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From Canadian History Portal - HCO

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A. Canadians and World War II - 1939-1945 →→ 1. Canada Goes to War → 2. Early Disasters → 3. The Home Front and War Production → 4. The Road to Victory →→ B. Canada Comes of Age - 1945-1963

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Italy and Sicily

In early 1943, public pressure for Canadian troops to begin fighting forced the government to break up the First Canadian Army, who were sitting idle in Britain, awaiting the invasion of north-eastern Europe.

Their first sustained land action for Canadian troops came on July 10, 1943, when the 1st Canadian Division and the 1st Canadian Tank Brigade took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily in Operation Husky. Two months later, they joined the invasion of the Italian mainland on September 3, 1943. Although Italy soon surrendered, the occupying Germans fought for every metre of the mountainous terrain. Casualties were heavy on both sides. In December, Canadian troops captured the Adriatic port of Ortona following a ferocious house-to-house battle.

The Battle of Ortona

Everything before Ortona was a nursery tale.
- A Canadian Divisional commander

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• View Canadian Army Newsreel on the Battle of Ortona

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On December 21, 1943, the 2nd Canadian Infantry brigade began to fight a vicious seven-day battle to drive crack German paratroops from the old medieval seaport of Ortona, on Italy's Adriatic coast.

The 25,000 men of the First Canadian Infantry Division - called "The Red Patch" from their divisional badge - had their first taste of Italian combat six months earlier, as they came ashore in Sicily in August. In early September, they crossed the Straits of Messina and moved up the eastern toe and boot of Italy. They rested for a month around the town of Campobasso, then resumed moving north in late November. A short way up the coast from them was Ortona, a quiet port of about 10,000 inhabitants, which before the war had been a popular seaside vacation spot for Italians. Now it was a key command centre for the German Army and very heavily defended.

British Eighth Army General Bernard Montgomery wanted "A Colossal Crack" against the German 10th army lines along the Adriatic. He believed that the Germans would retreat north of Ortona, in an area where the terrain provided good natural defence positions; and that the coastal city would therefore be an easy prey. Things did not turn out that way, for the Germans were determined to hold a winter line at Ortona.

In early December, the Canadians under Major-General Chris Vokes met some of the best units of Kesselring's Wehrmacht at the Moro River, just outside Ortona. The Germans were holding ideal defensive positions above the ravines and gullies of the valley, and it took two weeks of bloody fighting to clear them away. On December 6, three Canadian regiments crossed the Moro under cover of darkness. When the Princess Patricias scaled the north bank and seized the hamlet of Villa Rogatti, the Germans counterattacked, but the Pats and the 44th Royal Tank Regiment held them off.

The Germans then fortified a gully 2 km further on. It was impossible to take head on, but a small group of Seaforth Highlanders found a vulnerable spot at Casa Berardi. On December 14th the Royal 22nd Regiment (the Van Doos) advanced, but soon came under heavy counter-attack. Captain Paul Triquet, a 33-year-old native of Cabano, Quebec, organized a brilliant defence with just 15 men and four tanks. His heroism and leadership earned him the Victoria Cross.

The Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders of Vancouver were now free to swing northwards to the main objective, Ortona, supported by the tanks of the Régiment de Trois-Rivières.

The Canadian commanders divided Ortona into sectors and assigned each fighting battalion a sector to clear of enemies. In a move to reduce pressure on the Canadians in Ortona, 1 Canadian Infantry Brigade moved into position northwest of Ortona to cut of key German supply routes.

On December 20, the 2 Canadian Infantry Brigade forced through German defences to take up positions on the outskirts of Ortona. The advance was made possible with the support of 1 Canadian Armour Brigade and a heavy artillery barrage covering the advancing Canadians’ flanks with a smoke screen.

At dawn on the 21st, the Loyal Edmonton Regiment (“Loyal Eddies”) and the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada began fighting their way into the town from the southwest, while the 48th Highlanders of Toronto moved around the west flank to cover a German retreat. By nightfall, the Edmontons had got as far as the Piazza Vittoria at the entrance of the town and the Seaforths had cleared the Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli after a stubborn fight.

