This display features items on the war coming very close to home. U-boats sank ships off the east coast and within the confines of the St. Lawrence River. German saboteurs were dropped off on Canadian coastlines. Even with an ocean between Canada and the war, the war could still come very close indeed.
This map puts that into vivid display.
Here we have a depth charge, a killing tool for surface ships to use against u-boats.
This is a model of HMCS Swansea, a frigate that took part in the fight against the German threat in the Atlantic.
A key asset of the war for the Allies- the captured Enigma machine. Cryptologists were able to use this to decipher and read Nazi messages, a critical intelligence coup that helped win the war.
This dramatic painting is The Boarding Of The U-744, by Thomas Wood
Much further away, Canadian troops had been stationed at Hong Kong. On the same day that they struck at Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces launched attacks on other locations, including Hong Kong. The Battle of Hong Kong would be the first for Canadian soldiers in the war, ending in defeat. Survivors would endure hell as prisoners of war.
Hanging above is a recreated balloon bomb. The Japanese sent balloons up over the Pacific, with the expectation that they would descend on the far side, dropping the bags of explosives on North American targets.
The map included here shows places where they did go off, all in red.
Things were busy on the home front, where families had absent fathers and husbands, and where women stepped up to fill the void. Propaganda posters of the time are seen here.
Interesting enigma machine.
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