CANADA AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR: 1939-1945 CANADIAN HISTORY 1201 MR. STEPHEN PINSENT Chapter 6: Introduction The Second World War ended any hope of stability that existed after the ten years of turbulence that was the Great Depression. WW2 further changed the role of women and widened the rift between English and French Canadians. It also changed the role Canada played in the world. Canada s participation as a sovereign nation enhanced our international reputation, and set the stage for Canada to play an active role in the postwar world, and in organizations such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 6.1 Lead-up To War Like WWI, the Second World War had both underlying causes and immediate causes. The immediate cause was the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, however the underlying causes of the ware began years before. From ch. 3, we discussed the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that were imposed on Germany - they were harsh. The hope was that it was deter future German aggression, instead what it did was give Hitler a political and propaganda platform with which he could win over the German people. Emerging nations after WWI in former German territory also led to problems. German speaking people now lived in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria - and Germany claimed that these regions were part of their country.
The League of Nations Founded in 1919, the League of Nations was formed by the victors of WWI, and its purpose was to bring about permanent world peace, through collective security. The League had little power, thus little chance of success. The U.S. congress opposed American involvement and America did not join. Powers such as France and Britain gave little support to the league, and Canada who was an independent member, also failed to support the league. Canadian Isolationism Determined not to become involved in future European wars, Canada embarked on an international policy of isolationism, or noninvolvement in world affairs. Canada was deeply alarmed by the potential requirements of being an active member of the League of Nations and introduced a resolution from being bound to combat aggression unless they chose to do so - this further weakened the Leagues ability to prevent conflict abroad. The Manchurian Crisis Sept. 1931: Japan invades the Chinese province of Manchuria, which had long been a source of conflict between Japan, China, and Russia. For Japan, Manchuria was the first step to invading the Russian territory of Mongolia. China appealed to the League of Nations for support. The League condemned the attacks and Japan ultimately withdrew from the League. The U.S., Britain, Canada, and other League members were not prepared to intervene, however they did hope that Japan would cease the aggression. The reality of the situation was that the League had no real control over nations that would not recognize it s authority.
The Invasion of Abyssinia In 1935 there was a border clash between Abyssinian troops and Italian forces from Italian Somaliland. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, saw the conflict with the small African state as an opportunity to expand it s powers and territories. While pretending to follow due process and dealing with League officials Mussolini built his forces along its border. In October of 1935 he launched a full scale attack against Abyssinia, the Italians with their tanks and aircraft, versus the Abyssinians with spears. World-wide public opinion was opposed to Italy, the League boycotted certain products from Italy, however there few few sanctions against Italy.
The Canadian Proposal The League s representative in Canada, Dr. W.A. Riddell, felt that the boycott needed to be more severe - he proposed that it be expanded to include oil, which Italy need to run it s war machine There was opposition in Canada, in particular amongst the Roman Catholic Quebec which was sympathetic of Italy, home of the Catholic church and the pope. Prime Minister King while willing to support the League in its decision refused to allow Canada to take a leadership role in Abyssinian crisis, stating that Riddell s recommendations were not the official position of the Canadian government. Failure of the League By May of 1936, Abyssinia was annexed to Italy. Mussolini named Italy s king the new Emperor of Abyssinia. Germany, who under Hitler left the league in 1933, was the first country to recognize (validate) the Italian conquest. It was obvious that the League had failed again. Formation of the Axis Powers To protect its troops and interests in Manchuria, Japan signed an Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany in 1936. In short they would co-operate against any threat of Communism from the Soviet Union. In 1937 Italy joined the pact, forming the countries that would become known as the Axis Powers during the Second World War
6.2 Causes of the War Non-Interventions and Appeasement on the Eve of War The Manchurian crisis and Italian invasion of Abyssinia made it clear that international condemnation was not enough to stop aggression. Between 1936-39 there were other events that proved that the League was not prepared to take action. France and Britain remained isolated from European events and tried to appease aggressive nations such as Germany The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, and the Failure of Non-Intervention In 1936, strikes and riots let to the fall of the Spanish monarchy. A communist party was elected and a government modelled after the Soviet system in Russia is established. The new government opposed the right-wing forces; the Catholic church and the wealthy who controlled the economy. General Francisco Franco, who commanded the Spanish faces in Morocco, who had the support of the right wing, returned to Spain in 1936 to overthrow the government. As with other conflicts of the time Canada, Britain and France maintained its non-intervention policy. Germany and Italy however gave support to the forces led by Franco. Germany saw it as an opportunity to test their new airforce, and to see how willing the allies were to enforce the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. After 3 years of war, Franco defeated the government and became a dictator much like Mussolini and Hitler. The lack of international support had a significant effect - Hitler observed the unwillingness of Britain and France to take a stand.
