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DEMOCRACY AT THE CROSSROADS: CANAo|ANS
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CANADA AND WORLD WAR II, I939-1945
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Scientists were as important in World War II as soldiers. Both Allied and Nazi
searchers were applying scientific techniques to try to win the war.
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Radar
ThbBritish made important advances in the development and use of radar during the war. Radar uses electromagnetic waves reflected from ships, aircraft,
coasts, and other objects. These electromagnetic waves are leamed out, reflected
from the target, and picked up by the radar unit. The signals are then converted
into images on the radar screen. Radar provided an early warning system of ap
proaching hostile aircraft and ships. After 1943, radar was mounted in Allied
planes. The reflected radio waves produced a maplike image of the target below
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This made it possible to carry out strategic bombing in darkness and heavy
clouds.
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Medicine
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Great advances were made in medical technology.lmproved surgical and medical techniques, such as the invention of the kidney machine, helped to save the
lives of wounded soldiers. New drugs were discovered to fight such diseases as
malaria. To the troops fighting in the jungles of the Pacific, malaria was a constant threat.
Code-breaking and Camp X
code'breakers, spies, and sabotage experts were key players in the war. camp X,
on the shores of Lake Ontario near oshawa, was a top-secret training post for
many ol these experts. camp X was directed by a canadian, william stephenson,
whose code name was "lntrepid." At Camp x, technicians provided secret agents
with false passports and other documents for use behind enemy lines. Costume
experts produced European-style wartime clothing, eyeglasses, soap and toothpaste, and battered suitcases. In case of arrest or interrogation, everything an
agent carried had to look right to enemy eyes.
Jets and Rockets
Hitler's scientists developed the first jet airplane that could fly at speeds faster
than propellerdriven aircraft. These would have given Germany air superiority
if theyhad been used as fighter planes. But Hitler's demand that the jet plane be
adapted for bombing held up production until late 1944.
Nd'icientists were also'busy developing two terrifying "vengeance" weapons.
The first, the V-I, was a pilotless monoplane that carried an explosive warhead.
Almost io ooo were fired at British cities in late 1944. They were nicknamed "buzzbombs" by the British because of the noise they made.
The v-2 rocket was even more deadly. It flew at supersonic speed and gave no
warning or opportunity for defence. British Intelligence was able to discover and
bomb the launching sites, delaying the program for several months.
THE WAR IN EUROPE AND THE PACIFIC
Wernher von Braun was the German rocket scientist who developed the V-2. After the war, he
surrendered to the Americans. He
eventually worked for the Americans in the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and
spacecraft for NASA.
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The.Atomic Bomb
American and German scientists
were both working on topsecret
projects to produce an atomic
bomb. Robert Oppenheimer Ied a
group of American and Allied scientists in developing the bomb. It
was known as the Manhattan
Project. Canadian uranium fueled
the laboratories of atomic bomb
technology in the United States.
The Americans won the desperate race and successfully tested the bomb in New Mexico in
July 1945. The United States then
dropped two atomic bombs on
the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The bombs were
small by today's standards, but
they brought World War II to a
sudden end and marked the beginning of the Atomic Age.
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