Curated playlist
Battles of World War II involving Canada
- Omaha BeachAllied planners expected up to 1,000 defenders at Omaha Beach, but a full German division was waiting.
- Operation OverlordStorms nearly stopped the D-Day invasion of Normandy before it began.
- Normandy landingsThe D-Day invasion hinged on a weather forecast from Ireland's west coast.
- Operation Market GardenWhy did Allied commanders wave off warnings before Operation Market Garden at Arnhem in 1944?
- Battle of FranceIn 1940, France fell within six weeks despite having more tanks than Germany.
- Allied invasion of ItalyA loudspeaker on an Italian beach told landing American soldiers to give up. They landed anyway.
- Battle of the BulgeIn the Battle of the Bulge, an American general answered a surrender demand with one word: Nuts.
- Falaise pocketPilots flying over the Falaise pocket smelled the carnage from hundreds of feet up.
- Operation PlunderPatton wanted the world to know his army crossed the Rhine before Montgomery's.
- Operation DragoonOn August 15, 1944, 1,300 Allied bombers hit Provence to open the invasion of southern France.
- Battle of BritainThe Battle of Britain was named before it began. Churchill announced it on June 18, 1940, weeks ahead of the start.
- Battle of AnzioThe Anzio landings in January 1944 caught the Germans by surprise, yet Rome did not fall for four and a half months.
- Battle of the AtlanticChurchill said the Battle of the Atlantic frightened him more than the Battle of Britain.
- Battle of Hong KongThe Battle of Hong Kong began just as Japan struck Pearl Harbor. The British colony fell within seventeen days.
- Siege of Malta (World War II)Malta began World War II with six obsolete biplane fighters. It still survived more than two years of siege.
- Dieppe RaidThe Dieppe Raid was over within ten hours of the landing. Of 6,086 men who landed, 3,623 were dead, wounded or captured.