Legion Magazine Special Edition - WWII

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Above: Royal Canadian Navy sailors wave a recruiting poster from a departing train, Ottawa, November 1940. Right: Soldiers and sailors practice the D-Day invasion from a landing craft, Portsmouth, England, May 1944.

Contributor J.L. Granatstein is an award-winning author and historian who has been a regular

contributor to Legion Magazine. In addition to his more than 60 books, he has written many articles for the magazine and currently writes the Canada and the Cold War series. He taught history for many years and is former director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum, and recipient of the Pierre Berton Award and J.W. Dafoe Prize. More recently he co-authored The Oxford Companion To Canadian Military History with Dean F. Oliver.

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CONTENTS 4

Timeline To Victory

6

Introduction: Canada And The Second World War

14

Chapter 1: Going To War...Again

22

Chapter 2: The Navy...First To Fight

32

Chapter 3: Building An Army...In Wartime

40 Map: Battle Of Hong Kong

A boy reaches out to troops marching down 8th Street, New Westminster, B.C., 1939.

41

Map: The Mediterranean Campaign

42

Chapter 4: Into Sicily And Italy

52

Chapter 5: War In The Air...And Bombing Germany

62

Chapter 6: The War At Home

72

Map: Northwest Europe Campaign

74

Chapter 7: Bloody Victory...



The Northwest Europe Campaign

86

Chapter 8: The Impact Of War

96

Credits

Cover Photo: Private H.E. Goddard of the Perth Regiment carries a Bren gun near Arnhem, the Netherlands, April 1945.

T I ME L I N E TO V I CTO RY 1939 1 SEPT. 1939: Germany invades Poland.

30 SEPT. 1939: By month’s end, more than 58,000 Canadians have answered the call to arms.

7 DEC. 1941: Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor. Canada

3 SEPT. 1939: Britain and France

declares war on Japan before

declare war on Germany; the

the United States enters

Montreal-bound passenger ship SS Athenia is sunk by a

10 JULY 1940: The Battle of

U-boat in the Atlantic west of

Britain is well underway.

Ireland with a loss of nearly 120 passengers and crew; the

26 AUG. 1940: No. 1 Fighter

longest, continuous battle of

Squadron encounters German

the war—the Battle of the

bombers over southern

Atlantic—begins, and Canada’s

England and becomes the

navy will play a major role.

first RCAF unit in the war to engage enemy planes in battle.

8 SEPT. 1939: Prime Minister

8 DEC. 1941: A powerful Japanese force attacks Hong Kong. Canadian, British and Indian forces are vastly outnumbered, but fight on with great courage. 25 DEC. 1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese, hundreds of

Mackenzie King says no to conscription. Canada will build up the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force.

the war.

17 DEC. 1939: The British Commonwealth Air Training

14 NOV. 1940: Coventry is

Canadians become prisoners

devastated by German bomber attack. Attacks on London

of war.

begin Sept. 6.

Plan is announced. It will utilize locations across Canada to prepare Canadian, British, Australian and New Zealand aircrews.

1940 26 MARCH 1940: William Lyon Mackenzie King and the 10 SEPT. 1939: Canada declares war on Germany. 16 SEPT. 1939: The first merchant convoy sails out of Halifax, escorted by His Majesty’s Canadian Ship St. Laurent. 19 SEPT. 1939: The Canadian cabinet approves in principle the first Canadian naval construction plan of the war. 26 SEPT. 1939: Great Britain proposes that Commonwealth aircrews be trained in Canada.

4

Liberals are re-elected. 9 APRIL 1940: Germany invades Denmark and Norway. 10 MAY 1940: Germany invades Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg; the German Blitzkrieg or “lightning war” sweeps into France. Winston Churchill takes over as British prime minister. 26 MAY 1940: The evacuation at Dunkirk, France, begins. By June 3, nearly 340,000 British and French troops

1941 8 JAN. 1941: Japanese-Canadians ordered by Ottawa to register in British Columbia. 16 NOV. 1941: 1,975 soldiers from the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles of Canada arrive at Hong Kong aboard the troopship Awatea, escorted by HMCS Prince Robert.

are evacuated.

WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

1942 4 APRIL 1942: Squadron Leader Len Birchall of the Royal Canadian Air Force warns of Japanese fleet en route to Ceylon, thus averting a major disaster. 6 APRIL 1942: First Canadian Army is established in Britain, comprised of five divisions and two armoured brigades.

The Second World War was a global conflict in which Canadian soldiers, sailors and air personnel served valiantly in Northwest Europe, the Mediterranean, the Far East, in the air and on the oceans. Below is a calendar sketch of some of the major events. 30 MAY 1942: More than 500 Canadians participate in the first thousand-plane bomber raid over Germany. 19 AUG. 1942: Canada suffers 3,367 casualties, including 907 killed, in the disastrous raid on Dieppe, France.

1944 23 MAY 1944: Fighting in Italy’s Liri Valley sees the Canadians smash the Hitler Line. 14 OCT. 1942: Nearly 140 die

6 JUNE 1944: D-Day. Allied

when the Canadian steamship

forces land on the beaches of

Caribou is torpedoed in the

Normandy, France; Canadian

Cabot Strait.

troops on Juno Beach.

1943

17 JULY 1944: Canadian navy ships escort the largest convoy of the war across the Atlantic.

1945 4 FEB. 1945: First Canadian

25 JULY 1944: The Black Watch is

Corps (from Italy) to join

decimated at Verrières Ridge.

First Canadian Army in Northwest Europe.

18 AUG. 1944: Falaise, France, is liberated by Canadians. Three

8-22 APRIL 1945: Canadians clear

days later, the Allies close the

stubborn German resistance

Falaise gap and the German

from towns in Holland.

7th Army is destroyed. 5 MAY 1945: German forces 30-31 AUG. 1944: Along the

surrender to Canadians in

Adriatic coast south of Rimini,

the Netherlands.

Italy, Canadian forces break through the Gothic Line.

8 MAY 1945: VE-Day.

1 JAN. 1943: No. 6 Bomber Group, RCAF, is formed. It includes approximately 300 Halifax and Lancaster bombers. 10 JULY 1943: Canadian forces land on Sicily. 3 SEPT. 1943: Canadian and British forces land on mainland Italy; Italy surrenders five days later, but German forces continue to offer strong

2 OCT. 1944: In Northwest

resistance at every turn.

Europe, First Canadian Army

8-9 DEC. 1943: Canadian troops

28 JUNE 1944: RCAF fighters

cross the Moro River in Italy.

record 26 kills over France.

21 DEC. 1943: Canadian troops

9-10 JULY 1944: Canadians

engage in vicious house-to-

help capture the French

house fighting in Ortona.

city of Caen.

begins its fight to clear the Scheldt Estuary in an effort to open the port of Antwerp. 23 NOV. 1944: Sixteen thousand Canadian conscripts will head overseas.

6 AUG. 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Two days later another one is dropped on Nagasaki. 14 AUG. 1945: Japan surrenders.



WWII | T i m e l i n e T o V i c t o r y

5

I NT RODUCTION

CANADA AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR

BY J .L . G RA N ATS T EI N

Members of the Chaudiere Regiment approach Bernières-sur-Mer, France, in a landing craft on D-Day.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

T

he Second World War, which lasted six years from 1939 to 1945, totally involved the Canadian people. The nation’s men and women served in huge numbers, 10 per cent of the population of 11 million putting on uniform. Millions more worked in war plants, in the mines and fields, and in the bureaucracies

supporting the government. And that government, learning from the 1914-18 war experience, handled the difficult question of compulsory service with greater skill than in 1917-18, and managed the economy brilliantly. In every respect, this war was a far bigger affair than the previous conflict. The one exception was that the number of Canadian military personnel killed was smaller, more than 45,000 compared to more than 60,000 in the first. The reason there were fewer casualties was that Canada’s army was not in full action until 1943 in Italy and 1944 in Northwest Europe. Hong Kong in December 1941 and Dieppe in August 1942 were disasters for Canadian arms, but the toll was not as great as in sustained combat over many months. The Royal Canadian Navy fought the enemy from the outset, but only slowly accrued strength, and naval successes and losses took time to develop. The Royal Canadian Air Force was similar. Although it had a fighter squadron in the 1940 Battle of Britain, it did not reach its maximum effort overseas until 1943 when it manned No. 6 Bomber Group. Even so, Canadian air force casualties of 17,100 dead were all but inconceivable in 1939.

47,200

Number of killed in the Canadian Army, Air Force and Navy.

54,414

Number of wounded in the three branches of service.

8,300

Number taken prisoner.



