Canada in the Naval War

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From: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...ms=A1SEC886889

The Naval War



The Royal Canadian Navy was tiny in 1939, but its expansion during the war was remarkable: it enlisted 99 688 men and some 6500 women, and it manned 471 fighting vessels of various types. Its primary task was convoy, protecting the troop and supply ships across the Atlantic. It carried an increasing proportion of this burden, fighting grim battles sometimes of several days' duration with U-boat "wolfpacks." Its vast expansion produced some growing pains; in 1943 measures had to be taken to improve its escort vessels' technical equipment and in some cases the crew training. During the war it sank or shared in sinking 33 enemy submarines. After the Atlantic Convoy Conference in Washington in March 1943, the Canadian Northwest Atlantic Command was set up, covering the area north of New York City and west of the 47th meridian; a Canadian officer, Rear-Admiral L.W. MURRAY, was responsible for convoys in this area. Apart from their main task in the Battle of the ATLANTIC, Canadian naval units took part in many other campaigns, including supporting the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942; and to the Normandy operations of June 1944 the RCN contributed some 110 vessels and 10 000 men.
During the war it lost 24 warships, ranging from the "Tribal" class destroyer Athabaskan, sunk in the English Channel in April 1944, to the armed yacht Raccoon, torpedoed in the St Lawrence in September 1942 (see U-BOAT OPERATIONS). In personnel, the navy had 2024 fatal casualties.