CHC2D – Canadian History Since World One Unit 1 – Lesson # /40: War Returns to Europe and Canada Prepares for War

Background The failures of the Western Democracies (Britain & France) to stand up to German threats to its neighbours made Hitler more bold in his demands. Additionally, the attitude of the United States that Europe’s problems were not it’s concern made matters worse as Britain and France understood that without the support of Russia or the US, they could not stand against Germany.

German War Plans Hitler ordered the generals of the German Army, known as the Wehrmacht, to begin planning an invasion of Poland in March of Germany planned to invade Poland with nearly all of its armed forces, attacking south from East Prussia and north from Germany to capture the Polish capital at Warsaw.

Blitzkrieg The German Blitzkrieg (which means lightning war) was a new style of war which combined air strikes with concentrated attacks by Panzer (tank) divisions. The goal was to get behind the enemy, capture key cities and transportation connections and then let the slower moving infantry finish off trapped enemy forces.

Germany Declares War Germany declared war on Poland on September 1, By September 9, the German army had already surrounded Warsaw. Warsaw surrendered by September 27 th and the remainder of Polish forces were defeated by October 1 st.

Germany’s Victory Within a month of their declaration of War, Germany stunned the world by completely defeating Poland. The Polish army had the reputation of having the best cavalry in Europe, it was too bad that they were fighting against German Panzers. Germany easily defeated an army of over 800,000 at a cost of only 14,000 dead.

Phoney War Between October 1939 and April 1940, despite being at war, neither side fired a shot. This period is referred to as “Sitzkrieg.” During this time, England and France sat by as Hitler was able to consolidate his conquest of Poland and re- deploy his armies to the west and plan for the invasion of France.

Germany’s Salvation The rapid conquest of Poland and the fact that Britain and France did not attack Germany despite their “guarantee” to Poland, gave Hitler what he needed most. Time; time to move his troops in position to invade France; time to train new recruits into the German army; time to build more planes and tanks; and time to plan his next move.

Canada’s Readiness for War Canada was not ready to go to war in The economic problems of the Depression caused the Canadian government to reduce expenditures on the armed forces. When Canada declared war, the Canadian Armed Forces had an army of 5000 regular soldiers, 50,000 militia, 16 modern tanks, 4 anti-aircraft guns, and 3 modern destroyers.

Canada’s Role in the War In light of the weakness of Canadian forces, Prime Minister King proposed that Canada’s contribution to the war effort be largely in raw materials, food and industrial production. With 900,000 Canadians still unemployed in 1939, Canada had the resources to grow, both industrially and militarily.

Canadians Respond Despite the experiences of World War I, Canadians eagerly volunteered for service in September 1939 as 70,000 young men enlisted in the armed forces. On September 19, King announced that 1 Canadian Division was sent to England under the command of Major General A.G.L (Andy) McNaughton.

Arrival in Britain The Canadian division arrived in Britain on December and began to train along with British forces during the period of Sitzkrieg. Many of the Canadian soldiers would later refer to this period as their “English” vacation. The “war” seemed distant to them.

Canada and Aircraft On December 17 th, King announced a plan to turn Canada into the aircrew training school for the entire British Commonwealth. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) brought air crews from all over the Commonwealth for training as pilots, navigators, air gunners, bombardiers, and radio operators.

Why Canada? Canada was close enough to Britain to fly graduates of the training program to the war zone quickly. But Canada was also far enough away from the war that the crews could train in relative safety without fears of being attacked by the German air force. By the end of the war, the BCATP trained over 130,000 air crew including nearly 50,000 pilots!

1940 – War Resumes In April 1940, the calm of the “phoney war” was shattered as Germany invaded Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and France. On April 9, 1940 Germany attacked Denmark and Norway. On May 10, 1940 Germany attacked Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

Lightning War & Lightning Victories Belgium and the Netherlands were defeated in 5 days! As the German Panzers smashed through the Allied forces; 340,000 British and French troops were evacuated at Dunkirk between May 26 th and June 4 th. On June 14, 1940 German Panzers entered the city of Paris, by June 22 nd France officially surrendered.

The Situation in June 1940 The fall of France signalled the ultimate victory for Germany. The humiliation of the treaty of Versailles had been avenged and now Hitler could look to win for Germany its “place in the sun.” Hitler had two more objectives to accomplish: end Britain’s dominance of the seas and provide Germans with “living space” by conquering more of Eastern Europe

Britain & Canada France and the rest of Europe were defeated; Italy was allied with Germany; Spain and Sweden were friendly to Germany; and Russia had a non-aggression pact with Germany. This left Britain and Canada, along with the rest of the Commonwealth, alone against Hitler’s seemingly unstoppable forces.