Introduction | C a n a d a A n d T h e S e c o n d Wo r l d Wa r

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Indeed, Canada’s war had been impossible to visualize at the outset. The intention had been to fight a “limited liability” war, one constrained by political and economic difficulties at home and by the intention to minimize casualties overseas. However, the German victories in the spring of 1940 changed everything and total war—a maximum effort in every area except that of compulsory service overseas—resulted. The new situation also forced Canada into striking its first defence alliance with the United States, an effort to protect North America while, at the same time, permitting Canada to give maximum support to Britain. Meanwhile, popular expectations of a better postwar life emerged and forced the government to begin planning for and implementing social welfare measures, along with huge spending on reconstruction and, happily, on veterans’ benefits. Canada’s soldiers, sailors and airmen helped win the war—their victories in Europe, their ultimately successful struggle versus U-boats, and their efforts over the Ruhr and Rhineland helping to smash Nazi tyranny. But Canada also won a victory, its people emerging from the Depression and war into a much better, more prosperous future. The cost was high, but the war that had to be won was a victory in every sense.

Left: A medic treats the burned leg of a French boy, June 1944. Above: The German submarine U-190 surrenders in St. John’s, Nfld., June 1945.



Introduction | C a n a d a A n d T h e S e c o n d Wo r l d Wa r

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Clockwise from opposite page, top left: Soldiers rest in the cellar of a wrecked building, Xanten, Germany, March 1945; a pilot waits to board his aircraft, Cambridgeshire, England, 1941; a Dutch boy carries a spoon “just in case,” Amsterdam, 1945; a platoon commander (with binoculars) prepares to give the order to attack, Ortona, December 1943; Allied prisoners of war rush to freedom, Lubeck, Germany, May 1945.



Introduction | C a n a d a A n d T h e S e c o n d Wo r l d Wa r

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Clockwise from opposite page, top left: A member of the Toronto Scottish Regiment gives first aid to a boy, Brionne, France, August 1944; pilots scramble to their aircraft,1940; comrades help a wounded soldier to cover, Kirchhatten, Germany, April 1945; depth charges explode astern HMCS Saguenay, 1940; military personnel and civilians celebrate VE-Day on Sparks Street, Ottawa; a sailor checks depth charges on HMCS Matane during heavy seas, Bermuda, January 1944.



Introduction | C a n a d a A n d T h e S e c o n d Wo r l d Wa r

13

C HAP T E R 1

G O I N G TO WA R . . . AG A I N “After 20 years of tiny defence budgets, Canada’s army, naval and air forces entered the war with almost nothing.”

C

anada went to war on September 10, 1939, for the second time in 25 years, one week after Britain and nine days after Adolf Hitler sent his armies into Poland. In 1914, Canada had been a colony, bound by Britain’s declaration

of war against Germany. After the Statute of Westminster of 1931 had made Canada independent in foreign policy, however, the government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King determined that Canada would act on its own this time. Parliament, as King had repeatedly declared, would decide. Although some argued that the Crown was indivisible and that Canada was at war as soon as Britain was at war, the Liberal government recalled Parliament and declared its policy of going to war. Although a few members of Parliament spoke in favour of neutrality, the speech from the throne won approval. The government then asked George VI to declare war on Canada’s behalf. The constitution had evolved, and the government brought a relatively united nation to war. Canada had, in fact, gone to war for the same reason it had in 1914: Britain had gone to war. If London had decided to stay out of a conflict with Nazi Germany—as some in Neville Chamberlain’s government wanted—so would have Canada. Hitler’s Nazi Germany may have been a threat to European and possibly North American security, but that alone would not have been enough to fight. Public opinion in elite circles in Canada, however, was still moved by British policy wherever it went. French Canada’s attitudes differed markedly, but Quebec’s anti-war, anti-Empire concerns had been eased by pledges delivered by the prime minister (and Conservatives, too) that this war was to be fought by volunteers only and without conscription for overseas service. French Canadians could accept participation, so long as no one would be compelled to fight in what most thought was yet another British war. The bruising, unity-destroying struggle over conscription of 1917 would not be repeated, or so said the politicians.

A mobile recruiting unit for the 5th (Westmount) Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery in Montreal, September 1939.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

10,000 REGULARS Number of all three branches of Canadian military service prior to outbreak of war.



Chapter 1 | G o i n g T o Wa r. . . A g a i n

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From left: Army recruits line up in Montreal, August 1939; members of the Royal Rifles of Canada prepare to leave for Hong Kong, October 1941.

Thirty-three thousand boisterous Canadians went overseas in October 1914, with most of them hoping to go straight into battle. They did not, as the British sent them to Salisbury Plain for several months of training. Most of that time was spent slopping in the mud as it rained nearly every day, but the Canadians were lucky to escape the Western Front’s killing battles. With precautionary measures taken, the War Measures Act proclaimed in force and known subversives rounded up, the armed forces took stock of what they had. The regulars in all three services numbered just 10,000, many too old or physically unfit for the strains of battle. The reserve forces were largely untrained and almost wholly ill-equipped. After 20 years of tiny defence budgets, Canada’s army, naval and air forces entered the war with almost nothing. The Royal Canadian Navy had a handful of ships, including a few modern destroyers. The Royal Canadian Air Force had a squadron of Hurricane fighters, everything else it flew was outdated. The Canadian Army had no modern tanks, no up-to-date artillery, no anti-aircraft guns, few light machine-guns, and not even enough trucks. Canada had to do its part, all agreed, but not too much. After all, as far as the government was concerned this would be a war of “limited liability.” Hitler was evil, yes, but for a nation with only 11 million people, this was not really Canada’s war. And so the government would do what it could to minimize risk and costs, and indeed use the war to put men and women back to work in factory and farm. The 10-year-long Great Depression still sapped government revenues and national will, and the memory of the Great War’s casualties and costs hung over the land. This war and Canada’s role in it would be different.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

58,337 Number of Canadian Army enlistees in September 1939.



Chapter 1 | G o i n g T o Wa r. . . A g a i n

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Clockwise from bottom left: Canadians break camp in England; soldiers train under live fire at Camp Shilo in Manitoba; members of the Canadian Scottish Regiment wait in a Landing Craft Assault during exercises, 1944; assault exercise at Seaford, England, May 1942; men board a boat for more assault training.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y



Chapter 1 | G o i n g T o Wa r. . . A g a i n

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Clockwise from top left: Paratroopers don camouflage outfits during training; wartime recruiting posters; a military identification card, February 1943. Opposite page from top: University of Montreal students stage an anti-conscription demonstration, March 1939; members of the Cape Breton Highlanders run an obstacle course at Sheffield Park, England, 1942.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y



Chapter 1 | G o i n g T o Wa r. . . A g a i n

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C HAP T E R 2

THE N AV Y. . . FI RS T TO F I G H T “In 1942, U-boats had begun to operate in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the bodies of merchant crewmen began to wash up on Gaspé shores.”

T

 he first convoy of merchant ships formed up in Halifax harbour in September 1939, ready to be escorted across the North Atlantic. In the First World War, Germany’s U-boats had sunk scores of ships until convoys had been reluctantly

adopted. This time, naval officers vowed, would be different. Yes and no. The convoys did offer a way to protect 20 to 100 merchantmen more

effectively, but there were always too few escort ships, and the enemy sub­marines were much better equipped, and soon much more numerous than in 1914-18. Moreover, the Royal Navy was overstretched and, after June 1940, fixated on the absolute necessity to check a German invasion of Britain. That left the Royal Canadian Navy with a huge burden for which it was completely unready. There were only six destroyers and four minesweepers, although soon construction of 64 corvettes (small ships based on the design of a whaling ship) was underway in Canadian yards. With small crews living in cramped conditions and moments of danger alternating with long stretches of tedium, the corvettes were the basic tool of the RCN. The “destroyers for bases” deal of 1940 that saw the neutral United States trade old four-stack destroyers for British Caribbean and Newfoundland bases, gave the RCN more ships to fill the gaps. But the RCN had begun the war with only 2,000 officers and ratings and although its ranks eventually reached 100,000, along with 6,500 Wrens (members of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service), no navy anywhere could cope with 50-fold expansion without years to train sailors and especially to develop the specialized technical skills needed to combat the U-boats. Some new corvette crews, one regular officer recalled, “didn’t know how to light the boiler fires” but after three or four days “they were sent out into the Atlantic Ocean.”

The crew of HMCS Assiniboine and her mascot return to St. John’s, Nfld., after sinking U-210, August 1942.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

471

Number of ships of all types the RCN put to sea.



Chapter 2 | T h e N a v y. . . F i r s t T o F i g h t

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24

Number of RCN ships sunk in the war.

