Browse "Canadian Forces Bases"

During the Cold War, Canada stationed army and air force units abroad for the first time during peacetime. Soldiers and airmen began to arrive in the early 1950s, shortly after the Cold War began, and remained until 1993, after it ended. In total, more than 100,000 Canadian military personnel served in France and West Germany in that period.

During the Second World War, a large naval repair base was established at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where many Allied ships were refitted and repaired following their work maintaining convoy and antisubmarine surveillance in the Atlantic. During the Cold War, HMCS (later CFS) Shelburne played an important role in antisubmarine warfare, part of the SOSUS/IUSS network of passive sonar stations that identified and tracked Soviet submarines. CFS Shelburne was decommissioned in 1995.

Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, incorporated as a town in 1973, population 8,109 (2016 census), 7,552 (2011 census). The town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay is the result of the amalgamation of two towns situated at the western end of Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. The community began with the construction of an air base during the Second World War. It remains home to a Canadian Forces Base and a small civilian population.

HMCS Conestoga was a basic training establishment for the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS) during the Second World War. Located in Galt, Ontario, it operated from 1942 to 1945. Of nearly 6,800 women who served in the WRCNS, most trained at Conestoga.