A small boat rescues a seaman from the 31,800-ton USS West Virginia. Smoke rolling out amidships shows where the most extensive damage occurred.
[U.S. Library of Congress/fsa.8e00810]

When trade and resources turn to war

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

A bitter war between Japan and China, with vague similarities to the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, had been simmering and boiling over for a decade when the United States and the aggressor, Japan, began talks in early 1941 to try to end it.

Europe was already under Hitler’s thumb. In June, the Nazi dictator sent his forces east into Soviet Russia. The Allies’ supply lines were suffering unsettling losses to German U-boats in the North Atlantic, while Erwin Rommel was notching up victories and laying siege to the key port of Tobruk in oil-rich North Africa.

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• Chinese fighters take up positions alongside Russians in Ukraine
• Long-standing rumours of Putin’s impending death have been greatly exaggerated
• ‘Decades-long’ resistance would destroy U.S. if it invaded Canada, says insurgency expert

Sergeant Bill Byers (left) and his identical twin, Sergeant George Byers, took part in one of the Second World Wars deadlier raids staged by No. 6 Group RCAF. [Commonwealth War Graves Commission]

British historian James Holland highlights Canada’s WW II contributions

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“We underestimate the Canadians” said British military historian James Holland in a 2022 episode of his podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, “they don’t get the credit they deserve for their part in the Second World War.”

The author of various non-fiction books, including Normandy ’44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France (2019) and the most recent Cassino ’44: Five Months of Hell in Italy (2024), has long respected Canada and Newfoundland for their tendency of “punching massively above their weight whether it be in the air forces, whether it be in the Battle of the Atlantic, whether it be on land.”

READ MORE

More from The Briefing

RCAF Foundation launches children’s book on aviation

An armchair tour of HMCS Haida with Jared Shawcross

Historian Michael Petrou on Canada and the Spanish Civil War

Member Benefit Partner

RCL members and their families can benefit from exclusive discounts on car, home, condo and tenant’s insurance at belairdirect. Learn more at legion.ca/belairdirect

Learn More