The Battle of the St. Lawrence
Page 35
ship-building
British, 271n.1,3
Canadian, 8, 9, 271n.3
corvettes, 118–121
process, 114, 116–118
shipping losses, 217
ship’s articles, 99
significance in wartime, 47
Skinner, Capt. Alfred (Arrowhead). See also Arrowhead, HMCS; QS-33
background, 10, 83, 85, 270n.1
Board of Inquiry findings, 90
concerning torpedo danger, 148–149
in QS-33, 87
Smith, Geoffrey (ASDIC operator, Arrowhead)
background, 78
in QS-33, 83, 85–86, 102–104
in SQ-36, 147–148, 148–149
Smith, Lt. Cmdr. Norman. See Raccoon, HMCS
snorkel, 220, 221, 236
sonar. See asdic
sono buoys, 228
spies. See espionage
SQ-35, 110–111
SQ-36, convoy
analysis of attacks, 148–149, 158, 160
attacks by U-517, 145–148, 152–153
formation, 151–152
St. Laurent, Louis (Justice Minister), 178, 198
St. Lawrence. See also convoys
closure, 112–113, 139–142, 199, 201, 202–203, 272n.1
defence of shipping, 19, 52–53, 79, 202–203, 221–222, 237–238
St. Pierre and Miquelon
blackout regimen, 50
rumors of U-boat bases, 40–41
star shells, 82, 172–173
submarine detection equipment. See asdic; H/F D/F; hydrophones; radar; sono buoys; star shells
Summerside, HMCS, 151–153
supply shortages, 74
Tate, SLt. Ian (Fort Ramsay), 29–30, 34, 61–62, 77, 166–167
Taverner, Capt. Ben, 183, 186, 191
Thurmann, Kptlt Karl. See U-553
Toronto, HMCS, 223, 226
torpedo tubes, flooding, 60
torpedoes
compared with mines, 148–149
countermeasures, 214, 226, 275n.7
detonation process, 181
explosive process, 23–24, 27, 30, 81, 98, 185
firing process, 54–55, 170–171, 230–231
GNAT acoustic, 214, 219–220, 226
guidance systems, 21, 54
launching of, 129
technology, 103
training
Air Force, 20, 63, 76, 100–101, 194, 196, 200
Aircraft Detection Corps observers, 151, 196–197, 200
DEMS gunnery, 47
Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, 10, 163–164
Royal Canadian Navy, 10-11, 148, 158–160, 218, 273n.9,10
U-boat commanders, 13, 79, 162–163, 164
Treaty of Versailles
German attitudes to, 165
German submarine restrictions, 11-12, 79, 92, 267n.3
German violation of, 45
Truro, HMCS, 84, 105, 126, 241
U-69 (Gräf)
attack on Caribou, 184–185
counterattack by Grandmère, 188–189
mine planting, 169
sinking of Carolus, 170–171, 180
U-106 (Rasch), 174–176, 179–180
U-132 (Vogelsang), 65
against QS-15, 54–57, 59–61 against QS-19 (Frederika Lensen), 71–75
construction, 43
damage to, 48, 60, 73–74, 75
destruction, 75
hunt for, 62–64
orders, 48, 75
U-165 (Hoffman), 79
against QS-33, 82–85, 85, 86
against SG-6, 79–81
against SQ-36, 152–154
bombing of, 112
U-190 (Reith), 238
U-262, 204–205
U-517 (Hartwig)
against Charlottetown, 129–130
against QS-33, 76–77, 79, 97–98, 101–105, 105–107
against SG-6F (Chatham), 94–95
against SQ-36, 144–148
capture, 92
conditions aboard, 94, 96
damage to, 105–107, 155, 157–158
description, 93
failed attacks, 156–157
hunt for, 100–101, 154–158
sightings, 96–97, 149, 154
U-536 (Schauenburg), 210, 212, 213–216
U-553 (Thurmann)
against Leto, 30
against Nicoya, 21–24, 26–27
hunt for, 34–35, 51
leaving St. Lawrence, 41
other sinkings, 169n.10
U-556, against HX-126, 15–18
U-1223 (Kneip), 223, 226, 275n.8
U-1228 (Marienfeld), 229, 230–231, 234, 241
U-boats
attack strategy, 26–27
buoyancy balancing, 129
Canadian base and landings rumors, 40–41, 248
conditions aboard, 12–13, 94, 96, 180
defeats, 181, 217–218, 219, 236
depth charge countermeasures, 125
design, 13
detection. See asdic; H/F D/F; hydrophones; radar; sono buoys; star shells
dive procedures, 21–23, 59, 60
equipment problems, 230
Navy plan to capture, 207–208
North Atlantic access, 44
operations, 107
production, 11, 236, 276n.1
ramming attacks, 59, 60
ranges and operating periods, 69
submarine air management, 180, 215, 220
technology advances, 219–221, 236, 275n.3
U-bootwaffe
crew training, 13–14, 79, 162–163, 164
culture, 14, 92, 164–166, 240
