Importance of the Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of World War Two. Fought between the Allies, led by the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and the Axis, led by Nazi Germany, the battle would directly lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany. It was fought over millions of miles of ocean, between thousands of warships and millions of sailors, and the most crucial battle of the entire war. As Winston Churchill said in 1941, “Everything turns on the Battle of the Atlantic.”
In September of 1939, the battle would begin with the war. Germany would quickly overrun Poland, and in 1940, took over France and Norway. The Fall of France and Norway had a huge impact on the Battle of the Atlantic, which
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Merchant ships sunk went from 120 to 39, and 15 U-Boats would be lost. In total, Germany would lose 25% of their entire U-Boat fleet, leading their commander, Karl Donitz to declare “We have lost the Battle of the Atlantic.”
Although the battle would continue for 2 more years, Germany was never able to threaten Britain’s lifeline again. The last actions would take place on May 8th, the last day of the war. The battle lasted 5 years and 8 months; from September 3rd of 1939 until May 8th of 1945. The Canadian navy had grown from just 6 ships in 1939 to the third largest navy at the end of the war, behind only the Royal Navy and the US
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Involvement began in 1939 when Canada only had a small navy of 6 warships. Canada was forced to defend the entire Western part of the Atlantic while sending supplies through its merchant navy to the beleaguered United Kingdom and played a crucial role throughout the battle. Canada fought through all 5 years of the battle, and a Canadian, Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray, would be the overall commander of all Allied troops in the Western Atlantic Theater, the only Canadian theatre commander of the war. The role of Canada in the Battle of the Atlantic was the most crucial role the country would play in any battle of the Second World War and established Canada as one of the major Allies and a key member of the Allied forces. By the end of the conflict, the Royal Canadian Navy was the third largest in the world, and had, as one of the major powers, fought and defeated Nazi Germany in the longest and most important battle of World War II.
The Battle of the Atlantic would also be extremely costly to both sides. Nazi Germany would lose over 800 warships, with ~30 000 sailors being lost. Over 75% of U-Boat crews died during the battle. The Allies would suffer even more casualties, losing 3 500 merchant vessels totalling an astonishing 21 million tons, as well as losing ~36 000 naval sailors and ~36 000 sailors of the merchant
This is the longest battle in World War Two, from the beginning of the war till the end of the war. “Only by gaining control of the Atlantic could the Allies hope to transport across the seas the millions of troops and millions of tons of supplies needed to assault and liberate axis held empire” (Sarty, 4) . “To gain control of the North Atlantic to bring crucial supplies to Britain while German u-boats tried to stop this” (W.A.B. Douglas and Brian Dubreuil). To help gain control of the Atlantic the navy grew in size. At the beginning of the war “fewer than 3500 half were professional the rest were seamen who received a few weeks of training and ordinary citizens, students, business people, teachers who received some basic training one night per week for a week or two each summer”
No submarines are to be included. Germany will pay for all the damages done to the civilian population and property of the Allied Governemnts.” The Germans also lost 13 percent of their land to the Allied Forces. This way a big part in Hitlers rise to power because it showed weakness in the current Gernman leadership. The people were tired of having to pay lots of money for mistakes by the government.
Research shows that the loss was only temporary. The Germans planned to travel across the Meuse River, onto Antwerp, intending to trap the Allies within a week. They were to take the Allies’ fuel depots to keep their tanks going. However, the Allies started to fight back, hindering the Germans’ progress. Allied counter-attacks became so frequent to where the Germans failed to capture any oil, and barely made to the Meuse within the given time.
Canada’s influence in Europe allowed them to help to alter the course of World War II through their courage and bravery in many battles, including Juno Beach, Ortona, and the failure of Dieppe. Throughout the war, they came alongside the British out of their own accord to protect their homeland and Britain’s Homeland. For the duration of the war and through Juno Beach, Ortona, and Dieppe, Canadians helped to alter the outcome of the war in technology and tactics, they forged a determination and resilience that came with a sense of national pride about their new identity as Canadians, and the contribution to European theatre though manpower, equipment, and armoured vehicles. All these factors allowed Canada to emerge and become a world power
Did there are some battles in WW2 that were important to Canada? Of course. During the Second World War, different battles had different significance. Even if the Allies won the war at the end, too many people died and too many countries were destroyed during battles. Some of them gave a positive influence to Allies to win the war, but some of them also gave a big hit to Alliance.
