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In 1939, Canada was a fully autonomous (though not independent) country, the most senior of the British Dominions, and a nation that was, for the most part, reluctant to return to war. Nonetheless, Canadians entered the Second World War united, and from a population of only 11 to 12 million, eventually raised very substantial armed forces. Over the course of the war, 1.1 million Canadians served in the army, navy, and air force. Of these more than 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, the challenges of the Second World War accelerated Canada's ongoing transformation into a modern urban and industrialized nation.

Contents 1 Canada enters the war 2 Mobilization of the Armed Forces 3 Industrial war effort 4 Early campaigns 5 The Dieppe Raid 6 The Occupation of Newfoundland 7 Attacks in Canadian waters and on the mainland 7.1 See also 8 Invasions of Europe 9 Liberation of the Netherlands 10 Canada during the war 11 The Pacific 12 Conclusion 13 See also 14 External links 15 Footnotes

On 25 August 1939, units of the Canadian Militia were called out to defend vital locations throughout Canada in light of the deepening crisis in Europe. Following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Canada mobilized the Canadian Active Service Force, a corps of two divisions. 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. After three days of discussion and debate in the House of Commons (and the passage of a slate of war measures), King's cabinet produced a declaration of war, subsequently signed by Governor General John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, in the name of King George VI as King of Canada, on September 10,^[1] one week after the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. Between September 1 and 10, Canada used its neutral status to purchase $20 million worth of arms from the still neutral United States before entering the war on Great Britain's side.

Mackenzie King's government embarked upon the war with one overarching concern: that the war effort not undermine national unity. King promised a war of "limited liability" – wherein Canada's principal contributions to the war effort would be economic and productive rather than military, a view which was also shared by such early-war leaders of the Conservative opposition as Dr. Robert Manion. King, recalling the Conscription Crisis of 1917, was sensitive to public opinion in French-speaking Quebec, where conscription was unpopular, and feared the consequences for national unity—and his party's chances for re-election—should heavy casualties force his government to enact conscription for overseas service.

Canada subsequently declared war on Italy in June 1940 and, on Japan, in December 1941.

See also: Conscription Crisis of 1944

Having suffered from nearly twenty years of neglect, Canada's armed forces were small, poorly equipped, and for the most part unprepared for war in 1939. The Permanent Active Militia (or Permanent Force (PF), Canada's full time army) had just 4,261 officers and men, while the Non-Permanent Active Militia (Canada's reserve force) numbered 51,000 partially trained and ill-equipped soldiers. Modern equipment was scarce all around. Attempts to modernize had begun in 1936, but equipment procurement was slow and the government was unwilling to expend money to equip the new tank battalions introduced that year.

Nevertheless, the eventual size of the Canadian armed forces greatly exceeded those envisioned in the pre-war period's so-called mobilization "schemes". Over the course of the war, the army enlisted 730,000; the air force 260,000; and the navy 115,000 personnel. In addition, thousands of Canadians served in the Royal Air Force. However, taken as a percentage of the population, Canada's enlistment of 1.1 million military personnel represents a proportionately smaller mobilization than that which occurred in Great Britain, Australia, or New Zealand. Approximately 60% of Canadian males aged 18 to 45 did not serve in the armed forces during the war. In addition, approximately half of Canada's army and three-quarters of its air-force personnel never left the country, compared to the overseas deployment of approximately three-quarters of the forces of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

In part, this reflected Mackenzie King's policy of "limited liability" and the labour requirements of Canada's industrial war effort. But it also reflected the objective circumstances of the war. With France defeated and occupied, there was no Second World War equivalent of the Great War's Western Front until the invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Moreover, the manpower requirements of the North African and Mediterranean theatres were comparatively small and readily met by British and other Commonwealth forces.

Consequently, the bulk of the Canadian army overseas did not engage in sustained combat until mid-1944. Many of the young soldiers of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, overseas since December 1939, could claim, by 1943, to have spent more of their adult lives in England than in Canada. Indeed, apart from the Dieppe Raid in August 1942, the Canadian Army fought no significant engagement in the European theatre of operations until the invasion of Sicily in the summer of 1943, by which time the war was nearly four years old. King was therefore able to delay the conscription crisis he so dreaded until late in the war.

