Howdy!

First and foremost, thank you for taking an interest in Canadian Military History! Often times we get overlooked despite playing a large role operationally despite our smaller number of troops. I’ll address your questions in the order you have asked in relation to the Army specifically. I can cover the Air Force and Navy in a follow on answer if you’d like, however the use of the soldier in your questions leads me to believe you are more interested in the Army. I will start by addressing how militarily independent the Canadian Military was during the Second World, however, prior to this you must understand the levels of war. The levels of war can typically be split into three distinct levels: tactical command, operational command, and strategic command. Tactical can be simplified to physical battlefield decisions made by tactical commanders up to the regimental level. This encompasses the physical movements by bodies of troops to pursue and destroy the enemy. Next, at the operational level commanders are concerned with a focus in a particular theatre of war and how one can overcome enemy forces thereby meeting strategic objectives outlined in that specific campaign planning. Finally there is the strategic level which can be simplified as the outcome is wanted from the conflict as a whole.

In terms of independence the Canadian Army had, on the operational and tactical levels, had quite the say in how operations were run having their own divisional and corps commands. Strategically the Canadian Corps were integrated into larger formations such as armies which typically fell under British command. A perfect example of this would be that during the Italian Campaign the I Canadian Corps (Consisting of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, 5th Canadian Armoured Division, and 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade) served under the British Eight Army. Unfortunately, due to political decisions back in Canada the II Canadian Corps and I Canadian Corps would not serve together in a unified theatre, with I Corps serving in the Italian Theatre and II Corps serving in the Normandy Theatre until early February 1945 where I Corps was redeployed from Italy to the European Lowlands forming the First Canadian Army which was responsible for the liberation of Lowland European countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and eventually into small portions of Germany). This severely hampered the Canadian military from executing its own will at the political/strategic level of warfare. An interesting little bit of information, however, was that in the Canadian Corps it was not uncommon for multinational divisions and brigades to fall under the operational command of Canadian generals. A prime example of this would be that the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade, Polish 1st Armoured Division, Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade and, the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division (from the UK) all served in II Canadian Corps during the Second World War. Normal Canadian military units did not, for the most part, serve under American command during the war with the exception being the First Special Service Force, often referred to as the Devil’s Brigade, which was a mixed Canadian-American unit designed for special/commando operations that fell under the command of the United States Fifth Army.

In terms of uniform and equipment the Canadian Army during the Second World War the typical equipment and uniform worn was generally the same as the UK with the only unique identifying features being the Canada shoulder flashes, regimental flashes, and divisional patches. The exception to this generalization again is the Devil’s Brigade which was outfitted with equipment from the United States Army. There were some examples of subtle differences of equipment such as the use of local materials in the manufacturing of the Lee-Enfield No.4 SMLE resulting in Canadian models having a darker red wood as opposed to their UK counterparts which tended to have a lighter wooden stock.

I hope this sufficiently answers your question and if you have any further questions about Canadian Military History please let me know. This is my first time answering on here so hopefully I’ve met the stringent requirements of answering here.

** Please ignore grammar errors, I wrote this at work at my lunch hour and didn’t have a ton of time to proofread the answer!

Sources

· Three Levels of War (Excerpt) https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~tpilsch/INTA4803TP/Articles/Three%20Levels%20of%20War=CADRE-excerpt.pdf

· Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War – Volumes I-III – Col C.P. Stacey and Gerald W.L. Nicholson