In Dieppes
"The raid on Dieppe ... was a pivotal moment in the second world war" of Dieppe was a Fierce battle in which Canada lost too many forces. This battle left many valuable lessons for the Allies which helped them win "D-Day" which was incoming soon. This battle took place in France when the Allies were trying to take back the lost ground from German troops. The attack mainly contained Canadian soldiers, of the 6000 soldiers 5000 were Canadian.
"Of the 4,963 Canadians who embarked from England for the operation, only 2,210 returned" (Government of Canada). This shows the large percentage of soldiers lost by the Canadian forces.
There was a total of around 3000 casualties, of which about 2000 were prisoners of war and 1000 lost their lives.
"Of the 4,963 Canadians who embarked from England for the operation, only 2,210 returned" (Government of Canada). This shows the large percentage of soldiers lost by the Canadian forces.
There was a total of around 3000 casualties, of which about 2000 were prisoners of war and 1000 lost their lives.
Battles In Italy
Allies were going to try to ease up pressure on the soviets by opening a second front in Europe, but were not ready to do an all-out attack. Instead the Allies decided to start in north Africa. Over time the operation succeeded with 270 000 Axis soldiers taken out of the war. After capturing North Africa, the Allies were in position to proceed on their promise to open up the second front in Italy. On July 9 - 10, 500 000 allied troops, including Canadian troops, were landed on the Italian island of Sicily. Their reason for attacking on Sicily was so that they could weaken German defences in France by drawing them out towards the south. After Mussolini was overthrown, the new Government surrendered to the Allies. However, Hitler was aware that this might happen, so he sent German troops to occupy Italy. Although the Italian Government had surrendered to the Allies, they faced resistance as the advanced up and through the "boot". Canadian forces encountered fierce fighting as they advanced through Italy, after advancing nearly 240 kilometres, Canada had lost a total of 562 soldiers. In this, Canada's mission was to capture the city of Ortona. It took Canada about 4 months to get to Ortona. once they reached the city, they had to drive the German soldiers out of the streets though many battles. On December 28, 1943, this objective was captured by Canada.
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This is a picture of a joint Canadian-American group of soldiers who arrived in Italy in November of 1943. These soldiers took on the most dangerous and difficult of assignments. This force developed such a fierce reputation that even German soldiers began calling them the "Devil's Brigade".
In Preparation of D-Day
The Allies had planned to send a huge force across the English channel to attain a spot in Northern France. After this they would advance across Europe and recapture land from the German army. Allies wanted to keep the element of surprise on their side, and did not want the Germans to know of their landing place, the beaches of Normandy. To fool the Germans, the Allies decided to make fake installations in Calais, to make the Germans think that the invasion would come from there. while this was happening, Allied forces were massing at the beaches.
Canadian troops in Britain had spent nearly 4 years preparing for the invasion in France. The date for D-Day had finally been chosen by the leaders of the Allies, June 5, 1944. this invasion was called "Operation Overlord". But, because of bad weather, the operation was delayed for 24 hours. 14 000 Canadians who were a part of the operation were positioned in the 8 kilometre stretch of Normandy beach, code name "Juno". Although the Canadians faced heavy defences, they fought passed the German defences. |
These are just some of the many battles in which Canada helped the Allies. These are among the most important.