HMCS St. Francis prepares to take on fuel from a tanker at sea, November 1942. Opposite page: Rum is distributed on board HMCS Arvida, September 1943.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Inevitably, the RCN stumbled. Almost typical was the story of Tony Griffin who, fresh from officer training, went to his first ship, the corvette HMCS Pictou. His first captain, a merchant sailor, had a drinking problem and was replaced by another who didn’t want to go to sea. That left Griffin who became the captain—his crew of youngsters as green as he was. An able man who did learn on the job, Griffin knew he was “the blind leading the blind.” The convoys bore the burden while the Canadian sailors mastered their trade on the unforgiving North Atlantic in winter’s rough seas. Ships were lost wholesale, succumbing to the attacks of U-boat wolf packs. In March 1941, the Germans sank 200,000 tons of shipping, and the supplies reaching Britain—the supplies that kept Winston Churchill’s nation in the war—dropped month by month. In May that year the RCN took over responsibility for the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to Iceland; in September, after the meeting between Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Rossevelt off Argentia, Nfld., the nominally neutral (until December 1941) U.S. Navy assumed command of the western Atlantic. The RCN now reported to a U.S. admiral, a situation that lasted until April 1943, when the RCN and Royal Navy took over convoy control. In command of the Canadian Northwest Atlantic was Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray, the only Canadian theatre commander of the war. The problems of the navy did not ease, however. In 1942, U-boats had begun to operate in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the bodies of merchant crewmen began to wash up on Gaspé shores. This panicked the government into closing the Gulf to shipping for a time. The toll of sinkings in the North Atlantic continued to mount, peaking in late 1942 and early 1943, most of the carnage occurring in the Canadians’ area of responsibility. The RCN’s weakness in training—and its obsolete radars and weaponry—led to much of the anti-submarine fleet being pulled out of the Battle of the North Atlantic for retraining and refitting in 1943.



Chapter 2 | T h e N a v y. . . F i r s t T o F i g h t

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2,024

Number of RCN fatal casualties suffered in the war.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

This helped greatly, as did accrued experience. For the remainder of the war, the RCN picked up an increasing share of the U-boat war, its task greatly eased by better antisubmarine weapons, increased air coverage, and more ships, including new frigates. Using acoustic torpedoes and the new snorkel device that let them stay submerged much longer, the German subs fought back and the sinkings continued, but the tide had turned by late 1943. The RCN killed 33 U-boats in all. Meanwhile, the RCN achieved a long-held aspiration: to become a “big-ship” navy. The RN gave the Canadians six Tribal-class destroyers, half again as big as those with which the RCN began the war, and Nova Scotia yards began to build Tribals. There were soon two cruisers and two aircraft carriers, and the navy operated these ships with substantial success on the Murmansk Run, carrying supplies to Russia, off the French coast in the run-up to D-Day, and in the Pacific. His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Haida, in particular, distinguished herself in action, its captain, “Hard-over” Harry deWolf, becoming a popular hero. In all, the RCN put 471 ships of all types to sea, had 24 sunk and suffered 2,024 fatal casualties in the war, a heavy toll. Unsung, largely unrecognized, the Canadian merchant fleet and Newfoundland fleet lost 72 ships and 13 per cent of the 12,000 sailors who crewed them.

Clockwise from opposite page top left: The view from the bridge of HMCS Assiniboine; workers prepare plating for corvettes, Lauzon, Que., 1941; a wartime recruiting poster; U-980 is sunk by a Canso; ice packs on HMCS Wetaskiwin, St. John’s, Nfld., December 1942.



Chapter 2 | T h e N a v y. . . F i r s t T o F i g h t

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72

Number of ships lost in Canadian and Newfoundland merchant fleets.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Clockwise from opposite page top left: Survivors of the torpedoed merchant ships SS Ashantian and SS Wanstead aboard the rescue trawler HMS Northern Gift, April 1943; the gun deck of HMCS Prince David during a storm off Bermuda, January 1941; Commander H.F. Pullen directs the transfer of goods aboard HMCS Uganda, June 1945; rough seas aboard a corvette, September 1943; dinner is served on HMCS Prince Robert, November 1945; Lieutenant D.W. Piers on HMCS Assiniboine, December 1940.



Chapter 2 | T h e N a v y. . . F i r s t T o F i g h t

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Clockwise from opposite page top: Equipment for Bangorclass minesweepers is ready for loading, Halifax, September 1942; survivors from SS Eurymedon come aboard HMCS Ottawa, September 1940; HMCS Orillia as seen from the deck of HMCS Chambly, May 1941; unidentified survivors of torpedoed merchant ship, St. John’s, Nfld., September 1942.



Chapter 2 | T h e N a v y. . . F i r s t T o F i g h t

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Canadian personnel examine a German Panther tank, Authie, France, July 1944.

C HAP T E R 3

BU IL DI N G AN ARMY... IN WA RT I ME “On May 10, 1940, the Germans assaulted the Netherlands and Belgium en route to France, and the war changed complexion completely.”

T

here was no enthusiasm in the Mackenzie King cabinet in September 1939 for building a large army. If the prime minister had had his way, not even a single division would have gone overseas. But men were flooding the militia regi-

ments looking to enlist, and the public pressure was such that the government felt pressed to raise an infantry division for overseas and a second for service as needed. Even so, King wanted the main military effort to be made in the air. Large armies meant large casualties, and casualties meant conscription. The government was determined to avoid compulsory service. To command the 1st Canadian Division, King chose Major-General Andrew McNaughton. A very successful Great War artilleryman, a former Chief of the General Staff, McNaughton had headed the National Research Council since 1935. A “scientific soldier,” a charismatic figure in his 50s, “Andy” McNaughton cared for his boys. Boots—like almost everything else—were in short supply, so Andy authorized purchases from department stores so soldiers could march. He led his untrained soldiers overseas in December where they settled into training for their eventual dispatch to the front in France. It was not to be. The “phony war,” the name given to the period of military inactivity that followed Hitler’s conquest of Poland, ended in April 1940 when the Nazis seized Denmark and Norway. There was some talk of sending the Canadians to join in the futile efforts to fight in northern Norway, but this came to nothing. Then, on May 10, the Germans assaulted the Netherlands and Belgium en route to France, and the war changed complexion completely. The French and British armies reeled back, and by the end of May the British soldiers barely escaped surrender, thanks to the miraculous evacuation at Dunkirk. With the French government and army collapsing and surrender near, Britain tried to cobble together a defence line in western France and McNaughton’s division began to prepare for this task. The first brigade landed on June 14, entrained for the new front,

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1,081,865 Number of Canadian men and women in uniform during the Second World War.



Chapter 3 | B u i l d i n g A n A r my. . . I n Wa r t i m e

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then fortuitously received orders to turn around and return to England on June 15. Much of its new equipment remained behind, but 1st Division, soon to be joined by the 2nd Division, was still the best equipped formation in Britain. Everyone expected the Germans to invade soon, and the Canadians trained for this task. But while air battles raged overhead in the Battle of Britain and English cities suffered under the Blitz, the invasion never came. Exercise followed on exercise, and soon the troops, their numbers growing rapidly as Ottawa’s “limited liability” policy dissolved under the stress of Allied defeats, became bored, tired of hearing their English girlfriends ask if the Canadians would ever fight. The opportunity came in August 1942 when, at the urging of Canadian commanders, the 2nd Division played the major part in a large raid on the French port of Dieppe. Badly planned, badly carried out, the raid was a disaster on every front. Landing on three beaches well-covered by German guns, the Canadians had virtually no chance. There was much bravery and too much death, only 2,200 of the 5,000 men embarked returning to Britain, many of those never having landed. The padre of the Essex Scottish Regiment wrote in his diary that “No Essex officer returned…. Out of 30… I am the only original.”

Left: Bodies of Canadian soldiers lie among damaged landing craft, Dieppe, Aug. 19, 1942. Right: Troops board a destroyer after the failed raid.

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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

816,000 Number of military vehicles produced in Canadian factories during the war.



Chapter 3 | B u i l d i n g A n A r my. . . I n Wa r t i m e

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Dieppe was not the first disaster to befall Canadian arms. In the fall of 1941, Britain asked Ottawa to reinforce the Crown colony of Hong Kong, and the government agreed. Two battalions, their training incomplete, their complement filled out with partly trained men, sailed from Vancouver for what Army headquarters thought was garrison duty. Staff errors led to the units’ transport being loaded on another ship, and it never arrived as the Japanese struck on December 8. The attackers pushed easily through the mainland defences, then assaulted Hong Kong island, and within a week forced a Christmas capitulation. One private in the Winnipeg Grenadiers remembered that “We had no communication…. We didn’t even know where the British were. We didn’t know where any of the rest of them were. We had nothing, absolutely nothing.” The Canadians fought well nonetheless, suffered heavy casualties, and the survivors had to endure almost four years of hell in prisoner of war cages. The Second World War, like the First World War, demanded well-trained, wellequipped, and well-led soldiers. Canada had to build up its strength, develop leaders, and make its army fit to fight.