The next morning as the Canadians pressed into the “old Town” they found most of the streets heavily blockaded. The exception was the Corso Vittoria Emanuelle leading to the Piazza Municipale, the heart of the city. It was the only street that tanks could use, and it was heavily booby-trapped by several batallions of Germany's elite First Parachute Regiment. The Germans were dug in, waiting for the Canadian advance into the Piazza Municipal, which they hoped would become a “killing ground."

The Canadians wisely chose to clear the flanks first, using the Edmonton’s “A” company on the left and the “D” company on the right. The Germans had blocked the narrow side streets with barricades and rubble, and planted mines, time bombs, and other booby-traps throughout the abandoned houses. They concealed machine gun positions and antitank artillery behind walls and among the ruins, so the Canadians were forced to clear their way house-to-house before moving forward. At the end of the day the Eddies were just short of the Piazza.

Canadian gunners used their short-ranged 6-pounder guns to take down walls or roofs where paratroopers might be hiding. When shells could not pierce the thick stone walls, they aimed for the windows instead.

Using a battle tactic they invented while fighting in Ortona known as Mouse Holing, the Canadian infantrymen pierced the upstairs walls between adjoining buildings with pickaxes and explosives so they could advance through buildings, and not up the open streets. But one building was booby-trapped, and in the single most deadly incident of the battle, the Germans blew up a building packed with Loyal Eddies.

On the 23rd the Edmontons continued towards the Via Tripoli. A troop of tanks of the Régiment de Trois-Rivières moved slowly up the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, dispensing ammunition, evacuating the wounded and firing to cover the square by the church of San Tammaso. On the right the Corso Umberto I was secured. During the day, some of the weakened and exhausted Edmontons (down to three companies of 60 men each) were gradually relieved by Seaforths.

On the 24th, two lines of attack were attempted. The Seaforths on the left were to try and force their way up Via Tripoli and outflank the main defense. The Edmontons on the right would push along the Corso Umberto I to the Castle.

Christmas in Ortona

The fighting raged for four brutal days, with the Eddies and the Seaforths suffering heavy casualties as they fought house to house and even room to room. They were helped by a draft of 75 men from the Cape Breton Highlanders, and on Christmas day, small groups of the Seaforth Highlanders and Loyal Edmonton soldiers were treated to a real Christmas dinner of roast pork and plum pudding a few blocks from the fighting in the Church of Santa Maria di Constandinopoli. According to the Seaforth War Diary,

"The setting for the dinner was complete, long rows of tables with white tablecloths, and a bottle of beer per man, candies, cigarettes, nuts, oranges and apples and chocolate bars providing the extras. The C.O., Lt.-Col. S. W. Thomson, laid on that the Companies would eat in relays... as each company finished their dinner, they would go forward and relieve the next company... The menu... soup, pork with apple sauce, cauliflower, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, Christmas pudding and mince pie... From 1100 hours to 1900 hours, when the last man of the battalion reluctantly left the table to return to the grim realities of the day, there was an atmosphere of cheer and good fellowship in the church. A true Christmas spirit. The impossible had happened. No one had looked for a celebration this day. December 25th was to be another day of hardship, discomfort, fear and danger, another day of war. The expression on the faces of the dirty bearded men as they entered the building was a reward that those responsible are never likely to forget… During the dinner the Signal Officer... played the church organ and with the aid of the improvised choir, organized by the padre, carols rang out throughout the church."

Several soldiers were killed trying to get to the Church, and some commanders ordered their men to hold their positions rather than risk getting killed over trying to make it to Christmas Dinner.

The remaining Italian civilians in the town, mostly elderly people and children, were terrified. As British journalist Christopher Buckley wrote in Road to Rome (1945),

"What a strange clutter of humanity it was. There were some five or six Canadian soldiers, there were old women and there were children innumerable. A painter of genius-Goya, perhaps-might have done justice to the scene. I felt no verbal description could do so. In the half-darkened room the pasta for the midday meal was simmering over the fire in the corner. Haggard, prematurely aged women kept emerging shyly one after another from some inner chamber where an old man, the grandfather of the numerous children, was dying... Another old man was uttering maledictions against Mussolini. Then his wife surprisingly produced a jeroboam of Marsala and half a dozen glasses and moved around among the soldiers, filling and re-filling their glasses. The children clambered around the Canadian soldiers and clutched at them convulsively every time one of our anti-tank guns, located only half a dozen paces from the door of the house, fired down the street in the direction of one of the remaining German machine-gun posts. Soon each one of us had a squirming, terrified child in his arms. And the old lady went on distributing Marsala."

