History - World War 2

The Second World War (1939-1945) had a profound effect on Canada. From every corner of the nation, men and women performed full-time duty in the three services. During the war, 1,086,343 Canadians enlisted. The death tolls by war's end reached 42,042.

In Bruce County, recruitment for service differed from that of the First World War. Since the Bruce Battalion had been disbanded in 1936 and reorganized as artillery, Bruce County men and women had the choice of joining one of four Bruce Field Batteries. Substantial numbers of Bruce County residents took the opportunity to enlist outside the county in the army, the navy or the air force, many joining area regiments such as the Perth Regiment and the Elgin Regiment.

Scores of Bruce County men and women went overseas. Numbers of First Nations residents from Bruce County Reserves enlisted for service while men like Kincardine's Harry Forbes experienced the war while serving in the Canadian Navy.

Although there is no accurate count of Bruce County residents who served in the Second World War, the Bruce County Public Library maintains Bruce Remembers, a Bruce County Virtual War Memorial (www.bruceremembers.org) of those who gave their lives in the conflict. Additional information on Bruce County service during the war may be found in many township and town histories.