Clockwise from opposite page top left: A French child wears a knitted dress featuring Allied flags; nursing sisters from No. 10 Canadian General Hospital, Arromanches, France, July 1944; a statue of the Virgin Mary survives bombing in Carpiquet, France; Canadian troops enter Caen, France, July 10, 1944; Canadian soldiers arrive in Hong Kong.



Chapter 3

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B u i l d i n g A n A r my. . . I n Wa r t i m e

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Clockwise from opposite page top left: Members of the North Shore (N.B.) Regiment board amphib­ ious tanks; Canadian infantrymen pass German refugees, March 1945; German officers surrender near Boulogne, France, September 1944; members of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry relax at Speldrop, Germany, March 1945; a wartime recruiting poster; a Canadian tank catches fire, St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France, August 1944.



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BATTLE OF HONG KONG “On Dec. 25, 1941, at 0600 hours, the Japanese troops entered St. Stephen’s Hospital (Hong Kong). On the first floor, where I was, there were approximately 100 patients and seven nurses. I saw five Japanese soldiers bayonet intentionally about 15 or 20 wounded soldiers in bed.”—Captain James Barnett of the Royal Rifles of Canada, testifying at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1948.

POK FU LAM BENNET’S HILL

DEC

WONG NEI CHONG GAP

MOUNT CAMERON

LITTLE HONG KONG

BRICK HILL

DEEP CASTLE WATER BAY EUCLIFFE

POSITION “A” COY ROYAL RIFLES 20-22 DEC

REPULSE BAY STANLEY MOUND

LINE 1500 HOURS 25 DEC

ROUND ISLAND “B” COY ROYAL RIFLES

APPROXIMATE BRITISH FRONT LINE AT TIMES INDICATED

EC

BOA VISTA

VIOLET HILL

HOTEL

JAPANESE LINE AND DATE OF ADVANCE

TAI TAM GAP

POSITION “D” COY WINNIPEG GRENADIERS 19-22 DEC

STANLEY VIEW

LAMMA ISLAND

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STANLEY GAP

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COMPANY 1ST MIDDLESEX 20-25 DEC

ABERDEEN

JARDINE’S LOOKOUT

SAI WAN HILL

DE C

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MOUNT PARISH

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LYE MUN N PAS

BRAEMAR HILL

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MOUNT DAVIS

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VICTORIA

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19

KOWLOON

KUNG TONG TSAI

18 DEC

18 DEC

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft began attacking Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport. Eleven days later a massive Japanese force crossed the strait separating the mainland from Hong Kong island. During the next seven days, British, Canadian and Indian forces on the island were engaged in sharp and bloody close-quarter fighting. The two Canadian battalions, the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers, had only set sail from Vancouver for the British colony at the end of October, and the men had not been trained for front-line action. The most that had been expected was garrison duty because war with Japan was not considered imminent. Superior in force, the Japanese overran the island, but not before encountering great individual acts of courage by its defenders who were forced to surrender. Canadian casualties were approximately 290 killed, 493 wounded. Those who survived were imprisoned in Hong Kong and Japan where the brutality of war continued with starvation, disease, severe beatings, and many deaths.

BRIDGE HILL C DE 22

RED HILL

SUGAR LOAF HILL

STONE HILL

POSITION ROYAL RIFLES 19 DEC TAI TOM BAY

STANLEY LINE 1500 HOURS 25 DEC STANLEY PRISON

STANLEY FORT

SAGE

THE MEDITERRANEAN CAMPAIGN “I know well the fighting men from Canada; they are magnificent soldiers, and the long and careful training they have received in England will now be put to good use—to the great benefit of the Eighth Army.” —General Bernard Montgomery, July 1943.

The Allies launched their assault on Sicily shortly after dawn on July 10, 1943. Canadian soldiers—forming the left flank of five British landings—came ashore near Pachino on the southern tip of the island. In the days ahead, the Canadians would encounter fierce German resistance in the dusty mountainous terrain. By mid-August, the Allies had secured the island, and the Canadians had fought hard as evidenced by more than 1,200 casualties. On September 3, 1943, Canadian forces crossed the Strait of Messina onto the Italian mainland where they moved “up the boot,” meeting tough resistance through the central mountain range, across the Moro River and into Ortona. The Allied fighting continued into the Liri Valley and at Monte Cassino, and by the end of May, Canadian forces had breached the Hitler Line. By late August, the Canadian Corps was back along the Adriatic, facing swollen rivers and more strong resistance. The campaign continued into the spring of 1945, but by February 1st Canadian Corps had begun moving to Northwest Europe. The 20-month campaign cost Canada 25,264 casualties.

YUGOSLAVIA

BAGNACAVALIO

BATTLE OF THE RIVERS DECEMBER 1944

RAVENNA

FAENZA FORLI

PRATO

FLORENCE GREVE

RIMINI PESARO ANCONA

BREAKING THE GOTHIC LINE AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1944

ITALY

PETACCIATO

RO

ROME

SAN SEVERO FOGGIA BARLETTA ANDRIA

CAMPOBASSO

FROSINONE BREAKING THE HITLER LINE MAY 1944

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

MORO RIVER NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1943

PESCARA ORTONA MO

CORSICA

ORTONA DECEMBER 1943

CASSINO

FONDI

MELFI TERRACINA

ADRIATIC SEA

BARI

NAPLES TARANTO

POTENZA

SALERNO

CASTROVILLARI

SARDINIA TYRRHENIAN SEA

CROTONE CATANZARO IONIAN SEA

MESSINA

SICILY ENNA

AGIRA

CALTAGIRONE

TUNISIA

LANDING IN SICILY 10 JULY 1943

REGGIO DI CALABRIA

LOCRI

MOUNT ETNA

ADRANO DITTA

CATANIA

RAGUSA

INO

CROSSING THE STRAIT OF MESSINA SEPTEMBER 1943

SYRACUSE PACHINO

Canadian troops advance on Rimini, September 1944.

C HAP T E R 4

INTO SI C I LY AN D I TA LY “Mouse-holing their way from building to building, setting traps and being caught in traps, the infantry-armour advance ground forward.”

T

he Nazis dominated the war in Europe until November 1942. In that month, the Soviet forces, in the war against Hitler since June 1941, had destroyed an entire German army at Stalingrad; at El Alamein in the Egyptian desert, British

General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army had defeated Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps while, soon after, British and American troops landed in Algeria and Morocco. The tide had begun to turn. Dieppe and Hong Kong aside, the Canadian Army overseas, now five divisions and

two armoured brigades strong and soon to be grouped together as First Canadian Army under Major-General A.G.L. McNaughton’s command, had remained out of action. The question was how to employ this powerful, if untested, force. McNaughton wanted to keep the army together, training for the invasion of Northwest Europe; the Canadian government and public—and the troops—wanted to see action. Going to battle would also give experience to raw commanders at every level. In the end, the decision to deploy the 1st Division and the 1st Armoured Brigade to the invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943, was almost inevitable. Led by Major-General Guy Simonds, the division formed part of the Eighth Army, attacking northward through eastern Sicily, the United States forces moving through the west. There were gruelling marches in the heat, hard fighting and heavy losses as the Germans staged repeated delaying actions in the rough mountainous terrain. The commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Crowe, died on the outskirts of Nissoria when he charged an enemy machine-gun, and one squadron of the Three Rivers Regiment lost 10 tanks in the same engagement on July 24. Nonetheless, the Canadians did well in Sicily, their first sustained action of the war. Simonds proved himself an able leader, winning Montgomery’s approbation, and regiments like the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment fought with determination and skill. The Germans withdrew to the mainland, their troops having occupied Italy after the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini was toppled on July 25. The Allied invasion followed on September 3, and until December the Canadians and their comrades moved north as the Germans again fought small-scale delaying actions. Not until the Canadians reached the Moro River, south of the town of Ortona, did the enemy dig in and hold.

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320,955

Allied ground forces killed, wounded or captured in Sicily and Italy between July 10, 1943 and May 2, 1945.



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“Little Stalingrad” was what the press called the subsequent struggle that lasted through Christmas 1943. Facing crack German panzer grenadiers and paratroops, the Canadian infantry forced its way across the Moro and then ran up against The Gully, a long ravine stretching in front of the old town. It took heroic efforts by the Royal 22nd Regiment, and the tanks of the Ontario Regiment to break through, Captain Paul Triquet earning the Victoria Cross in the effort. Ortona, which had been turned into rubble and killing zones, had to be cleared. Mouse-holing their way from building to building, setting traps and being caught in traps, the infantry-armour advance ground forward. On Christmas, the men pulled out of the line company by company for a festive dinner in a ruined church. On December 28, the enemy suddenly withdrew, conceding the ruins to the Canadians. Ortona had been a slaughterhouse, the 1st Division taking 2,339 casualties from December 8, along with another 1,600 men suffering from battle exhaustion. The division remained in the line, but it had shot its bolt. Reinforced with the 5th Canadian Armoured Division and I Canadian Corps headquarters, the division’s next major action came in May 1944. The Gustav and Hitler lines protected the way to Rome and the Germans had prepared their defences brilliantly. The Allies launched their assaults in force, the Canadian divisions joining in on May 16. A week later, the infantry opened a gap for the 5th Armoured, earning its nickname as the Mighty Maroon Machine, and the tanks poured through. Allied casualties were again heavy, but the Yanks took Rome on June 5, an achievement drowned out by D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, the next day.