By December 26, 2/3 of the battered town was under Canadian control, and the following day, the German forces begin their withdrawal from Ortona, as the Princess Patricias and a support squadron from the Régiment de Trois-Rivières joined the battle. A subsidiary attack had been launched to the northwest and on December 28th, the Germans, in danger of being cut off, abandoned the city to the Canadians.

The victory at Ortona - later called "Canada's Stalingrad" - was a costly one: the Loyal Edmonton Regiment had 172 casualties, including 63 killed; the Seaforth Highlanders 103, including 41 killed. Taking into account losses by support units, the total number of Allied casualties reached 650 officers and men of all ranks.

During the Adriatic campaign as a whole, 1,375 Canadian soldiers lost their lives, along with 169 Britons, 4 Australians, 42 New Zealanders, 16 South Africans, 5 Indians, and 2 unidentified others.

Canadian casualties for the month of December 1943 near 2400 men, effectively taking the 1st Canadian Division out of the war for a short period in order to rest its wounds.

Breaking the Hitler Line

In early 1944, Canada reinforced its commitment in Italy and organized its forces there into I Canadian Corps. In May, the Canadians broke the ‘Hitler Line’ defences south of Rome and later that summer pierced the heavily-defended ‘Gothic Line’ fortifications further north. In February 1945, I Canadian Corps transferred to North-West Europe in February-March of 1945 during Operation Goldflake. During these two years, the the Canadian contribution to the Italian theatre grew to include I Canadian Corps headquarters, the 1st Division, 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division and an independent armoured brigade.

More than 92,000 Canadians served in Italy at a cost of 26,000 casualties, including more than 5300 dead.

Three Victoria Crosses were awarded to Canadian Army troops serving 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 Royal Westminster Regiment (Motor).

Canadians In Burma

On December 7, 1941, seventy minutes before they dropped their bombs on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese landed 26,000 troops on the eastern shore of the Kra Isthmus that joins Malaya and Siam (Thailand).

Half of the invaders went south to take Singapore, half went north to occupy Siam. Within a week another column, guided by the Burmese Liberation Army, pushed westward into Burma.

Imperial Japan needed the oil, rubber, rice, tungsten and teak of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Malaya and Burma. But Japan also intended to close the only remaining supply route that connected China to the rest of the world - the Burma Road.

Each month 15,000 tons of American war material was flowing up the Burma Road into China. For Japan it was absolutely essential that this flow be stopped.

Some 7 to 8 thousand Canadians would fight in Burma against the Japanese and five hundred Canadians died there. Most were with Nos. 435 and 436 Squadrons, RCAF, flying their Dakota transport aircraft on supply-dropping missions for the British army. Many other Canadian aircrew also served with RAF squadrons in Burma as well.

British General Slim's defences in Burma consisted of a few obsolete aircraft and two regiments of untrained Indian and British troops carrying World War I weapons but with almost no ammunition. The Japanese easily slipped around them and attacked from the rear, taking Rangoon in March 1942, and all of Burma by May, while the last of Slim's 1st Burma Corps limped west into India. As US General Vinegar Joe Stilwell put it, "We took a helluva licking, and it’s as humiliating as hell."

The Japanese occupation of Burma cut the Burma Road from Mandalay in north central Burma to China; the Americans had been using that route to supply Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces, engaged in their own war against Japan. Now supplies had to be ferried by air "over the hump".

Slim regrouped his army, and in 1943 tried to retake the Arakan, but failed to make any progress. Colonel Orde Wingate led a morale-boosting raid of 3000 guerillas, called Chindits, into Japanese territory, cutting supplies lines, blowing up bridges, and ambushing patrols.