Lebensraum In 1932 the Nationals Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazi party) was elected to power and in 1933 Adolf Hitler, became chancellor of Germany. Hitler gained power by promising to regain Germany s honour lost in the Versailles Treaty and to gain Levensraum (living space) The plan was to expand outward until world powers tried to stop him. Hitler first demanded Anschluss which meant the unification of Austria, then took the Saar Valley on the French border. Germany continued to re-arm in defiance of the treaty and then moved troops towards the oil and coal rich Rhineland. In 1938 Hitler sent troops into Austria and successfully annexed Austria to Germany Appeasement and the Munich Pact Neville Chamberlain, PM of Great Britain and Canada s PM Mackenzie King favoured appeasement, feeling that WWI had been too harsh to Germany and that Hitler s appetite for land could be satisfied. Chamberlain met with Hitler in 1938, in Munich Germany, and agreed to the German occupation of Sudetenland (a German-Speaking part of Czechoslovakia) if Hitler agreed to leave the rest of the country free. Chamberlain claimed to have brought peace to our time, however he would later be strongly criticized as being weak because of appeasement. Shortly after Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, and by March of 1939 Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia. On Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler sent troops into Poland in an attack called a Blitzkrieg, or Lightening War. On Sept. 3, 1939, with little other choice, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Fascism and Anti-Semitism The focus of fascism in Germany was on Lebensraum and antisemitism - hatred of the Jews. In his book Mien Kamph, Hitler needed a scapegoat for Germany s severe economic troubles after the war and during the Great Depression. The Jews became a convenient group to blame for all the country s ills. Once in power Hitler began to exercise totalitarian rule & anti- Semitism became a state policy. First there was a propaganda and censorship campaign against Jewish writers and artists. Then the Nuremberg Laws took away their voting rights and removed them from most jobs. Thugs often attacked Jews and vandalized Jewish businesses across Germany, they were seldom punished. After 1938-9, Nazis extend these laws/policies to their occupied territories. Jews were forced to leave their homes for segregated areas of cities - ghettos. By 1941, Nazi leaders decided on the final solution to the Jewish problem - extermination. Jews were then sent to concentration camps - Jews were killed in gas chambers or by other means. It was not until the end of the war that the horrors of these camps were known.
Not only were Jews in these camps - Communists, Slavs, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the mentally challenged were also murdered. The Genocide attempted by the Nazi s on the Jewish race became known as the Holocaust. Fascism in Canada The fascism movement found some support in Canada; Nazi ideology found supporters in Saskatchewan and Manitoba where there were large German-speaking populations. The Catholic church in Quebec saw Nazi s and fascism as a safeguard against godless Communists. Some were attracted to Fascism during the depression by the hope of economic improvement. Others were attracted by anti-semitism. Jews in Canada were unofficially kept out of may professions and the civil service. And there were sometimes violent attacks against Jews. This helps explain the government s reluctance to accept Jews fleeing persecution in the 1930s during the war.
