Fighting the War

Blitzkrieg Click to edit Master subtitle style

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Question

How can we characterize the warfare of the First World War? to a neighbour and brainstorm the ways that they tried to break the stalemate. What are ways you might think to try to break the stalemate?

Turn

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The end of Appeasement

Appeasement

had given Germanys military machine time to grow and refine its ideas and granted them valuable land. now believed that he didnt need to continue to placate Britain and France by paying lip service to peace, he would now use military force to pursue German interests
3/2/12 successes were by no

Hitler

Germanys

Invading Poland
After

a slight subterfuge, the Nazis invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939 and moved very quickly through their objectives and France declared war but deemed Poland too far away to offer direct military assistance

Britain

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Poland
The

Poles put up a brave defense, but they were using outdated tactics including emphasizing the strike power of their mounted infantry to try to combat the tanks and airplanes of the Germans
They did have some successes with this and

never actually fought tanks with horse mounted soldiers

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Nonetheless,

the German onslaught

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The Phony War

Heinz

Guderian, German general and architect of the early German successes, was confused as to why the French did not attack while the German armoured columns were occupied in Poland it was, from Oct. 1939-Apr. 1940, there was very little fighting as the Allies waited for the Germans to turn west 3/2/12

As

The conquest of Northern Europe

The

Germans attacked Norway and Denmark in April of 1941 defeating both quickly before turning their attention to France

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Blitzkrieg
Were

going to take a bit to understand how the Germans attacked France because if you understand this battle, you understand the bulk of the fighting done in the world since then employed a strategy against both Poland and France that they called blitzkrieg (literally lightning war) 3/2/12

Germany

Activity
1.

Each of you is going to receive a coloured sheet with a number on it. Please move to sit in groups with your colours (move desks). In your colour groups, you will collaborate and answer the following questions in your learning logs
1. What is/are the main idea(s) of your

2.

paragraph(s)?

2. What is really important information that 3/2/12

Activity part 2
1.

Now group yourselves in your numbered groups. Go through the article in the following order: orangey-pink, light yellow, green, brownish-yellow, light pink, blue. Each of you will share what your coloured selection is about with the rest of your group starting with the 3/2/12 pithy version and offering details or

2.

3.

Dunkirk
Following

the collapse of the French army, the remaining British and French troops retreated to the English Channel only to become entrapped around Dunkirk ships of all sizes (including tugs and fishing boats) sailed from England and took back over 340,000 troops and a lot of equipment
3/2/12 evacuation at Dunkirk was a

900

The

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The Strategic Problem of Britain

Hitlers

conquest of Europe would not be complete until the British surrendered win against Britain, he knew hed need to control the English Channel which meant destroying or neutralizing the Royal Navy only real hope of neutralizing the Navy was to win control of the skies over3/2/12 Britain

To

Germanys

The Battle of Britain

Hitlers

plan was to attack the British by air to try to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) and their capacity to make airplanes. He also sought to weaken the British morale through bombing
This was the first concerted effort to try to

defeat a country solely through air power

Through

the summer of 1940, the RAF (which included some 3/2/12

British advantages
The

British were outnumbered roughly 3:1, but they had some advantages that leveled the playing field
Superior fighter craft Radar Recovery of pilots who lost their aircraft Possession of the German cipher machine,

Enigma, which allowed the British to decode messages 3/2/12

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Germanys strategic error

The

Luftwaffe initially focused on aircraft factories, hangars, and radar installations but in August, a bomber squadron accidentally bombed civilians in London. ordered a bombing raid on Berlin and Hitler shifted his strategy to focus on the city of London (called the Blitz).
3/2/12 this was costly and horrifying

Churchill

Though

Setting the Sides

After

Germany gave up on Britain, they quickly conquered a handful of countries in southeastern Europe as the Italians drew them into campaigns they didnt really want

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Soviet Russia enters

As

the Germans pushed east, the temptation of invading resource rich Russia grew and Hitlers frustration with the failure of the Luftwaffe in Britain led him to do the very thing he set out not to do, start the two front war. Germans devised a three pronged attack they called Operation Barbarossa 3/2/12

The

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Barbarossas fatal flaw

The

Russians were caught almost entirely by surprise, but managed to rally with the Germans threatening the major cities of Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad flaw of the German invasion can be summed likened to that of Napoleons invasion 120 years previous, Russia is huge and cold.
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The

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Enter the US
Japans

expansionism in the Pacific had led them into a series of minor diplomatic and trade clashes with the US the Americans enacting trade embargoes (especially on oil) and freezing Japanese assets in American banks, the Japanese felt increasingly desperate and believed that their only hope of continuing 3/2/12 to grow and

With

Pearl Harbour
On

Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack at the American naval base in Hawaii called Pearl Harbour.
If successful, the attack would give the

Japanese unchallenged control of the Pacific Ocean

This

was coordinated with a series of other attacks on American, British, and Dutch possessions in southeast
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Hong Kong
Canada

also declared war on the Japanese and we sent troops to try to defend Hong Kong, then a British possession in China
This was the Canadian forces first land

battle in WWII

They

faced an impossible task and had to surrender after 17 days when their supplies and ammo ran out
500 wounded, 290 killed, 267 died in the 3/2/12

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Significance of Hong Kong

Hong

Kong counts as one of the 7 most important military actions Canada undertook in WWII I think we can safely argue that it was insignificant compared to the others
It was doomed from the start It had fairly low casualty numbers It had very little effect on the outcome of

Ultimately,

the war in the Pacific

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Your task, you have no choice but to accept it

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