Left: Christmas dinner is enjoyed at Ortona, Italy, 1943. Above: Stretcher-bearers carry a wounded soldier, October 1943.



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658,339 Estimated German casualties in Sicily and Italy between July 10, 1943 and May 2, 1945.

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The Canadian Corps’ next battle came more than two months later against the Gothic Line, south of Rimini on the Adriatic. Again the Germans dug in on terrain that favoured the defence, but Major-General Bert Hoffmeister, commanding the armoured division, spotted a weakness in their lines on a personal reconnaissance, and had the date of attack advanced. The Perth Regiment’s new commanding officer told his soldiers, somewhat over-optimistically, that in two weeks they would be “riding the watery streets of Venice in gondolas.” That was a pipe dream, but once more the Corps smashed its way through the German defences, winning the finest battle, many believe, fought by Canadians in the entire war. Casualties again were heavy. The Allies continued to grind northwards, the Canadians taking Rimini and crossing the Savio and Lamone rivers after fierce fighting in the cold of late autumn. Now, however, orders came to cease operations and move to Northwest Europe to join up with First Canadian Army. Few were sorry to depart Italy, but the Canadian Corps had earned its spurs, fighting in a theatre where 5,000 comrades remained behind forever.

Opposite page, clockwise from top left: A member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry relaxes near Valguarnera, Sicily, July 1943; soldiers put a Bren gun in position; a Canadian Sherman tank advances at San Pancrazio, Italy, July 1944. This page left: A member of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment takes a position, Colle D’Anchise, October 1943. Right: A Canadian prepares to throw a hand grenade into a sniper ’s hideout, October 1943.



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Clockwise from top left: Members of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment dig a man out of the rubble, Ortona, December 1943; members of First Special Service Force await lunch, Anzio Beach, April 1944; artillery assaults the Gothic Line, August 1944; a sniper with the 48th Highlanders of Canada takes a position, Foglia River, Italy, 1944; supply vehicles move towards the front, May 1944.

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92,757 Number of Canadians who served in the Italian campaign.



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WWII | C a n a d a ’s U l t i m a t e S t o r y

Clockwise from top left: Refugees await supplies; Canadian troops advance towards Rome, May 1944; Canadian soldiers search German prisoners; gunners at work, February 1944; members of the Carleton and York Regiment advance under sniper fire, Campochiaro, October 1943; the 48th Highlanders of Canada advance toward the Gothic Line; 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) prepare to fire, February 1944.



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Aircrew walk toward a Halifax aircraft in No. 6 Bomber Group, Yorkshire, October 1944.

C HAP T E R 5

WAR IN THE AIR... AND BOMBING GERMANY “Thousands of Canadian aircrew overcame their fears to fly into the hell of the enemy’s defences....”

T

he Royal Canadian Air Force began the Second World War weak in every respect, but very quickly found itself operating an extraordinary air training scheme. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), pursued by

Prime Minister Mackenzie King as Canada’s major contribution to the war because neither he nor anyone else could conceive of the air war producing high casualty tolls, turned out to be huge. The negotiations with Britain on costs were difficult, but ultimately successful, and Canada provided over half of the estimated funds. That the tiny RCAF could operate it successfully was a major feat of organization. The BCATP brought tens of thousands of aircrew trainees from all over the Commonwealth to bases scattered across Canada, some 55 per cent of the 131,533 eventual graduates being Canadian. A carefully worked out system fed men from

basic training to classrooms where they learned the basics of flight. They moved on to elementary flying training and then to Service Flying Training Schools. Those who washed out as pilots joined those who were streamed into navigation or bombing and gunnery, wireless or observer training, the basic tools of war in the air. French-speaking Canadians especially found the training difficult: “There was only one language in the air force,” one recalled. “You had to understand English or else.” After graduation, the Canadian aircrews moved on to their postings. Some stayed in Canada as instructors or went to Eastern Air Command to hunt submarines. Others went to the West Coast. Most, however, went overseas, joining the growing number of RCAF squadrons or, in many cases, assigned to Royal Air Force squadrons where they served with men from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and other dominions and colonies. Their tasks were manifold. With the RCAF enlisting a quarter-million men and women, Canadians served in every theatre of war in transport squadrons, in Coastal Command flying boats, in fighter squadrons, in Bomber Command, and in the Far East in India, Ceylon and Burma. The first RCAF pilots to fight were in No. 1 Squadron which played a distinguished role in the Battle of Britain. Later, fighter squadrons, operating in the air support role, covered land operations in the Burmese campaign and in North Africa, Italy and Northwest Europe.

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195

Number of mostly obsolete aircraft in the RCAF at the outbreak of war.



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The main role—and later the most controversial—was in Bomber Command. Driven off the Continent at Dunkirk in June 1940, Britain had no way to strike at Nazi Germany other than from the air. The first bombing raids were pinpricks without much effect, except for planes shot down. But the technology of war leapt ahead rapidly, Hampden and Wellington bombers being superseded by big four-engine Halifax and Lancaster bombers that had large crews and could carry heavy bomb loads. By July 1943, the first thousand-plane raids had been launched against Hamburg, destroying much of the city and killing thousands. The enemy had bombed civilians in Britain indiscriminately; now Hitler’s Germany reaped the whirlwind. Bombing Germany became Canada’s main air effort, the RCAF forming No. 6 Group in 1943. Initially less successful than it might have been because its bases were in Yorkshire, well to the north, and because the Group was slow to get the best aircraft, No. 6 found its feet under Air Vice Marshal “Black Mike” McEwen who enforced discipline and raised standards. Finding and hitting the target was hard enough; the task became horrendous as the Luftwaffe put its best pilots into countering the bombers and multiplied its antiaircraft defences. The casualties among aircrews soared. By the end of the war, the RCAF had lost 17,000 killed; Bomber Command crews made up well above half of that total, numbers that were almost inconceivable in 1939.

Left: A salvage crew works on a damaged Typhoon. Right: RCAF bombers attack German flying bomb installations just before D-Day.

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4,000

Number of regular RCAF personnel at the outbreak of war.



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Left: A member of the aircrew is ready for action. Right: Pilots check with their navigator. Below: Bristol Bolingbroke aircraft are lined up at Patricia Bay, B.C., January 1942. Opposite page: Dresden lies in ruins after a firestorm caused by bombing, February 1945.

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267,000 Number of men and women who served in the RCAF during the war.

The bombing destroyed German cities, killing hundreds of thousands and rendering more homeless. Its effect on industry, however, only accrued slowly, as the Nazis proved highly successful in keeping war production going until late in the war. Still, to counter the raids from above, the Germans had to move men and weaponry from the battlefields to the home front. What of the morality of killing civilians? The Germans had started the war and fought it brutally, something that eased concerns. Few among the Allies worried during the war about their actions, though one Canadian pilot in August 1942 wrote home that “the thought of what we are doing sometimes appalls me.” After the war, however, after the firestorms that destroyed Hamburg or the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, many questioned the strategy, creating an ongoing controversy. What is beyond dispute, however, is that thousands of Canadian aircrew overcame their fears to fly into the hell of the enemy’s defences night after night, knowing that their chances of surviving the war were about one in two. The morality of the air effort might be questioned after the fact; the courage of the aircrew cannot.



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Clockwise from top left: Typhoon bombers prepare to take off, the Netherlands, April 1945; a Canadian aircrew boards a Wellington bomber in North Africa, October 1943; a wartime recruiting poster; fighter pilot Buzz Beurling marks his kills; Squadron Leader Kenneth Boomer in his Kittyhawk.



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Clockwise from top left: Civilians wait out an air raid in the Aldwych subway station, October 1940; a wartime recruiting poster; two Halifax bombers over a German target, April 1945; aircrew remove chocks from a Hurricane, Rockcliffe, Ont., September 1939; a novice pilot tells his comrades about his encounter with the enemy; the London Fire Brigade tackles a fire during the Blitz.



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C HAP T E R 6

THE WA R AT H OME “Gasoline rationing let doctors make house calls, but few families could take holiday drives—if their cars had tires, also very scarce.”

