Canadian involvement in the Pacific in WWII?

The Canadians that went up to the Aleutians were trained up here at the Nanaimo military Camp. They were also issued American M1 rifles, I dont know of any other theater of war where Commonwealth soldiers carried garands
 
The First Special Service Force was composed of Canadians and Americans also known as the Devil's Brigade. They used American equipment for logistical reasons as they were attached to the U.S. army.
 
I had the privilege of serving with an old Senior NCO who was probably the last Hong Kong veteran in uniform. I believe that he retired in 1978 or thereabouts. He went to Hong Kong as a young soldier in The Royal Regt of Canada and spent the duration of the war as a POW doing slave labour in the shipyards and coal mines in Japan. Understandably, he had nothing good to say about the Japanese and refused to buy or use anything that was made in Japan.

In spite of the privations that he suffered he lived a long and fulfilling life. I also served with his son who I last saw 10 yrs ago or so and learned that his father had died. I was happy to tell him of the high esteem in which his father was held.

There was an echo of Hong Kong in the NATO Ace Mobile Force committment which we had for many years. It was clearly a forlorn hope to send a battalion group and a couple of "tinker toy" CF-F fighter squadrons to north Norway with the idea that they would seriously impede the Soviets.
 
purple said:
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There was an echo of Hong Kong in the NATO Ace Mobile Force committment which we had for many years. It was clearly a forlorn hope to send a battalion group and a couple of "tinker toy" CF-F fighter squadrons to north Norway with the idea that they would seriously impede the Soviets.
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The ACE (Allied Command Europe) Mobile Force, or AMF, commitment to Norway was not what some of us in at the time considered a sound course of action. We doubted the ability of supply ships to actually make it to Norway, given the numerical superiority of Soviet submarines to available cargo ships. Saner heads later prevailed and we told NATO that our reinforcing brigade should join 4 CMBG in Germany, and fight together as a small division. This resulted in the brief reformation of 1 Cdn Div in the late 1980s. Naturally, the Soviet submarine menace would have still proven problematic.
 
My son found one of these for me at a yard sale. :D didn't realize till now, there were more volumes or editions, but a lot of good photographs and facts. Shows a picture of the graves of four Canadians killed "accidentally", during the Kiska campaign.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WW2-Alaska-Forgotten-War-Vol-2-Dutch-Harbor-Photos-Fort-Richardson-Northway-/120909476060

Grizz
 
Mike Webb said:
I think the last VC awarded in WW2 was won in the Pacific by a Canadian, Robert Hampton Gray, an airman of the RCAF attached to the RN Fleet Air Arm. He was making a bombing run on a Japanese destroyer and his plane was hit by anti aircraft fire and in flames. Instead of breaking off or bailing out he completed his run, scored a direct hit, sinking the destroyer but unfortunately crashed and was killed. August 9,1945.
I read somewhere that the Japanese erected a memorial to him for bravery.
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Wasn't there a dispute out in B.C. not too long ago where there was a mural painting somewhere to honor Robert Hampton Gray and some local despicables objected to it being there as a "glorification" of war?
 
That wouldn't surprise me in the least. Too bad individuals who feel that way couldn't be made to live in a country occupied by the Imperial Japanese forces in the 1930's or 40's.
 
guninhand said:
Wasn't there a dispute out in B.C. not too long ago where there was a mural painting somewhere to honor Robert Hampton Gray and some local despicables objected to it being there as a "glorification" of war?
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in his hometown Nelson I believe? Funny how many towns claim him as their own though.
 
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