6.3 The War in Europe Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler launches a massive air and land attack on Poland. Britain and France immediately declare war on Germany. Canada was not obliged to join automatically as in WWI, as the Statute of Westminster now allowed for Canada to make its own decisions in international affairs. Many still felt ties to Britain, many felt German aggression had to be stopped. When the passenger ship Athenia was sunk on Sept. 3, 1939, killing 500 Canadians, anti-german feeling reached a fever pitch. Many expected that Canada would declare war on Germany. On Sept. 10, 1939, Prime Minister King announced Canada s entry into the war, which was supported by all but one of the members of Parliament. Canada now turned from ten years of unemployment to the grim business of war. Memories of the sacrifices of WWI were still strong among many Canadians, and there was little enthusiasm for the war ahead, and few knew that the conflict would be even longer and more costly than the First World War. A New Kind of War Like WWI, technological developments changed the nature of war. Armies in trenches would not face across from one another as in WWI. Technology, specifically in airplanes expanded the battlefield to include all of an enemy s territory. Long range bombers, faster tanks, and motorized forces created a war of movement. These changes made it possible for one nation to attack another s defences, industrial targets, and civilian populations thousands of kilometres away in a very short time.
New weapons such as bazookas, and improved weapons, such as machine guns, made killing quicker and more accurate in land battles. Foot soldiers still fought battles, however their importance in the conduct of war decreased as the role of military technology increased. The use of fast moving military forces required the development of sophisticated communications systems. In the late 1930 s Britain made frantic efforts to develop radar warning systems - by 1938, 5 radar stations facing mainland Europe were constructed. Radar helped British and Canadian pilots win the battle of Britain against the German Air Force. Cryptologists developed secret codes to send and receive commands, and they also worked to break codes of the enemy, Scientists worked to create new technologies to use against enemy forces, along with new methods of defence. Canadian Soldiers and the Beginning of the War Canada was ill-prepared to fight a war, our army totalled 4000 regular troops and 60,000 part-time soldiers in the militia. The navy had 3000 sailors, and the RCAF had 4000 members. Recruiting began quickly. Canadian troops began to arrive in Britain by Dec. 1939 - the bad weather of the winter of 1940 resulted in a period of uneasy activity on Germany s western front - often called the Phoney War, as very little happened during this time. By April of 1940, western Europe suffered the massive German Blitzkrieg, or lightning war.
By June 1940 Germany had attached Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium,Luxembourg, and then all the way into France pushing French and British forces to the beaches of Dunkirk. A flotilla of every available British vessel, including small civilian craft was able to evacuate and save 350,000 solders, unfortunately most of their equipment had to be left behind. A few weeks later France surrendered. In 1941 German forces attacked Greece & Yugoslavia and made gains into North Africa and into the Baltic States. In June 1942, German broke the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 and sent 1,000,000 soldiers, tanks, and aircraft into the USSR. Only a few Canadian forces saw combat before 1942, most were in Britain, training and preparing for a German invasion. This was to change, as the USSR demanded allies open a new front in the west to draw off German troops attacking the Soviet Union. The Dieppe Raid In 1942, the Allied Command was unwilling to help the Soviets with an all-out attack into Europe. However in August 1942, 6000 soldiers made up of Canadian, British, and American troops launched an attack on the beaches at Dieppe Things went wrong. The nighttime landing was pushed back, and now they were landing in daylight, bombers which were to provide support against machine guns were also delayed. Fortified barbed wire, guarded by artillery emplacements immediately began firing on the landing force. The troops that made it inland soon were driven back. Of the 5000 Canadians, 1400 were killed or wounded, and 2000 were taken prisoner. More Canadians died at Dieppe than on any other day of the war. Some claim the raid to have been a failure with no purpose, however the raid did help satisfy Soviet demands for assistance, and it provided allied forces with the experience needed for the invasion that would come in 1944 (D-Day). THE DIEPPE RAID
The Italian Campaign In early 1941 German and Italian troops invade Egypt and North Africa - by the end of 1942 allied forces had regained the territory and now planned the invasion of Italy, which began in July of 1943. The Canadian First Division landed with the Eight British Army. They pushed north and saw little resistance until Ortana, on the Adriatic Sea. At Ortona, the German army took a stand and fight took place through Dec. 1943. The German s were finally pushed back - a French-Canadian unit - the Royal Twenty-second Regiment (the Vandoos) - distinguished itself. The Canadians were able to break the Adolf Hitler Line, the last German defensive front before Rome - this allowed them to continue north and Italy ultimately fell in the fall of 1944. Operation Overlord: D-day, the Invasion of Normandy June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord, the great Allied invasion of German held Europe began. American, British, and Canadian troops were to land along 80 km of Normandy Beach in France. A combined Canadian (15,0000) and British (9000) troops were assigned to get the beach code named Juno - it consisted of 8 km of coastline. The plan was not a complete success. Gun positions were not knocked out by bombing and Canadians suffered 1074 casualties, 359 dead. The landing however, was an overall success and the allies now had a foothold in Europe.