I

n the years leading up to war, Canada was caught in the Depression. The country that emerged from the horrors of war in 1945 was a thriving nation of full employment and great productive capacity; a nation in which Gross National Product had

doubled in only six years. The war had been a boon for the nation’s economic health. Industry had boomed. The government, using the tax revenues it squeezed from everyone and the money it borrowed—ranging from kids buying 25-cent war saving stamps to corporations purchasing Victory Bonds—created Crown corporations to produce a host of scarce materials and to build ships and aircraft. Private industry did its part, employing workers who poured into the cities, including some 300,000 women working on everything from shipbuilding to making Bren guns. The automobile factories produced 816,000 military vehicles, ranging from jeeps to tanks that supplied Canada’s armies and those of many of its allies, arguably Canada’s greatest industrial contribution to victory. The farms, mines and forests similarly were galvanized into action. Good crops garnered high prices, though farmers suffered from labour shortages as their sons and daughters enlisted or took jobs in the cities. Steel and aluminum processing plants worked overtime, even as their workers formed unions and sometimes struck for better wages. But government price and wage controls managed inflationary pressures and, although workers did far better than in the 1930s, the big wage increases had to wait on peace. Rationing made foodstuffs like meat and butter scarce, though coupons and tokens equalized quantities. Gasoline rationing let doctors make house calls but few families could take holiday drives—if their cars had tires, also very scarce. But despite it all, Canadians generally had more money (even if they could buy little) and ate better than in the previous decade. If only their sons and fathers were not fighting a war overseas.

A parade in support of war savings bonds moves through Toronto, February 1941.

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400,000 Number of Canadians unemployed in 1939.



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Still, the war made Canadians yearn for a peace without economic turmoil, and the government listened, if only, as some said, to counter the rise of the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. In 1940, it implemented unemployment insurance and, in 1945, family allowances, or the baby bonus, that put money in mothers’ hands. Huge sums were pledged for homebuilding, industrial reconstruction, public works and the reintegration of veterans. Keynesian economics was the order of the day—spend money to keep Canadians working. A few conservatives grumbled that Canada’s moral fibre had been destroyed by handouts, but ordinary Canadians liked the new direction. Internationally, King had struck defence and economic arrangements with the United States that permitted Canada to do its maximum overseas without worrying about home defence. He had supported Britain fully, but pressed Canadian nationalism forward. His diplomats played a large role in creating the United Nations and a host of international organizations, and Canada became a major contributor to international relief efforts. The cautious Canadians of the 1930s had disappeared. Naturally enough, the war dominated politics, much of the tension focusing on how men would be raised for military service. Mackenzie King had pledged there would be no conscription for overseas service, and he won the March 1940 election on this promise. But the disastrous course of the war altered everything, and in June 1940, the Liberal government put home defence conscription in force, initially for 30 days service, then for 90 days, and then for the duration. By late 1941, demands for overseas conscription were loud in the country and in the cabinet, and King called a plebiscite to ask if the government should be freed from its promises against overseas conscription. English Canada said yes, but Quebec overwhelmingly said “non.” The result produced the prime minister’s most famous utterance: “not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary.”

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CANADA’S GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT 1939 - $5.6 billion 1945 - $11.8 billion

Opposite page top: Signallers from the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service at work in St. John’s, Nfld., April 1945. Below: A war bond from 1940. This page: A storekeeper puts out a rationing sign, Montreal, 1943.



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345

Number of Canadian merchant ships launched between 1939 and 1944.

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In November 1944, with casualties heavy and infantry volunteers lacking, King finally implemented a measure of conscription, ordering 16,000 home defence conscripts overseas. Quebec shouted its outrage at broken promises, but when passions cooled, Quebecois nonetheless gave King enough seats in the June 1945 election to carry him to a narrow victory. Mackenzie King was no one’s idea of a war leader, but he dominated Canada during the period. His cabinet had strong ministers like C.D. Howe and Louis St. Laurent, and the prime minister ordinarily gave them their heads. He could be ruthless when necessary, he was prissy and cautious, but he made the decisions that created the nation’s huge war effort and kept Canada united. Compared to the chaotic political and economic conditions of the Great War, King’s political skills proved masterful in mobilizing and galvanizing Canada for war. That a stronger nation emerged was a tribute to King’s government—and to the Canadians who fought and won the war overseas.

Opposite page: Medical kits are assembled at the Central Medical Stores, Ottawa. This page: Women clean a freight locomotive in an Edmonton roundhouse, January 1943.



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Left: A wartime poster promotes saving paper. Right: A Canadian Women’s Army Corps driver tightens the front spring clip of her vehicle, England, July 1944.

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Clockwise from top left: Rear-Admiral Charles Kingsmill, director of the Naval Service of Canada, 1910; students study at the Royal Naval College of Canada, Halifax, 1914; motor launches at Quebec City await shipment to Britain, August 1916.



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Clockwise from bottom left: Air raid instructions posted in Halifax; Noorduyn Norseman aircraft are produced for the RCAF, Montreal, March 1941; army vehicles are produced by the Ford Motor Company, Windsor, Ont., March 1941; a wartime salvage poster; a woman tapes a window as an air raid precaution, Vancouver, December 1941; a woman welds a Bren gun at the John Inglis Company, Toronto, 1942.

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10.9 BILLION

$

Amount of war production in Canada by 1945.



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NORTHWEST EUROPE CAMPAIGN “Let the hearts of all in Canada…be filled with silent prayer for the success of our own and allied forces and for the early liberation of the people of Europe.”—Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, June 6, 1944.

The Normandy Campaign of 1944-45 did not mark the first time Canadian forces fought in Northwest HARLINGE Europe during the Second World War. On August 19, 1942, approximately 5,000 Canadians comprised the main assault force for a major raid on the French port of Dieppe. Certain lessons were learned below the massive cliffs that overlook the stone beaches, but the price was wholesale slaughter. Only 2,210 of those who embarked on the operation returned to England—many of them wounded. Many more were taken prisoner. Nearly two years later—on June 6, 1944—thousands of Canadians—supported by the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force—stormed ashore again, this time as part of the massive Allied Operation Overlord. Landing on Juno Beach, THE HAGUE the Canadians fought costly battles through the towns and villages of Normandy and helped UTRECHT trap the retreating Germans near Falaise. From there, they fought on through toughly defended Channel ports, through Belgium, into western Germany and on to the Netherlands where— ROTTERDAM Waal NIJ as liberators—they were greeted by thousands of Dutch who had survived the “hunger winter.” It was a war-winning campaign, but a victory paid for in blood.

AMSTERDAM

Maas

ZEEBRUGGE

ENGLAND CALAIS

DUNKIRK

BRUGES YPRES

MONS

JUNE 6, 1944

ABBEVILLE

LIÈGE

NAMUR

se

Meu

CHARLEROI

ARRAS

ST V

DIEPPE ST VALERY H UTA OMAHA D GOL UNO RD J SWO

BAYEUX

Somme

AMIENS

ST QUENTIN

LE HAVRE

CAEN

ine

DREUX ALENÇON

SEDAN REIMS

Marne

PARIS

VERDUN

ÉPERNAY

CHALONS-S-MARINE

FRANCE

VITRY

CHARTRES FONTAINEBLEAU LE MANS

ORLEANS

LU

se

ARGENTAN

SOISSONS MANTES

EVREUX

CHARLEVILLE

LAON

ROUEN Se

FALAISE

HOUFFALIZE BASTOGNE

Meu

AVRANCHES

RENNES

HASSELT

BRUSSELS

TOURNAY

D-DAY ASSAULT

ST LO

GHENT

BELGIUM LOUVAIRE

LILLE

CARENTAN

EINDHOVEN ANTWERP

OSTEND

BOULOGNE

CHERBOURG

G

Seine

TROYES

CUXHAVEN

WISMAR

LÜBECK WILHELMSHAVEN

HAMBURG

BREMERVORDE

EMDEN GRONINGEN LEEUWARDEN

EN

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DELFZIJL

OLDENBURG

LÜNEBURG

BREMEN

FRIESOYTHE SOGEL

NETHERLANDS

WITTENBERG

SOLTAU

BERLIN

MÜNSTER

HAMM

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GLADBACH

GERMANY

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ZWEIBRÜCKEN SAARBRÜCKEN

MANNHEIM

Saar

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TROOP MOVEMENT 1944-1945 NURNBERG

German Border

HEIDELBERG SPEYER

First Canadian Army

WISSEMBOURG

Mosel

NANCY

KARLSBAD

FRANKFURT MAINZ

BINGEN

KAISERLAUTEN

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CHEMNITZ

GIESSEN

WIESBADEN

UXEMBOURG

DR

ERFURT

COLOGNE

KARLSRUHE PFORZHEIM STUTTGART

Allied Troop Movement

STRASBOURG

ULM EPINAL

COLMAR

MUNICH

REGENSBURG

PILSEN

C HAP T E R 7

BLO ODY V I CTORY... THE N ORT H W EST E U ROPE C AMPAI GN “…the best little army in the world.”

T

he Allies returned to Northwest Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the 3rd Division landing on Juno Beach in Normandy. For the first and only time in history, the three Canadian armed services served together in battle.

