Collection

The Second World War raged from 1939 to 1945, pitting the Allies (primarily France, Great Britain, Canada, the United States and the USSR) against the Axis (Italy, Japan and Germany). It was the most devastating military conflict in history in terms of loss of life and physical destruction.

More than previous wars, the Second World War saw the mobilization of all the human and economic resources of the nations involved, disregard for the distinction between soldiers and civilians, and the dissemination of extensive propaganda. It was characterized by atrocities of an unprecedented scale against civil populations, such as the Nazi genocide of the Jews, Roma and Slavs and the use of nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Between 1939 and 1944, the Axis powers conquered and occupied most of Western Europe, along with vast territories in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. After the Axis suffered a series of defeats, including the fall of Stalingrad (today Volgograd, Russia) in 1943, the tide began to turn for the Allies, eventually leading them to victory in 1945.

In Canada, the war was a period of social, industrial and economic change. The Liberal government of William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) initially adopted a cautious approach to the conflict, fostering the development of Canadian industry to help supply the Allied forces. To support the war effort, the government employed tactics like organizing the Victory Loans program, creating Crown corporations for special tasks and recruiting women to work in factories.

These measures were supported by propaganda campaigns conducted by the Wartime Information Board. The King government also set up detention camps to intern political dissidents, people of Japanese, Italian and German ancestry, and prisoners of war.

Under increased pressure after Germany conquered much of Europe, the Liberals mobilized an ever-expanding military force by introducing conscription in June 1940 for home defence and, after extensive debate and a national plebiscite in 1942, for overseas service as well. Over one million Canadian men and women served in the armed forces during the war, including some 44,000 who lost their lives. The Canadian Army participated in numerous campaigns, including those in Dieppe, Ortona and the Normandy Invasion, while the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy also played significant roles.

Canada emerged from the war transformed, with a stronger economy, into a world henceforth dominated by the United States and the USSR.

Sources:

"Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947," Library and Archives Canada, 2019, https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/second-world-war/second-world-war-dead-1939-1947/Pages/files-second-war-dead.aspx

Stacey, C. P. and Richard Foot, "Second World War," in The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2015, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/second-world-war-wwii