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Contents |
The End of the Phony War
On May 10, 1940, the "blitzkrieg" ("lightning war") of the German army plunged into Holland and Belgium. On May 15 the Dutch surrendered, the government moved to Britain and the Royal Family to Ottawa. By May 20 the German troops had cut through France to Amiens; by May 21 they were on the Channel coast.
On May 27 the Belgians surrendered, leaving the British flank exposed. The French army and government were completely disorganized, and the British army left in an impossible position.
The Dunkirk Evacuation
There on the white sands of Dunkirk were 400,000 soldiers waiting to be rescued - that was the biggest impact, it hit you right there and then. - Bob Timbrell
After a frustratiing year performing guard duty in England, Canadian soldiers and sailors finally saw action in the relief of Dunkirk in May of 1940. That month, 20 year old Vancouver-born RCN Lieutenant, Robert Timbrell, was training at a gunnery school in England when he was suddenly pulled from class and placed in command of a civilian vessel, Lord Astor's luxury motor yacht Llanthony.
He was ordered to go with four other fishing trawlers and evacuate as many troops as possible from a 16-kilometre stretch of beach at Dunkirk, France, across the English Channel from Dover, England.
Thousands of British and French troops had been pushed back to the Channel by the powerful German blitzkreig. A call was made for all vessels that could float to make their way to the French coast and bring the stranded armies home before they could be captured.
The Llanthony was one of 800 private boats commandeered by the Royal Navy. On Timbrell's first voyage across the Channel, he found Dunkirk in flames from German artillery fire, and the beaches filled with the sight of 400,000 soldiers awaiting evacuation. After loading Llanthony with 50 soldiers, a Luftwaffe shell exploded off the bow, destroying the anchor cables and rupturing the fuel lines. It wasn't long before the Llanthony had drifted helplessly aground onto the beach.
My first command! Timbrell later wrote. High and dry and not to their Lordships' wishes and expectations.
On his return trip to Dunkirk, he sailed with five fishing trawlers also under his command, although one of them struck a mine and disappeared at sea with no survivors. On his third round-trip, Timbrell and his crew had to fire their hastily mounted Bren guns to ward off an attack by a circling German E-boat. In three three trips across, they carried over 300 men to safety; the trawlers saved another 600.
Operation Dynamo
Operation Dynamo - the evacuation at Dunkirk from May 26, 1940 to June 4, 1940 - was one of the greatest rescues in human history. With the help of 222 warships and over 700 small craft (almost 100 were lost), more than 338,000 Allied troops were saved from the clutches of the German army.
During the evacuation, the Luftwaffe attacked whenever the weather allowed, reducing the town of Dunkirk to rubble and destroying 235 vessels and 106 aircraft. At least 5,000 soldiers lost their lives.
British ships rescued a further 220,000 Allied troops from other French ports - Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Brest, and Saint-Nazaire - bringing the total of Allied troops evacuated to 558,000.
But the German forces still took more than a million more Allied prisoners in three weeks at a cost of 60,000 casualties. They continued their invasion across France until an armistice was signed on June 22, 1940.
Winston Churchill called Dunkirk "a miracle of deliverance." It was certainly a major boost to British morale and enabled the Allies to fight another day.
However the losses in war materiel were astounding. Britain had entered the war with 80,000 military vehicles of all types, but 75,000 were left behind on the beaches at Dunkirk in 1940. Now virtually defenceless on the ground, Britain turned to Canada to replace what had been lost.
Timbrell's Aftermath
For his bravery under fire, Timbrell received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), becoming the First decorated Canadian naval officer of World War II. To get a DSC as a midshipman is pretty significant, says Michael Whitby, the navy's official historian in Ottawa. He did something pretty special at Dunkirk.
Timbrell spent the next five years hunting U-boats while sailing Canadian destroyers and guiding merchant convoys across the treacherous Atlantic.
In the fall of 1940, he was one of only a handful of men to survive the sinking of his own ship, HMCS Margaree, after it was accidentally rammed by a freighter west of Ireland. Four years later, Timbrell helped sink two U-boats during a three-day battle in the Bay of Biscay.
He was inaugural commander of HMCS St. Laurent, the first of a fleet of new submarine-hunting destroyers purchased by the Navy in the 1960s, and later became captain of HMCS Bonaventure, Canada's last aircraft carrier. He was eventually promoted to the rank of rear admiral and in 1971, took command of Canada's East Coast fleet.
