Day 4: Another World War (1939-1945)
At the end of the 1930s, the world has been shaken once more by the start of another World War (WWII). World War Two started on the 1st of September, 1939 when an army from Germany invaded a country called Poland. Two days later, England and France declared war on Germany and WWII began.
Activity 1: An Eventful Experience
WWII was made up of many battles and events. Follow this link to read more about the timeline of WWII.
Choose two key events and find out some more information about what happened on those days. On your blog, write a short summary of two events, including the names of people involved and where the event happened.
1. Assassination attempt on Hitler fails
The Assassination attempt on Hitler was set on 20 July 1944. Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia.
2.Dunkirk evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940
Activity 2: A Call to Arms 
Over the course of WWII, approximately 140,000 New Zealanders were sent overseas to serve in the war. Many were sent to fight in huge battles, including the Battle of the Atlantic that lasted for 2064 days (over 5 years)! The Battle of the Atlantic came to an end in 1943, in large part due to the heroic efforts of people like Lloyd Trigg, a pilot from New Zealand. He was awarded a special medal from the New Zealand Government for his bravery. It is called a Victoria Cross (‘VC’ for short). A total of 22 New Zealanders have been awarded VCs.
Click on this link to find a list of VC winners. Choose one from the Second World War, and read about him. On your blog tell us about him. Who was he? What did he do to earn a Victoria Cross medal?
Date of action: 7 July 1941
Date of award: 5 August 1941
He won his VC while returning from a raid on the German city of Munster on 7 July 1941. When his Vickers Wellington bomber was set alight by an enemy fighter plane, Ward climbed out onto the burning wing and smothered the fire. Although he was unable to block the leaking petrol pipe that was feeding it, the fire eventually burnt itself out and the badly damaged bomber limped back to base. Two months later, Ward was killed when he remained at the controls of his burning aircraft after it was hit by flak over Hamburg
Bonus Activity: Women at Work
Both men and women served in World War II. Many women chose to enlist as nurses and be stationed overseas caring for wounded soldiers. My nana was one of those nurses. She (Dorothy) spent much of World War II working on a large Red Cross ship that was stationed off the coast of Cairo, Egypt.
For this activity, you are going to imagine that you are just like Dorothy and that you are working as a nurse on a large medical ship.
One day you are walking along the deck of the ship when you hear a loud bang. You start to run as you see smoke coming from the far end of the ship. You run towards the room where your patients are waiting to receive treatment from the doctor. Just as you arrive at the door to their room you hear another loud bang and you…
Complete the story provided above. To earn full points you must write, at least, 8-10 sentences. What happens next?
I went to go and look were it was coming from. A few seconds later the same bang appeared but louder. When i found out were was the sound coming from, I saw a man shooting the engine of the ship. It turns out that he was a Nazi disguise as one of us. i quickly try to pull out my gun but he was faster a shot me on the right shoulder. i tried to stop him but he was to fast. I ran to Davis ( The captain on the ship) to tell him that there was a Nazi in on board and sound the alarm. He turn on the alarm and tried to find him. Every one on the Ship was looking for him. Again there was a big bang. I ram to were the sound was coming from. I saw him trying to dismantle engine i quickly grab my gun a i shot him on the leg. I gave him, to Davis to deal with.
The end
BONUS POINTS: 20
Hi Siosaia,
ReplyDeleteRuby here from the Summer Learning Journey team! It's great to be reading another days worth of activities from you. You've done some really good work.
Activity 1: Those are two important events that took place during the war. Did you know that there were several assassinations planning to take Hitler's life but none of them worked. Do you think that the war would have ended differently or ended faster if one of them had manged to kill Hitler?
Activity 2: Wow! What a hero! That would have been very stressful and it's amazing that he survived that first experience! It's always very sad when you read about heroes like that who died later on in the war. It was because of men who were as courageous as that that we won the war in the end, I think. They were all very brave.
Bonus activity: Great work! You must have a wonderful imagination. That story was full of drama! There were a lot of spies on both sides that worked their way into enemy bases to try and find information. There was also a Resistance movement in France who used a lot of spies to try and undermine the German soldiers. It was a very sneaky time!
I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Cheers,
Ruby.