To continue from before...
Big changes so far:
Army - WW2 starts with twice the size of trained troops plus full modern equipment. No troops parcelled off to Hong Kong
Airforce - BCATP in place, modern hurricanes equipping airforce, no bomber command 6th Bomber Group
Navel - large (ish?) DD fleet with small number of CL vessel and large merchant marine fleet.
Political - NFLD and Caribean islands under Canada in exchange for financing in Great depression. Universal rights for all citizens.
Economic - Much larger population than OTL and much larger industrial capacity. Spitfire and hurricanes produced in surplus for example.
1940 and the fall of France:
RCN vessels are getting practiced at convoy escorts but lack of anti-submarine detection is an issue. Boffins given orders to try to figure out where they are. Coastal command experience with patrols from land bases leads to push for long distance, versitile planes and PBY-Catelina planes are purchased in increasing numbers from the USA. Additional orders are placed for DC-3/C-47 transports as logistics are an issue and many trained pilots, in part to learning on bush planes, have multi-engine experience but lack full suitability for fighter planes. The Army has one equiped division in England which is sent as a support role for British troops due to their unknown training status while a second division is working up for overseas deployment in Canada. Initial battles with British and German troops see little actions for Canadians until German firepower pushes the troops back to rear areas and threatens the Canadian's happy hour beer time. Opening up with not only machine guns but AT guns, beer empties (or so the legend goes) and hockey pucks the Canadians throw enough firepower at lead german armoured units that the Germans surrender, cut off and unable to escape. Captured tanks are quickly used to tow beer coolers and other critical supplies into position while troops begin a series of fall back repositionings due to reports of widespread collapeses along the lines.
With the german army fully involved with flanking around the Maginot line the RCN steams for the Dutch coast and offers to evacuate any citizens who wish (and can reach them) transport to England while RCAF squadrons try to maintain overhead protection. While only a couple of thousand Dutch civilians are able to be evacuated the list includes much of the Dutch government and Royal family who vow to continue the fight. Relying upon the large amount of truck transportation available with each Canadian army division troops begin to try to truck and tow additional wagons and supplies to caches behind the lines for pick-up. Shuttle runs quickly become favorite targets of german bombers who joke about the Canadians fleeing with everything they can including the hay stacks due to wagons being pressed into service towed behind trucks filled with troops. While comical these changes allow for hundreds of additional Allied troops to be evacuated to rear areas while able bodies troops are conscripted to fill holes in the ranks caused by rear guard actions.
Although the RCN has more vessels than OTL the flood of allied troops headed to the Channel ports means that shipping is needed and NOW. In an act of despiration the RCN sees the upcoming disaster and mobilizes anything it can to head to England and dozens of merchant RCNVR registered vessels head accross the ocean ranging from the sailing vessel Bluenose to large caribean yachts. Despite a lack of official orders the RCN orders ships to start "port visits" as part of patrols which start in France and end in England resulting in thousands of troops pouring into England. As the RCNVR vessels start to arrive complaints start to flood in of "drunken sailors, claiming to be Canadian, coming from Caribean and flying a pirate flag beneath the colors" leading the Admiral to state to politicians that "well what do you do with a drunken sailor? We've got them here ready to fight for you".
Although the single Canadian division can not cover all aspects of the impeding defeat the heavy equipment saved through truck transport is enough to slow German encirclement of the forces at Dunkirk until over 350,000 troops are evactuated. An additional 150,000 troops are saved from ports such as Cherborg where captured tanks and german POW's are marched/drove directly onto frighters.
Unfortunately for Canada these efforts are at a cost and over 10 DD are damaged and sunk as part of the evacuation efforts and hundreds of RCNVR sailors are injured along with over 30% of the Canadian division being recorded as casulties. Remarkably, roll call following arrival in England records their strength at 110% following several arguments as to who was who as conscripted allied troops to fill the rank in France try to claim a presence within the RCA. This is allowed to stand with the condition that transfers to Canadian colors be formally arranged with Belgium, British, and French armed forces under the guise of voluntary transfers...otherwise Canada would accept the roll call as official.
Of the three services the RCAF is hardest hit with over half the planes out of service and dozens of pilots lost. Thankfully the BCATP is now punching out pilots by the dozen and additional squadrons are being filled with trained pilots literlly weekly....big bottleneck is now support crews as mechanics were taking longer to train up.
As a mark of service recognition the RCN grants all vessels involved with the initially illicit evacuation of troops the right to paint the Jolly Rodger upon it's mast and a similar recognition is granted to the RCAF pilots involved. This is the first of several uniquely Canadian traditions that continue to upset more formal allies along with Hockey and stealing hay stacks that come be annual traditions for troops on leave. Captured German armour is found to be vastly superiour to anything Canada and the allies have in terms of protection, speed, and profile but is actually found to be undergunned compared to newer British designs like the Matilda. Additional work is immediately started to scrap existing outdated designs and concentrate on more mobile, hard hitting units.
Ship losses and plane losses hurt efforts but aircraft producting is ramping up of both Hurricane and Spitfire marks with more cannon equiped planes coming off the lines. Navel vessels are being built at more and more yards with lessons learned from automanufacturing lines with many components assembled at factories then shipped to the shipyard for adding onto the vessel instead of trying to manufacture everything onsite. The dozen vessels, in a break from naming conventions, are named after famous pirates in additional recognition of the efforts of Dunkirk and construction races are started between many yards to ensure they get their influence on names. DD production has gone from pre-war 1 per 2 months to an astounding 3 per month, CL production from 2 per year to 4 per year and CA production is initiated due to concerns over lack of gun support.
Will try to get into Norway and other theaters soon..