Does anyone have any info on the Canadians' involvement on the high seas in WW2? I don't think they built any battleships or carriers, and haven't heard of their WW2 destroyers, frigates, cruisers, or escorts.
This site gives detail of the Canadian Navy http://uboat.net/allies/warships/listing.html?navy=HMCS Pre WW2 their navy was very small (few destroyers and smaller) but expanded massively which unfortunately left them with problems in terms of experenced personell.
very active the RCN was very active in the war. almost all of their effort was with "light forces" such as DDs and escorts with much of it being escort duty in the north atlantic. they were also active in landing support duties. i seem to remember a few larger ships but off hand the memory fails.
The Royal Canadian Navy started the war with a handful of destroyers and minor warships, and ended the war as the third largest Allied Navy (by numbers of ships).
They built and crewed a large number of "Flower-class" corvettes used in convoy protection if I recall. Who can't love a ship called a CORVETTE? They were plucky little ships with gallant crews and they did one-heck of a job pitching-about in the rough and rolling seas of the North Atlantic. (I always wanted to build that Airfix kit of the 1/72 scale Flower-class Corvette.) Tim
battleships were not as effective in WWII as they have been in the past. Modern aircraft could destroy or knock out battleships easily enough. wasn't the Bismark disabled by a Swordfish? the tirpitz was also distroyed by bombers. it became more about smaller faster ships and not massive battleships.
The ships that made up the bulk of the Canadian Navy were small and slow (16 knots). When you think Corvette or frigate you think small but fast but that was not the case. The transatlantic convoys were of two types; fast convoys and slow convoys. The RCN escorted convoys were slow convoys and lost more merchant ships on average than the fast convoys.
I read an account by an ex RN destroyer skipper, he was fairly critical of the Canadian navy. The allowence he made however was that that since they had grown from almost nothing, they didn't have the personell skill base the much larger RN and USN had. Basically not enough experenced navy sailors to go round.
That squares with what I have read, also. They expanded so quickly that nearly untrained crews were being sent to sea.
http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/canada/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Navy 2 Very good refrences about the RCN. We did have carriers thank you very much! And we continued to have a carrier up till the last 60s... Also yes the RCN grew to fast
Well, not exactly RCN carriers. Those converted US merchantmen were RN escort carriers with all RCN crews. Sorry, but they didn't exactly distinquish themselves in action either. :smok:
I think I once heard that, by war's end, Canada had the third largest navy in the world. We usually think of navies in terms of battle fleets, and Canada had no battle fleet whatsoever. Understandably the RCN was geared toward ASW.
The Canadian Navy in WWII was built primarliy as an ASW force, a role that they fulfilled quite efficently. As part of the Bristish Commowealth, Canadian sailors and airmen served on many RN ships, I believe the last VC of WWII was awarded to a Canadian Corsair pilot flying from an RN aircraft carrier. Any large scale fleet action would have been handled by the RN or USN.
Convoy escorts were what were needed most in the Atlantic, so the RCN filled an essential slot in the Allied naval order of battle. I am curious, though, as to whether or not any RCN units served in the Pacific. IIRC, none did, but can anyone confirm this?
The light cruiser HMCS Ugnada (later renamed HMCS Quebec) served with the British Paciifc fleet. There may have been some other units (destroyer size or smaller), I'm not sure.
Out of 100 Corvettes built, only one remains- HMCS Sackville permanently berthed in Halifax. IIRC she had a single 40m Bofors mounted in the bow, 6(?) depth charge throwers (made in Kingston, Ontario) and 2(?) 'Hedgehogs'. I think there might have been a mine chute on the stern but I was there a couple of years ago now.
typical... Depending on who you ask you will get different verions of RCN exploits in WW2. Our American "Friends" like to forget us and lump us in with the brits...As always Our Kipper "Friends" like to tell us we were more of a hinderance than an advantage...We were told more than once to "go quietly un-fuck ourselves" Our German "Friends", Hitler was quoted as saying "Give the RCN enough space and time and they will sink themselves" lol thats the funnyest WW2 quote if you ask me lol