The Dieppe Raid was bittersweet. It was a Canadian attempt to destroy a lot of
German defence tools and weapons while also taking back many German prisoners to
Britain. The raid took place on August 19, 1942 right after dawn and lasted nine hours. It was fought on eight beaches and ended very poorly. The attack wasn’t thought out very well, lots of people lost their lives and many we taken prisoner. But because of the incident, we learned our lesson and used it to benefit our future. The Dieppe Raid was both a success and a failure.
At this point in the war, the Soviet Union was taken over by Germany and was attempting to get their Western allies to help open up a second front. The Canadian troops were hungry for a way to get involved in the war and use their
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4963 Canadian soldiers went to fight in the raid, and out of that big number 907 of those people were killed while 1946 were taken prisoner by the Germans. These numbers represent major losses for Canada. Going into the
Raid, Canadians were inexperienced, not prepared at all for what they would be confronting, and did not think their plan through. Their original plan consisted of
Traveling to Dieppe by boat, and attacking from the beach side. The Canadians were hoping to use the element of surprise to gain the upper hand over Germany but this idea backfired on them when they found the Germans up and waiting for them by the time they got to the beaches. Not only did they misuse their element of surprise, but most of the Canadians even showed up late! Overall, none of the Canadian soldiers knew what to expect in a raid situation, their plan wasn’t thought out very well and their coordination with their original plan was very messy. With some more practice and experience, they would have been fine in the raid.
Even though the Dieppe Raid was a major low for Canada, they managed to rebound and succeed in a different battle, DDay. Canadians recognized their faults,
One of Canada’s largest military endeavors was the battle of Vimy Ridge during World War One. It was a fierce battle between Germans and Canadians. Canada was trying to take over the German controlled ridge, which ran from northwest to southwest between Lens and Arras, France. Its highest point was 145 feet above sea level, which was exceptionally helpful in battle because of the very flat landscape. Already over 200,000 men had fallen at Vimy, all desperately trying to take or defend this important and strategic ridge. As a result of its success in taking the ridge, Canada gained a lot more than just the strategic point. Canada was united as a nation, and the victory changed the way other counties viewed them. Canadians no longer
to deal with the French and Russian forces , staunch allies, in order to avoid a war on
All because of Canada’s workers intelligence, from scratch, they created the best gear such as handguns, fighter planes, armoured personnel carriers that were to be used overseas. “Canadian industry produced more than 800,000 military transport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field, naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000 small arms”. All of these vehicles, and guns were either designed and put onto blue prints in Canada or the United Kingdom but each and every single vehicle and gun was produced in Canada’s factories. Of the eight hundred thousand military vehicles, approximately one hundred sixty eight thousand were issued to Canadian forces. This meant that our Canadian army had an approximate soldier to vehicle ratio of three soldiers to one vehicle. When the Great Britain joined into the Italian campaign, they had eighty thousand vehicles, and seventy five thousand of those were left behind in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Britain relied on Canada to almost “bail” them out with relief vehicles. Once Canada shipped in their obscene amount of vehicles across the Atlantic, the Germans would find themselves overwhelmed and were forced to retreat out of Sicily, thus proving how strong of a threat Canadians posed to the Axis powers. Not only did the contribution of land vehicles support the Allied troops, on the other hand, but the influx of antiaircraft guns help the
By noon the Canadians had parts of the Ridge secured with The Pimple being the last by the end of the day. Only a few days later they managed to capture The Pimple also. Canada had succeeded where Britain and France, superior countries had failed. Vimy marked the only success the Allied forces had seen that spring. 3,598 Canadians were killed and 7,000 injured due to Vimy but, they died in a battle which helped Canada gain its independance.
The failures being they didn't achieve set goals and so many people had died and if not then wounded terribly and/or taken prisoner; in nine hours 907 canadian soldiers were killed, 2,460 wounded and the other 1,946 were taken prisoners. “Definitely the worst hours that canadian soldiers endured during world war ii”
To say Canada played an important role in World War Two would be an understatement. Canada’s significance in the war will forever be remembered as one of the greatest, and the Battle of Hong Kong is a prime example of just that. The fact that Canada provided troops even with the optional not to, and the struggles the troops endured not only on the battlefield, but as prisoners of war, and the amount of physical and moral support the Canadian soldiers gave to the British soldiers in Hong Kong is proof that Canada was a major contributor in World War Two.
Poor organization among troops, appalling war conditions Canadians endured and lack of effective leadership that did not support the best interests of Canadian troops all contributed to the pointless suffering Canadians endured in this supposed glamorous adventure. In the beginning, the poor organization among the troops resulted in some of the mishaps that occurred in battle. In
They did not have enough men or money to fight. In the “U.S. Invasion of Canada,” it was stated that “The standing army had less than 3,000 men; there was no command structure, no logistical framework for supplying armies, and no staff structure to plan or coordinate operations. [...] forces were needed for the regular army; some of the volunteers had little military experience.” The Americans weren't the only ones unprepared, though, in the same document it said, “Britain could only raise limited forces to defend Canada. There were no more than 4,000 British and Canadian regulars, with a varying number of militia and Indian allies of uneven quality. The Canadians could expect little assistance from Britain” (“U.S. Invasion of Canada”). It didn’t matter, though, that the Americans weren’t attacking well in the U.S. invasion of Canada. The article also states that “since the inhabited portion of Canada stretched only 50 to 100 miles north of the border, from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, there was not much to conquer. However, American attacks, when they occurred at all, were totally uncoordinated. The United States' first invasion attempt gained less than one mile of Canadian territory and ended in the loss of not only Detroit but also all of the Michigan territory.” This means the U.S. attacks on Canada did not help the United States but hurt them. People wonder what happened in the
Some of Canada’s greatest challenges and major contributions on land during the Second World War were centered in D-Day, Hong Kong, and the Italian
British was weak in Canada during the war and Americans’ had a terrible army so they couldn’t take over Canada.
"Dieppe Raid. " The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historical Canada, 25 Aug. 2013. 06 Feb. 2016. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dieppe-raid/
planning and seemingly endless training had finally come together to form the operation known as
One of the reasons that the battle of Dieppe was a defining moment, as it showcased Canada's commitment to the war. Canadian soldiers were in England waiting for their next mission to contribute to the war after a period of inactivity and Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Britain committed the Canadian troops to lead this particular invasion. Five thousand Canadian troops took part in the invasion as part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. Canada was committed to the war, despite the problems that fell upon to ready their mission. One of the problems they faced was lack of organization, when the ships reached the smaller boats to take the troops to shore, the troops realized that the ships landed beside the wrong small gun boats
The Normandy Invasion may have been the single most important battle on the Western Front of World War II. Much planning went into the siege of these beaches that ensured a tough, but inevitable victory, as well as other factors, such as the exploitation of the Germans’ ignorance of the attack.
heavy German counter attacks while only a third of them were left standing at the end still able