expansion, 163, 236
fleet size, 217
formation of, 12
and Kiel Mutiny, 92
morale, 180, 219
objectives, 45, 236–237
Ultra intelligence, 168, 207, 209, 217
United Kingdom, economic aid, 46
United States
air base in Newfoundland, 20, 51
Air Force (USAF), 51
naval production statistics, 46
Navy (USN), 11, 53, 158
Vanier, Brig. Gen. Georges, 64, 70
Vichy France, 179, 194–196
Vison, HMCS (Nicholson), 176
Vogelsang, Kptlt Ernst (U-132), 48–49, 75
volunteer forces. See Aircraft Detection Corps; Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve
war against trade (guerre de course), 12, 26–27, 44, 45, 53
Washington Disarmament Conference, 7
Waterton, SS, 174–176
weather station “Kurt”, 248, 252–253
Weyburn, HMCS, 71, 74, 96–98, 110
Whyte, Marilyn, 122
Wohlfarth, Kptlt Herbert (U-556), 16
Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (Wrens), 168, 240
Woodruff, AB Roy (Q-074), 71–72, 73–74, 75
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I undertook this project over two years ago, my knowledge of naval warfare consisted of hazy memories of having watched Victory at Sea with my father thirty years earlier. The crash course I undertook before and while writing The Battle of the St. Lawrence was taught by a small squadron of unpaid teachers. The first was Dr. Roger Sarty, then the director of the Canadian War Museum, who generously gave of his time and his unpublished research and who graciously offered to read the unpublished text. I owe much to Dr. Michael Hadley, who, while I was still getting my sea legs, e-mailed me permission to come up to the bridge. Dr. Marc Milner has also been an invaluable resource, and a fine stylistic critic of this text. Mr. André Kirouac, director of the Quebec Naval Museum, not only opened his files to me but has been there to help me find the smallest detail; merci aussi, André, pour l’invitation pour la colloque sur le bataille de St. Laurent. Drs. Michael Whitby and Serge Bernier, and Charles Rhéaume of the Canadian Defence Department’s Directorate of History also gave of their time both in answering my questions and in catching e
rrors in the book’s first draft.
I owe a special debt to Ted Read of Alexandria, Ontario, whose story of surviving the torpedoing of SS Oakton convinced me and Michael Benedict at Maclean’s magazine—and subsequently my agent, David Johnston—that the Battle of the St. Lawrence was a gripping story. Protecting me from error—especially the landlubber’s faux pas of writing “men on a ship” instead of “men in a ship”—has been Ian Tate of Port Hope, Ontario, who has also graciously allowed me to reprint many of the pictures he took at HMCS Fort Ramsay three score years ago. Geoffrey Smith of Oakville, Ontario, has also been an invaluable resource. Joe Connolly, who during the war was an EAC pilot, taught me much about the intricacies of antisubmarine air patrols. I must not forget Max Reid of Ottawa, who explained to me much about life aboard ship and how naval guns were fired. Ron McGuire gave generously of his time and of his research on SS Caribou. Terry Manuel told me the horrifying story that ends this book.
My understanding of U-boat operations owes much to five men who served on U-boats. Werner Hirschmann, now of Toronto, was chief engineer on U-612 and U-190; ironically, the latter U-boat torpedoed Terry Manuel’s HMCS Esquimalt off Halifax in the closing days of the war. Dr. Günther Spohn of Düsseldorf and Mr. Egon Martens of Beverstedt served aboard U-1228 and recall the torpedoing of HMCS Shawinigan. Before being captured in 1942 and sent to a POW camp in Bowmanville, Ontario, Volkmar Koenig served aboard U-99 under U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer. One former U-boat officer whom I interviewed has asked that I not record his name.
