Interwar Years
Imperial Adventure: HMCS Thiepval

In 1924, one of the few ships in the post-First World War Royal Canadian Navy, the Battle-class trawler HMCS Thiepval, became the first Canadian warship to visit the Soviet Union and Japan when it provided support for a British attempt to fly around the world.

Red Army Guards aboard HMCS Thiepval

Two Soviet soldiers on the deck of HMCS Thiepval, the first Canadian warship to visit the Soviet Union.

Despite the Canadian government's diplomatic efforts, Thiepval was greeted with suspicion by Soviet officials in Kamchatka, and the local governor insisted on two soldiers sailing with the ship to Petropavlovsk. Only five years before, Canada's military had been part of an international military intervention against the Bolshevik Revolution, a war that ultimately created the Soviet Union.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19710050-001_38