Normandy 1944, Canada Remembers
The Long Wait Begins
« "Ready, Aye Ready" Again « Return to Index » Baptism of Fire - Dieppe »The Canadian Government decided to wage a war of "limited liability" befitting its status as a junior partner on the Allied side. The Dominion intended to provide economic assistance in the form of foodstuffs, raw materials, and industrial production. In addition, Canada would act as the aerodrome of democracy by putting the country's vast open spaces to use as a training ground for pilots under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
In this way Ottawa hoped to avert a repetition of the horrible casualties inflicted during the Great War and another crisis over conscription like that in 1917 which had torn the country apart. With their sizable armed forces, Britain and France would furnish the bulk of the soldiers for the impending land battles, although Canada did send the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to Britain in December 1939. If nothing else, Canada needed time to rebuild its fighting forces.
This policy of limited involvement was quickly abandoned following Germany's lightning conquest of Western Europe in the spring and summer of 1940. In just two months, Norway, Denmark, and the Low Countries were overrun, and France was defeated. Thousands of British and French troops narrowly evaded capture thanks to a motley flotilla of naval vessels and pleasure craft that succeeded in evacuating them to England from the port of Dunkirk. They lived to fight another day, but most of their armour, vehicles, and artillery were left behind.
As a result, the best equipped force facing Hitler's triumphant legions was the 1st Canadian Infantry Division then training in Britain. In fact, following the surrender of France in June 1940, Canada, its forces composed entirely of volunteers, was Britain's ranking ally. This situation would not change until the Soviet Union entered the conflict a full year later following Hitler's attack on the USSR. The great Allied coalition was complete after the surprise Japanese raid on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, and Germany's declaration of war against the United States a few days later.
In the meantime, Britain, and the Commonwealth were all that stood
between Nazi Germany and total victory. A small number of Canadians
were among the intrepid group of pilots who, in their Spitfires
and Hurricanes, held off the Luftwaffe in the Battle of
Britain during the summer and autumn of 1940, thereby thwarting
Hitler's plans to invade the British Isles. Soon after, Canadian
bomber crews began the nightly ritual of braving enemy anti-aircraft
fire and increasingly skilled night fighters to bomb German industrial
sites. Meanwhile, Canadian sailors escorted the merchant navy
convoys that kept open the supply line to Britain across the
North Atlantic.
The status of the Canadian Army was radically different. Well into 1942 its role in the war was largely passive. To that point, the only major action experienced by Canadian soldiers had been the heroic but futile defence of Hong Kong. The defence included a brigade headquarters and two infantry battalions against a superior Japanese force in December 1941. In this gruesome engagement, and afterward in the prisoner of war camps, the Canadian contingent of nearly 2,000 suffered 40 percent casualties. More than 550 never returned home.
Viewed by its commander as "a dagger pointed at the heart of Berlin," the Canadian Army in Britain had, for three long years, endured an endless regimen of training, garrison duty, and coastal defence. The soldiers waited anxiously and impatiently to make some meaningful contribution to the war effort. Their inactivity was about to come to an abrupt and tragic end.
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