As Japan ravaged the Pacific, Royal Canadian Air Force bombers flew to protect Alaska and British Columbia, shielding supply lines and, as Pierre Olivier shows, spawning a maritime mystery
The war in the Pacific was just weeks old by the time the Japanese were claiming major successes against the United States and the British Empire.
The conflict had started with a hard-hitting punch: on December 7, 1941, the Kidō Butai carrier group raided the key US anchorage at Pearl Harbor, devastating the capital vessels anchored in ‘Battleship Row’ and damaging base facilities. This was followed three days later with another decisive jab as Japanese aircraft sank the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the battleship Prince of Wales.
With the Royal Navy’s Force ‘Z’ destroyed and the US Pacific Fleet reeling, there was little to stand against the rising sun. Thailand fell and allied with its invader. The British colony at Penang fell too, as did Hong Kong, Wake and Guam, all by the end of December. Only the joint American-British-Dutch-Australian Command remained an obstacle, but this was responsible for a vast theatre stretching across the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.
