- Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with Colonel James C. Forsyth, greets Dieppe veteran, retired RHLI Regimental Sergeant Major, CWO Jack C. McFarland, EM, CD, Private Stan Darvh and Corporal Fred Englebrecht, Royal Hamilton Light Infantry veterans of the Dieppe Raid, at the Dieppe Veterans’ Park in Hamilton, Ontario, August 2008. Photo: Courtesy of Col (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
- CWO (Ret’d) Jack McFarland, far right and Corporal Fred Englebrecht (green jacket far left), Royal Hamilton Light Infantry veterans of the Dieppe Raid during WWII at the Dieppe monument in Hamilton, 19 August 2006. Photo: Courtesy of Colonel (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
- LCol James Forsyth and Dieppe veteran Brigadier William Denis Whitaker, CM, DSO and Bar, ED, CD at a Mess Dinner, 1977. Photo: Courtesy of Colonel (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
8 May 2020
It was 75 years ago, 8 May 1945, that the Nazi War Machine surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces, ending the war in Europe.
More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in World War II; more than 45,000 gave their lives and another 55,000 were wounded.
The Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Army, played significant roles in many of the major battles and campaigns during World War II.
Sixteen Canadians won the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for bravery in the British Commonwealth.
Dieppe
- Dieppe Veteran Major John Foote, VC, while posted to Camp Borden after the war. Historical photo.
- Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel LCol The Reverend John Foote, VC, CD, with fellow officers of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry in the Officers’ Mess at the armouries that now bears his name, November 1976. Photo: Courtesy of Colonel (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
- Lieutenant Colonel Charles Merritt, VC, Commanding Officer of the South Saskatchewan Regiment. Photo: Libraries and Archives Canada.
Canada played a major role in the 1942 raid on the Port of Dieppe, France. Two Canadian soldiers won the Victoria Cross at Dieppe:
Honorary Captain The Reverend John Foote, the
Regimental Padre with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Merritt, Commanding Officer of the South Saskatchewan Regiment.
Reverend Foote’s fellow RHLI Officer, Captain Denis Whitaker, was awarded the first of his two Distinguished Service Orders at Dieppe. Whitaker, who would finish the war as a Brigadier General, was the only one of the 100 officers who landed on the beach to fight his way into town and return to England unwounded.
Major European Campaigns
- World War II Veteran Colonel (later Brigadier) H. Freeman, 17 Militia Group HQ Advisor (R), with Major James Forsyth, inspecting the Hamilton Service Battalion, 1969. Photo: Courtesy of Colonel (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
- World War I & II Veteran Colonel M.V. McQueen, OBE, ED, CD, (R), with Lieutenant-Colonel James Forsyth standing with the McQueen Trophy, 1981. Photo: Courtesy of Colonel (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
- World War II RCAF Veteran, the Honorable Lincoln Alexander, the first black federal Cabinet Minister and future Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, inspecting the troops in Hamilton. Photo: Courtesy of Colonel (Ret’d) James Forsyth, CStJ, CD.
Canadians also played a major role in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, the invasion of Italy in September 1943, D-Day on 6 June 1944 and the Battle of the Scheldt from October to November 1944.
Members of the RCAF also fought in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
The Battle of the Atlantic
- The Battle of the Atlantic Memorial when originally dedicated. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
- The Naval Memorial in Burlington, dedicated to the memory of the 31 warships and the 2024 personnel of the Royal Canadian Navy and the 75 ships and 1466 merchant seamen of the Canadian Merchant Navy, lost during World War II. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
The Royal Canadian Navy played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic, a campaign that lasted the entire duration of World War II.
Canada played a key role in the Allied efforts to control the North Atlantic and keep open the shipping lanes carrying vital supplies to Allied forces in Europe.
The BCATP – “The Aerodrome of Democracy”
- Harvard flying over a typical BCATP station.
- Hangar, September 2003. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
- Monument to No. 1 SFTS, April 1998. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
One of Canada’s greatest contributions to WWII was the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Called the “Aerodrome of Democracy” by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, more than 130,000 personnel from Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand graduated from 107 training schools across Canada as pilots, navigators, air gunners, air bombers and flight engineers for the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Air Force, and other Commonwealth air forces.
Canada was an ideal location to train aircrew as it was far enough away from the fighting, with plenty of land away from towns and cities to build training schools. Dozens of airfields were constructed in specific locations across the country, seemingly random, but with an eye to the post-war years when the airfields would be turned over to the local communities. Many municipal airports were originally RCAF aerodromes.
Camp X
- Monument to Camp X, June 2004. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
- Monument to Camp X, June 2004. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
- Camp X, 1943. Empty fields are all that remains of the camp. Photo: Library and Archives Canada.
Canada also made a major contribution to the “Secret War” by establishing Camp X, Canada’s secret spy school. Officially known as Special Training School #103 but commonly referred to as “Camp X”, was established on 280 acres of land east of Toronto, on the shore of Lake Ontario near the border between the Towns of Oshawa and Whitby.
British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill instructed his friend, the head of the British Security Co-ordination (BSC), Canadian born World War I hero Sir William Stephenson, otherwise known as ‘The Man Called Intrepid”, to establish the camp in Canada for the purpose of training secret operatives in the art of espionage and clandestine warfare.
The last Canadian Winner of the Victoria Cross
- Portrait of Lt Robert Hampton Gray, VC, DSC, RCNVR. Historical photo.
- Memorial to Lt Robert Hampton Gray, VC, DSC, RCNVR, at Onagawa Wan, Japan, November 2008. Photo: Courtesy of Capt (N) André Langlois.
- Medals of Lt Robert Hampton Gray, VC, DSC, RCNVR, at the Shearwater Aviation Museum. Photo: Shearwater Aviation Museum.
Lieutenant (N) Robert Hampton Gray, VC, DSC, has the distinction of being Canada’s last Victoria Cross winner. Lt (N) Grey was a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR), colloquially known as “The Wavy Navy”.
On 9 August 1945 at Onagawa Wan, Honshū, Japan, Lt (N) Gray was killed leading a low-level attack on a Japanese destroyer. Wounded, his aircraft in flames and in the face of heavy fire from shore batteries and several Japanese ships, Gray succeeded in sinking one destroyer with a direct hit before his airplane crashed into the bay. His body was never recovered.
Although British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill made this statement in reference to The Battle of Britain, it certainly applies to the war itself:
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”
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Sources: “Telling our Story: Canada and the 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe” by the Canadian War Museum, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_Raid.