Canada's wartime navy helped sustain a global logistics war

The Royal Canadian Navy became one of the world's largest fleets by hull count and tonnage during the Second World War. Canada and New Zealand both entered the conflict early and provided forces whose importance is easy to overlook in simplified fleet rankings. The war was a global contest of logistics and movement, in which ships carried the goods needed to keep industries operating and armies fighting. That history connects Commonwealth naval expansion to the Allies' ability to sustain a worldwide war, with fleet size serving the movement of forces and supplies.