Pacific Command (Canadian Army)

Pacific Command
Pacific Command
	Second World War, 1940–1946
Country	Canada
Branch	Canadian Army
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Maj.-Gen. George Pearkes, VC

Pacific Command was a formation of the

Yukon Territory) with Military District No. 13 (Alberta and the District of Mackenzie of the Northwest Territories). The command headquarters was initially housed in Esquimalt Fortress near Victoria, but on 30 November 1942 it was moved to the Old Hotel Vancouver in downtown Vancouver

.

After the

entered the war in December 1941, Canada and the U.S. coordinated their defence of the west coast of North America. Thus Pacific Command operated in close cooperation with Western Defense Command to the south and with Alaska Defense Command

to the north.

The troops of Pacific Command were concentrated in the three strategic coastal centres:

Victoria-Esquimalt, the capital of British Columbia and the location of Canada's Pacific naval base and headquarters
Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia, Canada's largest port on the Pacific, and the Pacific terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Prince Rupert, the second Pacific terminus of the Canadian National Railway (in addition to Vancouver)

By the middle of the war a significant proportion of the troops of Pacific Command were conscripts under the

Terrace Mutiny occurred in November 1944 among troops of Pacific Command when it was learned that the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had decided to start sending conscripts to Europe to reinforce depleted combat units.^{[citation needed}

]
In August 1943 troops of Pacific Command participated in Operation Cottage, in the final stages of the Aleutian Islands campaign. However, that campaign ended without a shot being fired at the enemy when it was discovered that the Japanese occupiers of Kiska had already evacuated the island. The only "enemy" the Pacific Command troops inflicted upon physically were American forces, after a Canadian soldier mistakenly shot at American lines, causing a sporadic friendly fire incident between the two forces that left 28 Americans and four Canadians dead, with 50 others injured.^[1]
Apart from one incident when
fire balloons launched from Japan between November 1944 and April 1945, the feared military threat from Japan never materialized. The two home defence infantry divisions attached to Pacific Command were thus broken up and their personnel were redistributed to other formations.^{[citation needed}
]
General Order Number 21/1946, dated 28 January 1946, effective 23 January 1946 authorized five commands, among which was the new Western Command, which appears to have absorbed the area of the former Pacific Command.^[2]

Composition

Victoria and Esquimalt Fortress
31st (Alberta) Reconnaissance Regiment
, CAC

5th (B.C.) Coast Regiment, RCA

27th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA

21st Field Regiment, RCA

3rd Battalion,
The Regina Rifle Regiment

1st Battalion,
Le Régiment de Hull

Vancouver Defences
15th (Vancouver) Coast Regiment, RCA

28th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA

1st Battalion,
The Royal Rifles of Canada

1st Battalion,
The Canadian Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)

Prince Rupert Defences
17th (North British Columbia) Coast Regiment, RCA

29th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA

34th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA (at Annette Island, Alaska)

One battery of the 22nd Field Regiment, RCA

1st Battalion,
The Midland Regiment (Northumberland and Durham)

1st Battalion,
The Winnipeg Grenadiers

Two companies of 1st Battalion,
King's Own Rifles of Canada

30th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA (Vancouver Island)

Pacific Coast Militia Rangers

Pacific Command Water Transport Company, R.C.A.S.C.

19th Infantry Brigade, Command Reserve (Vernon)

6th Canadian Infantry Division (Vancouver Island), Mar. 1942 - Dec. 1944
Divisional troops based in Esquimalt

13th Infantry Brigade (Port Alberni)

18th Infantry Brigade (Nanaimo)

8th Canadian Infantry Division (Northern British Columbia), Mar. 1942 - Oct. 1943
Divisional troops based in Prince George

14th Infantry Brigade (Terrace)

16th Infantry Brigade (Prince George)

Commanders

The following three generals served as General Officers Commander-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Pacific Command:

Major-General Ronald Alexander, 30 October 1940 – 30 June 1942

Major-General George Pearkes, 2 September 1942 – 15 February 1945

Major-General Franklin Worthington, 1 April 1945 – 26 January 1946

See also

Atlantic Command (Canadian Army), the corresponding command on the Atlantic Coast

Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site, important coastal defence installation protecting the naval port at Esquimalt

References

^ "The Battle for Kiska", Canadian Heroes, canadianheroes.org, 13 May 2002, Originally Published in Esprit de Corp Magazine, Volume 9 Issue 4 and Volume 9 Issue 5

^ https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/organization/districts.htm

Stacey, C.P. The Canadian Army 1939-1945 (Queen's Printer, 1948)

Law, Clive M. Distinguishing Patches (Service Publications, Ottawa, 2002)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pacific_Command_(Canadian_Army)&oldid=1112468390"

[1] "The Battle for Kiska", Canadian Heroes, canadianheroes.org, 13 May 2002, Originally Published in Esprit de Corp Magazine, Volume 9 Issue 4 and Volume 9 Issue 5

[2] ttps://www.canadiansoldiers.com/organization/districts.htm

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