United States Army in World War II
Special Studies

Military Relations Between the United States and Canada, 1939-1945

by

Colonel Stanley W. Dzuiban

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY
DEEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 1959


This volume, one of the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, is the fifth to be published in the subseries Special Studies. All the volumes will be closely related, and the series will present a comprehensive account of the activities of the Military Establishment during World War II. A tentative list of subseries is appended at the end of this volume.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 59-60001


For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D.C.


UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
Kent Roberts Greenfield, General Editor

Advisory Committee
(As of 1 January 1958)

Elmer Ellis
University of Missouri
          Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Newman
U.S. Continental Army Command
Samuel Flagg Bemis
Yale University
          Brig. Gen. Edgar C. Doleman
Army War College
Gordon A. Craig
Princeton University
          Brig. Gen. Frederick R. Zierath
Command and General Staff College
Oron J. Hale
University of Virginia
          Brig. Gen. Kenneth F. Zitzman
Industrial College of the Armed Forces
W. Stull Holt
University of Washington
          Col. Vincent J. Esposito
United States Military Academy
 
T. Harry Williams
Louisiana State University
 
Office of the Chief of Military History
Maj. Gen. Richard W. Stephens, Chief
Chief Historian   Kent Roberts Greenfield
Chief, Histories Division   Col. Seneca W. Foote
Chief, Editorial and Publication Division   Lt. Col. E. E. Steck
Editor in Chief   Joseph R. Friedman
Chief, Cartographic Branch   Elliot Dunay
Chief, Photographic Branch   Margaret E. Tackley

--iii--

 

. . . to Those Who Served

 


Foreword

As late as the beginning of 1940, with World War II several months old, military liaison between Canada and the United States was so scant that they had not even exchanged service attachés. Yet the two countries and their armed forces were inevitably brought into extensive and intimate collaboration in the prosecution of World War II. This study is a historical record of the military and politico-military aspects of this collaboration.

The impact of advancing technology since World War II on time and space factors has demonstrated ever more forcefully that the defense problem of the two countries is a continuing one requiring joint solutions. In consequence, the two countries have in recent years been drawn into even closer co-operation.

This study is intended to provide background information to staff officers currently involved in defense planning, to officers on exchange duty with the Canadian armed forces, and to officers in the service schools preparing for such duties. Since many of the current joint problems are similar to those of World War II, these officers should find in the record of World War II experience guidance which will help them achieve the optimum solutions to their current problems.

From the analyses of the politico-military relationships between the two countries, many lessons can be gleaned by Americans of both the military and the diplomatic services, as well as by civilian scholars. The study will perhaps be similarly useful to Canadians. In its broader aspects, the experience recorded herein may be applicable, with interpretation, to similar arrangements between other pairs of neighboring countries or within a multilateral security arrangement.

The author of this volume, Col. Stanley W. Dziuban, began work on it early in 1950 to satisfy the doctoral dissertation requirement of Columbia University, from which he received a Ph.D. degree in 1955. Colonel Dziuban, a 1939 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, is at present assigned as Deputy Division Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer Division, New England.

--vii--

The subject of his book was selected upon recommendation of the Office of the Chief of Military History and with the endorsement of the Director, Plans and Operations Division, General Staff. Publication has been delayed because the greater part of the work on the volume had to be done by the author in his off-duty hours and because almost a year was consumed in obtaining the necessary clearances from the authorities concerned.

Washington, D.C.
1 February 1958
R. W. STEPHENS
Maj. Gen., U.S.A.
Chief of Military History

--viii--

Preface

This study contains a detailed account of how the United States joined with Canada to thwart the Axis threat to North America and how the two nations together cast their resources in the balance to help tip the scales decisively against the Axis Powers. The common effort ranged from the prosaic growing of wheat to the climactic development of the atomic bomb. In the defense of their homelands, North Americans accomplished epic feats and experienced high adventure as they built roads, pipelines, telephone lines, and air bases in the raw Arctic wilderness, in some instances in areas never before penetrated by white man.

Canadian and U.S. armed forces undertook their strategic and logistical operations initially to repel the advance of German and Japanese forces toward North America and subsequently to help drive the enemy to defeat. In executing those operations, Canadians and Americans worked and fought shoulder to shoulder on land and on sea and in the air, and together solved in a spirit of co-operative friendship the countless problems that arose.

