Figure 1.--Canadian waters were a major marshelling point for the Atlantic convoys. U-boat Captain Hartwing of the U-517 preparing to return to his base at Lorient in occupied France fired a torpedo at the Canadian merchant ship "Meadcliffe Hall" (September 8, 1942). Hartwing missed and the torpedo ran up on the beach of the little village of Cap St-Yvon. Here is the torpedo with villagers and military personnel. A boy 7 or 8 years old looks more interested in the photographer than the torpedo. Because school was just beginning, the boy wear a white shirt, short pants with braces (called "police suspenders"), long stockings, and a suitavly military cap. A reader writes, "I remember seeing boys dressed just like this in Quebec even as late as the 1950s--but without the military cap of course. So I think this boy's clothes are very typical of Quebec in the pre-War, War, and post-War years. The stockings are obviously beige--the dominant color in the 40s and 50s.

Canadian ports and the initially small Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) played an important role in the crucial Battle of the Atlantic. This was for the Western Allies the key battle of World War II. Had the Allies not won the Battle of the Atantic, none of the other campaigns in Europe would have been possible and Britain would have been lost. Canada at the onset of the war virtually did not have a navy. The Royal Canadian Navy had only about 10 small vessels (six serviceable destroyers and four minesweepers). The Royal Canadian Navy was eventually expanded to nearly 400 warships--mostly escort vessels. The Royal Canadian Navt became one of the world's largest naval forces. It expanded to 365 ships and 100,000 men and women. Many of the new ships were corvettes, small escort vessels built in Canadian shipyards. The RCN primary task was to escort the convoys to Britain, but a fews vessels were deployed in the Mediterranean. The Atlantic convoys before America entered the War were formed up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At first periously few escorts were available. This was the job that the RCN would eventually take on. The RCN was also involved in escorting the Arctic Convoys to deliver war material to the Soviet Union after the NAZI invasion (June 1941). Keeping the Atlantic sea lanes open to Britain meant that Canadian industrial and agricultural production and raw materials could sustain the British and eventually Allied war effort. The RCN was also involved in the D-Day landings (June 1944) and against Japan in the Pacific. Over the course of the War, the RCN suffered the loss of 24 ships, primarily in the North Atlantic.

Created: 6:22 AM 2/3/2006
Last updated: 6:22 AM 2/3/2006