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The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade ...
Battle of the Atlantic, in World War II, a contest between the Western Allies and the Axis powers (particularly Germany) for the control of Atlantic sea routes. The Allied objectives were to blockade the Axis powers in Europe, secure Allied sea movements, and project military power across the seas.
- Battle of The Atlantic: Facts
- Canada Joins The Battle
- U-Boat Wolf Packs
- "Black Pit "
- Tide Turns
- Northwest Command
- Merchant Navy
- Significance
- Casualties and Remembrance
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
The first shots on the Atlantic were fired on 3 September 1939, just hours after Britain formally declared war on Germany. Off the coast of Ireland, a German submarine, U-30, torpedoed the SS Athenia, a passenger ship en route to Montréalwith more than 1,400 passengers and crew on board; 112 people were killed, including four Canadians. The battle ...
Canada declared war on Germany a week later, on 10 September 1939. Immediately, Canada’s navy, merchant marine and air forcewere thrust into the Battle of the Atlantic. Canada’s role was primarily escort duty for the hundreds of convoys that gathered in Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, for the treacherous journey across the Atlantic. Other Canadian...
In the early years of the war, the U-boats were clearly winning the battle. Under the command of Admiral Dönitz, the U-boatsdeveloped a deadly strategy, hunting convoys in wolf packs. Groups of submarines would stretch out across suspected convoy routes. When a submarine spotted a convoy, the call went out for the rest of the wolf pack to rendezvou...
Many of these attacks took place in an area of the mid-Atlantic that became known as the “Black Pit” — a stretch of ocean beyond the range of Allied aircraft tasked with providing aerial coverage for the convoys. Emboldened by their submariners’ success, the German command also sent U-boats to the coastal waters of Canada and the United States, whe...
By 1943, a series of factors helped turn the tide of the battle. British intelligence, which had already cracked the Germans' Enigma code, made even further advances in this field, allowing the Allies to better track German communications and U-boatmovements. New long-range aircraft were also developed that allowed full aerial coverage of the Atlan...
In recognition of Canada’s substantial role, the Allies put the entire northwest Atlantic — from Nova Scotia to the Arctic Circle— under Canadian control. Rear Admiral Leonard Murray was named commander-in-chief, Canadian Northwest Atlantic. He was the only Canadian to command an Allied theatre of conflict in either the First or Second World Wars. ...
For years, the unsung heroes of the Battle of the Atlantic were the men and women who served in the merchant navy. When war was declared, Canada had fewer than 40 ocean-going merchant vessels. By war’s end, more than 400 had been built. Twelve thousand sailors served in Canada’s merchant navy, manning the ships that delivered the food, supplies and...
The Battle of the Atlantic was a critical part of the Allied victory in the Second World War. Canada entered the war as a small country with an even smaller navy. From a handful of ships and a few thousand personnel, the Royal Canadian Navy expanded into a major fleet, with more than 400 ships and 90,000 sailors and about 6,000 women in the Women’s...
But winning the battle came at a huge cost. From 1939–45 more than 36,000 Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen and another 36,000 merchant seamen lost their lives. Among those were almost 2,000 members of the Royal Canadian Navy, 1,600 Canadian merchant seamen and 752 Canadian airmen. Civilian casualties included 136 men, women and children killed w...
Learn about the longest continuous battle of the Second World War, where Canada played a key role in escorting convoys across the Atlantic. Find out how the U-boats, the wolf packs, the Black Pit and the Halifax convoys shaped the outcome of the war.
Learn about the longest and most important naval campaign of the Second World War, where Canada played a vital role in protecting Allied convoys from German submarines. Explore the history, the challenges, the losses, and the legacy of the Battle of the Atlantic.
- 1939. Submarines: a manageable problem? Convoys and airpower had reduced the effectiveness of the submarine in 1917–18, but the optimism of naval officers about the submarine problem was fired by the perfection of “asdic” (now called sonar).
- 1940. There was little in the first year of the war to suggest that submarines were a major issue. When the Canadian Navy ordered its initial wartime shipbuilding program in early 1940, its main vessel — the corvette — was completed as a jack-of-all-trades, but would prove to be master of none.
- 1941. Packs move westward, RCN fills the gap. What ultimately drew the whole RCN into the war against the U-boats was the extension of pack attacks westward.
- 1942. America enters the war, U-boats stalk the U.S. East Coast. The entry of the United States into the war opened-up a vast new theatre for enemy operations, and by the end of January 1942, U-boats were probing the U.S. coast.
Learn about the longest battle of the Second World War and the role of the Royal Canadian Navy. Find events, museums and resources to commemorate the Battle of the Atlantic.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of the Second World War and the most important. Canada was a major participant: this country’s enormous effort in the struggle was crucial to Allied victory.
