Canada joined the war in 1939 in solidarity with Britain, but like many nations it was unprepared for war and its army was still small at the oubreak of hostilities. PM Mackenzie King, well aware of the high price in lives Canada had paid in WWI, did not want to commit large numbers of troops overseas and had concerns it might trigger the issue of conscription and cause a rift between English and French Canada.

Canada was involved in fighting the war early on, including in the Battle of Britain and Battle of the Atlantic, as well as providing supplies, armaments and training of Commonwealth pilots under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, but there was increasing pressure from English Canadians to do even more.

When Britain asked Canada for help in reinforcing its Hong Kong colony, Canada agreed and sent two battalions. They were expecting garrison duty, not a full Japanese invasion. It was to be Canada's first land battle in WWII.

Japan had already been at war with China by 1937, but had avoided open conflict with the West at the time. Britain hoped that a show of force in Hong Kong, with Canadian troops added to the British and Indian units already there, would discourage or hamper any Japanese incursion. But this was not the army of D-Day that took Juno Beach in 1944, not yet. The batallions weren't at full-strength in 1941, or adequately trained for the type of warfare Germany and Japan had unleashed upon the world. There was also the notion that an Asian army couldn't possibly stand against a Western army. The batallions were quickly filled to full strength with inexperienced troops and dispatched to Hong Kong, arriving on November 16.

The garrison had few naval vessels -- and no air force. The Canadians' vehicles, on a separate ship, had instead arrived in Manila and diverted for use by American forces.

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 put the Western powers on notice that, far from being removed from the conflict engulfing Europe, the Pacific would be on the frontlines of it. Japan would invade Hong Kong six hours after Pearl Harbor.

The defence of Hong Kong itself is an intriguing but tragic story, as the under-manned and poorly supplied Allied forces were up against a battle-hardened and well-trained Japanese army. Still, there were many acts of valour and self-sacrifice by the defenders -- including an almost suicidal attack with bayonets, taking a position on Christmas Day only to learn hours later that Hong Kong had surrendered.

Capitulation would spell disaster for the colony, as both POW's and the civilian population suffered. While some Japanese units were disciplined, others went on a rampage of terror after the battle -- bayonetting wounded Allied soldiers in hospitals, killing and raping nurses, and mutilating prisoners. Many more POW's would die of illness or starvation in the prisoner camps.