Timbrell chafed under the new, unified structure of the Canadian Armed Forces, and retired to become president of the Canadian Shipowners' Association.
In 2000, Timbrell journeyed back to Dunkirk for the 60th anniversary of the famous evacuation, where his old yacht Llanthony had also been brought for the ceremonies. He found it "a delight to again see and ride my first command, Llanthony, which had sailed all the way from Turkey for this special occasion, so bringing to a conclusion the historic association with the beaches of Dunkirk." He died on April 11, 2006 at age 86.
Canadians Garrison Britain
After Dunkirk and the fall of France in June, 1940, Canada became Britain's most important ally and lifeline, supplying desperately needed food, weapons, and war materials by naval convoy and airlift. The Canadian auto industry in particular, was pressed into action to replace the horrifying vehicle losses at Dunkirk.
Canadian soldiers were deployed between the English Channel and London to meet a potential German invasion - Hitler's Operation Sealion - which was called off in the fall of 1941.
The Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian merchant marine also played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic, hunting and killing the U-Boats that threatened the Atlantic convoys.
Canada also supplied pilots to the RAF during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz of London. Over 50% of the BCATP graduates were Canadians who went on to serve with the RCAF and RAF. One out of the six RAF Bomber Command groups flying in Europe was Canadian. Squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force and individual Canadian pilots flying with the British Royal Air Force fought with distinction in Spitfire and Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Britain
Hitler's plans for Operation Sealion involved a heavy low-flying attack by bombers and fighters which would first engage, then destroy, the Royal Air Force; next, a higher altitude attack on industrial centres; finally, an invasion for which 3,000 self-propelled barges were ready. The only striking force in Britain was the Canadian Force under General Andrew McNaughton; for the British had left their equipment in France and it had not been replaced.
From August 8 to October 31, 1940, Hitler's Luftwaffe bombed Britain first by day and then by night, but at terrible cost to the Germans. The RAF destroyed an enormous number of Nazi bombers and their protecting fighters, with only a handful of pilots and in the later stages with the help of one RCAF squadron. At the same time, RAF Bomber Command was attacking and destroying the invasion barges.
The Battle of Britain was Hitler's first major set-back. As Churchill later said, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."
By January 1, 1943, there were enough RCAF bombers and crews in Britain to form No. 6 Group, one of eight bomber groups within RAF Bomber Command.
The US Enters the War
On December 7, 1941, while their envoys were talking peace at Washington, Japan bombed the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and put it out of action. The US immediately declared war on Japan and their ally Germany. Canada was the first of the Western allies to declare war on Japan; Britain and the other allied countries follow the next day.
Three days after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese dive-bombed and destroyed two British warships which were the mainstay of British forces in South East Asia. Then they started land-sea-air warfare carried on at high speed, jumping from one island and airport to another. They seized Midway, Wake, and Guam Islands, and attacked the British base of Hong Kong where a Canadian contingent formed part of the Imperial garrison.
When Mackenzie King learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, his reaction was: "It was a great relief to my mind ... to know that their attack had been on the U.S. in the first instance, and that the opening shots were not between Great Britain and Japan." (Diary, December 7, 1941) Later that evening, when he learned that Germany and Italy were expected to declare war on the United States, King commented, "This is the most crucial moment in all the world's history...." (Diary, December 7, 1941)
Shortly after the United States entered the war, work began on the construction of the Alaska Highway. From 1942 to 1943, US soldiers and Canadian and American civilians built this all-weather, gravel road, extending 2,451 km from Dawson Creek, BC, to Fairbanks, Alaska. The United States paid for the construction; Canada contributed to the cost of air fields, buildings, and related facilities. After the war, Canada took over the Canadian portion of the highway, from Dawson Creek to the Alaskan border.
Winston Churchill Visits Ottawa
To get the famous scowl, Karsh yanks Churchill's trademark cigar out of his mouth just before snapping this masterpiece.
Some Chicken, Some Neck
In the afternoon, Churchill takes the time to address an informal joint meeting of Senators and Members of Parliament in the Commons chamber. The Speaker does not wear his robes. The carillon bells in the tower of the Parliament Building peal out to welcome Churchill, but when radio listeners from Great Britain join the broadcast, the sounds are abruptly halted, to honour the fact that no bells are allowed to ring in Britain - they are only to be used to warn people of a German invasion.