In March 1944, the Japanese tried to invade India from Burma, through the hill tea plantations of Assam, but the tide was turning against them with increased Allied control of the air war. Slim's second Arakan offensive was supplied by air, and routed the Japanese defenders. Wingate's new Chindit expedition, ten times the size of the first, was delivered by gliders and supplied from the air. British-led Indian Army troops stood firm against the Japanese at Kohima and Imphal for more than eighty days, until the monsoon rains started. During the fighting, one third of the Japanese force of nearly 85,000 died of disease, the greatest defeat of the Japanese army to that point of the war. The Gurkhas then turned to pursuing the Japanese without mercy - over 300,000 Japanese soldiers were sent to Burma; only 116,000 ever returned.

Toward the end of 1944, the British Fourteenth Army started the offensive which led to the recapture of Rangoon on May 1, 1945. On August 6, 1945 Lord Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander in South East Asia, declared the Burma Campaign was over.

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The Battle of Normandy

I can’t describe our order of battle...I can’t describe our fire power...nor how we fooled the Germans...I can only describe some of what I saw...We went where our fathers and brothers went 25 years ago...There was an enormous Armada - in broad daylight - but nothing happened...Not a sound at first - then it started. H-Hour: a sudden, fighting hour. The moment for the assault troops to go ashore...At first, the Germans were stunned...We expected big guns, with a range of many miles...We expected the sky to be an inferno. We thought the submarines would be there. But there were none. Was the German Air Force destroyed? Where were the secret devices?

Matthew Halton, reporting for CBC

Operation Overlord

Allied commanders originally planned Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-occupied Europe, to take place on May 1, 1944, but they postponed the operation a month to allow time to gather more troops and equipment. The timing was important to allow for the right weather, a full moon, and tidal conditions.

They also went forward with Operation Fortitude, a deception plan which led the Germans to believe the main target was the Pas de Calais, much farther east. It also let them monitor how the German responded using knowledge from the cracking of the German Enigma code machine.

The planning worked, and so did secrecy - until the very last minute, the place of invasion - Normandy - was the most heavily guarded secret on the planet. Even the units conducting the initial assaults did not know the locations of their landings.

Surprise was crucial since Germany had 58 divisions in France - the Allies could transport no more than 8 divisions on D-Day morning. When the landings finally began, Germany had only 14 of its 58 divisions facing the Allies.

The invasion of Normandy was the largest amphibious assault ever launched. It involved five army divisions in the initial assault. In total, 4,000 ships and several thousand smaller craft delivered 75,215 British and Canadian troops and 57,500 US troops to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. In addition, over 11,000 aircraft dropped a further 23,400 soldiers by air.

It is estimated that nearly 2 million soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved in Operation Overlord, including U.S., British, and Canadians who were scheduled to fight after men on the ground secured a Normandy bridgehead.

The Normandy campaign ended in August, 1944, with the destruction of the German 7th Army in the Falaise pocket.

Normandy Newsreels

Liberation D-Day, Canadian Army Newsreel British and Canadian D-Day Landings in Normandy

Canadian Army Newsreel: Caen German Propaganda FIlm on the Normandy Invasion

D-Day Summary

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

SIGNED: Dwight D. Eisenhower

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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.

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Normandy Timeline

June 5, 1944 - D-DAY-1

Soldiers of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, part of the British 6th Airborne Division's 3rd brigade, made an advance overnight landing before D-Day; "C" company landed in the most easterly drop-zone near Varville, blew up a bridge across the Divette River, destroyed a German strong-point and then moved back four miles to the village of le Mesnil.

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June 6, 1944 - D-DAY - Normandy Beachhead

Operation Overlord's 60-mile front opens a new campaign in western Europe as about 14,000 Canadian soldiers join in the landing on Juno beach between Courseulles and St-Aubin-sur-Mer. RCN minesweepers help clear the lanes in, and RCAF bombers and fighters help soften up the German defenses. The main task of the Canadian Army is to push through the gap between Bayeux and Caen. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion red berets are part of the advance landing during the night, capturing a bridge near Caen with the British. At about 7:40 am, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and 2nd and 3rd Armoured, under Major-General R. F. L. Keller, start landing in rough seas.

