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Canada and World War II

Canada and World War II. Battle of the Atlantic. Duration. Began September 3, 1939 with the sinking of the Montréal-bound passenger ship SS Athenia by a German submarine west of Ireland. Of the 1,400 passengers and crew, 118, including 4 Canadians, were killed.

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Canada and World War II

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  1. Canada and World War II Battle of the Atlantic

  2. Duration • Began September 3, 1939 with the sinking of the Montréal-bound passenger ship SS Athenia by a German submarine west of Ireland. • Of the 1,400 passengers and crew, 118, including 4 Canadians, were killed. • Considered to have been won by the Allies in 1943, although lasted the duration of the Second World War, which in Europe ended May 8, 1945. • Training, air cover, special intelligence plus more and better equipment turned the tide in favour of the Allies in mid-1943.

  3. Royal Canadian Navy • Began the war with 13 vessels: • 6 destroyers • 3,500 personnel • At the end of the war the RCN was the third largest navy in the world. • 373 fighting ships • over 110,000 members, all of whom were volunteers • including 6,500 women who served in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Services. • The main responsibility of the RCN was to escort of merchant ship convoys. • The first convoy sailed from Halifax on September 16, 1939, escorted by the Canadian destroyer St. Laurent. • By mid-1942, the RCN, with support from the RCAF, was providing nearly half the convoy escorts, and afterwards carried out the lion's share of escort duty. • Approximately 2,000 members of the RCN died during the war, and 24 RCN vessels were sunk. • Canadian aircraft and ships, alone or in consort with other ships or aircraft, sank 50 U-boats.

  4. Depth charges being dropped by HMCS Saguenay (PA 116840)

  5. A Consolidated VLR Liberator provides air-cover for a transatlantic convoy. (PA 107907)

  6. Merchant Marine • On August 26, 1939 all Canadian merchant ships passed from the control of their owners to the control of the RCN. No Canadian-registered ship or merchant ship in a Canadian port could sail without the RCN's authority and direction. • When the war began Canada had 38 ocean going merchant vessels of 1,000 tons or more. 410 merchant ships were built in Canada during the war. • More than 25,000 merchant ship voyages were made.

  7. U-Boats (Unterseebooten) • German submarines were the main threat to merchant and other surface vessels. • Capable of remaining away from port for three months and more. • When submerged they operated on batteries which had to be re-charged by their diesel engines at surface level. • U-boats were improved in 1943, with acoustic torpedoes and schnorkels, which drew air inside sub and expelled exhaust fumes, allowing vessel to recharge its batteries while beneath the surface. • Carried up to 21 torpedoes and also laid mines. • Could dive below the surface in roughly 30 seconds. • In one month — June 1941 — over 500,000 tons of Allied shipping were lost to U-boats. • By March 1945, 463 U-boats were on patrol, compared to 27 in 1939.

  8. Allied tanker torpedoed in Atlantic Ocean by German submarine. Ship crumbling amidship under heat of fire, settles toward bottom of ocean, 1942 (NARA photo NWDNS-80-G-43376)

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