Churchill's speech is his usual feisty effort - he speaks of the toughness of the fighting soldiers:
- We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy. And he mocks the Hitler tyranny, the Japanese frenzy and the Mussolini flop.
But he saves his best lines for the end of the speech, in a devastating attack on the French military leadership:
- On top of all this came the French catastrophe. The French Army collapsed, and the French nation was dashed into utter and, as it has so far proved, irretrieval confusion. The French Government had at their own suggestion solemnly bound themselves with us not to make a separate peace. It was their duty and it was also their interest to go to North Africa, where they would have been at the head of the French Empire. In Africa, with our aid, they would have had overwhelming sea power. They would have had the recognition of the United States, and the use of all the gold they had lodged beyond the seas.[1]
- If they had done this Italy might have been driven out of the war before the end of 1940, and France would have held her place as a nation in the counsels of the Allies and at the conference table of the victors. But their generals misled them. When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." Some chicken! Some neck!
After addressing the parliamentarians Churchill attends a dinner party given by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, where he swaps war stories with Air Vice-Marshal Billy Bishop, who had shot down 72 German aircraft in World War I.
Hong Kong and the Pacific
At the request of the British Government, Canada had agreed to send reinforcements to garrison the Crown Colony of Hong Kong, and help free up troops for other British possessions in the Far East.
In the fall of 1941, the Department of National Defence sent 1,975 soldiers (including two civilian services officers) from the Royal Rifles of Canada (from Quebec City) and the Winnipeg Grenadiers.
The troops sent to Hong Kong had received no training as front-line soldiers, had almost no air or naval defences, and were not considered fit for action. But they were sent anyway, sailing from Vancouver on October 27, 1941, and arriving on November 16, 1941.
Only three weeks later, on December 8, 1941, the first Canadian units to fight in World War II got their first taste of battle, as Japanese forces launched the invasion of Hong Kong. The battle for Hong Kong was to rage for almost 18 days. The defenders, with no hope of reinforcement or resupply, surrendered on Christmas Day.
During the first Japanese attack, two men of the Royal Canadian Signals were wounded, the first Canadian casualties, in the camp at Sham Shui Po.
- Chronology of the battle: Invasion of Hong Kong Timeline
After their inevitable defeat on December 25, the surviving Canadian POWs were sent to prison camps in Hong Kong and Japan, where they endured harsh treatment and malnutrition; 267 Canadians died in captivity.
The more than 550 Canadians who died - including 228 with no known graves - are commemorated in Hong Kong at the Sai Wan Memorial. The white granite memorial, in the form of a semi-circular shelter building at the entrance to the Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery, bears the names of the war dead. Included is the name of Company Sergeant-Major John Robert Osborn, Winnipeg Grenadiers, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Below the memorial, the Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery slopes towards the sea, with a magnificent view of the coastline and distant hills. Some 283 soldiers of the Canadian Army are buried there, including 107 who are unidentified.
Stanley Military Cemetery is situated just beyond the small fishing village of Stanley in the southern part of Hong Kong island, on the Tai Tam Peninsula. Twenty Canadians are buried here, including one unknown.
The Yokohama British Commonwealth War Cemetery, located at Hodogaya near Yokohama, is the only British Commonwealth Cemetery in Japan. Here 137 Canadian dead, most of whom died as prisoners-of-war in Japanese internment camps, lie with their New Zealand comrades beneath a Cross of Sacrifice in one of the four sections of the cemetery.
The Dieppe Raid
The Dieppe Raid (Operation Jubilee) of August 19, 1942, landed nearly 5,000 soldiers of the Second Canadian Division and 1000 British commandos on the coast of occupied France, in the only major combined forces assault on France prior to the Normandy invasion of June 1944. Despite air support from Allied fighters and bombers and a naval fleet of 237 ships and landing barges, the raid was a disaster.
While Dieppe did provide valuable information on the absolute necessity of close communications in combined operations, of nearly 6000 troops landed over a thousand were killed and another 2,340 were captured. Two Canadians were recognized with the Victoria Cross for actions at Dieppe; Lieutenant Colonel "Cec" Merritt of the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Honorary Captain John Foote of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.
The value of the Dieppe Raid is a matter of some controversy; some historians feel that it was largely because of Dieppe that the Allies decided not to attempt an assault on a seaport in their first invasion of occupied western Europe, others would point to the large number of amphibious operations before and after Dieppe as evidence that nothing new was learned there.