The 8th Brigade capture Bernières-sur-Mer [in the picture] by 9:30 am but mines and German anti-tank guns hold up the advance inland, creating a traffic jam in the village streets; they take Bény by evening. The 7th Brigade captures Courseulles, Ste-Croix and Banville, with heavy losses. The 9th Brigade make it through Bény to Villons-les-Buissons, less than four miles from Caen, and nearly at their goal - Carpiquet airport. Canadian troops push further than other allied units. Canadian casualties that day are less than expected - 715 wounded, 359 dead.

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June 7, 1944 - D-DAY+1 - Normandy Beachhead

The 3rd Canadian Division, 9th Canadian Brigade, North Novas with the Sherbrooke tanks for support, and some Cameron Highlander machine-gunners, push through Buron and Authie toward Capriquet airport, 3 miles west of Caen; lose naval gunfire support, pass out of range of Canadian artillery, and lose contact with a British brigade ordered elsewhere; Lt Col Petch decides to withdraw to higher ground, but C company attacked by the German 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division at Authie, just North of Caen-Bayeux road; 250 North Nova Scotia Highlanders and 60 Sherbrooke Fusilier tankmen are killed or captured; 23 Canadian POWs are executed that night by the Panzers.

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June 8, 1944 - D-DAY+2 - Caen France

The Canadians move inland from Juno beach; Rommel orders Kurt Meyer's 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Grenadiers to attack the Canadian 7th Brigade at Putot-en-Basin (8 kms west of Caen). They cross the railway and outflank the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, destroying the three forward companies; the rest are beaten back, leaving their wounded behind; the Canadian Scottish, Canscots and 1st Hussars then use an artillery barrage from the 12th and 13th field regiments to retake Putot, but Meyer counter-attacks with 22 Panther tanks; the Regina Rifles fight a night-long battle, and hold. During these fights, the SS murder several Canadian POWs, including six Winnipeg Rifles, and a Red Cross stretcher-bearer, who are ordered into a wood and shot in the temple; 13 more Canadians are executed within 100 yards of the Command post; the bodies of 7 more are found near-by, all shot in the head with small arms; finally, 40 Winnipegs and Cameron Highlanders are marched into a field, ordered to sit together with the wounded at their centre, and machine gunned; 5 escape.

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June 9, 1944 - D-DAY+3 - Norrey France

Kurt Meyer withdraws his defeated 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Grenadiers to Rots, then throws his last fresh Panther tank company in broad daylight against the Regina Rifles position at Norrey; but the Sherman Firefly tanks of the 1st Hussars drive him back, killing 8 tanks with their 17-pounders. Later in the day, the Queens Own Rifles and 1st Hussars capture the village of Le Mesnil-Patry, seven miles forward of Norrey; attacked by 88s, they lose 19 of the Hussar Shermans in fifteen minutes; the Queen's Own Rifles have 87 casualties, the 1st Hussars 60. Later in the day, the SS executes 18 more Canadian POWs at Abbey d'Ardenne, Kurt Meyer's HQ, on his orders.

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June 11, 1944 - D-DAY+5 - Le-Mesnil-Patry France

The 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) and Queens Own try to outflank Carpiquet by moving from Norrey-en-Bessin through Le-Mesnil-Patry towards Cheux, but they meet heavy mortar, machine-gun and 88mm anti-tank gun fire from the 12th Panzer SS, slowing the Sherman tanks; only 2 that enter the town survive; 59 men are killed, 21 wounded; the Queen's Own also loses 55 killed and 44 wounded; in the 6 days of June 6-11, 1017 Canadians are killed in action and 1814 more are wounded.

June 12, 1944 - D-DAY+6 - France

The Canadian 3rd Division is withdrawn from battle for three weeks, until July 4, after mauling in Normandy.

July 23, 1944 - Canadian forces fight as a separate army.

On August 24, the Battle of Normandy ended. It cost the Canadian Army 18,444 casualties including over 5,021 dead. The 3rd Canadian Army Division also suffered greater losses than any other division within the 21st army Group. The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division suffered the next highest, even though it did not arrive in France until July 7, 1944. Canadian battle casualties slightly exceeded 3,000 in June, 5,500 in July, and 7,400 for the period 1-23 August.

