This represented 41% of all ship tonnage and with only one U-boat loss. In May of 1940 over 100 ships were sunk by the Nazis. The only way to transport the tons of gold and securities was by ship across the U-boat-infested North Atlantic. Moving Britain’s wealth to Canada was not an easy decision. To make matters worse, Italy entered the war on Germany’s side. France was on the verge of capitulation with the Nazis parading into Paris in June of 1940. The German armed forces were on the French Channel coast and Netherlands and Belgium already fell to the Nazis. The invasion of England was a very real possibility by mid-June in 1940. By the end of Operation Fish over 1,500 tons of gold made its way to Ottawa, and Over $300 billion in securities to Montreal. Using their wartime powers, the Churchill government confiscated the securities that the British people were forced to register at the beginning of 1940 and included those in the shipments to Canada. With these ships having successfully tested the waters, and the war situation in Europe turning grave, Winston Churchill gave the green light to “Operation Fish” which would massively accelerate the movement of gold and securities from England to Canada. During the summer of 1939 and early 1940 half a dozen ships (including HMS Emerald, Southampton, Glasgow) moved over 100 tons of gold to Canada for safe storage. With storm clouds gathering in 1939 and the threat of war in Europe, the Bank of England decided to increase its gold reserves held at the bank of Canada in Ottawa. It’s called Operation Fish and here is how it went down. Today, over 75 years later, it remains the world’s largest transfer of wealth from country to country. It makes the wealth moved offshore in the Panama Papers leak seem small. Now, we are not talking about a little bit of money, but over $300 billion worth of gold and securities (in today’s dollars).
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