May 8th Marks 80 Years since VE Day

May 8th Marks 80 Years since VE Day

Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 39 - Submitted

Most of the world heaved a sigh of gratitude and a prayer of thanks when it was announced officially that Germany had surrendered and fighting had ceased in Europe and the surrounding land and sea areas. By war’s end over 1,000,000 Canadian men and women were in uniform.

After several years of aggressive moves by Germany their invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 resulted in many countries officially declaring war against them. Canada made its declaration on September 10th. Almost six years of war followed. With the exception of a few months of what was called “the phony war” active battles were happening in many parts of the globe.

The longest ongoing battle was The Battle of the Atlantic where Canada’s navy, then underequipped and understaffed, began patrolling Canada’s coasts and moved into escort duties protecting supply convoys to the United Kingdom. By war’s end the Royal Canadian Navy had a fleet of 471 ships, one of them being HMCS Vegreville, a Bangor Class mine sweeper.

The Royal Canadian Air Force began flying missions both to protect civilian and military targets in the United Kingdom and attacking enemy targets in continental Europe.

While tens of thousands of Canadian troops were stationed in the United Kingdom as a defense force from late 1939 on, the first land battle on European soil was the disastrous Dieppe raid on August 19th, 1942. It resulted in over 900 fatalities, nearly 2500 wounded and hundreds more captured.

Canada’s first major incursion into continental Europe was when two army divisions took part in the invasion of Sicily, then Italy, in July and September of 1943. The “Second Front” began with the D-Day landings in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. Canadian troops landing on Juno Beach with the support of the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force were successful in establishing a beachhead and, in fact, advanced further than any other troops on the first day. Long months of constant warfare followed and in October the Canadian focus became directed to the Netherlands. The following “Hunger Winter” as the Dutch called it saw bitter fighting under adverse conditions that kept Canadian troops there until the German forces surrendered on May 5, 1945. An armistice, officially ending the war was signed on May 8, 1945.

Although the majority of Canadian servicemen and women were involved in the European theatre there were also troops in India and Asia fighting against the Japanese forces that began their war with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and a following attack on Hong Kong just before Christmas. Two Canadian regiments were attached to British Forces there and fought in defense of Hong Kong. As a result of the surrender of these Allied forces and their capture those Canadians spent nearly four years as prisoners of the Japanese. Victory in the Pacific Theatre was not declared until August 14th and the war was declared officially over on September 2nd, 1945

Sadly, of the approximately one million and fifty thousand men and women who served in uniform only about five thousand remain alive today.