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Liberation of the Netherlands

ne 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 starting October 1, 1944, the Canadians succeeded in defeating the Germans in this region by November 8. 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 had moved to Ottawa until The Netherlands were liberated. Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born during this Canadian exile, in a room in Ottawa's Civic Hospital temporarily declared Dutch territory.

The First Canadian Army was responsible for liberating much of The Netherlands from German occupation, and the Dutch people have fond memories of regaining their freedom at the hands of Canadian troops. Each year the Netherlands sends a shipment of tulip bulbs to Ottawa to commemorate this event.

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The Battle of the Scheldt

This long, hard campaign started in mid-September, 1944 when the First Canadian Army were ordered to help clear the heavily fortified Scheldt estuary and open the port of Antwerp. Led by General H.D.G. Crerar and lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, the Canadians finally completed their task on November 8th.

The campaign to free up Antwerp cost the Allies 703 officers and 12,170 other ranks killed, wounded or lost in action, presumed dead. Over half of these casualties were Canadians. But the capture of Antwerp and its port was vital for the Allies as they drove on into Holland.

Most Canadians who died in the Battle of the Scheldt campaign are burried in Bergen op Zoom Canadian War Cemetery.

On November 9, 1944, the 2nd Canadian Corps occupied the Nijmegen salient bridgehead in Holland and turned it into a winter base. Then on February 8, 1945, following a huge barrage, Allied units began their winter assault - the Rhineland Offensive called Operation Veritable.

Canadian casualties in this operation totalled 5,304. Most of the dead are buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, and the Groesbeek Memorial commemorates by name those missing in the last days of fighting in The Netherlands and Germany.

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On March 20, 1945, Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery sent the First Canadian Army west and north into Holland to liberate the Dutch people. The 1st Canadian Corps, which had been in Italy since 1943, now rejoined their comrades and the entire Canadian Army overseas (except the 1st Parachute Battalion) was now under General Crerar's direct command. The 1st Canadian Corps was given the task of reducing the enemy in western Holland north of the Maas River and the 2nd Corps the cleaning up northeastern Holland.

Canadian casualties in this phase of the liberation numbered 5,515. Most of those who died are buried in Holten Canadian War Cemetery.

On April 22, 1945, the Canadian Army diverted some front operations in western Holland due to the need to feed the starving Dutch people, their fields flooded and their barns looted by the retreating Germans.

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Victory in Holland

On May 4, 1945, fighting stopped in the Canadian sector near Wilhelmshaven, Aurich, and Emden; German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender to Canadian commanders at Wageningen.

On May 5, 1945, Canadian Lt.-Gen. Charles Foulkes of the First Canadian Corps summoned German Col.-Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz to the Hotel de Wereld ("the World Hotel") in Wageningen to discuss the surrender of German forces in the Netherlands.

His Royal Highness Prince Bernhard, acting as commander in chief of the Dutch Interior Forces, attended the meeting as well.

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Blaskowitz agreed with all of the proposals made by Foulkes, and at 4:00 p.m. formally surrendered the remaining 117,000 German troops in the Netherlands, ending nearly eight months of bitter and difficult fighting. However, nowhere in the building - some sources claim: nowhere in the whole town - could a typewriter be found. Thus the surrender document could not be typed. The next day both parties returned, and in the presence of both General Foulkes and Prince Bernhard, Blaskowitz signed the surrender document which in the mean time had been typed.

To Slow Canadian Advance, the German Army Broke open the Dykes, Flooding Much of Holland

Canadians escort German prisoners out of Holland

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Canadian Army Newsreel: The Scheldt

Canadian Army Newsreel: Liberation of the Netherlands

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Canada in the Pacific

Other Canadian involvement in the Pacific occurred in 1944, when Canada sent some 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 Battle of the Aleutian Islands in 1943. The invasion on August 7, 1943 also included the Canadian-American First Special Service Force. The objective was to reclaim the islands of Kiska and Attu from the Japanese.

