During World War 2, Canada was tasked with protecting Britain’s supply lines in the Atlantic.
Without them, Europe would fall in a matter of months.
Hitler knew that hitting Canada right at home would sever the incoming resources from America,
rendering Britain helpless for Operation Sealion, the complete invasion of England.
Subsequently, the Third Reich deployed over 15 U-Boats to cripple the Canadian Navy
and disrupt the flow of supplies from North America to England.
The U-boats torpedoed anything within reach, severely damaging or sinking
dozens of Canadian vessels, including a civilian ferry that was caught in the fire.
The nation had not had its waters penetrated by a foreign enemy since 1812,
and the frantic operation to repel Germany’s attacks and prevent further destruction of
Canada’s assets would become known as the legendary Battle of Saint Lawrence.
By that time, Canadians finally realized their
government’s desperate efforts to keep the supply to Europe open
even at the cost of hundreds of lives and how close the fight had actually come to them...
A Navy Out of Nothing
In 1939, when war erupted in Europe, Canada found itself lacking in maritime power.
The Royal Canadian Navy, or RCN, struggled for the past
decade amidst the dire financial situation that faced the nation.
Just a few months before Germany’s invasion of Poland, the King’s Cabinet had canceled the
production of four anti-submarine vessels and two motor torpedo boats destined for the RCN.
By September, Canada found itself at war against some of the mightiest world powers
while owning a mere 13 ships to defend both of its far-reaching coastlines.
To make the odds even greater, America seemed to have no intention of joining the war,
and Canada was given the crucial task of protecting the supply lines that nourished
England through the Atlantic Ocean, just as they had done before during World War 1.
If the supply lines were successfully cut off, Britain would not obtain the minimum
weapons and raw materials necessary to make a stand against Hitler. Crippling Britain in
such a way would surely mean the prompt fall of Europe before the expanding Third Reich.
Canada’s all-important purpose was set. To achieve it,
the nation began an aggressive and unprecedented industrial production plan.
The program would have to turn its 13-ship Navy into a fleet flaunting hundreds of
vessels in less than two years to provide the nautical convoys necessary to reach its goals.
The clock was ticking, and the pressure was on, especially after the fall of France in 1940,
which cleared Germany’s pass into the Atlantic Ocean.
With the path unhindered, Hitler deployed all the might of the Kriegsmarine into the North Sea.
The sooner he could strangle Britain’s lifeline, the sooner Europe would fall.
In response, Canada deployed all the ships it could, which would come out of the shipyard
and into the battlefront. Thanks to its diligent efforts, Canada’s initially insufficient number of
vessels was a thing of the past. However, a fleet of unmanned ships did not make a world-class Navy.
At the start of World War 2, Canada only counted 129 officers and 1,456 men amid its ranks. Then,
as France fell, Canada rushed a 2-week training program to hurriedly bolster its Navy’s numbers.
It would come as no surprise then that the results were less than ideal. As the old sailor proverb
goes: (QUOTE) “While it takes two years to build a ship, it takes five years to train a sailor.”
Many soon-to-be-mariners had never seen the sea, as they were farmers,
factory workers, and businessmen. Nathan M. Greenfield even relates in his book,
‘The Battle of St. Lawrence: The Second World War In Canada,’ that: (QUOTE)
“The crew was so green that they were seasick within hours of leaving the jetty in Quebec City.”
And seasickness was not the only obstacle that awaited these brave servicemen.
The conditions aboard Canada’s hurriedly produced anti-submarine corvettes were less than optimal.
Ventilation shafts would allow seawater to pass into the crew’s mess hall,
which meant that the new sea soldiers had to live and work constantly drenched
while evading the floating leftovers of food and personal belongings.
In contrast, the men serving the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat taskforce had years of experience,
an impeccable discipline, plus all the advantages that state-of-the-art submarines bring.
As the Germans took control of the Atlantic, the RCN prepared for an uphill battle.
U-boats At Their Doorstep
Canada heroically embraced its mission from 1940 until the end of the war.
The RCN protected the ships carrying supplies to England to the best of their abilities,
and Britain was able to prevail through the Blitz.
However, the fact that the RCN was still a medium-sized and inexperienced force
meant they did it while paying a hefty price: leaving their shores unprotected.