OPERATION OVERLORD THE D-DAY INVASION From D-day to the Liberation of the Netherlands After D-Day, Canadian forces continued to push back German forces, fighting some of Germany s crack divisions. Canadians captured Caen, France, moved on to Malaise, and by the winter of 1944-5 they were capturing the ports of Dieppe and Calias. Canadian troops played a major role in clearing the entrance to Europe, by March of 1945, Canadians forces moved through Belgium, and pushed German troops in the Netherlands back across the Rhine river. Allied victory in Europe came in 1945, and it was Canadian forces who accepted the surrender of Nazi forces in the Netherlands. WWII: A Visual Representation for Perspective
6.4 Canadian Involvement Around The World The Defence of Hong Kong Canada s first engagement of WW2 was defending the British island colony of Hong Kong. On Dec. 7, 1941 Japan entered the war with the attack on the American naval base in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, while simultaneously attacking a number of other strategic sites, including Hong Kong. The 14,000 Canadian, British, and Indian forces were vastly outnumbered. By Dec 22, allied forces were forced to surrender. 1/4 of the Canadian forces sent to Hong Kong did not return home. The War at Sea At the beginning of WW2 the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) had 13 ships and 3000 sailors, by the end of the war it had 370 ships and almost 100,000 personnel. RCN activities ranged from submarine warfare in the North Atlantic, to the defence of the West Coast from a feared Japanese invasion. The war in the Atlantic was fought over shipping lanes, as German submarines (or wolfpacks ) hunted down merchant vessels bringing food, supplies, and personnel to Britain. Canadian warships (and later American ones) would escort merchant vessels to Britain. Newfoundland became the centre of the Atlantic Force and the Newfoundland Escort Force was founded. In 1942, a wolfpack was hunting off the waters of Newfoundland and scored a huge success sinking15 ships of a 42 ship convoy. Despite this German victory (among others), the tide began to change, as allied forces provided more support and as they became better at detecting and destroying u-boats.
War in the Air In 1939, the Royal Canadian Air Force had 4000 members, by wars end nearly 250,000 served in the RCAF. The RCAF fought in, but was not limited to the Battle of Britain. Canada s largest air involvement was in the Bomber Command, under Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris of the RAF (Royal Air Force). Germany had angered the Allies by bombing British cities, first during the Battle of Britain, and then in frequent bombing raids. The Allies responded by bombing German cities in relentless day and night attacks. Officially military targets were the primary objective, the truth was that the bombings inflicted terrible civilian damage. More than 1 million German civilians were killed or wounded. Casualties among the Canadian Bomber Command was higher than any other branch of service for Canadian Forces. Another important venture in the air war was the Ferry command. Britain Canada, and the U.S. co-operated to fly nearly 10,000 airplanes from North America to Britain. Newfoundland play a key role. Air bases in Gander and Goose Bay were developed as jumping-off points for the trans-atlantic flights. While over 500 pilots died in the Ferry Command, the success of the program was unquestionable in terms of both deliveries and space saved on merchant ships.