The force saw no combat there as the Japanese had withdrawn on July 28, 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 September 2, 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 Kyushu, Operation Olympic, was cancelled after Japan's surrender following the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) and the Soviet declaration of war on Japan.

NOTE: The A-bombs dropped by the US Air Force were made of uranium mined at Great Bear Lake, NWT, and refined in Port Hope, Ontario.

War's End

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 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, and parts of Germany. In Germany, Canadian troops liberated several concentration camps, and came face to face with the horror of the Holocaust, the Nazi attempt to exploit and murder the Jewish people of Europe. Six million Jews died in the Nazi death camps. The few survivors were found in a sick and starving state, and immediately put in the care of the Red Cross and other relief organizations. Many made their way to Canada after war's end.

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. 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.

The Halifax V-E Day Riot

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"Had the Germans been able to break into this area at any time during the war, they could not have done a more thorough job of looting and destruction. It was anarchy."

Halifax Mail, May 9, 1945

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VE-Day festivities began on Monday morning, May 7, when radio stations broadcast the news of Germany's surrender. Across Canada, spontaneous partying broke out. Young people serving as soldiers, sailors, air crew and merchant mariners celebrated their release from the dangerous and sometimes tedious profession of war, and that day, many of them had too much to drink.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, was no exception. The Victory news broke about 10:30 a.m. Across the city and over in Dartmouth, people dropped what they were doing, stopped working, and ran into the streets to celebrate. But there was nothing much to do, and not much to drink. The authorities had made the mistake of ordering liquor stores closed, and there were no bars and taverns to visit.

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Native Haligonians also had reason to celebrate. Halifax had boomed during World War II, and business was good. The population of the port city almost doubled, from about 70,000 to 130,000 people. But the city was hopelessly overcrowded with 25,000 military personnel, and food and shelter were scarce. Sailors on leave were not always well behaved, and tensions had built up with the military.

After six years of war, there was plenty to gripe about. Halifax people generally got along well with the officer class, but were bitter about drunken sailors smashing windows and accosting their daughters on pay day. Servicemen criticized the city for having archaic liquor laws, and poor recreation facilities, hotels, restaurants and shopping. They resented landlords who gouged them with usurious rents, and storekeepers and restaurant owners who made them pay more than civilians. Even Admiral Leonard Murray was heard to say that Halifax bootleggers were charging his sailors too much for their liquor. In the lower ranks, it was whispered that some sailors had threatened to "take Halifax apart" when the war was over.

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Business people had heard the rumours, and cautiously closed movie houses and restaurants for fear of damage by celebrating sailors. Halifax Police Chief Judson Conrod and his constables prepared for a night of heavy duty.

The Navy's wet canteens opened at noon and, at HMCS Stadacona, 2,000 sailors started into their beer, and the Navy announced that there would be no charges laid that day for drunkenness. At 9 p.m. the wet canteens closed, and over 9,000 seamen and hundreds of Wrens poured into the streets, joining the partying civilians and other servicemen. Army and air force personnel had to return to barracks before midnight. But the off-duty sailors were free until 7 o'clock the next morning, in the time-honored naval tradition of the "open gangway."

So the streets of Halifax were packed with servicemen on leave who wanted to celebrate, with nothing to do but drink up the bottles of rye saved up for the day, and buy more from the bootleggers, who made a killing while their stocks lasted.

The First Night of Rioting

Shortly after 9, a group of sailors stopped a streetcar on Barrington Street and smashed the tram's windows. The RCN shore patrol quickly arrived and dispersed the rowdies, but matters soon got out of hand when the mob grew to over 5,000 people. Many were just there for the fun, but some sailors and civilians started ripping down Victory Loan flags at City Hall, and by 10 p.m. they were hijacking streetcars, crashing them into each other, and lighting the seats on fire. When the Halifax Police paddy wagon arrived, the rioters burned it as well, and cut the hoses the fire department were attaching to the hydrants.

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Around midnight, the rioters started looting the liquor stores on Sackville, Hollis and Buckingham streets. They smashed the plate glass windows and grabbed as much as they could carry before the Police arrived and boarded up the broken windows and doors. At about 2 a.m., the riot petered out, as the shore patrol dragged any sailors it could find back to barracks. In some parts of the downtown, the sound of breaking glass and drunken shouting went on until dawn.

