Canada at War, Part 2 : Blitzkrieg

1936 - March 1940. In Europe war clouds gather as Germany re-arms and Hitler propounds his "master race" doctrine. Chamberlain's appeasement fails. Germany overruns Czechoslovakia. Britain declares war; Canada makes an independent decision to join. The first Canadian troopship sails from Halifax.

June - September 1944. D-Day, June 6, 1944. In early morning hours, infantry carriers, including one hundred and ten ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, cross a seething, pitching sea to the coast of France while Allied air forces pound enemy positions from the air. Cherbourg, Caen, Carpiquet, Falaise, Paris are liberated. Canadians return, this time victorious, to the beaches of Dieppe.

April-August 1945. Hitler had said: "Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos." By 1945, Germany is beaten. V-Day celebrations verge on the hysterical, but occupying armies uncover the staggering atrocities of Belsen, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. The world's first atomic bomb is dropped on Japan.