Most conclude that the Dieppe Raid was a self-inflicted Allied disaster where the main victims were Canadian soldiers. A badly planned, poorly executed debacle, Dieppe was even condemned by the German defenders of the town, who commented that it "mocked all rules of military strategy and logic."
Rationale for Dieppe
The August 19, 1942 raid on the port of Dieppe, France, code-named Operation Jubilee, was spearheaded by Winston Churchill's new Chief of Combined Operations, Louis Mountbatten, who chose the Canadian 2nd Division to lead the attack. The aim was to seize and hold a major Channel port, test new amphibious equipment, gather intelligence from prisoners [and possibly Enigma-encoded German radio traffic] and gauge how the Germans responded to an invading force. A primary goal was also to boost Allied morale, devastated by losses in North Africa and Russia.
Churchill hoped the use of Canadian troops would satisfy the Canadian commanders following the long inactivity of Canadian forces in England. General Andrew McNaughton, who commanded the First Canadian Army and General H.D.G. Crerar, commander of 1st Canadian Corps eagerly accepted this chance for Canadian soldiers to get some combat experience. They had been stationed in Great Britain for two years without having ever engaged the enemy in a major operation. Canadian public opinion was starting to question this inactivity, and Canadian soldiers were raring to go.
Churchill also wanted some good news to counter the defeats in Africa that Spring. The British press were clamoring for action, the Soviets were pushing Roosevelt to open a second front in Europe, and the overconfident Americans in turn were pressuring Churchill to mount some kind of operation. The British Prime Minister, who felt that one Gallipoli in a lifetime was enough, balked at a full-scale assault with litle chance of success. But he gave the green light to Mountbatten.
Dieppe Raid Videos
Planning Dieppe
Bernard Montgomery wanted the Dieppe Raid cancelled entirely, but Mountbatten began reorganising it without a go ahead from the Combined Chiefs of Staff, without cooperation from the Joint Intelligence Committee, and with very little input from McNaughton, Crerar, or Major-General J.H. Roberts, commander of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. The Canadians were called in simply to carry out a plan already designed by the Combined Operations HQ.
The plan called for attacks at five different points on a 16 km front. Four simultaneous flank attacks were to go in just before dawn, followed half an hour later by the main attack on the town of Dieppe itself. Canadians would form the force for the frontal attack on Dieppe and would also go in at gaps in the cliffs at Pourville, Franc|Pourville four kilometres to the west, and at Puys, France|Puys to the east. British commandos were assigned to destroy the coastal batteries at Berneval, France|Berneval on the eastern flank, and at Varengeville, France|Varengeville in the west.
The plan was scaled down further, perhaps fatally. The original paratroop assault on the flank gun batteries was replaced by an amphibious assault by Commandos. No.4 Commando to attack Varengeville and Quiberville, France|Quiberville to the west and No.3 Commando to attack Berneval to the east. 50 Men of the new US Rangers were interspersed among the Commandos, and a small unit conducted limited intelligence gathering. Ground support was provided by thirty of the new Churchill tanks, delivered using the new LCT landing craft.
The Raid
Almost 240 ships left British ports on the night of August 18, 1942. As they approached the French coast the next morning, things started to go wrong. The ships carrying No.3 Commando ran into a German convoy, which alerted coastal defences at Berneval and Puys, leaving little chance of success. The craft carrying No. 3 Commando were scattered and most of the unit never reached shore. Those who did were quickly overwhelmed. One small party of 20 commandos got within 180 metres of the battery. Their accurate sniping prevented the guns from firing on the assault ships for two-and-one-half vital hours before they were safely evacuated.
The Eastern Flank
Two km east of Dieppe, at 0500, the Royal Regiment of Canada made their approach to the narrow beach of Puys, a small seaside village . They were behind schedule and had lost the advantages of surprise and darkness. As the sun rose, the well entrenched Germans aimed at the landing crafts that were still ten metres from the shore. At 0507, the first LCA lowered its ramp. Canadian soldiers dashed forward in a violent hail of machine-gun and mortar fire, and fell in waves, mowed down by bullets and shrapnel. Those who made it to the heavily wired seawall were taken prisoner after a few hours of useless resistance.
The Western Flank
On the western side of the town, the No. 4 Commando operation destroyed the guns in the battery near Varengeville, and then withdrew safely. At Pourville, the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada had some degree of surprise, and initial opposition was light. But as they crossed the River Scie and pushed towards Dieppe proper, heavy fighting developed and the Saskatchewans were stopped well short of the town. The Camerons pushed on towards their objective, an inland airfield, and advanced some three kilometres before they too were forced to halt.
