During World War 2, Canadian sailors and ships served around the world fighting German U-boats. The central focus was the Battle of the Atlantic, where U-boats attacked Allied convoys transporting supplies. The Royal Canadian Navy helped escort convoys and protect ships, while the navy and merchant navy faced threats from U-boats and the dangerous Atlantic Ocean.
During World War 2, Canadian sailors and ships served around the world fighting German U-boats. The central focus was the Battle of the Atlantic, where U-boats attacked Allied convoys transporting supplies. The Royal Canadian Navy helped escort convoys and protect ships, while the navy and merchant navy faced threats from U-boats and the dangerous Atlantic Ocean.
During World War 2, Canadian sailors and ships served around the world fighting German U-boats. The central focus was the Battle of the Atlantic, where U-boats attacked Allied convoys transporting supplies. The Royal Canadian Navy helped escort convoys and protect ships, while the navy and merchant navy faced threats from U-boats and the dangerous Atlantic Ocean.
During World War 2, Canadian sailors and ships served around the world fighting German U-boats. The central focus was the Battle of the Atlantic, where U-boats attacked Allied convoys transporting supplies. The Royal Canadian Navy helped escort convoys and protect ships, while the navy and merchant navy faced threats from U-boats and the dangerous Atlantic Ocean.
War at Sea During the Second World War, Canadian sailors and ships served around the world. The Battle of the Atlantic, however, was the central focus of the Royal Canadian Navy and Canada’s merchant navy.
The Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest especially in winter. Sailors faced bad weather, campaign of the Second World War, lasting large waves and ice. There was also the risk of from 1939 to 1945. German submarines, called colliding with ships in fog or at night. U-boats, attacked convoys of merchant ships Protecting Allied ships in the Atlantic was the transporting food, supplies and personnel. Royal Canadian Navy’s primary duty. In 1939, Canadian and Allied merchant ships and the navy was small, needing new ships as well their crews were vital to the Allied war effort. as training for many sailors. Canadian warships Canada’s merchant navy used cargo ships, helped escort convoys, watching for U-boats tankers and other kinds of vessels to carry and attacking them when they were detected. people, weapons and supplies to Britain and The Royal Canadian Air Force and Allied air other Allied countries. forces also helped protect convoys. Aircraft Along with the threat of German U-boats, could spot U-boats moving on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean itself was dangerous, the water and attack them.
The Navy in Canada
Throughout the war, the navy helped patrol Shipyards on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. German and on the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes U-boats attacked ships off the Atlantic coast. — built, repaired and maintained ships. The Several ships were even sunk near major ports navy trained thousands of new personnel, such as Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John’s, including women. Newfoundland. Ships were also attacked in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
warmuseum.ca/supplyline War at Sea 1
The Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service Like the army and the air force, the Royal The women who served in the WRCNS were Canadian Navy had a women’s branch, the often called “Wrens”. Nearly 7,000 Wrens Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service performed a wide variety of non-combatant (WRCNS), created in 1942. roles ashore, both in Canada and abroad.
Global Operations Canada’s navy also operated with Allied forces in Normandy, France, and in Allied invasions in European waters, carrying out patrols and elsewhere. In the Arctic Ocean, Canadian escorting convoys. Some Canadian ships ships and sailors took part in convoys to the and personnel served in the Mediterranean. Soviet Union. They also served in the war Others participated in the D-Day landings against Japan in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Aftermath During the war, the Royal Canadian Navy lost ships were lost to storms and accidents. 36 ships and nearly 2,000 men and women. More than 1,600 merchant mariners from The enemy sank about 70 merchant ships from Canada and Newfoundland, including eight Canada and Newfoundland. Other merchant women, were killed.
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Vocabulary U-Boat: A German submarine. It is an abbreviation for the German term Unterseeboot (undersea boat). Convoy: A group of ships or motor vehicles that travel together to support and protect each other. Convoys often have armed escorts to help provide protection. Allies: The countries, including Canada, that joined together in opposing the Axis powers during the Second World War. The largest Allied nations were the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China. Merchant Navy: During the Second World War, Canadian and Allied merchant ships and their crews were a vital part of the Allied war effort. Transporting personnel, munitions, weapons, and food across the world’s oceans, they faced enemy attack and the ever-present dangers of weather and accidents. Soviet Union: Name used to refer to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991), established in the wake of the 1917 Russian Revolution. It signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939, but became one of the Allies after Germany invaded it in June 1941.
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Timeline
3 SEPTEMBER 1939 JULY 1942
Sinking of the SS Athenia: Creation of the Women’s
the first Allied ship sunk in the Royal Canadian Naval Service. Battle of the Atlantic.
JUNE 1944 SEPTEMBER 1939 Canadian ships and sailors participate The first convoy of ships escorted in the D-Day landings. by the Royal Canadian Navy leaves Halifax for England.
MAY 1945
DECEMBER 1941 Germany surrenders.
Japan enters the war.
AUGUST 1945
MAY 1942 Japan capitulates.
The Battle of the St. Lawrence begins. In
1942, 1943 and 1944, German submarines patrol the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the lower St. Lawrence River, sinking naval and merchant ships.
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