Who Knew...? WW2

We are back after a long break. Kai and Kevin are now in a new country, but still chatting about WW2 history. Kai looks back on his summer 2023 visit to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Canada. The Canadian War Museum is a world-class museum that celebrates Canada’s military history. 

Canadian War Museum:

Who Knew..? WW2 - Episode 6: The Maginot Line

In this episode, Kai teaches us about the Maginot Line from the perspective of a young historian. The Maginot Line was a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles, and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force them to move around the fortifications. The Maginot Line was impervious to most forms of attack. Consequently, the Germans invaded the Low Countries in 1940, passing it to the north. They went around the line, through the Ardennes Forest, and continued with their invasion.

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In Episode 5 of the podcast, young historian Kai O’Shea teaches us about the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941. This event brought the United States into WW2.

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In Episode 4 of the podcast, our young historian Kai talks about Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, which involved the rescue of more than 338,000 British and French soldiers from the French port of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The evacuation, sometimes referred to as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was a big boost to British morale.

Resources discussed in this episode:

Simple History:

What was the Blitzkrieg? In Episode 3, young historian Kai O’Shea teaches his father Kevin and students around the world about the German “Lightening Attack” that began on September 1st, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland to start World War 2. Kai talks about the basics of the attacks, and the technology used to give the Germans the advantage such as motorized infantry, light armor, and the Enigma coding machine.

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In Episode 2, young historian Kai and his father discuss the Battle of Britain. The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England, was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe.

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The podcast starts off with 12-year-old historian Kai teaching his father about the Battle of Midway where the United States Navy faced off against the forces of the Japanese Imperial Navy. Kai talks about some of the major aspects of the battle, the various aircraft carriers such as the USS Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise, and the various airplanes used such as the Dauntless dive bombers, Avengers, Wildcats, and Zeros. Kai also talks about celebrated aviator, Richard ‘Dick” Best who lead his dive bomber squadron to sink two Japanese aircraft carriers.

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