The Canadian Navy and the U-Boat War

[Kafka BC]

Battle of the Atlantic Day was just honoured here in Canada so I think I shall break my lurker status for a moment and share a few links to some very interesting reading about the often overlooked role the Royal Canadian Navy had in the critical years of the battle.

Crewed by hastily trained RCN Volunteer Reservists, exhausted and overstretched from constant escort duty and little time in port, and always poorly equipped, I think the little Flower class corvettes of our "Sheep Dog Navy" did remarkably well.

Legion Magazine: Preserving The Atlantic Lifeline
A good overview of Canadian participation.

Legion Magazine: The Fate Of Slow Convoy 42
About the first "confirmed" sinking of a U-Boat by the RCN and where Korvettenkapitan Hugo Forster jumped onto the deck of HMCS Moose Jaw from the conning tower of U-501.

NAVAL - Canadian Naval and Maritime History
Of particular intrest is the eight part "A Naval Officer's War" by Anthony Griffin who commanded HMCS Pictou from 1940 to 1943. Included in part 6 is the little tidbit that, before it was sunk, some of the crew of U-845 had gone ashore and went to see the movies in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Legion Magazine: The Newfoundland Escort Force
Has a bit about the (unacceptable to the Royal Navy) "Canadian Cowboy" style of attacking U-boats.

Naval History.CA: Tactics, Training, Technology and the RCN's Summer of Success, July-September 1942
Training and experience finally pays off. Includes the famous gun duel between U-210 and the destroyer HMCS Assiniboine. Pictures of which can be found here.

Legion Magazine: The Humble Corvette
Canadian corvettes were not quite the same as those used by the Royal Navy.


I should note that of the ships mentioned in these articles, HMCS Sackville is the last Flower Class Corvette in the world. She has been restored and can be seen at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia - not far from where I live.

HMCS Wetaskiwin became famous for her moniker "Wet Ass Queen", and her unofficial gunshield badge depicted a leggy beauty wearing a crown falling on her behind into a puddle.

Although not mentioned, HMCS Baddeck (named after the town where I was born, and the resting place of Alexander Graham Bell) had a gunshield badge depicting a poker hand of Five Aces. Can you get its meaning without looking it up. I didn't at first, shows you how much I play poker.


P.S. I hope you find these as interesting as I did. I posted them in this forum as I have learned a quite a bit from the SH3 forums in the past few months since I started playing the game, and the General Topics forum just didn't seem to fit. If a moderator thinks otherwise, please move at will.