Liberation of Europe Flashcards
What happened following the D-Day invasions of France in June of 1944?
Germany mounted a determined resistance.
What does Hitlerjugend mean
Fanatics who refused to surrender
What did Germans build as part of the Resistance
New German weapons -VI and V2 Rockets.
The V stands for Vergelting which means vengeance in German.
What was special about the v1 missle
FIrst long-range missile.
-After launching it flew until it ran out of fuel and crashed and blew up
What was special about the v2 missle
The rocket could travel at the speed of sound for the perfect sneak attack
How did Canadians Liberate France
Canadians fought & captured Caen- cost nearly 80% losses
Aug 1944 liberation of Paris by American troops
What was going on with Germany while France was being liberated
- Allied strategic bombing weakened Germany.
- german army officers attempted to assassinate Hitler (failed)
- Poor German morale but Hitler refused to surrender.
What was the Battle of the Scheldt River
in October 1944, Canadians were tasked with clearing enemy troops from the Scheldt river in Belgium, in order to access the important port of Antwerp
- The allies had liberated Antwerp but the German forced controlled the river and had access to the sea.
- One month of very difficult fighting followed through flat, flooded, very muddy terrain.
- Allowed the allies to bring the supplies for their final advance into Germany
What was going on in the Netherlands
=The country had been under German occupation since May 1940, Dutch people resent this greatly.
= The Dutch mounted a resistance against the German occupation
= The dangers were exceptionally high: captured members of the resistance were usually shot or sent to concentration camps.
=As Dutch Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, many dutch citizens hid Jews in their homes.
Explain what happened on the Liberation of the Netheralnds
- April 1945- Canadians was given a task to liberate the Netherlands, as the allied forced were closing in on Germany from all sides.
- Very difficult fighting as Nazis had destroyed dikes, flooding lowlands as they retreated.
- Campaign cost 7600 casualties, but on May 5 the Germany generals surrendered to Canadian troops.
How and what was the impact of the holocaust being discovered
- Discovery of concentration camps and death camps in occupied lands by liberating soldiers.
- Before the war ended orders went out from Berlin to destroy the camps to keep them secret, but time ran out allowing some prisoners to be resued.
What was happening in fall of Berlin
- The Soviets were advancing on Berlin from the east.
- Germans resisted fiercely but could not hold back the attack from all sides.
- In April 1945, soviets entered Berlin and met up with Americans -captured city
- April 30, 1945- Hitler and Eva committed suicide, his body burned.
When did Germany officially surrender and what is this event called
on may 8, 1945, called victory in Europe day
What is the Manhattan project
Americans, with help from Canadian scientists and using Canadian-mined Uranium, had been working on a secret project to create an atomic bomb.
What happened on August 6, 1945
August 6, 1945-atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Japan killed 71,000.
-60% of the city developed area was destroyed
