Gallery 3 Forged in Fire

The Second World War, 1931-1945

For many Canadians, memories of the Second World War are still vivid. Gallery 3 chronicles the rise of aggressive dictatorships that, by 1939, had plunged the world into history's greatest and most terrible war. On land, at sea, and in the air, Canadians fight in almost every part of the world; at home, the country mobilizes to produce food, weapons, and supplies of all kinds. An aroused racism targets Canadians of Japanese descent as potential enemy aliens; women crowd into factories for war work or volunteer for military service; German submarines plague the Gulf of St. Lawrence; a Canadian general leads an entire army in Europe. The Museum's largest and most-visited gallery, will sweep you from the dark waters of the North Atlantic to the streets of Hong Kong and from the villages of Normandy to the British Columbia coast.