Western Canada
During World War II
Reginald H. Roy
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher of For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War;)
A few days later, the Battle of Midway was fought and Japanese forces landed on Attu and Kiska, both islands in the western reaches of the Aleutians. This brought RCAP squadrons deeper into Alaska where, in the months to come, they were involved in the bombing of the Japanese-held islands.
Meanwhile, Canada was bolstering its own Western defences. There was over a thousand miles of coastline to defend and innumerable inlets and bays where an enemy submarine or naval vessel might hide. Although the Fishermen's Reserve would patrol some of the shoreline, their vessels would be unable to cope with an enemy ship even if they found one. The best that could be done would be for them to send information to headquarters where the quickest reaction would be the dispatch of RCAP bomber squadrons.
Another force that was organized in 1942 was the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers. It was made up of rangers, trappers, miners, loggers, and others and was organized into 137 companies scattered over British Columbia. Its composition and role reflected the rather primitive transportation network in the province.
Many smaller communities were difficult to reach from the main centres. To provide them with some measure of protection, it was decided to form and arm a body of "irregulars" or "home guard" units composed of men who were familiar with their area and accustomed to the climate and conditions of the mountains and bush country. Like the American Minutemen, they could be called upon at very short notice to leave their civilian jobs to defend their localities. Their role was to provide local defence against minor raids, to gather intelligence, and to operate, either by themselves or in conjunction with active units, to repel a major attack.3 The Manitoba Volunteer Reserve, Saskatchewan Veterans' Civil Security Corps, and Veterans Volunteer Reserve in Alberta served a similar role on the prairies.
The major impact of Canada's declaration of war against Japan was the decision to increase the army's presence in British Columbia. Before Pearl Harbor, Army Headquarters had created Pacific Command, which encompassed British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, and the District of Mackenzie. Before Japan's attack, the vast area of British Columbia had only six battalions ready for an instant counterattack role. More were needed, and during 1942 Pacific Command's strength was increased until there were two full divisions in the province, one to defend Vancouver Island and the other the mainland. It was considered, quite rightly that there were only limited areas along the rugged coast where the Japanese might attack; and it was there that most of the battalions were located.
But the attack never came. Searchlights swept the skies, coastal gunners strained their eyes, and reconnaissance aircraft and radar stations were on alert for the approach of any enemy vessels or airplanes. An estimated 35,000 Canadian soldiers stood on guard in Pacific Command waiting for the enemy to come from the northern mists, but only the RCAF - weather permitting - had the occasional chance to strike at the Japanese.
Transportation, particularly by road, was quite limited in the interior of British Columbia. For the United States, more worrisome was the complete lack of any highway leading into Alaska. As early as 14 November 1940, the Permanent Joint Board on Defence made a recommendation that suitable landing fields should be provided on a route across Canada between the United States and Alaska. In July 1941, the Board noted that the completion of both the Canadian and American sections was now "of extreme importance". Early in 1942 the Board urged that "a highway to Alaska be constructed following the general line of the existing airway". The recommendations were brief, but implementing them was to involve the efforts of tens of thousands of men and women and the expenditure of millions of dollars by both countries.
An overland route to Alaska had been suggested several decades earlier; in fact, the idea can be traced back to the days of the Klondike gold rush. The easiest and least expensive means of supplying Alaska was by sea; but with the US Navy's losses at Pearl Harbor, there was some doubt that this route could be guaranteed free from attack. It was with this in mind that the project was approved by both the American and Canadian governments; and within a remarkably short time, six regiments of US Army Engineers and thousands of civilian road builders were working on the road. Most of the I ,500-mile route ran through Canadian territory, but most of the cost and labour was provided by the United States since Canada's resources were already strained by her war effort. It was a huge task accomplished through areas that had never been properly mapped. In a remarkable feat of engineering and careful planning, the road was open for traffic in November 1942. There was much to be done to improve the road, but at least Whitehorse received its first truckloads of supplies from Fort St. John well before even the most optimistic estimate for completion when work on the highway started.
The highway tied together two other wartime projects in Western Canada and the US Northwest. One was the Northwest Staging Route, which was made up of a series of airports from Edmonton through Fort Nelson, Whitehorse, and on to Fairbanks in Alaska. Eleven of the thirteen airfields on the route were Canadian; and in time, the highway connected almost all of them. The route had opened in 1941, and further work, with American help, was done to allow for the ferrying of aircraft to Russia when that country was reeling under German attacks. At the same time, the CANOL Project was undertaken. This was an oil pipeline from Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories to Whitehorse in the Yukon, where the oil was refined and used to serve both the airfields and the vehicular traffic along the highway. All three projects required a great deal of cooperation from both Canada and the United States, and under the pressure of wartime necessity, all were completed in a remarkably short time.
The tremendous construction work going on in Western Canada by both Americans and Canadians was primarily defensive in nature, since the likelihood of Japan's launching any sizable attack on the mainland of North America was remote. But small "spoiling" raids remained a possibility. The Japanese shelling of a lighthouse on the coast of British Columbia in June 1942, and their occupation of Attu and Kiska, had resulted in Canada's increasing its military strength in British Columbia to two divisions. These forces protected an area stretching from Victoria to Whitehorse and represented a massive overreaction to a modest threat. It was many months before even part of this force was involved in an operation against the enemy.
Notes
3. R. H. Roy, For Most Conspicuous Bravery [ Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press., 1977], p. 178. The Militia Rangers were to reach a strength of about 15,000 officers and men during the war.