Prepared primarily as a doctoral dissertation in the field of international relations, this study also strives to present a rounded military history of the co-operation between the two countries. As a consequence it includes, on the one hand, material such as that in Chapters IX and X which contributes only marginally to an analysis of the politico-military collaboration. It covers, on the other hand, a number of matters normally outside the scope of a military history.

The political and military relationships that evolved between the two North American neighbors are examined, as is the impact of the great disparity between them in size and resources. The influx of U.S. forces into Canada posed many problems, one of the most significant of which was the jurisdictional status of those forces. The need to protect Canadian sovereignty motivated Canada, which had had for decades carefully to nurture that sovereignty, to guard against all encroachments. The two countries worked out a variety of joint mechanisms and arrangements for the joint operations of their forces, the joint construction and utilization of facilities, and the

--ix--

joint control of other enterprises of common interest. In these arrangements, Canada's status as a British Commonwealth nation and the joint U.S.-United Kingdom direction of global war strategy emerge as two basic complicating factors.

As the bibliographical note indicates in detail, the study is based largely on official records. Full access was given the author to the pertinent official U.S. records. Within the limitations imposed by a few gaps in, and by the character of, contemporary documentation, the factual record chronicled can be considered authoritative. Because the source material included documents still classified as secret, the study was submitted for and received military security clearance. The author was not required as a result of that review to make textual changes. Such review constitutes no official endorsement of the study, and where the author sets forth hypotheses, analyses, conclusions, or recommendations, they are presented solely as his own views and upon his own responsibility. They do not and cannot purport to represent the views of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

Acknowledgment is due the Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to reproduce material from The Second World War by Winston Churchill, and to Messrs. Joseph C. Grew, McGeorge Bundy, and Henry Morgenthau, Jr., for access kindly provided to, respectively, the Pierrepont Moffat, Stimson, and Morgenthau diaries.

No attempt has been made to use records of the Canadian Government, excepting insofar as they were in the public domain or were to be found in files of U.S. agencies. Even assuming that these records might have been accessible to this researcher, their exclusion would have been dictated by considerations of time and labor. This omission imposes limitations on the study, the full impact of which can be appraised when a comparable study is presented from the Canadian point of view.

Many persons have contributed to the preparation of this study. Helpful review and comment were generously offered by Brig. Gen. Paul M. Robinett (retired), of the Office, Chief of Military History, Department of the Army; Professor W. T. R. Fox and the late Professor J. Bartlet Brebner, of Columbia University; Maj. Gen. Guy V. Henry (retired), U.S. Chairman of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, Canada-United States; the late Capt. Tracy B. Kittredge, U.S. Navy; Maj. Gen. R. J. Wood and Col. Francis J. Graling, U.S. Army; and Drs. Byron Fairchild and Rose Engelman, of the Office, Chief of Military History. Substantive contributions through correspondence, personal interview, or review of portions of the study were made by many officers who participated in the events chronicled. These officers are listed

--x--

in the bibliographical note. The author is also grateful for the help of other individuals who must go unnamed.

Dr. Stetson Conn, Deputy Chief Historian of the Office, Chief of Military History, and Helen McShane Bailey, editor of this volume, shared the burden of reviewing and preparing the manuscript for publication in its present form. Margaret E. Tackley, Chief of the Photographic Branch, Office, Chief of Military History, selected the photographs. Franklin F. Marsh and Myrna Thompson prepared the index. The author alone stands responsible, not only for the analyses and conclusion drawn, but also for the scholarship and workmanship of the study as a whole.