Karl Dönitz, commander of the Kriegsmarine, took advantage of this weakness and brought the war
directly into Canada’s waters in an attempt to crush the RCN’s deployment right from its roots.
On May 12, 1942, the U-553 approached the gulf of the St Lawrence river
seeking calmer waters to conduct repairs. The commander immediately
realized how unprotected the river’s mouth really was.
Seizing the opportunity, the U-boat fired several torpedoes at the British freighter Nicoya,
which stood just a couple of miles off Anticosti Island. The submarine then pursued and fired upon
the Dutch freighter Leto, obliterating it in a fiery explosion and continuing the onslaught.
After sinking both ships, the U-boat returned to the Atlantic. It was a fruitful night for
the Nazis, as they had brought the war to less than 400 miles from Quebec City.
This action sent Canada’s government into a frenzy.
They wondered how the Nazis could destroy two Allied ships inside their territory
and how they could be so close to Quebec without raising any alarms.
Canada suddenly realized how vulnerable they were to a Nazi invasion from the Atlantic.
With their Navy busy escorting shipments to Great Britain, they had left only 4 ships to defend
the mouth of the St Lawrence. This was a massive vulnerability, and now the Nazis knew about it.
The Allied strategists then met for an emergency summit. However,
as terrifying as the events had been, they concluded that the St Lawrence was a secondary
target for Germany. Rerouting their already thinly spread resources to that location would
hurt their overall war efforts, so Canada only received a few corvettes to reinforce the river.
The St Lawrence remained vulnerable, and the Nazis continued to press on.
On July 20, the U-132 sank three freighters near the Gaspé coast and severely damaged a fourth one.
The U-boat managed to escape even after being pursued by the corvette HMCS Drummondville.
Later research would show that U-boats had a considerable advantage when attacking in
that area, as the merging of fresh and saltwater in the river’s gulf created
a thermal anomaly that would mess with the Allied sonars,
making it much harder to pinpoint the precise location of the submarines.
More attacks followed. In September, the U-517 infiltrated the St. Lawrence Bay,
sank nine ships, and damaged another while evading the RCN’s effort to stop it.
A month later, the ferry SS Caribou was torpedoed by the U-69 in Cabot Strait,
just a few miles from St Lawrence’s gulf. Despite a valiant rescue operation,
131 passengers perished. And as before, the U-boat escaped unscathed,
much to the frustration of the pursuing minesweeper HMCS Grandmère.
The German U-boats continued to humiliate the RCN efforts during the following months,
sinking several other ships and even landing quite a few spies in mainland Canada.
Still, most of the agents were promptly captured, but a few managed to infiltrate Quebec and other
large cities, extracting valuable information on Canada’s convoy routes and strategies.
A Difficult Decision
On a large scale, the U-boat attacks were of minor significance to the overall war efforts.
Thanks to Canada’s escort operations, Britain was able to prevail,
and Germany was losing time, resources, and men. Besides, with the entrance of the US into the war,
the scenario was looking much bleaker for the Third Reich.
Nevertheless, from a local viewpoint, the Battle of St Lawrence was a political disaster.
Canada’s government tried to keep the attacks from the press. Instead of helping,
this action fueled the rage of the civilians who knew what was happening, and many of the
coastal towns where the people could see the sinking ships with their own eyes panicked.
Distrust for Canada’s leaders continued to grow.
As their inability to protect the St Lawrence became more evident,
they decided to completely close the bay to transatlantic traffic on September 9,
1942. Shipments to England were then rerouted through the ports of Halifax and New York.
At the time, many considered the closing of the bay as the worst decision ever
implemented by the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King,
showcasing an admission of defeat before the might of the Kriegsmarine.
However, in hindsight, many historians consider it a brilliant tactical choice by Canada,
one that halted the U-boat attacks in the area while supporting the global allied war effort.
In the end, a slow and steady strategy won the race. After the closing of the St Lawrence and
the continuing growth of Canada’s Navy, the Nazi U-boats were forcibly recalled into
the Atlantic to reinforce their comrades as their numbers were quickly dwindling.
Enduring the tragic Nazi attacks in the Gulf of the St Lawrence for
more than two years had been tough, but it had also bought precious time for England,
the US, and other allies to prepare for the eventual liberation of Europe.
By 1944, Canada had one of the most potent and experienced Naval forces in the world,
and the Nazis were no match for them.
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