Both regiments lost heavily during the withdrawal, as fierce enemy fire raked the beach from dominating positions east of Pourville, and also from the high ground to the west. The bravery of the Navy landing craft crew allowed 341 men to embark but increasing pressure meant that the rest were left to surrender. Another 141 had died.
The Main Attack
Dieppe was also well defended by machine guns, mortars and artillery, and had a myriad of cliff caves. The heavier guns were carefully concealed, and the heavily sloping shingle beach led up to a maze of tank traps and pillboxes.
The main attack took place at 0530, thirty minutes after the flanking assaults. The tanks were to be sent ashore in the middle with the Essex Scots to the east and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry to the west. The assault was met with intense fire right from the start. The eastern assault was held at the beach waiting for late tank support. The western assault gained a hold in a shore-front casino but few soldiers made it across the bullet-swept boulevard and into the town. When the twenty-seven tanks of the Calgary Regiment were landed, only fifteen managed to climb the shingle banks under fire. The six that reached the esplanade were completely stopped by anti-tank blocks and traps and destroyed. Unable to leave the beach, all the remaining tanks could do was provide fire support and cover the retreat.
At around 07.00, the disaster was compounded as the Canadian reserve troops - 600 men of Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal - were committed to the beach due to a mistaken signal that the advance troops had gained a foothold in the town. The Montrealers took fire all the way in, and only 125 men made it back to England. On White Beach, 369 men of No.40 Commando Royal Marines landed in withering fire, and none ashore achieved more than a matter of yards.
At 10.50 a general order to retreat was issued. As the tide rose, the sea was stained with red, and many wounded were carried away by the waves with the dead.
Ross Munro's Canadian Press Report
"For eight hours, under intense Nazi fire from dawn into a sweltering afternoon, I watched Canadian troops fight the blazing, bloody battle of Dieppe. I saw them go through the biggest of the war's raiding operations in wild scenes that crowded helter skelter one upon another in crazy sequence. There was a furious attack by German E-boats while the Canadians moved in on Dieppe's beaches, landing by dawn's half-light. When the Canadian battalions stormed through the flashing inferno of Nazi defences, belching guns of huge tanks rolling into the fight, I spent the grimmest 20 minutes of my life with one unit when a rain of German machine-gun fire wounded half the men in our boat and only a miracle saved us from annihilation."
Casualties
At Dieppe, 907 Canadians, including 56 officers, lost their lives in a battle that lasted for only nine hours. A total of 3,369 men were killed or wounded. At Dieppe, the Canadian Army lost more prisoners than in the whole eleven months of the later campaign in North-West Europe, or the twenty months during which Canadians fought in Italy.
Totals:
- 6,108 men took part in the raid (from the Land Forces), 1,946 were taken prisoner, 2,460 were wounded
- 4,963 were Canadians (907 fatalities), 1,075 were British Commandoes (52 fatalities), 50 were American Rangers (3 fatalities), with 20 others.
- In addition, the Royal Navy suffered 75 killed, with 269 missing or prisoners.
- Overhead the RAF and RCAF lost 119 aircraft - the highest single-day total of the war (62 fatalities) while the Luftwaffe lost just 46.
Dieppe Aftermath
Some claim that the Dieppe Raid was a useless slaughter, but Canadian sacrifice, and the hard lessons learnt at Dieppe in 1942 were put to good use in the successful Normandy landings of 1944.
The Dieppe Raid was carefully studied by military planners, and out of it came improvements in technique, fire support and tactics which would reduce D-Day casualties to a minimum. Those who perished at Dieppe were instrumental in saving countless lives on the 6th of June, 1944.
While individual acts of courage occur frequently during war, only a few are seen and recorded. Those that are, stand out as examples for all to admire and respect.
John Weir Foote's Victoria Cross
For his actions during the Raid on Dieppe, Hon Capt. John Weir Foote was awarded the Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth's highest military decoration for bravery. Reverend Foote, Chaplain of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, was the first member of the Canadian Chaplain Services to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Through eight hours of the grueling battle, he "continually exposed himself to very intense fire to help move the injured to an aid post, saving many lives by his gallant efforts. Then, at the end of this ordeal, he climbed from the landing craft that would have taken him to safety, and walked courageously into the German positions, to be taken prisoner and so to minister to those of his fellow Canadians who would be held behind barbed wire for the next three years."
