History Browser

As World War II war drew to a close, members of all the armed forces of the Allies wanted nothing so much as to shed their uniforms, and fast. But there was not enough shipping available to bring Allied troops from all over the world as quickly as they wished.

On 6 June 1944, Allied forces invaded Western Europe along an 80-kilometre front in Normandy, France. Of the nearly 150,000 Allied troops who landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, 14,000 were Canadians.

The RCAF ran the vital British Commonwealth Air Training Plan during World War Two, but it also sent nearly 94,000 personnel overseas. It also played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic. .

In 1917-18 the British air force directed an ambitious flying training operation in Canada. The scheme had no precedent, but it inspired the vast British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of the Second World War, and subsequent training programs in Canada for aircrew from nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that continue to the present day. This online article has information about the training program and includes a bibliography.

On October 28, 1940, the Italian Duce, Benito Mussolini, invaded northern Greece from Albania, which was at that time under Italian control. Although greatly outnumbered, within a month the Greek army had pushed the Italians back into Albania. Adolf Hitler was unwilling to allow Italy, his major ally, to be humiliated and he prepared to attack Greece, Britain's last European ally.

An electronic reproduction of the watercolour on paper artwork, "Royal Canadian Air Force Major," created by Margaret Kathleen MacLeod.

Aside from creating the Royal Canadian Airforce in 1924, the Canadian government avoided large expenditures for developing its armed forces between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War.

During World War Two Canada assumed the role of trainer of the pilots and aircrew for the Allied war effort. This was done under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, an agreement signed in December 1939 by Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand to train aircrew in Canada.

During the Second World War, the Canadian aircraft industry grew to employ nearly 116,000 workers, 30,000 of whom were women. It delivered aircraft to fill Allied orders and Canadian newspapers monitored its expansion.

After the fall of France, the British were left with few ways to strike back at Germany. One was the bombing of German cities, workers, and industry. This method of attack was blunt and brutal. It cost the lives of many German civilians as well as Canadian air crew.