3.5.5 The Second World War

Adolf Hitler ruled Germany as its National Socialist (Nazi) dictator. In 1939 he sent his army into Poland, which started the Second World War, and he went on to take over much of Europe. Canada stood with its democratic allies and took up arms to defeat tyranny. More than a million people from Canada and Newfoundland put on a uniform; Newfoundland was still a separate British entity in those years. With a population of only 11.5 million, that share was very high. Among those who served, 44,000 lost their lives.

Courage did not spare Canadians heavy losses in the early years. Hong Kong could not be held in 1941 against an attack by Imperial Japan. A raid in 1942 on Dieppe, a town on the Nazi-controlled coast of France, also failed. In the air things went better. The Royal Canadian Air Force flew in the Battle of Britain. Canadians also made up a large share of the Commonwealth aircrew who flew bombers and fighters over Europe. No other Commonwealth country did as much for the Allied air effort. Canada trained over 130,000 Allied air crew under a scheme named the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the finest hour of the Royal Canadian Navy. Convoys of merchant ships crossed the sea, and Canadian warships guarded them against German submarines. Food, clothing and supplies reached Britain because Canada's Merchant Navy kept sailing. That work lasted for years, across a dangerous ocean. When the Second World War ended, Canada's navy was the third largest in the world.