Day Two

The next day, Tuesday, was official VE-Day, and many sailors were still drunk from the night before. When the wet canteen at HMCS Stadacona ran out of beer at 1 p.m., sailors smashed beer bottles inside the canteen. After they were thrown out, they smashed the canteen's windows with rocks. Then 2,000 of them spilled out into Barrington Street and started rioting again. Some hijacked a streetcar, ordered the driver and passengers out, and set off downtown, with the rest following on foot, smashing house windows as they went south on Barrington.

The shore patrol tried to stop the mob at Gerrish streets, but failed. Then a sailor, shouted: "On to Keith's brewery!', and 1,000 rioters turned toward Salter Street. They burst the gates and soon were passing out thousands of bottles, rolling out kegs and loading cases into stolen trucks. Soon 150 army and city police arrived and blocked the Water street entrance with a six-ton army truck. But the mob, now grown to over 5,000, easily pushed aside the truck and the police and started looting again.

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Meanwhile at the VE-Day religious service at the Garrison Grounds, Mayor Allan Butler begged Admiral Murray and the Army for help. Murray decided to march a parade of servicemen downtown to divert the rioters and provide a show of discipline. As they paraded along Barrington Street, the marchers were pushed and taunted. Almost half of them joined the rioters.

The authorities were powerless to stop the binge, and that afternoon looters again sacked liquor stores. Joined by civilians, they looted and burned downtown restaurants. Then they turned to the stores and shops, ransacking Birks jewellers, Eaton's, Kay's, and the Barnstead and Buckley drug stores. They torched Fader's Pharmacy, People's Credit Jewellers, D'Allaird's and a gas station. At Wallace Brothers, a sailor handed out free shoes. Seamen slid down the cobblestone streets on department store mannequins. A drunken Wren walked around dressed only in a Union Jack.

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Mayor Butler wanted to read the Riot Act, but his staff wasn't sure if he had jurisdiction. Plus he and Admiral Murray feared shooting deaths if Army troops were ordered to arrest drunken Navy sailors. Finally, they decided to set an 8:00 p.m. curfew. They took a car and drove around downtown, with Murray shouting through a loudspeaker to his sailors: "Go to your billets, your ships, your quarters and your homes. This applies to both civilians and service personnel. This is an order. It is not a joke!"

On his orders, the Navy shore patrol started sweeping their personnel from the streets, and they dispatched nine trucks to haul more than 1,000 unconscious sailors back to barracks.

At 10:00 p.m., the Army sent a battalion from Debert through the streets, and finally, at about 12:00 midnight it started to rain, and the Halifax VE-Day rioting petered out. There was little left to loot, and very few unbroken windows left downtown.

On May 8, the military authorities set up a special court in the Halifax Armories, and indicted 363 people for drunkenness, illegal possession of liquor, property damage, theft and possession of stolen goods. Some of the rioters received long jail terms from the local criminal courts, but most sentences were reduced. The rioting left scores wounded from falling on broken glass, and three people dead, two from alcohol poisoning, and one, a naval officer, probably murdered to settle a score.

Ottawa ordered Justice Kellock to hold a federal inquiry into the events. In a report released in August, he blamed the RCN for poor discipline of its personnel. Admiral Murray was promptly fired.

The Canadian government eventually paid full compensation to all residents and the 564 businesses who suffered damage (mostly the 2,642 pieces of plate and other glass broken), and to the 207 shops that were looted. The Nova Scotia Liquor Commission and Keith's Brewery were given large settlements. Finance Minister Ilsley released a report that in the two days' rioting, 6,987 cases of beer, 1,225 cases of wine, two cases of alcohol and 55,392 quarts of spirits were looted from Halifax liquor stores and 30,516 quarts of beer from Keith's Brewery.

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The Road to Victory - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects

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A. Canadians and World War II - 1939-1945 →→ 1. Canada Goes to War → 2. Early Disasters → 3. The Home Front and War Production → 4. The Road to Victory →→ B. Canada Comes of Age - 1945-1963

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