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European Tensions |
War |
Mobilization | Poland -
France | Battle of
Britain | Dieppe |
North
Atlantic |
Training the Empire | The
Pacific | Quebec
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Home Front |
Sicily |
Italy | Conscription
| Normandy |
France |
Netherlands |
Germany
The Battle of the North Atlantic was the longest battle
of the Second World War and possibly the most decisive
of the conflict. It was also a battle in which Canada
was not only one of the main combatants but it stretched
deep into Canadian territory and impacted the homeland
directly. After
Britain's European
allies had fallen to the power of Germany's Blitzkrieg,
the island nation was reduced to dependence upon the sea
lanes which reached around the world to it's empire
supporters and to neutral countries such as the U.S.
which were essential to England's survival.
Germany's First World War strategy of
using U-Boats to cut Britain off from these lifelines
was improved and extended when the war did not come to
Hitler's expected quick end after the fall of France.
The battle began explosively with the sinking of allied
shipping b the U-boats and the hunting of those U-boats
by allied war ships.
In September of 1939
as war broke out, the Canadian Navy had only 13 ship
with 1,819 sailors. The Canadian navy was expanded
quickly and training of the naval personal stepped up to
meet unquenchable demands. By December 1941 the Canadian
Navy had more the 27,000 sailors in service in the North
Atlantic, The German U-boats were quickly sinking allied
ships and in the first year of this battle, over 1000
merchant ships were sunk by German U-boats. This was to
be a battle marked by scientific advances. Both sides
vied with one another to gain an edge in this gigantic
struggle. From radar, to better ships to better electric
batteries on the U-boats, to the breaking of the German
code, it was a seesaw contest. When the U.S. entered the
war in December of 1941 an additional effort was made to
go after the U-boats.
In order to provide
more protect for the allied convoys, Canada embarked on
a crash program of building corvettes which were small
then a destroyer but effective at finding and destroying
U-Boats. By January of 1942 it looked as though the
Germans were going to win the Battle of the North
Atlantic as they were sinking more allied ships then
could be built. In May 1942 the British broke the German
naval code and were able to intercept u-boat and wolf
pack attacks before they happened. As the addition of
long range bombers and smaller aircraft carriers with
air cover started to come on line the allies gained a
little more space in the race to sink the u-boats before
they got the merchant ships. In December 1942 the
British broke another German code which enabled them to
track the U-boats even more closely. The tide of battle
was changing and the allies were now producing more
ships then were being sunk and the U-boats were starting
to experience severe loses.
Canada was providing half the escorts in
service and the U-boat menace had begun to crumble by
December of 1943. The battle was just about over and
with the invasion of France in 1944 and the capturing of
the U-boat bases on the French coast and the intense
bombing of the U-Boat land bases, victory could be
assured. By 1945
the Canadian navy had over 400 ships and over 100,000
sailors in service. The Germans were defeated and the
war was over in Europe. As the Canadian navy was
beginning to reposition for the war in the Pacific the
atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and the war came to
an end in August of 1945.
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