The Second World War

When the Second World War broke out, the RCN was again the first into action. Indeed, it was the RCN that constituted the mainstay of the Canadian war effort for the first two years. Convoy escort work commenced immediately in September 1939, and from the spring of 1940 RCN destroyers participated in operations off the French coast, including the evacuation from the continent. The “Corvette Navy” of the RCNVR and the Battle of the Atlantic against the German U-boats are justifiably remembered as major accomplishments of the fifty-fold expansion of the RCN (from some 2000 all-ranks to nearly 100,000 by 1945), but that was not near the sum of the navy’s accomplishments. In 1941, with the fate of Britain uncertain and the US not yet committed, the possible requirement to defend home waters and the growing competence of the RCN argued for the building of a strong national navy. Therefore, while defeat of the U-boats remained a priority, the Canadian government ordered the concurrent acquisition of cruisers and powerful Tribal class destroyers in addition to the scores of anti-submarine corvettes and other escorts. As well, the naval college was re-opened to ensure the training of officers in Canada. By 1943, allied circumstances had improved considerably, but a new impetus existed for the continuation of a viable Canadian fleet. Recognising the limits of the pre-war policy of isolationism, the Department of External Affairs was developing a commitment to collective security as the basis for the post-war international order. In those days, only a navy could provide military force with global reach and, by 1945, the plans for the post-war RCN envisioned a carrier task force on each coast.

Coastal Command Liberator aircraft escorting a convoy 1943 (NAC)

In the meantime, the RCN was putting its growing array of resources to work. In the last two years of the war, over a hundred escorts joined the fight on the Atlantic, most of them new and improved frigates, many of which were commanded by reservists schooled at war. Of significance, the Canadian Northwest Atlantic was established as a separate area of joint RCN-RCAF responsibility, commanded by an RCN admiral; the only major theatre of the war to be commanded by a Canadian. The Tribals were broken in on the Murmansk Run, and later conducted patrols of the English Channel in support of the D-Day landings. Canadian minesweepers helped to clear the approaches to the Normandy beaches, and Canadian landing ships and anti-aircraft cruisers participated in the assaults of the Aleutians, Sicily and Italy, Normandy, Southern France and Greece, and the liberation of Hong Kong. Canadians manned two British escort carriers (the RCN’s own light fleet carriers would not be ready until after VJ-Day), and the first of the cruisers joined the British Pacific Fleet, supporting carrier operations and joining in the bombardment of Truk. The RCN ended the war as numerically the third largest fleet in the world, with over 400 combatants of all types (except battleships and submarines), and having operated in most major theatres under all conditions.