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.
Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia declare
war on Germany:
On the 3rd September, 1939 Britain, France, Australia
and New Zealand declared war on Germany. But before
any of that happened 2 days ago Germany had invaded
Poland causing the attack from Britain, France, Australia
and New Zealand.
Key Word two
Key Word two
16th of January, 1941
Establishment of Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF):
On the 16th January, 1941 the establishment of the
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was made. But later on
Tobruk in Libya goes to British and Australian troops.
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?
Charles Hazlitt Upham:
Charles Upham was a man who was a soldier, and a
soldier who fought in the Second World War - WWII.
Not only he won a Victoria Cross medal, but he won
two of them. This was caused by his actions that led
him to become the only combat soldier to have one
the awards. He received his first one in Crete in May
1941 and his other one in Egypt in July 1942, meaning
he received a VC the next year later.
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?
BONUS POINTS: 20
Short story
Short story
As I walk along the deck of the ship I hear a
loud bang. Boom! So I start to run but then I
see smoke coming from the far end of the ship
and continue to run towards the room where my
patients are; waiting to receive their treatment.
But just as I arrive at the door to which their room l
ays ahead I hear another loud bang. Where could
the banging be coming from” says another nurse.
I don't know but we have to stay calm and find the
other nurse's so we can stick together and find out what is happening'' I said scaredlySo I run as fast as I can to each room one by one telling
each person to get to the Patient's Room. Bang, Bang! I other
nurses crying trying to pull themselves up again but somehow
the ship just won’t stop.I get hold of anything thats strong so I can pull
my self up.“It’s time to figure this out” I say to myself but, Boooooooosh!
A gush of water comes flying into the ship but luckily I close the
doors in time. “Oh no! A nurse says ,Are we Goona Die?!
And that was the end of Dorothy and the Ship.
Hey there Akesa. Thanks for completing the story about Dorothy the nurse, on board the medical ship. You've done a great job painting a vivid picture in the reader's mind through the use of your descriptive language. I like how you describe the way you are speaking or doing things. It sounds like such a terrible time and it just makes me glad I live in 2018 where we don't have to go to war. It's especially bad because these are just nurses trying to help patients - they don't deserve to get bombed!
ReplyDeleteDo you often write stories?
Thanks, Billy
Kia Ora Akesa,
ReplyDeleteIt’s awesome to read your research about World War ll events and Charles Upham. Charles Upham is probably one of the most well known New Zealand soldiers from World War 2. He was very selfless during his time serving in World War 2. He was also very persistent and determined. When he was a prisoner of war, he attempted to escape three times! One of those times, he jumped from a train travelling at high speed and he knocked himself unconscious. I don’t think I would ever be brave enough to jump from a speeding train. Do you think you would?
You have picked two main events in the world war, especially the day that war was declared! When we declared war, it was a very sad day in New Zealand. I think people were thinking of what happened in World War One which was meant to be the war that ended all wars. The day was described as “ a dark day in the history of the world’ by Peter Fraser. Peter Fraser was the stand in Prime Minister while the elected Prime Minister, Michael Savage recovered from surgery on his colon.
I think it is great that you selected the Women’s auxiliary Air Force establishment as one of your events. Do you know what it meant for the war efforts? Do you know what kind of work the women did as part of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force? maybe you could add some more information about the women of WAAF, so that your readers could learn more?
If you wanted to check out work from students from the cluster I work with ( Kaikohekohe cluster) you can copy and paste this link into your URL bar. It will take you to the Twitterfeed for all of the clusters. Kaikohekohe cluster is in the bottom right hand corner. I’m sure the students would love to hear from someone from a different cluster!
https://sites.google.com/a/manaiakalani.org/connected-learners-share/sljtwitterfeeds
Keep up the great work!
-Dani