20 Weird Canadian WW2 Facts You Didn’t Know About!

In September 1939 Canada joined the Second World War by making its own declaration of war and at that time had a military force consisting of fewer than 5,000 professional soldiers. In the following six years the country, which had a population of just 11 million people, became an industrial and military power and thus helped to change the course of the war. Canada's contribution during the war was enormous, ranging from training more than 130,000 Allied aircrew under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to establishing what became the third-largest navy in the world. Yet among the major campaigns there were strange, often neglected and remarkable episodes in wartime history. This video covers 20 surprising and lesser-known facts about Canada in World War II: - Camp X, the top-secret spy school associated with Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl, was Special Training School 103. - The First Special Service Force (known as the Devil's Brigade) and Sergeant Tommy Prince's famous scouting missions. - There is a political crisis involving the home-defense conscripts known as "Zombies." There were Axis prisoner-of-war camps in Ontario and Alberta, known for daring tunnel escape attempts, the use of homemade hot-air balloons, and the notorious Bowmanville riot. -The tactic of 'mouse-holing' was invented in the bloodstained streets of Ortona. - The shelling of the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island by a forgotten submarine. - Went further inland than any other Allied unit on D-Day at Juno Beach. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Canada Declares War: 1939 00:46 - The Aerodrome of Democracy and the Royal Canadian Navy 02:20 - Camp X: Secret Spies and Unconventional Warfare 04:00 - The Conscription Crisis and Home Defense Soldiers 04:46 - The Devil's Brigade and Sergeant Tommy Prince 06:32 - Ace George Beurling and German POW Camps in Canada 09:18 - The Bowmanville Camp Riot and the Dieppe Raid 12:11 - The Kiska Operation and Mouse-Holing in Ortona 14:32 - POW Breakouts and Roald Dahl's Secret Service 15:35 - Juno Beach and the Race to Stop the Soviets at Wismar 16:45 - The Estevan Point Shelling and Post-War Immigration HISTORICAL SOURCES AND FURTHER READING 1. C.P. Stacey (in the Official Historical Accounts of the Department of National Defence): Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939–1945. Directorate of History and Heritage. 2. Lynn Philip Hodgson (2000). Inside Camp X. Blake Books. 3. Mark Zuehlke (1999): Ortona: Canada's Epic World War II Battle, published by Stoddart Publishing. Martin F. Auger (2005) published a book called Prisoners of the Home Front: German POWs and Enemy Aliens in Southern Ontario and Alberta through the UBC Press. 5. Canadian War Museum (CWM) – its history and archives relating to the Second World War: https://www.warmuseum.ca/learn/canadian-military-history-timeline/second-world-war/ 6. Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) – Canada during the Second World War: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/wars-and-conflicts/second-world-war ABOUT CANADIANS AT WAR The book Canadians at War is committed to recording, saving, and respecting the history, tactical innovations, and the actual experiences of Canadian military personnel. To help with the documentation of independent Canadian military history, please subscribe. Take part in the discussion by letting us know which of these facts about WWII shocked you the most and then leave your thoughts in the comments section below. #CanadianMilitary #WWII #MilitaryHistory #CampX #DevilsBrigade #CanadianArmy #RCN #JunoBeach #HistoryDocumentary