This incident has almost escaped from the world’s attention. It happened at the start of World War 2. The Government of Britain moved a majority of Britain’s wealth by boat to Canada. Were not talking about a small sum of money, But over $300 billion worth of goal. Today over 75 years later, it remains the largest amount of wealth transferred from one country to another. The operation was named “Operation Fish” and here’s how it went.
In 1939 during the threat of war in Europe, the Bank of England decided to increase its gold reserves held at the Bank of Canada. During the summer of 1939 and early 1940 half a dozen ships mover over 100 tons of gold to Canada for safe storage.
When the war situation in Europe stated getting worse “Winston Churchill” gave the green light to commence “Operation Fish” which would massively accelerate the movement of gold and securities from England to Canada.
Using his wartime powers, Winston Churchill confiscated the securities that the British people were forced to register at the beginning of 1940 and included those in the shipment to Bank of Canada. By the end of this operation, 1.5k tons of gold and securities made its way to Canada worth over $300 billion.
The invasion of England was probably said to have occurred in the late 1940s by the mid of June. The German armed forces were on the French Channel coast and Netherland and Belgium already fell to the Nazis. France was on the verge of surrendering to the Nazis in June 1940. To make this even worse Italy joined hands with Germany in the war.
Moving Britain’s wealth to another country was not an easy decision. The only way to transport that much gold was by ship across “U-Boat” infested North Atlantic. In may 1940 over 100 ships were sunk by the Nazis and this represented 41% of all ship’s tonnage and with only one U-Boat loss.
History wasn’t on Britain’s side either as they tried to evacuate their wealth to Canada during world war 1 but failed. The ships were sunk during that time by a German Submarine. The goal of “Operation Fish” was if England fell to the Nazis, Churchill would run the Commonwealth from Montreal and the gold would be used to fund the war by buying Planes, Tanks, Guns and ammunition from Canada and USA.
This time the sea’s were rough on British which almost ruined the operation, high seas forced the ships to slow down making it an easy target for any enemy U-Boats.
Though they managed to unload the goal in the port of Halifax, and with over 300 armed guards taken by train to Montreal to drop off the gold at the bank. The shipment was divided into two one with securities which was moved to Montreal and the other with gold which was transferred to Ottawa.
The securities in Montreal worth over $260 billion (today worth) was locked in an underground vault and was guarded by Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers 24/7. In Ottawa, 1.5k tons of gold bars were stored. The gold was said to fill a 6000 square foot vault below the bank. The bank made few retired staffs come over to check out and organize the gold and securities. By the end of this operation, it is said that Canada was the only place in the whole world to store that much amount of gold in a single place.
For Winston Churchill, it was nothing more than a big gamble that paid handsome dividends. During this mission over 134 boats were sunk in North Atlantic. But not even a single boat with gold or securities were sunk. Operation Fish remained a secret until the end of the war and the truth is said that not even a single piece of gold or securities went missing and it is said that the world won’t see another big shipment of wealth again.
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