Canada had become one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers in the 1920s, owing to the presence of branch-plants of American automakers in Ontario. In 1938, Canada's automotive industry ranked fourth in the world in the output of passenger car and trucks, even though a large part of its productive capacity remained idle because of the Depression. During the war, this industry was put to good use, building all manner of war materiel, and most particularly wheeled vehicles, of which Canada became the second largest (next to the United States) producer during the war. Canada's output of nearly 800,000 trucks, for instance, exceeded the combined total truck production of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Rivals Ford and General Motors of Canada pooled their engineering design teams to produce a standardized vehicle amenable to mass production, the Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) truck, which served throughout the Commonwealth. Approximately half of the British Army's transport requirements were supplied from Canadian manufacturers. The British Official History referred to these vehicles as Canada's most important contribution to Allied victory.

In addition, Canada produced its own medium tank, the Ram. Though it was unsuitable for combat employment, many were used for training, and the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment used modified Rams as armoured personnel carriers in North-West Europe.^[2] Approximately 16,000 aircraft, including Lancaster and Mosquito bombers, were built in Canada. In addition, by the end of 1944, Canadian shipyards had launched naval ships, such as destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and some 345 merchant vessels. But perhaps no Canadian contribution to the Allied war effort was so vital as that made by the metals industries: half of Allied aluminum and ninety percent of Allied nickel was supplied by Canadian sources during the war.

See also: Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee

Between the fall of France in June 1940 and the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, Canada supplied 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 formation later known as I Canadian Corps 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. The Canadians helped greatly throughout the campaign, capturing the town of Ortona and playing a vital role in breaking the Gothic Line. During the course of the Italian Campaign, over 25, 000 Canadian soldiers became casualties of war.

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 (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 Honorary 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.

When war was declared, Britain expected Canada to take responsibility for defending North America. In 1939, L.E. Emerson was The Commissioner of Defence for Newfoundland. Winston Churchill instructed Emerson to cooperate with Canada and comply with a "friendly invasion" as he encouraged MacKenzie King to occupy Newfoundland. By March 1942, Commissioner Emerson had restructured official organizations, such as The Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland, and integrated them into Canadian units, like The Canadian Aircraft Identity Corps.

The British Army mustered two units in Newfoundland for overseas service: The 59th Field Artillery and the 166th Field Artillery. The 59th served in northern Europe, the 166th served in Italy and North Africa. The Newfoundland Regiment was also mustered, but was never deployed overseas. No. 125 (Newfoundland) Squadron R.A.F. served in England and Wales and provided support during D-Day: the squadron was disbanded on 20 November 1945 ^[1].

Several Canadian regiments were garrisoned in Newfoundland during World War Two: the most famous regiment was The Canadian Royal Rifles who were stationed at Cape Spear before being dispatched to Hong Kong; In July 1941, The Prince Edward Island Highlanders arrived to replace them; In 1941 and 1942, The Lincoln & Welland Regiment was assigned to Gander Airport and then St. John's.

The Canadian Army built a concrete fort at Cape Spear with several large guns to deter German naval raids. Other forts were built overlooking St. John's Harbour; magazines and bunkers were cut into the South Side Hills and torpedo nets were draped across the harbour mouth. Cannons were erected at Bell Island to protect the merchant navy from submarine attacks and guns were mounted at Rigolette to protect Goose Bay.

All Canadian soldiers assigned to Newfoundland & Labrador from 1939 to 1945 received a silver clasp to their Canadian Volunteer Service Medal for overseas service. Because Canada, South Africa New Zealand and Australia had all issued their own volunteer service medals the Newfoundland Government minted its own volunteer service medal in 1978. The Newfoundland Volunteer Service 1939-45 was only awarded to Newfoundlanders or Labradorians who served overseas in the Commonwealth Forces but had not received a volunteer service medal. The medal is bronze: on its obverse is a crown and a caribou; on its reverse is Britannia and two lions.

Axis U-boats operated in Canadian and Newfoundland (not part of Canada at that time) 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.

• Attacks on North America during World War II
• Battle of the St. Lawrence

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 participation in the Sicily and Italy campaigns were made possible after the government decided to break up the First Canadian Army, sitting idle in Britain. Public pressure for Canadian troops to begin fighting forced a move before the awaited invasion of north-eastern Europe.^[3] Troops fought on through the long and difficult Italian campaign until repatriated to North-West Europe in February-March 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 Canadian (Armoured) Division and an independent armoured brigade. Three Victoria Crosses were awarded 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). Notable battles in Italy included the Battle of Ortona and the Hitler Line.

