RCN 1942 - "steady boys, steady!" :)

[fat tony]

Some statistics & hard data on RCN Convoy duties circa 1942 in the North Atlantic.

https://legionmagazine.com/en/2011/08/at-the-edge-of-disaster-navy-part-46/

The expansion of the war in 1942 pulled Canada’s small ship navy in several directions simultaneously, stretching it thin and leading—ultimately—to the greatest crisis in Canadian naval history. The navy’s senior officers were sharply criticized for the way in which they handled these challenges and the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Percy Nelles, was dismissed in January 1944.

It is hard to know how they could have done better with what they had to work with. As always in the struggle against the U-boats, the enemy had the initiative and Allied resources were limited. The Royal Canadian Navy’s response to sudden expansion of the U-boat war in 1942 was primarily to extend the system of escorted convoys. It was a highly successful strategy, even if the navy proved incapable of winning all the battles that resulted—both at sea and in the corridors of power in Ottawa.

https://legionmagazine.com/en/2011/08/at-the-edge-of-disaster-navy-part-46/

I flush with pride to think of the real achievements of our forefathers.

 

[Ganderite]

The U boat war ended in 1943 with the introduction of airborne radar.

At the start of the war, the navy was caught very short on ships. And ships take time to build, crew and train. The navy did a terrific job with what they had.

 

[fat tony]

Also from the above article:

The low level of German success in Canadian oceanic waters in early 1942 and the subsequent concentration of U-boats to the south is no indication of how “quiet” Canadian waters were compared to the busy routes off the U.S. In fact, thousands of ships plied Canadian waters between January and April 1942. A rough estimate of ships arriving and departing the main transatlantic convoy ports in Nova Scotia ports, plus those dispersed offshore from ON
convoys over this period comes out to 2,349 ocean-going vessels; an average of 587 ships per month steaming off Nova Scotia.

As this author has written elsewhere, “The reason why there was no disaster of global proportions off Canada’s coast [in the spring of 1942] was not because the area was strategically insignificant, but because the system of convoys made finding shipping and attacking it much less profitable than operations off the U.S. coast.” In short, the majority of shipping in Canada’s offshore during early 1942 moved in convoy and did so safely. U-boat captains soon tired of searching an empty and bitterly cold Canadian sea for targets of opportunity, and simply moved south. The fact that not much happened off our coast in the winter of 1942 was to the credit of the Canadian navy.

The successful Canadian organization and defence of shipping in early 1942 contrasts sharply with the U.S. experience. The USN believed that poorly escorted convoys were worse than none at all, so they steadfastly refused to adopt a coastal convoy system until well into the year (An American Blunder, January/February).

American historians observe that the first escorted convoys in American waters commenced on May 14, 1942, with the sailing of the first convoy between Key West, Fla., and Hampton Roads, Va. This is not true. The RCN’s WLEF began escorting convoys in the Gulf of Maine—well inside the USN’s Eastern Sea Frontier—in March. In fact, by the time the USN inaugurated its own first coastal convoys, the Canadians were poised to start long-range tanker convoys right along the length of the embattled U.S. east coast.

^Refreshing.

 

[Arclight]

My uncles warship HMCS Magog was torpedoed in the St Lawrence in October 1944.

 

[XRCD011]

There was a great documentary put on the battle for the Atlantic. Some points I learned about the convoys was the shipping lanes across the N.Atlantic was called the North Atlantic Rail Road as a ship would be passing each ten minutes prior to convoys being put in place. With the mass of ships sailing together it was easier to protect a flock then one by one. The American Admiral King and his dislike for convoys, was seen as the best thing going to help the subs sink ships, that plus the lights burning along the US east coast. Amazingly they where studying the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico a number of years back and found a sunken U Boat, they seemed to be everywhere.