Washington, D.C.
1 February 1958
STANLEY W. DZIUBAN
Colonel, U.S. Army

--xi--

Contents

  Foreword vii
  Preface ix
Chapter   Page
I. Chataqua to Ogdensburg 1
    Seeds of World War II Cooperation 3
    Backdrop for Ogdensburg 4
    Initial Canadian Approaches 13
    The Ogdensburg Declaration 22
II. The Permanent Joint Board on Defense 31
    Organization and Composition 33
    Modus Operandi 38
    Scope of Responsibilities 46
    Collaboration Through the Board 52
III. Partnership Versus Triangle 55
    The Roosevelt-Churchill Axis 55
    North Atlantic Triangle 59
    The Stresses of Partnership 69
    Canadian Staff Representation in Washington 71
    The Combined Agencies 77
IV. Joint Defense Planning 86
    Initial Defense Plans 86
    Early Supply Assistance 90
    Strengthening the Garrisons 95
    ABC-1 and ABC-22 101
    Putting Plans Into Action 106
V. Organization of Command 109
    Unity of Operational Command 110
    Local Command Arrangements 116
    Organization for the Logistical Tasks 126
    Organizational Chaos 131
VI. Hemisphere Defense Problems 142
    The Twenty-second Chair 143
    Securing Greenland 149
    The Defense of Iceland 155
    St. Pierre and Miquelon 158
    Summary 160
VII. Operations in the Eastern Areas 162
    The Lease and Construction of Newfoundland Bases 162
    Defending Newfoundland 170
    North Atlantic Ferry Operations 181
    Sault Sainte Marie 193

VIII. Activities in Western Canada 199
    The Northwest Staging Route 200
    The American Construction Phase 207
    Traffic Along the Staging Route 215
    The Alaska Highway 217
    The Canol Project 228
    Communications and Weather 236
    The Prince Rupert Port 238
IX. Comrades in Arms 241
    Battle of the Atlantic 242
    Securing Alaska Against the Japanese 252
    The First Special Service Force 259
    Canadian Army Pacific Force 268
X. Cooperation in Other Fields 273
    Administration and Personnel 274
    The Rush-Bagot Agreement 278
    Miscellaneous Co-operation 280
    Research and Development 284
    Arsenals of Democracy 289
XI. Problems in Jurisdiction 296
    Jurisdiction Over Friendly Foreign Forces 296
    Airway Traffic Control 301
    Military Air Services 306
    Maintenance and Control of Bases 313
XII. Mission Accomlished 317
    Beginning the American Roll-up 317
    The Northern Airfields Settlement 320
    Disposals Under the Thirty-third Recommendation 325
    Special Dispositions 329
    The 12 February 1947 Statement 334
    The Lessons of World War II 339
Appendix
A. Recommendations of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, Canada-United States, 26 August 1940-1 September 1945 347
B. First Report of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, Canada-United States. 366
C. Extract of Journal of Discussions and Decisions for Meeting of Permanent Joint Board on Defense, Canada-United States, on 26 February 1942 370
D. Hyde Park Declaration by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King regarding Cooperation in War Production. 373
E. The 12 February 1947 Joint Statement on Defense Collaboration 374
Bibliographical Note 377
Chronology of Statements in the Canadian House of Commons 393
Glossary of Abbreviations  
Index 399
Tables
No.   Page
1. Membership of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, Canada-United States: 22 August 1940-1 September 1945 36
2. Meetings of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense: 26 August 1940-31 December 1945 39
3. Combined Canadian-United States Production of Selected Munitions: 1 July 1940-31 August 1945 290
4. United States Lend-Lease Aid: 11 March 1941-31 December 1955 293
5. Canadian Mutual Aid Board Expenditures 294
6. Canada's War Production During the Mutual Aid Period: 1 September 1943-1 September 1945 295
7. Canadian-United States Expenditures on the Northern Airfields, Detailed by Projects 324
 
Chart
1. United States Administrative and Logistical Organization in Canada and Newfoundland: 1 April 1943 132
 
Map
1. Canada, Alaska, and Greenland (National Geographic Society Map) Inside back cover
 
Illustrations
Members of the Permanent Joint Board Arriving in Newfoundland 40
Quebec Conference, August 1943 67
Meeting at Quebec, August 1943 77
Brig. Gen. C. L. Sturdevant 129
Maj. Gen. W. W. Foster 138
Harbor Camp Area of the Greenland Base Command 153
155-mm. Gun Emplacement 176
Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia 185
Flight Strips at the Watson Lake Airport 208
U.S. Army Engineers Constructing a Pioneer Road 220
Sikanni Chief River Bridge 223
Train Plowing Through Deep Snow 226
Retreat Ceremony at Fort William Henry Harrison 261
Canadian and U.S. Soldiers of the First Special Service Force 263

All illustrations are from Department of Defense files.

Transcribed and formatted for HTML by Patrick Clancey, HyperWar Foundation