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).

The royal family of The Netherlands eventually moved to Ottawa until The Netherlands were liberated, and Princess Margriet was born during this Canadian exile. In 1944-45, First Canadian Army was responsible for liberating much of The Netherlands from German occupation.

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).

Upon the request of the British Government, Canada agreed to send reinforcements to garrison Hong Kong, therefore freeing up troops for other British possessions in the Far East. The Department of National Defence sent C Force: 1,975 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.

Canada also sent 5,300 troops of the 13th Canadian Brigade to participate in military operations in the Aleutians in 1943. The invasion, on 7 August 1943, also included the Canadian-American First Special Service Force. The objective was to reclaim the islands of Kiska and Attu from the Japanese, and the force saw no combat there as the Japanese had withdrawn on 28 July 1943, prior to the Allied landings. The battle was significant in that large numbers of conscripts had been included in the brigade.

Canada remained active in the Pacific theatre until the end of the war on 2 September 1945. Individual augmentees to Commonwealth forces served in various roles, including Canadian signallers in Australia, sailors with the British Pacific Fleet, RCAF airmen in Burma, and naval aviators with the Fleet Air Arm. The final Canadian Victoria Cross of the war went to one of the latter, Robert Hampton Gray, who was killed attacking Japanese shipping on the same day as the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

At the time of the armistice with Japan, the Canadian 6th Division was in training to take part in the proposed invasion of the mainland, entitled Operation Downfall. Canadian ships in the British Pacific Fleet and bomber squadrons had also been transferred from Europe with Tiger Force and were also training for their participation. The planned invasion of Kyūshū, Operation Olympic, was cancelled after Japan's surrender following the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war on Japan.

Canada's military deaths in the Second World War (which included deaths from wounds to the end of 1947) are recorded as 42,042. Of these, perhaps three-quarters are listed as "killed in action", while the rest died of sickness, accidents, and so forth. Several thousand Canadian pilots, for instance, died in training accidents in Canada. In addition, some 1,148 Canadian merchant seamen were killed. Canada's loss of more than 40,000 was a heavy price to pay for a small nation, though relative to population it was approximately half the burden in lives borne by Canadians in the First World War.

In 1945, most Canadians reflected on their nation's war effort with pride. Canadian forces had fought in most major theatres of war and had made major contributions to the Battle of the Atlantic, the Combined Bomber Offensive, to the invasions of Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and to the subsequent liberation of Holland. Canadian production of war materiel, foodstuffs, and raw materials had been indispensable to the Commonwealth's war effort, as had been the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Despite her small population, Canada had the 4th largest navy in the world at the end of the war, representative of a disproportionate contribution to the Battle of the Atlantic. In the course of time, Canadians would learn more about their nation's efforts on the scientific front and in codebreaking.

Moreover, the nation had survived the war undivided. Mackenzie King's Liberals were returned to power (albeit with a bare majority) in the federal election of June 1945. In Quebec, 53 of the 65 ridings went to King, a reflection of most Quebecers' belief that King had done all he could to maintain his promise on conscription.

The war furthered Canadians' sense of nationalistic pride and forged closer political, economic, and military bonds between Canada and the United States. Canadians emerged from the war ready to play a major role on the world stage.

Military history of Canada: Wars in the 20th & 21st centuries

Second Boer War

First World War

Russian Civil War

Spanish Civil War

Second World War

Korean War

Cold War

Vietnam War

Invasion of Afghanistan

Iraq War

• Military history of Canada
• George F.G. Stanley, Canadian military historian, soldier, designer of Canadian flag, Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick

• www.canadiansoldiers.com - extensive coverage of the Canadian Army in the Second World War.
• WWII.ca - Canada and World War II.
• Juno Beach - The Canadians On D-Day
• The Road to Victory A Dramatized Documentary of World War II on CD Originally Broadcast May 8, 1945 on CBC

1. ^ Proclamation of a State of War between Canada and Germany
2. ^ Tonner, Mark. The Kanagaroo in Canadian Service (Service Publications, 2005. See also The Ram in Canadian Service Vol 1. and Vol 2., same publisher.
3. ^ Bercuson, David J. Maple Leaf against the Axis: Canada's Second World War. Toronto: Stoddart, 1995. p. 152.