Battle Of Atlantic

The Battle of Atlantic was the longest and largest sea battle during World War II. World War II began on September 3rd 1939, two days after German forces stormed into Poland. The Battle of the Atlantic began shortly after the declaration of War, but there is no official date of commencement. The Battle did not end until the defeat of Germany in May of 1945. The Battle was between the Allied powers, Great Britain, Canada and the United States, and the Axis powers, Germany and Italy. Both forces were looking to take control over the Atlantic, as this would give the winning force control over the sea routes. The Allies wanted to keep these routes open to allow supplies and reinforcements to reach the frontlines and the Axis wanted to shut down
The RCN consisted of six destroyers, four minesweepers and three auxiliary vessels. Canada’s role at this point was to support the Atlantic supply line. By the end of the war, the RCN had over 400 vessels and played key roles in major combat situations. The Battle came to Canada’s doorsteps; German U-Boats were seen just off the coast of New Brunswick. In order for Canada to play a vital role in this Battle, Canada had to take on a huge shipbuilding project. In the early moths of the War, Canada ordered the construction of ninety-two coastal patrol vessels. While waiting for construction to be completed, Canada decided to take control of Canadian-registered merchant ships. With construction underway and the merchant ships armed and controlled by the Royal Canadian Navy, Canada was now capable of expanding their role of support to a more combative state. In 1941, Canada built a naval base in St. Johns, Newfoundland. This new naval base allowed both the Canadian and British ships to come to port and refuel, resupply and set back out to fight the U-boats without having to make the long trek back to British ports. With the construction of new vessels underway, Canada needed to recruit more men and women into the Navy. In 1939, Canada’s Navy was made up of 309 officers and 2,967 non-commissioned members. Only half of these men and women were full-time sailors, the rest were reservists who had very limited amount
Germany needed to figure out a way to regain the upper hand in the attacks on the convoys. Germany created the “wolfpack” tactic; this is where German submarines merged together to create a convoy. The submarines would leave about 25 to 30 kilometres of distance in between each other allowing for the higher possibility of spotting Canadian supply vessels. When a German U-boat would spot a supply vessel, the Germans would radio back to the rest of the “wolfpack” the location and direction the vessel is heading and would then attack and attempt to sink the supply ship. This new tactic proved to be very successful and Germany once again controlled the supply routes. Facing defeat Canada needed to find a way to turn this around. Canada adopted the convoy system, the convoy system was already in use by the Navy, but they changed the amount of ships in the convoy. The Royal Canadian Navy would have two corvette class vessels to protect the supply ships as they left the harbour, but with the “wolfpack” tactic implemented by the Germans, Canada upped the amount of corvette vessels fro two to three. This does not seem like a huge difference, but it had a major impact, as Canada would usually win the sea battles when German U-boats would attempt to sink the supply vessels. Canada did not win every battle with this