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World of War 2
Second World War was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. -
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. -
Submarine attack at Vancouver Island
On June 20, 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced off Estevan Point, Vancouver Island, and hurled about thirty 5.5″ shells at the wireless station and lighthouse. Little damage was caused and there were no casualties. -
Dieppe Raid
Five thousand troops of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, along with a thousand British troops, many of them commandos, attacked the French port of Dieppe on the English Channel Coast in August 1942. After nine hours fighting ashore, the force withdrew. Over one thousand were dead and two thousand prisoners were in German hands, more prisoners than the whole Canadian Army lost in either the North West Europe or Italian campaigns -
Ore ships attacked by U-boats
German U-Boat followed the ore carrier Evelyn B into anchorage at Wabana, Bell Island. The next morning and under the guns of the Bell Island Battery, the U-Boat sank two ships: SS Saganaga and SS Lord Strathcona. Twenty-nine men were killed in the attack, all aboard Saganaga. -
SS Caribou attack
German submarine U-69, prowling the Cabot Strait comes across the passenger ship S.S. Caribou returning to Port aux Basques. The U-boat lets fly a torpedo and blasts the Caribou out of the water. Some 137 passengers and crew are killed in what would be the final and most tragic attack in the Battle of the St. Lawrence. -
Invation of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, code named Operation Husky, was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. -
First Quebec conference
The First Quebec Conference was a highly secret military conference held during World War II between the British, Canadian and United States governments -
Battle of Ortona
Troops from Canada fought a savage battle to oust German soldiers from the Italian coastal port of Ortona -
Juno Beach (D-day)
Fourteen thousand Canadians attack at Juno Beach resulting in 1074 casualties including 359 dead. -
Second Quebec Conference
The Second Quebec Conference was a high-level military conference held during World War II by the British and American governments. -
Netherlands
On May 5, in the village of Wageningen, General Foulkes accepted the surrender of the German troops in the Netherlands. General Simonds of the 2nd Canadian Corps, in Bad Zwischenahn, did the same on his front. The formal German surrender was signed on May 7, 1945, at Reims in France. -
End of the battle of the Atlantic
Victory was achieved at a huge cost: between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships and 175 Allied warships were sunk and some 72,200 Allied naval and merchant seamen lost their lives. The Germans lost 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 sailors killed, three-quarters of Germany's 40,000-man U-boat fleet.