The men and women whose answers to my and other people’s questions on the forums at uboat.net are too numerous to mention. Several, however, must be singled out: Rodney Martin, Roger (rogerhollywood), Douglas Struthers, hubertusw, Rainer Bruns and Rainer Kolbicz.
Both John MacSween of Glasgow, Scotland (another uboat.net connection), and Francis MacLaughlin of Kingston, Ontario, were more than graceful in explaining to me the physics of how a ship sinks. Both will recognize their labours, I trust, in my description of the death of SS Nicoya.
Both International Marine Research, a volunteer organization in Norfolk, England, and Tim Hughes, my researcher in England, worked miracles. So did Janice Summerby of the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs. Claire Roy of Algonquin College’s interlibrary loan service could find the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Richard Martin, my colleague in Algonquin’s English department, performed yeoman’s work proofreading this manuscript. And thank you to Mairi McKissock for preparing an excellent index.
Finally, thanks to Chris Bucci at HarperCollins, who has wielded his blue pencil skilfully and ensured that this narrative flows.
I, alone, of course, am responsible for any errors that follow.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The four navies and different merchant fleets whose story this is had three different ways of reckoning time. The U-boats used German War Time, the prime meridian of which was Berlin rather than Greenwich, England. The Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Navy used Greenwich Mean Time. Thus, German war logs recorded events two hours ahead of whatever time the RN, RCN or USN recorded them, 1445 for the U-boats being 12:45z for the RN, RCN and USN (the “z” stands for “Zulu” and denotes GMT). Some merchant ships used GMT; others used local time, which was four hours earlier than GMT.
Since my main concern is to tell of the events that were unfolding in the St. Lawrence, I generally use local time, though to give the reader a taste of the military record I sometimes use both Zulu and German War Time, trusting that in context all will be clear.
A similar type of confusion reigns in the question of distances. Here the Kriegsmarine is most eclectic. Cruising distances were reckoned in nautical miles, and speed in knots; a knot is one nautical mile an hour, and a nautical mile is slightly longer than a mile measured on land. Distances between ships and when diving, however, were reckoned in metres; torpedo runs were, of course, also measured in metres. By contrast, the RCN, RN and USN, all of which used nautical miles and knots, measured distance between ships and from torpedoes in yards (and, less frequently, in cables, a cable being 4,256 feet). At the risk of a certain inconsistency but in the service of giving my reader a sense of the historical documents, I use all units of measure. As well, in order to give my reader a sense of the German navy, at times I use German phrases and titles, supplying translations where necessary.
I have distinguished between written material being quoted and interviews by using the present tense in the attribution for interviews—for example, “Read recalls”—and the past tense for written sources.
The distances given in the snapshots of the war are calculated from Gaspé, Quebec, and are rounded off to the nearest 500 miles.
Copyright
The Battle of the St. Lawrence
©2004 by Nathan Greenfield.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40149-4
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Excerpts from James Lamb’s On the Triangle Run: The Fighting Spirit of Canada’s Navy (2nd Edition), published by Stoddart in 2000, reprinted by permission of Ruby Edith Lamb. Excerpts from Alfred Noyes’ poem “The Search Lights” reprinted by permission of The Society of Authors (UK) as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Alfred Noyes. Excerpts from John Rooney’s poem “The Men Behind the Guns” reprinted by permission of Bartleby.com, Inc. Excerpt from C. Fox Smith’s poem “The British Merchant Service” reprinted by permission of Bartleby.com, Inc. Maps on pages vi–ix reproduced with permission of Veterans Affairs Canada, 2003.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
FIRST EDITION
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Greenfield, Nathan M., 1958–
The battle of the St. Lawrence: the Second World
War in Canada / Nathan
M. Greenfield.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN O-OO-2OO664-2
1. World War, 1939–1945 -Naval operations, German. 2. World War, 1939–1945 -Saint Lawrence River. 3. World War, 1939–1945 -Naval operations–Submarine. 4. World War, 1939—1945 – Naval operations, Canadian. 5. Canada. Royal Canadian Navy – History. 6. World War, 1939—1945 -Canada. I. Title.
D779.C2G73 2004 940.5435943
C2004–903989-X
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DWF 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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