Transcript The RCN and the War in the Atlantic

The RCN and the War in the
Atlantic
RCN: established in 1910
 --pre-war
role: fisheries and coastal
surveillance
 --limited
size due to inter-service rivalries and
lack of political support
The Growth of the RCN
 1939:
13 warships (six destroyers)/3,000 men
 1945:
400 warships/100,000 personnel
 Third
largest Allied navy/third largest in the
world
 Is
the whole story?
The Central Wartime Role
 1941-1943
convoy escorts
 1943-1945
hunting U-Boats
The Importance of the RCN
 without
convoy escorts, no convoys, no
bomber offensive, no assaults in North Africa,
and Italy, no D-Day, no victory.
The Challenge of the RCN
A
–
different, wider role/outdated equipment
RCN was planning a “traditional navy” against air attack
and surface raiders
 1940:
Canadian destroyers are sent to help
defend the Channel
–
–
Convoys vs. U-Boats was not a priority
Plans for a conventional navy change as U-Boat threat
develops
1941: Convoy duties begin
 British
and American discussions find the
Royal Canadian Navy in charge of Western
Atlantic
 A role for which the Convoys and crews are
unprepared
 The Bad Time: July -December 1942
The Corvette: The basic ship of the
RCN (Canadian built/Canadian
manned)
 small,
and maneuverable: a jack-of-all-trades
 “cheap and nasties”
 200 feet long: a “wet” ship
 crew: 85
 Intended for inshore duty
 Ill-trained and unprepared crews
Sandy McClearn,
“Flower Class:
Corvette”
http://www.hazegray.or
g/navhist/canada/ww2/f
lower/
The Corvette’s Problems
 Out
of date equipment
 asdic (sonar);
 navigation (standard vs. gyro compasses);
 radio direction finding (radar) often
unavailable
 By 1943, new ships were being outfitted, but
not the ones on the water
ID #20928 Credit: National Archives of Canada / PA115350
The Convoys Begin . . .Badly
 23
–
–
June 1941 HX 133
58 ships protected by 1 destroyer and 3 corvettes
6 ships lost
 Confused
tactics: to defend the convoys, or
attack the U-Boats?
 September 1941: SC 42
–
–
–
64 ships protected by 1 destroyer and 3 corvettes
16 ships lost vs. 14 U-Boats
“most escorts are equipped with one weapon of
approximate precision--the Ram”
 November
–
1941: SC 52 returns to Canada
only convoy ever turned back by U-Boat threat during the
entire war
The Crisis of 1942
 RCN
role increases in the Atlantic
 Royal
Navy reluctant to share new
technology, when technology is all important
 The
–
“Happy Time” (early 1942)
100 Allied merchant ships sunk monthly
 September
to shipping
1942: Gulf of St. Lawrence closed
ONS 154
 Christmas
 45
5
1942
ships 600 miles due west of Ireland
Canadian escorts
 27
December: contact with U-Boat Group
‘Spitz’ (20 U-Boats attack)
 4 ships lost: 486 personnel lost
The End of the Beginning
 The
British ask the Canadians to withdraw
their escorts for training.
– A blow to Canadian pride
 RCN
forced to reevaluate a war fought largely
by reservists.
 The
Canadian convoy escorts pulled out for
further training
1943: The Battle of the Atlantic
Turns
 Increased
air cover closes the Atlantic "gap"
 Better convoy tactics
 Better technology: "The hedgehog"
 German “shark” codes broken
–
allows Allies to divert routes
1943-1945: The RCN hunts UBoats
 The
RCN tries to build its “big fleet” but the
Corvettes are still needed
 The U-Boats are hard to find--and kill
 January-June 1943: 100 German U-Boats
sunk
 Canadian ships left out of the campaign that
would kill the U-Boats
 Not enough ships equipped for the hunt
U-Boat Kills by RCN
 Between
–
–
–
–
May 1943 and May 1945
1943: 2
1944: 15
1945: 3
Total 20
 But
how many convoys were saved from UBoat attacks?
The Final Cost: Royal Canadian
Navy
 enlistments:
99 668 men; 6500 women
 471 fighting vessels
 Convoy; anti-submarine warfare
 24 vessels sunk
 2024 fatal casualties
Further reading:
 Marc
Milner, “The Implications of
Technological Backwardness: The Canadian
Navy 1939-1945” in Milner, Canadian Military
History: Selected Readings, Toronto: Copp
Clark Pitman, 1993: 298-312.
 “Why was the RCN so poorly equipped?”
(310)
 What implications did this have?