In WW2, Britain smuggled all of its gold to Canada. How on earth did they do it?

"Operation Fish was the largest transfer of physical wealth in history", writes Kavita Puri

A historical workshop scene with three men working among stacks of rectangular metal bars. One man sits at a desk writing, another operates a large mechanical device with gears and levers, and a third stands nearby wearing an apron as if supervising. Metal ingots are piled on a wheeled cart and a wooden pallet in the foreground, and a tall stack of papers rises against the back wall.

Published: August 5, 2026 at 4:00 PM

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I was recently lucky enough to be in the basement of the Bank of England in one of the rooms that hold gold reserves. It’s unusual in life to be stunned, but I was, as I saw rows and rows of gold bars, with rooms off the side glinting gold, and more in storage. The Bank of England has around 400,000 bars of gold worth more than £200bn. It is the second largest keeper of gold in the world after the New York Federal Reserve. But the gold doesn’t all belong to Britain. The Bank of England also provides safe keeping for overseas central banks, corporations and individuals.

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Seeing these rooms, and how heavy each bar is, it’s incredible to think that during the Second World War Britain moved its entire gold, as well as treasure and securities, worth many billions of pounds today, by boat to Canada in a top-secret mission. It was named Operation Fish and was sanctioned by the wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.

By June 1940, the Netherlands and Belgium had fallen to the Nazis. The enemy was in Paris and German forces had reached the Channel. There was a real threat of an invasion. The aim of Operation Fish was that if Britain fell to the Nazis, Churchill would run the country and empire from Montreal. Gold reserves and securities would be used to fund the war effort from Canada.

But moving the country’s wealth was hugely risky. Gold and securities needed to be transported by ship across the North Atlantic which was full of German U-boats. The ships – including HMS Revenge, HMS Emerald and HMS Enterprise – sailed in convoy, and history was not on their side. In 1917, the SS Laurentic, carrying 43 tonnes of gold from Liverpool to Halifax, had sunk after being struck by mines off Ireland.

Some of the boats that left during the summer of 1940 almost didn’t make it because of bad weather, which slowed them down, leaving them vulnerable to U-boat attacks. Another had engine problems, which had to be fixed during the journey. Incredibly, not one of the boats carrying gold and securities in the operation was sunk, even though, in May 1940, more than 100 other boats were sunk by the enemy in the North Atlantic. However, one merchant ship – Niagara – carrying gold from New Zealand, was sunk. Its bullion was later recovered.

The British boats arrived in Halifax with cargo labelled ‘fish’. They were inspected by officials from the Bank of Canada and loaded onto a waiting train, escorted by hundreds of armed guards and bank officials. The train made its way to Montreal, and the gold was sent to the vaults of the Bank of Canada while the securities headed to the Sun Life Assurance Company. The entire operation was secret until after the war. Even employees of the Canadian banks had no idea what was in their vaults. Not one piece of gold bullion or even a gold coin went missing.

In addition to saving gold and securities from the Nazis, having Britain’s wealth on the other side of the Atlantic meant it was able to buy American weapons. The United States had not yet entered the war, and under the Neutrality Act the purchase of American-made war materials had to be an immediate payment in gold or US dollars. Allied nations then had to transport the weapons on their own ships. With Britain’s wealth in Canada, it meant it was able to access and sell assets to meet this US requirement and carry on funding its war effort around the world.

Operation Fish was the largest transfer of physical wealth in history. It was an epic feat, and given the number of people involved, it’s remarkable it stayed secret for the duration of the war. But what’s more, given the extraordinary journey, against the odds, and what the successful mission meant for Britain’s ability to fight the war, it’s surprising this momentous moment in history is not better known today.

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This article was first published in the August 2026 issue of HistoryExtra Magazine

Authors

Kavita Puri

Kavita Puri is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A new edition of her book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, marking the 75th anniversary of partition, is out now, published by Bloomsbury

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