Postscript
In September 1944, in support of Operation Market Garden, the Canadian Army was tasked with securing the Scheldt (Belgium / Netherlands). One of the cities that had to be liberated before this could be accomplished was Dieppe. In advance of their invasion, the Germans bombarded the Canadians with the following pamphlets:
Hello Boys of 2nd Canadian Division!
Here you are again, after those nasty hours at Dieppe where out of 5,000 brave lads of the Royal Regt., the Essex Scottish, the Mont Royal Fusiliers, the Camerons, the South Sasks, the Black Watch and the tank gunners of the Calgary Regt., only 1,5000 escaped death or capture.
Now your division is in for the second time.
First your pals - and now you.
It was a lousy trick they played on you that time, wasn't it?
Why exactly were you forced to do it?
Every child know now that the whole Dieppe affair was nothing but a big bluff.
First the Bolshies had to have their Second Front for which they so urgently clamoured.
Secondly the Brass Hats needed "Invasion-Experience" and quite naturally they wouldn't think of sacrificing any Limeys in a job like that. Surely you understand...
Now joking aside - this thing is much too serious. We haven't the slightest intention of poking our noses in your affairs. But we Germans honestly despise the idea of having to fight against decent fellows like you, inasmuch as we know you're not fighting for yours truly or for Canada.
You know that only a few old scraps of paper bind you to England, an England that in its entire history has never done a damn thing for Canada that would help its future. Canada's sole purpose has always been to fight and bleed for England.
In the next few days this God damn slaughter will start again. WE can't help it, since we are, after all is said and done, fighting for our very existence.
But WE WARN YOU Hitler didn't give up France for the fun of it.
Let those who gain fight their own bloody battles.
Atlantic Convoys
To attack the convoys delivering food and arms to Britain, the German Kriegsmarine developed the "wolfpack" attack, using about 400 submarines called U-Boats. At the begining of the battle of the Atlantic, Britain and Canada did not have nearly enough escort vessels. The Royal Navy had lost many destroyers at the time of Dunkirk and, had it not been for the Canadian Navy, the Allies could not have kept control of the Atlantic. But the US traded 50 old destroyers for long leases of bases on the Atlantic, the most important in Newfoundland. Canadian shipyards concentrated on building corvettes, later followed by the slightly larger frigates and minesweepers.
The RCAF Home War Establishment helped the RCN with their anti-submarine war with bomber-reconnaissance craft.
The Kriegsmarine also sent its U-boats to operate in Canadian waters and along the Newfoundland (then a Dominion and not part of Canada) coast throughout the war, sinking many naval and merchant vessels.
Bell Island, Newfoundland became the only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces in World War II, when on September 5, 1942, U-513 fired a torpedo at the loading pier of the iron ore mine. The submarine also attacked four Allied ore carriers, sinking SS Saganaga and SS Lord Strathcona. U-518 also sank SS Rosecastle and P.L.M 27 on November 2, 1942, with the loss of 69 lives.
A few days later, the same U-boat put German secret agent Werner von Janowski ashore at the Gaspé town of New Carlisle. He was soon arrested by the RCMP, and became a double agent, living in Ottawa.
The Canadian mainland was also attacked when the Japanese submarine I-26 shelled the Estevan Point, BC lighthouse on Vancouver Island on June 20, 1942. Japanese subs also launched fire balloons, atteempting to set Canadian forests on fire. Some reached, interior British Columbia and the other western provinces.
The Battle of the St. Lawrence
Soon other German submarines joined the hunt, since the St. Lawrence was guarded by only four RCN warships, a Bangor class minesweeper, two Fairmile class motor launches and the armed yacht HMCS Raccoon. They were reinforced by five Flower class corvettes after the first U-boat attacks.
On July 6, 1942, U-132 sank three freighters off the Gaspé coast and damaged another on July 20, 1942. In both cases, the U-boat was able to escape attack by the corvette HMCS Drummondville.
After attacks in August on harbours in Labrador and Newfoundland and on a convoy in the Strait of Belle Isle, U-513, 517 and 165 entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In September, even after being detected and machine-gunned by an air patrol, U-517 sank nine vessels and damaged another over a two-week period. U-165 sank HMCS Raccoon, but was continually attacked by the Royal Canadian Air Force.
