Fellow Canucks do you agree with this list? For the most part I do but the order could be changed up although I do agree with number 1 being where it is. Unfortunately the list omitted the Canadian contribution to the defence of Hong Kong as the Canadians got special mention from the Japanese commander for their tenacious defence. Not bad for under trained and under equipped troops which everybody knew were sacrificial lambs.
I find a little bit of Simon Whistler goes a long way … he presents so many different series, he makes Indy look like a slacker.
As far as the list is concerned, I think the RCN & RCAF contributions to the Battle of the Atlantic were the most important to the overall war effort … if the U-boats had succeeded, Britain would have been knocked out of the war, probably followed quickly by the Soviets. The military deployment to Newfoundland seemed a bit of a reach, as despite Simon’s take, there was no realistic chance of significant military action against Newfoundland aside from possible raiding. Germany did not have the sealift capability or the necessary air cover to get more than a few individual ships away from European waters (as evidenced by the small number of successful sorties by armed merchant cruisers.
Dieppe, while a highly emotive topic for Canadians, wasn’t a significant action in the overall picture of the war. Lessons may have been learned, but a single brigade conducting an unsuccessful raid really wasn’t “big enough” (the same argument also applies to the two Canadian battalions lost at Hong Kong, I’m afraid).
Arming and feeding the allies was important, but Canada might well have done as much or even more if Canada had been neutral (as the United States was until late 1941), as more people would have been available for agriculture and industry without a Canadian field army.
The purely military contributions of 1st Canadian Corps in Italy and 1st Canadian Army in northwest Europe got about the correct level of attention in this video … we may be proud as hell of the Canadians, but we were a very small part of the overall operation. While Simon mentioned the warcrimes committed against the Canadians in Normandy, in fairness he should have mentioned that once it became known among the troops, very few German POWs were taken from that SS unit as Canadians became unwilling to accept surrenders.
I don’t know why he put so much emphasis on internees and Axis POWs while almost completely ignoring the British Commonwealth Air Training Program, the Canadian portion of which trained over a hundred thousand aircrew for the RAF, RCAF, RAAF, RNZAF, and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.
Canadian contributions to the Manhatten Project were clearly important, but I don’t think they ranked anywhere near as high as Simon put them. Instead of number one, as he assigned it, I’d have rated it in the lower half of the ranking.
It’s number one only because ALL manhattan project uranium was refined at the Eldorado Refinery in Port Hope, ON.
Yes, I live about half an hour from Port Hope … it’s not something the locals keep as a top secret! But I’m not convinced that it was Canada’s single greatest contribution to the allied war effort.
This is one of those divisive subjects for Canadians because we were as many say small in size we often punched above our weight and made multiple contributions to the war effort and to pick a top ten list would have contributions all over the board depending on region, political leanings and whether you are French Canadian or anglophone to name but a few.
Now the following is controversial and it still reverberates as much as it does today as it did then. Should we? Could we? Will we?
Because finding material to read about Canadas contribution is so limited and focuses heavily on as per usual the British and Americans Canadas participation is often left as a footnote in history books.
The reason why I feel Canada’s atomic contribution is so important is because out of the allies Canada was ironically the most advanced in atomic knowledge by leaps and bounds over the British and Americans and without our knowledge and expertise it is thought by experts in the field that it would of taken another 3 years for the allies to produce a working atomic bomb.
Add to that the hundreds of scientists, engineers, skilled trades and labourers, facilities and medical personnel that were provided many who were pioneers in their chosen fields. Without that knowledge that we provided it is very likely the war would of been extended by a year or more.
The atomic bomb was controversial then as it is still now but if you look at the bigger picture without or participation in the Manhattan project the allies would of struggled to complete a working bomb and while it did help hasten the end of one war it started another much longer war.
There was the Montreal Lab, there was the acquisition of French atomic scientists, there was the Eldorado Refinery and the Port Radium mine. But in terms of theory, no, the British and Americans were ahead. Further the real innovation of the Manhattan Project was not the theory as the actual manufacturing to make that theory work.