Halifax’s role in the most important WW II mission you never heard of

In July 1940, as war raged in Europe, a British warship docked quietly in Halifax Harbour.

The cargo was labeled as fish, but it was actually gold and securities.

The ship was called HMS Emerald, and it carried the first shipment of British wealth to safety in Canada.

It was part of Operation Fish, a secret mission in which Halifax would play a key role in ensuring Britain's success in the Second World War.

By that time, the Atlantic Ocean had already become a graveyard for hundreds of Allied ships thanks to the huge fleet of German submarines.

But although the Germans sank hundreds of other ships that year, all the ships of Operation Fish reached Halifax safely.

In total, more than $200 billion worth of gold and securities passed through the Port of Halifax in 2025.

This remains the largest transfer of physical wealth in history.

When the gold and securities arrived in Halifax, they were inspected by Bank of Canada employees and loaded onto waiting carriages of the Canadian National Express train.

Escorted by hundreds of armed guards, the assets made their way to Montreal and then eventually ended up in Bank of Canada vaults in Ottawa.

“Winston Churchill just became prime minister at a dangerous time,” says Paul Doerr, a history professor at Acadia University.

Churchill made it clear in his speeches that the Nazis could defeat the British Isles militarily.

“He expected that if the work continued, it would be continued by the countries of the Empire, the Commonwealth, including, of course, Canada,” Dorr said.

“That's why gold reserves were withdrawn to allow these countries to continue the war and finance the war.”

The gold and securities held by the British government were significant.

Dorr noted that the Emergency Powers (Defense) Act 1939 allowed the government to force citizens to sell or transfer their foreign securities in exchange for British currency.

This mechanism was used to collect billions of dollars of foreign assets that were sent to Canada as part of Operation Fish.

Wealth was needed not only to escape the Nazis, but also on the other side of the Atlantic to purchase American weapons.

The United States was not yet in the war, and although Churchill had an ally in President Franklin Roosevelt, the isolationist movement was very strong, Doerr said.

The American “cash and carry” policy required immediate payment in gold or U.S. dollars for American-produced war materials, which Allied nations would then transport on their own ships.

The presence of wealth in Canada meant that Britain could access assets and sell them to satisfy US demands and continue to finance the war effort.

Although the transfer was successful and necessary, by the end of 1940 Britain's resources were almost exhausted.

As author Alfred Draper notes in his book about the 1979 operation, a desperate Churchill wrote to Roosevelt: “We will continue to pay dollars as much as we can, but I would like to be reasonably sure that when we cannot pay any more, you will still give us the money.”

As Britain's wealth dried up, Roosevelt replaced the cash-and-take approach with Lend-Lease, supporting the Allied war effort.

Operation Fish gave Britain the time it desperately needed to survive.

Halifax, which served as a secure gateway for a desperate government, played a silent but indispensable role.

He provided a war budget that financed the decisive fight against the Nazis, saving not only the British economy but perhaps the entire Allied cause.

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