of the war they surrendered to the allies, and the war was over
Impact on Canada/the war?
- Hitler was forced to surrender due to the strong air force of Canada/ Britain
- The first commitment of the Royal Canadian Air Force in the second world war
What happened?
- The allies planned a full scale invasion of Europe, known as D-day or Operation Overlord
- The invasion was well thought out, and everyone was well equipped to fight
- The allies carried out a massive deception operation intended to make the germans believe that the main invasion target was Pas-de-Calais
- Five landing points on the beach in Normandy that had code names of "sword", "Juno", "gold", "omana" and "Utah"
- The beaches were secured, and over 326, 000 troops had landed in Normandy, along with tons of equipment and vehicles
- Their goal was to pass the concrete barriers in order to reach land.
- Their invasion tactics lead to their victory, and lead them a step closer to defeating Germany
Impact on Canada/the war?
- The victory of the allies i this battle reflected their bravery ad tenacity and helped them in the upcoming battles
- However, Many argue that the lessons learned were not worth the mass casualties
What happened?
- Hitler's goal was "Operation Sea lion", the invasion of Britain
- First, Germany was to destroy the Royal Navy and Royal air force
- They made massive bombing raids into England targeting air fields, naval bases, etc.
- Th german strategey changed to bombing civilian targets, and continued to bomb cities including London, for fourty-five consecutive nights, and soon became known as "The Blitz"
- After months of bombing, the germans were still not able to defeat the british air force
- September 15, 1940, the British inflicted a great amount of casualties to show that they had air superiority, so on September 17 of 1940, Hitler calls off the invasion of England
Significance?
- This became the first defeat of Hitler's military
- First battle to be fought entirely with air forces
Significance?
- This battle was significant due to the fact it was the longest continuous battle of the second World War
Impact on Canada/the war?
- Mass casualties of the battle caused anger in canadians
- The tragic loss of the battle helped further the tatics of the soldiers and helped them to learn more for the next battle
Liberation of Holland
Battle of Hong Kong
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Ortona
Casualties?
- 350,000 allies
- 140, 000 german
Who was involved?
- Canada, Poland against Germany
Where did it take place?
- The beaches of Dunkirk (France)
Who was involved?
- Japan, Canada, United Kingdom
Casualties?
- All 1975 troops were killed, along with the others that were imprisonned
Who was involved?
- Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Poland, Netherlands against Germany
Significance?
- The strategies used by the allies were we constructed and effective
Significance?
- The bravery and determination led to the liberation of the people of the Netherlands, and they continue to show their gratitude
- This led to the ending of the war, and the death of Adolf Hitler
What Happened?
- Canada sends 1975 troops to reinforce the British Colony of Hong Kong for the aid of Britain
- Troops were highly unprepared and under equipped and still were undergoing training
- Military actions were launched across the Pacific by the Japanese on December 7th of 1941
- December 8, 1941 the Japanese attacked Hong Kong
- Hong Kong was defeated by the Japanese on the 25th of December, 1941
- This attack violated the law, due to the fact Japan had never declared war on Britain
Significance?
- The significance of this battle is that it shows the brutality of Japan to attack without declaring war
What happened?
- The allies began the battle when they invaded Italy under the order of Whinston Churchill
- The allies made great success
- 1372 men were killed during this time, but never gave up until the germans withdrew
- After vigorous fighting, the town was turned to ruins
- The germans then staged a fake surrender, and once the canadians advanced, they were mowed down by machine guns and were killed
- However, the allies eventually were lead to victory
What happened?
- Canadian forces were given a task to liberate the Netherlands from nazi occupation
- Canadians started their attack on the Netherlands in April, and the attacks were slow, but by April 17, the troops defeated the germans in the north
- In early May, canadians were greeted as heroes as they continued to liberate small towns and major cities in the Netherlands
- Germany formally surrendered and the war in Europe had come to an end
Impact on Canada/the war?
- They saved way more soldiers than anticipated, therefor had way more to continue throughout the war
What happened?
- The "phoney war" was now over, as the german army trapped the British and French armies on the beach of Dunkirk (around 330,0000 soldiers were trapped and were a sitting target for the germans)
- Operation Dynamo was put into effect by Admiral Ramsey to try to get as many men off the beaches as possible. The British navy rouded up any boat capable of navigating the English Channel
- The evacuation became known as the miracle at Dunkirk (340,000 troops were successfully evacuated)
Impact on Canada/the war?
- Bravery and determination was reflected on the canadian troops
- Many effective strategies were used
Impact on Canada/the war?
- Canadians were seen as heroes because of their bravery and courage
- Soon after, Hitler took his own life
Impact on Canada/the war?
- Many canadians were angry that troops were sent to Hong Kong, because of how many casualties there were
- many canadian troops were killed or imprisoned for years
Significance?
- It was significant that they could evacuate such a large number of troops from the beaches of Dunkirk with little equipment