6.5 Women at War An Expanding Role For Women In the South African War and in WWI women played a valuable role. In WW2 their role expanded even more. in 1941-2, the Canadian military created official women s branches of army, air force, and navy. More than 46,000 women served overseas in a variety of traditional and non-traditional military roles; cooks, nurses, mechanics, welders, and radar operators. Some were assigned to costal defences and some piloted planes as part of the Ferry Command. Canadian Women on the Home Front As men left for war, there was a dramatic increase in the number of women in the work force (as in WWI - as well factories were expected to run 7 days a week for 12 hours a day) The federal governments National Selective Service (NSS) worked to recruit as many women as possible for wartime work. Quebec & Ontario even provided daycare for some mothers so that they could work, and the federal government provided tax breaks for women. Women worked in factories, along side men on farms, and in other capacities as in WWI. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same Women in WW2 challenged traditional attitudes about the roles women play in society. While women now worked at home and in the military, they were still paid less money than men for the same work. Women developed a new outlook on work and a new view of what roles women should play in society. When the war ended however, governments removed the limited supports that they put in place, and the women s branches were quickly disbanded. Despite the return to prewar attitudes, there were some signs of change of attitudes toward women s role in society.
6.6 The War at Home Canadians who remained at home played important roles in the war effort. The unemployment of the Depression disappeared as men and women who worked in factories, fields, and mines to produce the supplies and weapons need to carry on the total war effort. War Effort Production Canadians, industry, and resources were focused on maintaining the flow of weapons and supplies to Britain. Factories created bombs and ammunition, shipyards and aircraft factories expanded operations, and the automotive industry produced bren-gun carriers and armoured cars. The federal government played a key role in coordinating the war effort. The King government controlled all facets of the war effort so that the inflation and economic problems of WWI did not recur. Munitions, airplanes, uniforms, synthetic rubber, and other essential war products were under control of 28 Crown corporations. The federal Wartime Prices and Trade Board regulated costs and prices and imposed rationing on products such as gas, coffee, tea, butter, jam, milk, sugar, meat, and liquor. Few parts of the Canadian economy and consumer lives were not affected by government control. By 1944 government spending on the war effort was nearly 40% of Canada s GNP (gross national products)
Money to cover the expenses came from taxes, war bond sales, along with loans and gold payments from Britain. The Land-Lease Act of 1941 and the Hyde Park Declaration further strengthened the reliance on the United States for trade. The North American economy, especially after the U.S. entered the war in 1941 was becoming more interconnected. Propaganda The government launched a propaganda campaign to encourage Canadians at home to support the war effort.. The NFB (National Film Board) turned out hundreds of documentaries and short film design to help the war effort. Films explaining the importance of wage and price controls were shown in theatres, schools, community halls and other meeting places across Canada.
The Conscription Crisis Prime Minister King did not want the division between French- Speaking and English-Speaking Canada that existed during WWI. In 1939, he had made an election promise that he would not use conscription for overseas service. In 1940, the government passed the National Resources Mobilization Act (NMRA) which did include conscription for home defence. In 1942, with growing casualties overseas led King to hold a vote or plebiscite, asking to release him from his election promise. The vote passed with 64%, however 79% of English Canadians voted yes, while 85% of French Canadians voted no - once again there were serious division between French and English in Canada. King proceeded cautiously - he did not immediately sent conscripts overseas. By 1944 Allied victories began to turn the tides of the war, while casualties were still mounting Late in 1944 King finally ordered 16,000 conscripted troops to the battlefields - this led to protests and riots. Ultimately only 2,400 conscripts reached the front lines, and the issue was not as serious as many had feared and Canada had emerged from WWII far more united than it had in WWI. 6.7 Wartime Restrictions and Excesses
Treatment of Japanese Canadians 6.8 The Legacy of War At the Dawn of a New Age
A New Age in International Affairs