German U-Boat in Actions - A Wartime German Film
The Canadian government finally ordered the St. Lawrence closed to transatlantic traffic on September 9, 1942. Freight normally shipped to the ports of Montreal and Quebec City was sent instead to Halifax, by rail, which strained the rail system, but also simplified the protection and management of Atlantic convoys.
This decision highlighted Canada's seeming inability to protect its territorial waters. Critics felt that the Canadian military was seeking to honour its commitments to the Royal Navy no matter what the cost, to the detriment of Canada's own territorial waters. They pointed to the decision by Admiral Percy Nelles in the same year-1942-to deploy the fleet of around 20 corvettes needed to protect the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean, in support of "Operation Torch."
Combined with the disastrous Allied raid on Dieppe on August 19, 1942, the U-boat attacks provided further ammunition to French-Canadian nationalists opposed to Canada's participation in the war. And 1942 was also the year of King's plebiscite on conscription, which was opposed by the majority of French-Canadians.
The Battle of the Atlantic
In November, the U-518 sank two freighters and damaged another in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. But shutting the Gulf and constant RCAF air patrols and harassment of the U-boats finally led German Admiral Karl Dönitz to redeploy them to the North Atlantic.
HMCS Assiniboine Scores a Success
On August 6, 1942, Assiniboine and two corvettes were rescuing survivors from merchant ship SS Spar, hit by a torpedo, when they followed the torpedo track and spied U-210 on the surface through the fog. The U-Boat fired at the destroyer, and Lieutenant Commander J.H. Stubbs decided to engage and ram the sub's bows, and the U-boat sank. Assiniboine sustained damage, and returned to St. John's.
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The Turning Point
The battle now hinged on the adoption of new technologies. On September 20, 1943, U-boat U-305, using a new weapon, the GNAT (German Naval Acoustic Torpedo) torpedo which homed in on the sounds from the propellers of ships, hit RCN destroyer HMCS St. Croix, escorting convoy ON.202 south of Iceland, with three GNATs. A total of 65 members of the ship's company perished in the sinking, but five officers and 76 men were rescued by a royal Navy frigate HMS Itchen. However, only two days later, the Itchen was also torpedoed by an enemy submarine. Only one St. Croix sailor, Stoker W. Fisher, survived the two sinkings; one of the men lost was Surgeon Lt W. L. M. King, RCNVR, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s nephew.
But the tide was turning, and in late 1943, Admiral Dönitz, who had just lost his submariner son, stated: "We've lost the Battle of the Atlantic!"
The St. Lawrence was reopened to shipping in April 1944 and the Battle of the St. Lawrence was over, after taking 700 lives, and 23 ships.
On October 14, 1944, U-1223 seriously damaged the frigate HMCS Magog in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on November 2, 1944, sank the Canadian freighter SS Fort Thompson. Three weeks later, on November 25, 1944, U-1228 sank the corvette HMCS Shawinigan (K 136) while on an anti-submarine patrol in the Cabot Strait. The corvette exploded and sank immediately with all hands - 91 officers and men lost their lives.
In May 1945, at war's end, U-889 and U-190 surrendered to the Royal Canadian Navy at Shelburne, Nova Scotia and Bay Bulls, Newfoundland.
Spies in the St. Lawrence
No U-boat ever docked in a Canadian harbour, but they did manage to land a number of spies, including Lieutenant Langbein in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, on May 14, 1942. Langbein wasn't caught until November 1944, after moving to Ottawa and spending all his money.
On November 9, 1942 U-518 landed agent Werner von Janowski in New Carlisle, Québec, on Chaleur Bay. Von Janowski was caught by the RCMP the following day.
In November 1943 German submariners imprisoned at Bowmanville, Ontario made an unsuccessful escape attempt. They were planning to reach Chaleur Bay, where they were to be picked up by U-536. The RCN got wind of the scheme, and tried to trap the U-boat in the Bay, but it managed to escape.
Notes
- ↑ A sly reference to the fact that the gold of France, which had been secretly spirited away from Paris during the German invasion, was now safely lodged just across Wellington Street, in the vaults of the Bank of Canada. The Allies were now denying its use to Charles de Gaulle and the Free French.
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| A. Canadians and World War II - 1939-1945 →→ 1. Canada Goes to War → 2. Early Disasters → 3. The Home Front and War Production → 4. The Road to Victory →→ B. Canada Comes of Age - 1945-1963 |
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