The+War+at+Sea

media type="file" key="War at Sea.mp3"

**The War at Sea**

When Canada went to war in 1939, its navy played a very important role. Britain could not defeat Germany unless food and military supplies were shipped in from North America. In fact, on its own, Britain could not produce enough food or military supplies to survive.

Since Britain is an island, Germany tried to form a blockade by surrounding the country with hundreds of U-boats (submarines). Individual submarines were vulnerable, especially when sailing on the surface, so they would hunt in groups called wolf packs to make it harder for Allied ships to sink them. They would surround their target and move in for the kill, just as wolves do in the wild.

To counteract the wolf packs, the Allies used a convoy system similar to the system used in World War I. The convoys often left North America from Canadian ports such as Halifax, sailing in groups of up to 30. The struggle between the wolf packs and the convoys became known as the **Battle of the Atlantic**. It was one of the crucial theatres (sites of action) of the war.

1. Go back to Unit 1 and find the information on convoys. Describe what a convoy is in your own words.

Frank Curry sailed on a corvette for five-and-a-half years as an ordinary seaman. He had spent his childhood in Winnipeg in the 1930s, listening excitedly to reports on the radio about events in Europe. When war was finally declared, he couldn't wait to sign up.

Curry had a rude awakening when he found himself out in the North Atlantic in a corvette, seasick and shivering with the cold, searching hour after hour in the darkness for any sign of German U-boats. "It was a shattering experience," he wrote.

The corvettes... were... marvellous ships for... escorting convoys. They could stay out for long periods of time. They were built simply as covers around engines and large oil tanks. The rest of the space - whatever was left over - was where they crammed in the crew. The only living space you could call your own was wherever you slung your hammock, and that could be anywhere, alongside a pipe or a boiler or a walkway. There weren't such things as cabins or sleeping quarters.

... [When I was called to duty] I would slide out of the hammock to the steel deck, always awash with seawater. I'd still be bone-tired and half sick, clutching at the stanchions, as the ship plunged and rolled, and I'd glance at the weary off-watch sailors wedged, fully clothed, as I had been, onto the lockers or in their hammocks, with their lifejackets wrapped around them. Frank Curry, quoted in Bill McNeil, //Voices of a War Remembered: An Oral History of Canadians in World War II// (Toronto: Doubleday Canada Ltd., 1991), pp. 291-292

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**The War Closes In on Canada's Shores**

At first, it seemed that the German U-boats might win. In 1942 alone, the wolf packs sank 1164 Allied ships. Britain's survival was on the line.

Some of the naval fighting took place close to Canada's shores. German U-boats were detected and sunk as they patrolled the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Submarines were also sunk off the coast of Nova Scotia, where they waited for convoys to pass. The Allied side lost merchant ships in the waters off Bell Island in Conception Bay. A Nova Scotia-Newfoundland ferry was also sunk, and 137 people died, including many women and children.

Recognizing the strategic location of Newfoundland, both Canada and the United States established military bases in Newfoundland and in Labrador. The Americans built a naval base at Argentia in Placentia Bay, an army base at Pleasantville near St. John's, and an air force base at Stephenville. Canadians and Newfoundlanders could no longer think of World War II as a distant war. By 1943, the convoys and the corvettes had improved their efficiency. The U-boats were less successful. As the year wore on, the wolf packs were in retreat, and supplies began to get through more regularly. As Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain said at the time, the tide had turned.

During the five years of the war, 25 000 merchant ships were convoyed across the Atlantic. Only the British navy played a larger role in winning the Battle of the Atlantic and winning the war in Europe.

<span style="font: 150% 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin: 0px;">**Did You Know?**

<span style="font: 150% 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin: 0px;">A German submarine, U-537, set up a weather station in Martin Bay, Labrador, to transmit weather signals to European stations. The signals were used to prepare weather forecasts for German ships and U-boats operating in the North Atlantic. The station was not discovered until 1980.