The first battle is Battle of Dieppe, the second battle is Battle of Ortona, and the third battle is D-day Normandy Invasion. Canada played an important role in these three battles, and it is most significant to Canadians, and at same time these battles are important reasons that lead Allies won the World War II. The first battle is Battle of Dieppe. In August19,
This is also known as the battle of the Bulge. The battle consisted of the loss of about 200,000 soldiers total. Eventually this led to the victory of the Allied forces. Without this siege the Axis powers may have eventually won World War II. Later on the United States plots a plan after s attack on Pearl Harbor.
The first of these arrived on January 26, 1942 (“World War II in Europe”). On January 13, what is known as the Battle of the Atlantic began with German U-Boats attacking ships off the east coast of the United States (“Timeline of World War II”).
The Germans focus all attacks mainly on the English Channel, and eventually, Hitler made the decision to go through with his plan called Operation Sea Lion and try to invade England. However, because of Canada and the Allies, the Germans did not invade Britain. They lost because, on September 15th, 1942 Germans launched 2 large aerial assaults both of which were defeated by the RAF/RCAF. Over 80 Luftwaffe planes were destroyed (March, N. pag)! After realizing that they were losing badly the Germans made the decision to forever postpone Operation Sea Lion and give up on trying to invade England, so Germany didn’t end up invading England.
She led the advance on the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, off the Jutland peninsula of Denmark. This was the only full-scale fleet action of the war and the largest sea battle in history in terms of the vessels involved. It resulted in about 10,000 casualties which were mainly fatalities. The Royal Navy committed 151 combat ships, 14 were completely destroyed and 25 were damaged. They faced 99 combat ships of the German navy of which 11 were lost and 31 were damaged.
The Battle of the Atlantic was one of longest and most important campaigns of World War two. In a 6 month span between January 1942 to July 1942, the German submarines sank almost 400 allied ships which was leaving Britain desperate for resources(The Battle Of The Atlantic). The Royal Canadian Navy had to protect the convoys all the way across the 4000 km voyage from Canada to Britain. Knowing that there would be hundreds of German U-Boats in the Atlantic, Canada quickly expanded its Navy. Before the war, Canada had only 6 vessels and 3500 personnel(The Battle of the Atlantic).
The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two. Iwo Jima had air stips that both the United States and the Japanese wanted to help them during World War Two. This battle did not end up going exactly as planned for either country. Both countries had their own strategy but neither succeeded. The Battle of Iwo Jima is an important battle to know about when discussing World War Two.
It is also known as The Blitz or the London Blitz. This battle is a great example of perseverance, as many major cities in Britain were brutally bombed nightly for months (Trueman, C N). Britain used RADAR to detect these bombers and other enemy aircraft (Trueman, C N). In order for Germany to take Britain, they needed control of the English Channel so the navy couldn’t stop their ships before invading (Trueman C N). However, they never got that far because the Germans underestimated the stubbornness of the British and their refusal to give up their
Critical errors where made by the German forces during the entirety of this battle. The first was their dealings with the radar system recently established by the Britain’s. During their initial attacks on Britain, they had focused bombing attempts on four of the major radar stations located in the south. They never followed up with more bombing. Had they listen to intelligence reports and actually considered its capabilities, they would have known that in order to put the sites out of commission, they would need to take out the power sites and phone lines that made the radar system operate in the first place.
While on the other hand the Allied Forces had powerful allies such as the USA which could contribute greater resources of men and materials. Furthermore, the British had put in place a Naval Blockade prevent the passing of cargo of any ships that attempted to pass through, this was very effective and starved much of Germany’s population. Lastly, Germany’s two front with Russia greatly weakened German forces and had larger repercussions later on. Although these are all important causes, the most factor that