From a population of just over 11 million, more than 1,500,000 Canadians served in the Second World War. Of these nearly 40,000 gave their lives and another 55,000 were wounded. Countless other Canadians shared in the suffering and the hardships of war at home and abroad. After the long struggle of the Great Depression of the 1930s, World War II was a transforming fire which changed Canada into a modern urban and industrialized nation.
Between the fall of France in June 1940 and the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, Canada was Great Britain's most important ally in the war, supplying Britain with urgently needed food, weapons, and war materials by naval convoys and airlifts, as well as pilots and planes who fought in the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. If the planned German invasion of Britain had taken place in 1941, units of the Canadian First Army were already deployed between the English Channel and London to meet them.
From 1939 through to the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian merchant marine played an especially vital role in the Second Battle of the Atlantic. Canada was the primary location of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, still the largest air force training program in history; over 167,000 Commonwealth air force personnel, including more than 50,000 pilots, trained at airbases in Canada from 1940 to 1945. More than half of the BCAT graduates were Canadians who went on to serve with the RCAF and RAF. One out of the six RAF Bomber Command groups flying in Europe was Canadian.
Soldiers of the Canadian Army fought in the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941 and in the disastrous Dieppe Raid of 1942, went ashore in 1943 in the Allied invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy, then fought through the long Italian Campaign. Many of the very first Allied soldiers to enter Rome were Canadian commandos in the Devil's Brigade.
Canadian troops returned to France in June 1944 on D-Day at Juno Beach in the Battle of Normandy and played a crucial role closing the Falaise pocket, then swung north to clear the Channel ports, liberating Calais, Dunkirk, Dieppe, and clearing the approaches to the vital port of Antwerp in the Battle of the Scheldt. By early 1945 Canadian forces had liberated most of the Netherlands and, fighting alongside British and US armies, pushed to the Rhine and across into northern Germany.
During World War II a dozen Canadians were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest Commonwealth military medal for valour in the face of the enemy. The variety of their individual acts of bravery in France, Italy, Germany, North Africa and over Japan demonstrated the intense national committment to winning the war. The last living Canadian recipient of the VC, Ernest "Smokey" Smith, died August 3, 2005.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the Canadian armed forces were extremely small and very poorly equipped. Most First World War military units had been disbanded, their remaining equipment was largely obsolete. Yet by the end of World War II, Canada was the fourth strongest military power in the world, behind only the United States, the USSR, and Great Britain.
Few of the Western Allies so thoroughly mobilized their resources, and fewer still gave so very much from what they had, to bring about the eventual Allied victory.
Canada enters the war
William Lyon Mackenzie King, flanked by leading cabinet members, addresses the Canadian people shortly after the British declaration of war in 1939.
Following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Canada's Parliament supported the government's decision to declare war on Germany on September 10, about one week after the United Kingdom and France. The Canadian government fully intended to enter the war, but Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King insisted on recalling parliament to allow a debate on Canadian participation and to underscore Canada's autonomy from the United Kingdom. Moreover, Canada could use its still neutral status to purchase arms from the still neutral United States before entering the war on Britain's side.
Early campaigns
Upon the request of the British Government, Canada agreed to send reinforcement to garrison Hong Kong, therefore freeing up troops for other British possessions in the Far East. The Department of National Defence sent 1975 soldiers (including two civilian services officers) from the Royal Rifles of Canada (from Quebec City) and the Winnipeg Grenadiers. However, the Canadian forces in Hong Kong did not have much of an impact when Japan invaded the crown colony on December 8, 1941 (see Battle of Hong Kong). Those men not killed in the fighting were captured, many dying of mistreatment in captivity. Company Sergeant Major John Osborne of the Winnipeg Grenadiers was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions during the fighting. Other involvement in the Pacific occurred in 1944, the Canadian Government sent some of their Chinese-Canadian recruits into occupied Malaya as spies and trainers of the local guerrillas.
An abandoned scout vehicle after the failed
Dieppe Raid
Squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force and individual Canadian pilots flying with the British Royal Air Force fought with distinction in Spitfire and Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain. By January 1, 1943, there were enough RCAF bombers and crews in Britain to form No. 6 Group, one of eight bomber groups within RAF Bomber Command.
The Dieppe Raid
The Dieppe Raid (Operation Jubilee) of August 19, 1942, landed nearly 5,000 soldiers of the Second Canadian Division and 1000 British commandos on the coast of occupied France, in the only major combined forces assault on France prior to the Normandy invasion of June 1944. Despite air support from Allied fighters and bombers and a naval fleet of 237 ships and landing barges, the raid was a disaster. While Dieppe did provide valuable information on the absolute necessity of close communications in combined operations, of nearly 6000 troops landed over a thousand were killed and another 2,340 were captured. Two Canadians were recognized with the Victoria Cross for actions at Dieppe; Lieutenant Colonel "Cec" Merritt of the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Honourary Captain John Foote of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. The value of the Dieppe Raid is a matter of some controversy; some historians feel that it was largely because of Dieppe that the Allies decided not to attempt an assault on a seaport in their first invasion of occupied western Europe, others would point to the large number of amphibious operations before and after Dieppe as evidence that nothing new was learned there.
Alaska
- Main article: Battle of the Aleutian Islands
An invasion and occupation of the Aleutian Islands Attu and Kiska by Japanese forces led to a counter-attack by American forces to repel them. On August 7 in 1943, 5,300 Canadians soldiers were part of a 34,426 Allied invasion of the Kiska island. However Japan removed its troops on July 28th, leaving the island abandoned. As of 2005, the Battle of the Aleutian Islands was the last military engagement between sovereign nations to be fought on American soil.
