WW2 - major battles Flashcards
The Battle of Britain
july 1940 to oct 1940
bombing shipping in the english channel
bombing RAF airfields and radar stations
bombing docks and centers of industry
*RAF was close to collapsing
hitler and goering change tactics - stop bombing airfield and start flattening london because brits bombed berlin
2 german raids are repulsed - sets them back and postpones op sea lion
The Blitz
during the battle of britain sept - oct 1940 40000+ civilians died allowed RAF to regroup hitler wanted to flatten london because brits bombed berlin after an errent bomb landed in londons suburbs
The Battle of the Atlantic
1940-41
u boats unleashed to unrestricted warfare
all ships to britain were to be sunk
starve them out
wolf packs - u boats in groups hunting merchant vessels
super effective
allies began escorting ships in groups called convoys
canadian corvette designed to chase and sink u boats
sonar helped allies and long range aircrafts
Bomber Command
after dunkirk, britain had heavy losses so they spent money on developing heavy bombers
lead to British commonwealth air training plan
men and women from all over the commonwealth cme to canada to learn to fly and maintain fighters and bombers
Slege of Tubruk
jan 1941
british vs italians with brits capturing tubruk
rommel and afrika corps are sent to north africe in feb to support italy
el alamein
1st battle: july 1942 british hold off german offensive 2nd battle: oct 1942 brit amry hands hitler his second defeat axis begin to be pushed out of africa & into italy
operation torch
nov 1942
american forces land in morocco
french originally fight americans but soon surrender
americans start moving east towards tunisia
Invasion - morocco was neutral!!
operation barbarossa
Jun. 22, 1941 – Dec. 5, 1941
germany invades ussr with 3 mil troops
russia almost collapses - saved by winter
ussr recieves supplies from UK and USA via northern part of archangel
in order to defeat german powerful forces, britain and ussr put aside their political differences to form an alliance to defeat hitler
**germany now has 2 front war
pearl harbour
dec 1941
imperial empire of japan attakcs us naval base pearl harbour
the only real military base nearby
*missed aircraft carriers and fuel/repair stations
dec 8th US and uk declare war on japan
germany declares war on US in support of its japanese ally
Hong Kong
dec 24 1941 first canadian disaster HK threatened by japan - were hopeless british high command wanted to help 2000 canadians sent only 200 returned
dieppe raid
aug 1942
second canadian disaster
obj: 5000 troops sail from england to surprise germans landing on dieppe beach under dark holding the town for a day then leaving
reality: poor coordination between navy, troops and air - troops land in daylight w no naval/air support
tanks sent to support troops got stuck in gravel
900 dead 2000 captured
ortona
sept 1943
french canadian troops break germ defense at ortona
allows allies to capture rome
italy surrenders fall 1944
D-Day
june 6 1944
150000 men land in normandy
canadians assigned juno beach
14000 canadian troops - 8 miles inland
1074 wounded 360 dead
germans convinced this was a diversionary attack
americans hit hardest - miss target landing and tanks arrive late
*GERMANY NOW HAS 3 FRONT WAR - FRANCE RUSSIA AND ITALY
Battle of normandy
june 6 - aug 25 1944 alies 200000 dead wounded or missing 5000 canadians killed Germany - 200000 wounded killed or missing 200000 prisoners of war
battle of the coral sea
may 1942
the us and japan fight to a draw
