Summer learning journey Week 2 Day 4

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.

Timeline of WWII

                                                                       3 September

                         Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany

Many country's including Britain,France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany because their leader Hitler accused Britain for encouraging the Poles to pursue a policy from provocation.

27 September

 Germans take Warsaw

This day there were 140,000 Polish troops went to fight the Germans. Twenty six days they fought and unfortunately they surrendered and was taken as prisoner's by the Germans.  

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?

Who is he?

He is Sergeant Alfred Clive Hulme born in Dunedin.

What did he do to earn a Victoria Cross Metal?

When he heard that his little brother got killed he got angry and started hunting down the enemy snipers and even pretended to be a German to get closer to kill them. He also killed a crew of heavy mortar before he was badly wounded that was threatening and he got withdrawn. He also believed that he killed more then 30 snipers.

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?

My Story

I ran in to check on my patient's when I heard the big loud bang for the second time. I turned around to check I knew that our ship is hit again and maybe really bad this time. I called out for help and tried to help move the patient's out to a safer room. Lucky the ship hasn't all damaged. So I settled the patient's and looked for the radio to call for help and let the others know that our ship got hit. Some soldiers came and helped us moved to another location. We are now on the land at a building making ourselves at home with the patient's. We were lucky enough to survive the bombing. Every night I prayed the war will be over and we can go home safely.