Operation Fish: The Fake Fish Shipment That Moved Britain’s Gold

At 7:35 a.m. on July 1, 1940, a shipment waited at Halifax harbour. On paper, it was fish. The dock was sealed, armed guards stood around it, and outsiders were kept away. Inside were 2,229 boxes of gold and about 500 boxes of securities, estimated at £30 million in bullion and £200 million in securities at the time.

The ship was HMS Emerald. It had crossed more than 4,600 kilometres from Britain to Canada while German U-boats hunted vessels across the North Atlantic. That evening, the boxes were moved to a sealed train under guard and sent toward Montreal and Ottawa. This was part of Operation Fish, the plan to move Britain’s strategic assets beyond the reach of a German occupation.