In which Second World War campaign did the Royal Canadian Navy have its finest hour?
- The Battle of Britain
- The Battle of Hong Kong
- The Battle of Midway
- The Battle of the Atlantic
Answer: The Battle of the Atlantic
The Royal Canadian Navy’s finest hour was the Battle of the Atlantic, when it protected convoys of merchant ships from German submarines. By the end of the war Canada had the third-largest navy in the world. The Battle of Britain was fought in the air, with the RCAF taking part.
Learn more: The Second World War
- The war began in 1939 when Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany, invaded Poland and conquered much of Europe.
- More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served, out of a population of 11.5 million. Of these, 44,000 were killed. Newfoundland was then a separate British territory.
- Canadians fought in the unsuccessful defence of Hong Kong (1941) against Imperial Japan, and in a failed raid on Dieppe, France (1942).
- The Royal Canadian Air Force took part in the Battle of Britain. Over 130,000 Allied air crew trained in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
- The Royal Canadian Navy’s finest hour was the Battle of the Atlantic, protecting merchant convoys from German submarines. By the war’s end Canada had the third-largest navy in the world.
- Canadians took part in the liberation of Italy in 1943–44.
- On D-Day, June 6, 1944, 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach in Normandy. About one in ten Allied soldiers on D-Day was Canadian.
- The Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands in 1944–45 and helped force the German surrender of May 8, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.
- Canadians of Japanese origin were forcibly relocated and their property sold without compensation. The Government of Canada apologized in 1988 and compensated the victims.