Less than one third of Ontario residents familiar with World War II battles on Canadian shores: survey

With Remembrance Day upon us, a new survey finds less than a third of Ontarians are familiar with the World War II battles that took place within our very own waters.

According to a new survey from Ancestry, while most Ontario residents surveyed were familiar with the Dieppe Raid and the Normandy landings, not many realize that the Second World War reached Canadian shores, like the Battle of Saint Lawrence.

“In this battle, German U-boats infiltrated Canadian waters as far as the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, but also in the Maritimes,” said Lesley Anderson, family historian with Ancestry. “They actually sank 23 naval and merchant ships.”

There was also the Aleutian Islands Campaign, which according to Anderson, saw the Canadians and Americans join forces to regain control of a small island off of the coast of British Columbia from the Japanese. 

Meanwhile, the survey also found that only 31 per cent of respondents were familiar with Canada's contribution on the home front during World War II.