The 1950 invasion by North Korea drew world-war allies, including Canada, into another fray
Two days after North Korean troops unexpectedly invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, the United Nations called on its members for help to stop the attack and restore peace. Canada’s first military response was to send in the navy.
On a peacetime footing, neither the army nor the air force could quickly deploy 11,000 kilometres overseas. But Royal Canadian Navy destroyers had been preparing for deployment for NATO manoeuvres, and three were anchored in Esquimalt, B.C.
On July 5, HMC ships Cayuga, Athabaskan and Sioux set sail, the first of eight Canadian destroyers and 3,621 naval personnel to serve in the Korean War.
“They drafted 90 of us ordinary seamen from our training…to the three d...