Attacks in Canadian waters and on the mainland
Axis U-boats operated in Canadian and Newfoundland (then a Dominion and not part of Canada) waters throughout the war, sinking many naval and merchant vessels. Two significant attacks took place in 1942 when German U-boats attacked four allied ore carriers at Bell Island, Newfoundland. The carriers S.S. Saganaga and the S.S. Lord Strathcona were sunk by U-513 on September 5, 1942, while the S.S. Rosecastle and P.L.M 27 were sunk by U-518 on November 2 with the loss of 69 lives. When the submarine fired a torpedo at the loading pier, Bell Island became the only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces in World War II. U-Boats were also found in the St. Lawrence River; during the night of October 14, 1942 the Newfoundland Railway ferry, SS Caribou was torpedoed by German U-boat U-69 and sunk in the Cabot Strait with the loss of 137 lives. The Canadian mainland was also attacked when the Japanese submarine I-26 shelled the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island on June 20, 1942. Japanese fire balloons were also launched at Canada, some reaching British Columbia and the other western provinces.
Invasions of Europe
Buffalo amphibious vehicles taking troops of the Canadian First Army across the
Scheldt in Holland, September, 1944.
The 1st Canadian Division and the 1st Canadian Tank Brigade took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily in Operation Husky, 10 July 1943 and also the Allied invasion of mainland Italy on September 3, 1943. Canadian troops fought on through the long and difficult Italian campaign until repatriated to NW Europe in February-March of 1945 during Operation Goldflake. By this time the Canadian contribution to the Italian theatre had grown to include I Canadian Corps headquarters, the 1st Division, 5th (Armoured) Division and an independent armoured brigade. Three Victoria Crosses were awared to Canadian Army troops in Italy; Captain Paul Triquet of the Royal 22e Regiment, Private Smokey Smith of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, and Major John Mahoney of the Westminster Regiment (Motor).
On June 6, 1944, the 3rd Canadian Division landed on Juno Beach in the Battle of Normandy and sustained 50% casualties in their first hour of attack. By the end of D-Day the Canadians had penetrated deeper into France than either the British or the American troops at their landing sites, overcoming stronger resistance than any of the other beachheads except Omaha Beach. In the first month of the Normandy campaign, Canadian, British and Polish troops were opposed by some of the strongest and best trained German troops in the theatre, including the 1 SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 12th SS Hitler Jugend Panzer Division and the Panzer Lehr Division. Several costly operations were mounted by the Canadians to fight a path to the pivotal city of Caen and then south towards Falaise. Some feel that Canadian inexperience during the battle to close the Falaise Gap allowed German forces to escape destruction, but by the time the First Canadian Army linked up with U.S. forces, the destruction of the German Army in Normandy was nearly complete. Three Victoria Crosses were earned by Canadians in Northwest Europe; Major David Currie of the South Alberta Regiment (predecessor to the current South Alberta Light Horse) won the Victoria Cross for his actions at St. Lambert sur Dives, Captain Frederick Tilston of the Essex Scottish (today the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment) and Sergeant Aubrey Cosens of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada were rewarded for their service in the Rhineland fighting in 1945, the latter posthumously.
One of the most important Canadian contributions was the Battle of the Scheldt. The British had liberated Antwerp, but that city's port could not be used until the Germans were driven from the heavily fortified Scheldt estuary. In several weeks of heavy fighting in the fall of 1944, the Canadians succeeded in defeating the Germans in this region. The Canadians then turned east and played a central role in the liberation of the Netherlands (Liberation of Holland).
Liberation Of Holland
The royal family of the Netherlands eventually moved to Ottawa until the Netherlands were liberated, and Princess Margriet was born during this Canadian exile.
The Canadian Forces moved and helped the flooded areas of the Netherlands and released them from German occupation. This is that reason the Canada today has tulips, as they were given by the Dutch as a thank you. Today Canadians and the Dutch are still very strongly connected.
Canada during the war
One of the major Canadian contributions to the Allied war effort was the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the largest air force training program in history. Over 167,000 air force personnel, including more than 50,000 pilots, were trained at airbases in Canada from May 1940 to March 1945.
This effort created political strain in Canada. However, the political astuteness of Mackenzie King, combined with much greater military sensitivity to Quebec volunteers resulted in a conscription crisis that was minor compared to that of World War I. French-Canadian volunteers were front and centre, in their own units, throughout the war, highlighted by actions at Dieppe (Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal), Italy (Royal 22e Régiment), the Normandy beaches (Régiment de la Chaudière) and the thrust into Holland (Régiment de Maisonneuve).
British Pacific Fleet
- Main article: British Pacific Fleet
The final Canadian Victoria Cross of the war went to Robert Hampton Gray, a Canadian pilot flying in the Royal Navy, who was killed attacking Japanese shipping on the same day as the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Operation Downfall
- Main article: Operation Downfall
The Canadian 6th Division had been formed and was training to take part in the proposed invasion of Japan. Canadian ships in the British Pacific Fleet and bomber squadrons transferred from Europe with Tiger Force would also have been involved. the invasion was rendered unnecessary by the use of nuclear weapons against Japan.
Important battles
See also
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada_during_World_War_II under GFDL
