Having performed well in training exercises during 1941 and early 1942, elements of the 2nd Division were selected as the main force for Operation Jubilee, a large-scale amphibious raid on the port of Dieppe in German-occupied France.

The Germans were well prepared and, despite being reinforced, the Canadians sustained heavy losses and had to be evacuated, fewer than half their number returning to the United Kingdom.

Following a period of reconstruction and retraining in 1942–44, the division joined II Canadian Corps as part of the Second British Army for the Allied Invasion of Normandy.

Turner, and its members spent a long and bitterly cold winter in a Belgian section of the front between Ploegsteert Wood and St. Eloi, south of Ypres.

[4] The Camerons and the Chaudières (now a rifle battalion) were reassigned to the newly mobilized 3rd Canadian Infantry Division,[5] and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to Jamaica for garrison duty, after which they returned to Canada then redeployed to Hong Kong, where they were captured when it fell to the Japanese on 25 December 1941.

[8] However, at the request of Winston Churchill these deployments were cut short,[3] as the division was badly needed in England to supplement the British Army—then facing the imminent possibility of German invasion.

Exercise Waterloo, conducted from 14 to 16 June 1941, was the largest in the United Kingdom to date, with I Canadian Corps counter-attacking an imagined German sea and air landing.

[21] On 19 August 1942, while British commando units attacked bunker positions on the outskirts of Dieppe, forces of the 2nd Division landed on four beaches.

The easternmost, Blue Beach, which was situated at the foot of a sheer cliff, presented the most difficulties; the Royal Regiment of Canada, with a company of the Black Watch, was held at bay by two platoons of German defenders.

Having successfully landed in Normandy, Allied forces soon became embroiled in battles against German armour and were unable to significantly expand their beachhead; by the time the 2nd Division came ashore at the end of the first week of July, the entire front had congealed.

[32] Although originally a D-Day objective, Caen proved a difficult prize, holding out until 19 July when it finally fell to British forces during Operation Goodwood.

[33] In the aftermath, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery ordered elements of II Canadian Corps to push forward towards Verrières Ridge, the dominant geographical feature between Caen and Falaise.

[34] Operation Atlantic, launched on 18 July alongside Goodwood, had the objectives of securing the western bank of the Orne River and Verrières Ridge.

In the afternoon, the 6th Brigade's South Saskatchewan Regiment attacked the well-entrenched German positions on the ridge, with support from Typhoon fighter-bombers and tanks.

Throughout the first week of August, significant German resources were transferred from the Anglo-Canadian front to that of the Third United States Army, while reinforcements moved from Pas de Calais to the Falaise, Calvados area.

[citation needed] By 1 August 1944, the British had made significant gains on the Vire and Orne Rivers during Operation Bluecoat, while the Americans had achieved a complete breakthrough in the west.

This was halted within a day and, despite the increasingly dangerous threat presented by the Anglo-Canadian advance on Falaise, German commander Field Marshal Günther von Kluge was prohibited by Adolf Hitler from redeploying his forces.

[44] Thus, as American armoured formations advanced towards Argentan from the south, the Allies were presented with an opportunity to encircle large sections of the German Seventh Army.

[46] On 14 August, the First Canadian Army launched Operation Tractable with the aim of capturing Falaise and achieving a linkup with American forces in Chambois.

[48] The offensive was largely successful and, although the 2nd Division was not an active participant, divisional troops entered Falaise on 16 August as the remainder of First Canadian Army moved south-east towards Trun and Chambois.

The German forces committed to Normandy since D-Day had been virtually annihilated—by the end of Operation Tractable, the 12th SS Panzer Division, the main adversary of the Canadians, had lost 80% of its tanks,[50] 70% of its personnel carriers,[50] and 60% of its artillery.

[53] Although the Belgian White Brigade and elements of the 3rd British Division had entered Antwerp as early as 6 September, taking the city and docks, a strategic oversight meant that the nearby bridges over the Albert Canal were not seized, leaving the Germans in control of the Scheldt estuary.

[59] Operation Veritable was designed to bring the 21st Army Group to the west bank of the Rhine River, the last natural obstacle before entering Germany.

[61] The Germans had prepared significant defenses in depth, both within the outpost screen and the Siegfried Line itself,[61] and to add to the Canadians' difficulties, constant rain and cold weather obscured the battlefield.

[61][63] It was not until 3 March that the forest was cleared—during the intense close-quarter fighting, Major Frederick Tilston of the Essex Scottish Regiment won a Victoria Cross.

[71] In the nine days preceding their attack, German resistance had been light and uncoordinated[72] but opposition stiffened as the assault progressed, leading to heavy losses among the battalions of the 5th Brigade.

[73] By 13 April, the division had been shifted eastward to guard the flanks of a British assault on Bremen,[74] and the following day I Canadian Corps liberated Arnhem.

[77] I Cdn Corps 23 Dec 1941) Operation ELEMENT represented the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) response to the influx of irregular immigrants crossing into Canada from the United States.

To aid civil authorities manage this situation, the CAF deployed approximately 370 troops to build and maintain temporary accommodations at two sites: one at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, and one at the Nav Canada facility in Cornwall, Ontario.

The objectives of the CAF during this type of operation is threefold: to provide aid to civil authorities, to respond to the call to action swiftly and efficiently, and to stabilize natural disaster conditions.