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Battle of the Atlantic
Royal Canadian Navy set up convoys which made up of corvettes to protect the supply ships which transported supply to Britain. They protected the merchant ships from the attack from German U-boats. This is the greatest contribution to WW2 by Canada.
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Battle of Britain
There were 25% of Canadian pilots in Royal Air Force (RAF) helped to defeat the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). 3000 Nazi planes shot down but 16 of the first 25 Canadian pilots died. So Nazis gave up invading Britain. British PM Churchill said that "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."
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Battles of Hong Kong
Canada soldiers helped British against Japanese in order to protect Hong Kong. However, they surrendered after 17 days of fighting because of the inexperienced troops. 290 soldiers died, 500 wounded, and 267 soldiers died in Japanese prison camps. At the same time, one day before Japanese attacked Hong Kong, they attacked the Pearl Harbor, USA. Since them, Japan started the war against the USA.
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European Air War
On May 30, 1942, 1000 bombers raid Cologne, Germany.
On July 24-31, 60% of Hamburg, Germany was destroyed and 80000 civilians were killed.
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was small in 1939, but by 1945 became 4th largest in the world.
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Dieppe Raid
The Alliance wanted to attack the Germans to relieve pressure on Russians fighting on Eastern Front with fire support by sea & air needed. They also wanted to find out more German coastal defense in France by Nazi. 5000 Canadians landed in Dieppe, 900 died and 1000 wounded, also 1900 were captured as prisoners of war.
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Operation Husky
Operation Husky was the start of the attack to Italy. Canadians were the first to occupy the island of Sicily. At the first day, there were 60 casualties but 650 enemy soldiers captured. All objectives reached after 30 days.
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Battle of Ortona
Ortona was the key city on the way to capture Rome. It was defended by the best First Parachute Division of Germany. Canada lost 2163 men and 176 officers but used “mouse-holing” technique to capture the city which is to use blasted holes in walls of buildings in order to avoid being shot by Germans.
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D-Day
D-Day is the Day of Deliverance, which is Canada’s largest military operation of WW 2. There were 14,000 soldiers landed on the beach and 10,000 sailors on 100 ships off the coast. Canada, USA, and Britain attacked Normandy. France to take France back from the Germans. 30 days later, 1 million Allied soldiers landed. Canada was the most successful at Juno Beach but had 335 dead and 739 wounded.
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Liberation of Europe
Canadians fully liberated the Netherlands from the Nazis but had 7600 Canadian casualties. Dutch rained flowers on Canadians in gratitude since Canadians gave them food to eat.
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, which is the VE Day Victory in Europe Day.
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Commandos in the Pacific
Chinese Canadians had Force 136 which was an elite commando unit fighting behind enemy lines. They were used to sabotage Japanese war effort by destroying Japanese weapons, bridges, and railways. Japanese Canadians helped to do translators and create propaganda. V-J Day (Victory Over Japan Day) was on Aug 14, 1945, after the USA dropped 2 atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan officially surrenders to the allies power.
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