Browse "Armed Forces"

Admiralty (short for Board of Admiralty), a British government department which, between its inception in the early 18th century and its amalgamation into the Ministry of Defence in 1964, was responsible for the conduct of naval affairs.

The British land forces that defended British North America during the War of 1812 were drawn from a number of organizations. The British "army" of the time consisted of the infantry, cavalry, the Royal Waggon Train and the Royal Sappers and Miners.

Army, see Armed Forces: Militia and Army.

The Army Benevolent Fund Board was established under the Army Benevolent Fund Act (1947) to administer funds in special accounts existing in the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The War of 1812 as it was fought on the high seas included a variety of activities related to sea power, including clashes between ships, naval blockades, coastal raids, joint operations with the army and a commerce war involving privateers and letters of marque.

The CF-100 Canuck, manufactured by A.V. Roe Canada (Avro), was the first jet fighter designed and built entirely in Canada. It flew in front-line air defence from 1953 until the early 1960s.

In 1939, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia signed an agreement creating the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Located in Canada, the plan's mandate was to train Allied aircrews for the Second World War, including pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators, air gunners, and flight engineers. More than 130,000 crewmen and women were trained between 1939 and 1945, making this one of Canada's great contributions to Allied victory in the war. It led United States President Franklin Roosevelt to call Canada the "aerodrome of democracy."

Poison gas was used throughout the First World War by almost all armies. The various types of gas, delivered by canisters, projectors, or shell, killed, maimed, denied ground and wore down morale. By 1918, soldiers of all armies encountered gas frequently while serving at the front. Canadian soldiers were among the first to face the death clouds, at the Second Battle of Ypres, and they would have a fraught relationship with gas throughout the war. This article will examine the interaction of Canadian armed forces with poison gas, with a focus on its use in attack, the development of a defence doctrine to protect against it, and its impact on individual Canadians. It will also look at how gassed veterans fared in the war’s aftermath and the creation of chemical weapons in Canada during the Second World War.

The Battle of the Scheldt was fought in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands in 1944 during the Second World War. It was part of the Allied campaign to liberate northwestern Europe and defeat Nazi Germany. The First Canadian Army played a crucial role in clearing the Scheldt of German forces, opening crucial supply lines via the port of Antwerp. However, this victory came at a cost. The Allies suffered nearly 13,000 casualties during the battle, including more than 6,300 Canadians.

For much of its history, the Canadian military had a policy of punishing or purging LGBTQ members among their ranks. During the Cold War, the military increased its efforts to identify and remove suspected LGBTQ servicemen and women due to expressed concerns about blackmail and national security. In 1992, a court challenge led to the reversal of these discriminatory practices. The federal government officially apologized in 2017.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is the military arm of the federal government. Its role is to defend Canada’s security, interests and values and to contribute to international peace and security. There are 68,000 Regular Force and 27,000 Reserve Force members in the CAF, which includes the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Members of these three services can also be assigned to different commands, including Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC), Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The CAF is supported by 24,000 DND civilians, who are not part of the CAF.

​The history of the Canadian Army parallels that of Canada itself. What started as a small Confederation-era militia was built into a respected force of mostly citizen soldiers for the First and Second World Wars.

​More than 2,800 trained civilian nurses enlisted with the Canadian army during the First World War, becoming the first women in the modern world to hold military commissions as officers.

The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the army raised by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. About 630,000 Canadians enlisted between 1914 and 1918—most of them volunteers—as soldiers, nurses, doctors, and forestry and railway crews. More than 234,000 were killed or wounded in the war.

CANLOAN was a volunteer program that loaned Canadian officers to the British Army during the Second World War.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on July 13, 1998. Partner content is not updated.

On Oct. 2, 1987, a woman named Connie went to the singles quarters at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, convinced she was going to become a movie star. Two soldiers in the base bar had persuaded the 23-year-old woman that all she had to do was pose for what they called "Sunshine Girl-like" photos.

This article contains sensitive material that may not be suitable for all audiences.

HMCS ​Chicoutimi is one of four used submarines Canada purchased from Britain in the late 1990s.

Force 136 was a branch of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Its covert missions were based in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia, where orders were to support and train local resistance movements to sabotage Japanese supply lines and equipment. While Force 136 recruited mostly Southeast Asians, it also recruited about 150 Chinese Canadians. It was thought that Chinese Canadians would blend in with local populations and speak local languages. Earlier in the war, many of these men had volunteered their services to Canada but were either turned away or recruited and sidelined. Force 136 became an opportunity for Chinese Canadian men to demonstrate their courage and skills and especially their loyalty to Canada.

The Clayton Knight Committee (Canadian Aviation Bureau) was a committee formed in 1940 to recruit American aviators to the BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN (BCATP).

The Department of Munitions and Supply was Canada's principal agency for co-ordinating domestic industry during WORLD WAR II.