Canada's role in WWII

bat·tle

/ˈbadl/ noun

a sustained fight between large organized armed forces.

That's not a very clear definition. What is the defining feature that separates one battle from the next? Length of time? Nope - some battles last a few hours while others last months.

The answer is simple: A battles is a engagement in fighting at a specific place. A battle is defined by the location that it occurs in.

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain immediately declared war. Canada declared war a week after Britain show independence, to show the world it is not a dog dragged on a leash that goes wherever the master leads.

Canadians took part in 4 battles during World War II:

1. Battle of Hong Kong (Dec 1941)

The British told Canada to send troops to fight off the Japanese who were invading Hong Kong. The Canadian troops were not ready for war and were still undergoing training, but nevertheless, Canada's Prime Minester agreed to send the men out of allegiance. When Japan invaded Hong Kong on December 8, 1941, the undertrained Canadian forces were no match for the strong Japanese army. To make things worse, it was easy for the Japanese to refuel because Japan geographically close to Hong Kong.

The Canadians surrendered on Christmas day. All survivors were taken prisoner and mistreated.

Canada waited a week after Britain to declare war, but how much independence did the military leaders show in wartime? Canadian armies were sent to whatever battle that Britain told them to go. It is the wartime actions that are more impactful as a symbol of independence than words such as declaring war a week later.

2. Raid on Dieppe (Aug 1942)

The Canadians landed in Northern Europe (Normandy beaches) to test how strong the German defences were.

Half of the army (3623/6086 men) fell within 10 hours. What a price to pay for a test - if I performed like this on a school examination, I would be a big failure.

Are the Canadians being used by the British?

"Historians speculate the intention of this raid varied, one of the theories being that Britain wanted to appease to the Soviets who were invaded by Germany around that time."

A military lesson: don't just throw your men into battle and hope something good happens. Plan, plan, plan. You're playing with lives, buddy.

"It was perceived as the 'deadliest of battles' in which Canadian participated in at the time, due to its disastrous execution by the British and Canadian military leaders."

3. Italian Campaign (Jul 1943)

The Canadians landed on the tip of Italy's boot from Northern Africa, where the British previously took control.

4. D-Day (uh-oh)

The allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to boot the Germans out of the country. Everyone was assigned a few beachs: two beaches for the mighty U.S.A., two beaches for the British, and one beach (Juno) for the Canadians.

D-Day was successful. Military strategy: The allies knew how hard it was to get on the beaches. So they learned from their failure caused by lack of planning in the previous battles. People succeed when they identify risks and plan tactically to avoid them. Pre-mortems aren't just for UN consulting challenges, they also help with war! This demonstrates the ubiquity of mental models.

Bonus: Liberation of the Netherlands

Canada was involved with driving the Germans out of the Netherlands after D-Day. As a thank you letter, the Netherlands sends 100 000 tulips to Canada every year. (This is still going on today!)