The D-Day landings were massive, a carefully planned and co-ordinated assault to break through Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. The air forces swept the Luftwaffe away and Allied naval power completely controlled the waters of the English Channel. The infantry killed and were killed, one Regina Rifles’s officer recalling that actions sometimes seemed to have “the strange quality of a slow-motion film.” The invaders gathered their forces, pressed inland, and by the end of July were at last ready to break out of Normandy. In the battle of the Falaise Gap in August, the II Canadian Corps played the critical role, inflicting huge losses on fleeing Germans, but failing to completely seal the pocket containing tens of thousands of enemy troops. Efforts to seal the gap cost more than 5,600 Canadian casualties. Under General Harry Crerar, General Andrew McNaughton’s successor, First Canadian Army then advanced eastward, clearing the Channel ports. In October, their sights turned to the Scheldt estuary, the key to opening Antwerp, the great Belgian port on which Allied supply lines depended. The Wehrmacht had all the advantages of terrain, with easily defended polders running through flooded fields, long and narrow causeways and well-protected islands that could be assaulted only from the sea.

Canadian troops land at Arromanches, France, July 1944.

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14,500

Number of Canadians landed on Juno Beach by the end of the day, June 6, 1944.



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18,444

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Number of Canadians wounded or killed in the battle of Normandy between early June and late August 1944.

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With enormous difficulty, with huge casualties, the Canadians proved equal to the task. Regiments fought their way across canals under the cover of spewing flamethrowers; others tried to cross causeways in the face of withering fire, fell back, tried again, failed, and finally succeeded. And Walcheren Island, flooded after bombers blasted the dikes, was assaulted from the sea by British commandos and finally reduced. The way to Antwerp was clear, the first supply vessels reaching the quays by November 28. This may have been the Canadian Army’s hardest battle of the war. Certainly the losses—6,367 killed, wounded or taken prisoner—were huge, outrunning the reinforcements stream, and helping to provoke the struggles over conscription in Canada. It was during this stage of the war that the King government, under enormous pressure, ordered 16,000 infantry conscripts overseas, but most never saw action. After a pause for recuperation, on February 8, 1945, First Canadian Army launched Operation Veritable, the clearing of the Rhineland. The territory between the Maas and Rhine rivers was German, and the enemy defended his homeland with the expected ferocity. Once again, the weather was cold, the land flooded, and the Siegfried Line, the Nazi defence system, was formidable. With British, Dutch, Polish and United States forces under command, Crerar’s army was the largest force ever commanded by a Canadian and, though dreadful conditions and fierce resistance slowed the advance, the troops cleared Moyland Wood, the Reichswald Forest, and the Hochwald, taking the towns of Calcar and Xanten. The army stood on the Rhine by March 8.

Left: Chaplains aid the evacuation of wounded soldiers, Caen, July 1944. Above: Canadian engineers landing at Courseulles-sur-Mer, June 6, 1944.



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Left: Canadian reinforcements head to shore, June 1944. Right: Troops clear out a German sniper nest, Caen, July 1944.

The war in Europe was in its final phase. The Canadians crossed the Rhine, the I Canadian Corps from Italy once again part of First Canadian Army. In the first two weeks of April, the II Corps liberated the eastern Netherlands, the starving, tormented Dutch at last free, and the soldiers then moved into western Germany, attacking Wilhelmshaven and Ems. After I Canadian Corps took Arnhem in vicious fighting, the 5th Canadian Armoured Div. attacked Delfzijl, a small port town on the River Ems. With Hitler already a suicide in his Berlin bunker, the fanatical Nazis resisted to the end, and the Cape Breton Highlanders sustained 68 killed and wounded in the last days of the war. A few days earlier, on April 28, the Allied high command struck a deal with the Germans to permit food to be brought to the starving cities of the western Netherlands. Aircraft dropped food by parachute and trucks passed through enemy lines loaded with high protein foodstuffs. I Canadian Corps thus came as liberators to Holland’s great cities after the Nazi capitulation on May 5, the troops everywhere being hailed as the heroes they were. General Charles Foulkes, the commander of II Canadian Corps, took the German surrender in the Netherlands on May 5 in a hotel in Wageningen. One of his officers wrote that the Nazis “looked like men in a dream, dazed, stupefied, and unable to realize that for them their world was utterly finished.” The Second World War had cost the Canadian Army more than 17,000 killed in battle and 5,200 more off the battlefield, a terrible price to pay to crush Hitler’s plans for global conquest. In almost continuous action from July 1943 in Italy and from June 1944 in Northwest Europe, the Canadian soldiers had become what one historian called “the best little army in the world.” Their ferocity in the attack, their skill in defence, their courage and leadership were exemplary. They did Canada proud.

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11,000

Tonnage of emergency food dropped to the starving Dutch by Allied air crews between the end of April and May 8, 1945.

Clockwise from bottom left: A Canadian Sherman tank passes through Authie, France; members of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in a Wasp flamethrower carrier, July 1944; the army delivers bread, Tilburg, the Netherlands, December 1944; Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders land on Juno Beach on D-Day; food is dropped at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, May 1945; a French veteran greets Canadian vehicles, July 1944.



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14,000

Number of landmines planted by the Germans between the towns of Courseulles-sur-Mer and Bernières-sur-Mer, a distance of some three kilometres.

Opposite page, clockwise from top: British troops disembark from HMCS Prince David on D-Day; Dutch children during the winter of 1944-45; members of the Chaudiere Regiment march along a dike, Nijmegen, Netherlands, February 1945. This page: Members of 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment on D-Day.



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Clockwise from left: A soldier fuses a hand grenade, England, June 1944; the South Saskatchewan Regiment moves along a Dutch canal under machine-gun fire, April 1945; riflemen take up a position in a ruined storefront in Caen, July 1944; a piper plays aboard ship crossing to France on D-Day; troops and tanks move along a French village road.

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C HAP T E R 8

THE IMPACT OF WA R “Canadians craved peace. They re-elected Mackenzie King, they wanted their men to return home, they wanted their lives back....”

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E-Day—Victory in Europe Day—on May 8, 1945, was marked by huge celebrations across the nation—and riots in Halifax. Disgruntled sailors, soldiers and civilians, angry that bars had shut down and frustrated by living condi-

tions in the great port city, tore up the downtown, looting liquor stores, smashing windows, stealing what they could. Discipline collapsed completely, and one looter, asked why he was joining in, merely shrugged and said, “Everybody’s doing it.” The war against Japan had not yet concluded, however, and Ottawa indicated that only volunteers were wanted for the Pacific campaign. The military prepared to dispatch ships, bomber squadrons and a division of infantry, equipped on American lines, to participate in what all feared would be a bloody invasion of the Japanese home islands. The atom bombs that fell on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, however, brought Japan’s surrender in mid-August, sparing the Allies more casualties. The Second World War had ended at last, and the Canadian prisoners of war returned from Japanese camps, extremely malnourished and suffering from a multitude of diseases. Few in 1945 cared that the Japanese were suffering. But now Canadians craved peace. They re-elected Mackenzie King, they wanted their men to return home, they wanted their lives back, and they wanted jobs. There was fear that economic troubles might return, but King’s government had planned for reconstruction well, giving subsidies here and grants there. There was a brief dip in employment, a slight drop in Gross National Product, but the planning paid off. Soldiers and workers had saved money during the war and now they needed housing, appliances and furniture, all of which created jobs in factories and construction. The better off wanted to take trips to the southern United States, and everyone wanted automobiles. Very quickly, the economy began to tick over faster. So, too, did the birthrate as new families formed.

Canadian soldiers show they are anxious to come home.

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65,000

Number of beer and liquor bottles stolen during the Halifax riot.

Veterans found that government had anticipated their special needs, too. The Veterans Charter gave those who needed it medical care at the hospitals created by the new Department of Veterans Affairs. University education was free for the asking—and campuses were flooded with unusually hard-working veteran students. Those who wanted to open a business received grants; those who wanted to farm got land. Everyone received a suit of clothes and a cash grant based on length of service. Women veterans, for once, received exactly the same benefits as men. Meanwhile, the collective voice of those with military service, which began to be heard following the First World War, remained strong and many veterans joined the Legion where they could sit and enjoy a beer with other comrades. Canada, too, had changed on the world stage. The soldiers of 1914-18 had made Canada a nation within the Empire; now Canada’s battlefield and production performance made the nation a middle power, one of the very few nations anywhere to have strengthened during the war. Europe and Asia lay in ruins, and Canada became a source of relief supplies with a voice in their distribution. Canadian troops occupied Germany. At the San Francisco Conference that created the United Nations, Canadian politicians and diplomats played a major role, though Prime Minister Mackenzie King fretted about the attitudes exhibited by the Great Powers, most especially the Soviet Union. There were already hints that peace might be very fragile. In September 1945, Ottawa learned just how fragile. A cipher clerk from the Soviet Union embassy in Ottawa, Lieutenant Igor Gouzenko, spirited documents away showing that Russian spy rings operated in Canada. The Soviets wanted military information, policy documents, and detail on Canadian contributions to the development of nuclear weapons. Ottawa arrested all those it could find, “diplomats” fled the embassy and returned to Moscow, and a Royal Commission report pointed to the dangers of Soviet Communism. The Cold War was in train.

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Clockwise from top left: Debris litters the streets of Halifax following the VE-Day riot; Toronto celebrates the news; troops leave Nijmegen, the Netherlands, on their way back to Canada, May 1945.



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69,733 Number of war brides and children moved to Canada between August 1944 and December 1946.

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The armed forces, however, did not gear up for a new fight. The government recognized that Canada could not maintain a tiny force of 10,000 regulars as it had done in 1939, but neither would it create a large standing force. Budgets were slashed and equipment sold off at fire sale prices, as the peacetime military shrank to 32,600 by 1947. The world could not be the same. Those hundred thousand Canadians whose fathers, sons, husbands and brothers had been killed or wounded during the war understood this better than anyone. One of the dead might have found the cure for cancer, another might have become the greatest Canadian playwright; all could have enjoyed the fruits of the peace for which they had fought. Now this would not happen. The dead—and many of the wounded—missed the great benefits the war had brought Canada. The price of victory over hateful ideologies, the cost of freedom in the face of totalitarianism, had been very high, and the Canadians had paid it in full.

Left: Troops arrive back in Halifax with a souvenir flag, June 1945. Above: Liberated Canadian prisoners of war arrive in Manila, the Philippines, September 1945.



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This page, from top: Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes (left centre) accepts the surrender of the German forces in the Netherlands, May 5, 1945; a portrait of Adolf Hitler is smashed on VE-Day. Left: Gunners with the 12 Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, read the victory issue of The Maple Leaf, Aurich, Germany.

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Clockwise from opposite page, top left: Civilians surround a Sherman tank, Hilversum, the Netherlands, May 1945; liberated prisoners from Hong Kong on board HMCS Prince Robert; soldiers play cards at No. 1 Canadian Repatriation Depot, Thursley, England, May 1945; an extra edition of the Regina Leader-Post announces victory; a German officer ’s papers are checked during the disarmament; Toronto is ankle-deep in paper following VE-Day.



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PHOTO CREDITS Cover CAPT. JACK A. SMITH, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA166370 Masthead Page 1: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA204286; E.T. HEATHCOTE, TESTAMENTS OF HONOUR—G0383 Contents Page 2–3: CLAUDE P. DETTLOFF, VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY Timeline To Victory Page 4-5: CAPT. LAURIE A. AUDRAIN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA152440; CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19750317-022; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C022140; IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM—C5422; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116791; PO JACK HAWES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA151738; AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL—P02018-134; LIEUT. FREDERICK G. WHITCOMBE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA167912; LIEUT. FRANK L. DUBERVILL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA136280; GEORGE VANT HAAF, TESTAMENTS Of HONOUR; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA185004; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—1992-622-3; LIEUT. ALEXANDER STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA140417 Introduction: Canada And The Second World War Page 6-7: PO DONOVAN J. THORNDICK, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA131498 Page 8-9: KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA141703; EDWARD W. DINSMORE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA145577 Page 10-11: KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137460; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C086038; KRYN TACONIS, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA169941; LIEUT. FREDERICK G. WHITCOMBE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA136332; E.T. HEATHCOTE, TESTAMENTS OF HONOUR—00067 Page 12-13: KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA135956; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA037482; LIEUT. DAN GURAVICH, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137470; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116840; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114617; GILBERT ALEXANDER MILNE, LIBRARY AND CANADA—PA134326 Chapter 1: Going To War…Again Page 14-15: GAZETTE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA129610 Page 16-17: GAZETTE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137215; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116794 Page 18-19: DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA167300; LIEUT. C.E. NYE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA144598; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES Page 20-21: DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19890094-006; CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19920196-054; NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES—200906781; GAZETTE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA107910; LIEUT. C.E. NYE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA176594 Chapter 2: The Navy…First To Fight Page 22-23: LIEUT. GERALD M. MOSES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA204349 Page 24-25: LIEUT. GERALD M. MOSES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA116335; JOHN DANIEL MAHONEY, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA142439 Page 26-27: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114058; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA105430; CAPT. ALEX COLVILLE, CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19750539-008; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; J.D. MAHONEY, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116836 Page 28-29: LIEUT. GERALD M. MOSES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA153052; V.J. FLOWERS, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA104525; LIEUT. GERALD M. MOSES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA136055; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA037474; PO JACK HAWES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA166444; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA104443 Page 30-31: GEORGE ALBERT LAWRENCE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA106515; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA111512; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA115352; LIEUT. GERALD M. MOSES, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116455

Page 44-45: LIEUT. TERRY F. ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA152839; LIEUT. TERRY F. ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA141662 Page 46-47: CAPT. JACK H. SMITH, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA130217; LIEUT. TERRY F. ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA141306; LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA115031; LIEUT. TERRY F. ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA141867; LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA136198 Page 48-49: LIEUT. TERRY F. ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA152748; LIEUT. C.E. NYE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA128976; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA129762; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116842; W.H. AGNEW, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA151180 Page 50-51: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; G. BARRY GILROY, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA141698; LIEUT. BARNEY J. GLOSTER, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA173361; LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA193901; LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114482; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA168941; LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA193902 Chapter 5: War In The Air…And Bombing Germany Page 52-53: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA Page 54-55: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES Page 56-57: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; GEOFF MARLOW, TESTAMENTS OF HONOUR—M00140; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA140638; IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM Page 58-59: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL— MED2104; JOSEPH SYDNEY HALLAM, CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19770474-020; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE Page 60-61: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM; TED HARRIS, CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19930002-004; DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA063510; ALEX GRAY, TESTAMENTS OF HONOUR—G0020; IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM Chapter 6: The War At Home Page 62-63: ALEXANDRA STUDIO, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA115551 Page 64-65: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA128241; NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES—200906225; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA108300 Page 66-67: DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; NICHOLAS MORANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C079525 Page 68-69: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C087539; LIEUT. BARNEY J. GLOSTER, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA177084 Page 70-71: NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES—200906812; NATIONAL FILM BOARD, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C085214; NATIONAL FILM BOARD, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—WRM577; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C087543; NICHOLAS MORANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA112708; NATIONAL FILM BOARD, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C007481 Chapter 7: Bloody Victory…The Northwest Europe Campaign Page 74-75: HAROLD G. AIKMAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116514 Page 76-77: HAROLD G. AIKMAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA133244; KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA132655 Page 78-79: DENNIS SULLIVAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA190123; KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA132727 Page 80-81: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA190811; LIEUT. BARNEY J. GLOSTER, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114066; GILBERT ALEXANDER MILNE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA122765; KRYN TACONIS, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA164611; LIEUT. G.A. COOPER, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA131386 Page 82-83: PO DONOVAN J. THORNDICK, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA190830; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; COLIN CAMPBELL McDOUGALL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA145767; KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137523 Page 84-85: LIEUT. FRANK L. DUBERVILL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA191017; DANIEL GURAVICH, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137469; HAROLD G. AIKMAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA115028; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA163778; LIEUT. FRANK L. DUBERVILL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA131436

Chapter 3: Building An Army…In Wartime Pages 32-33: HAROLD G. AIKMAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA114367 Pages 34-35: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C014160; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116298 Page 36-37: DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; HAROLD G. AIKMAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA108174; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; HAROLD G. AIKMAN, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116510; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C089744 Page 38-39: DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE; KEN BELL, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137462; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA140873; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA190851; RUSSEL A.J. TABER, CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19780473-018; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA132192

Chapter 8: The Impact Of War Page 86-87: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES Page 88-89: ROBERT ARTHUR BUSH, CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—20080094-483; RONNY JAQUES, NATIONAL FILM BOARD, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114626; CAPT. J. ERNEST DeGUIRE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA144869 Page 90-91: PAUL TAILLEFER, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA112367; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA137745 Page 92-93: LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA138588; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; LIEUT. DONALD I. GRANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA150931 Page 94-95: LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA108066; LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; LIEUT. ARTHUR L. COLE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA154976; SASKATCHEWAN ARCHIVES BOARD—S78-114; LIEUT. ALEXANDER M. STIRTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA129748; RONNY JAQUES, NATIONAL FILM BOARD, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114627

Chapter 4: Into Sicily And Italy Page 42-43: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA173437

Credits Page 96: ALEX GRAY, TESTAMENTS Of HONOUR

French citizens fill the streets of Lille following the liberation of France.