During the Battle of the Altantic in WW2, two dozen Royal Canadian Navy ships were sunk, with many of their sailors lost at sea. Let us never forget their sacrifice.
Today’s blog is more of an In Memoriam for the ships and crews lost during the longest battle of World War Two. Twenty four RCN ships were lost, and their names were recorded on a plaque at the Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto and included by John D. Harbron in his book, The Longest Battle: The RCN in the Atlantic 1939-1945, published in 1993 by Vanwell Publishing, St. Catherines, Ontario.
HMCS Alberni
HMCS Bras D’or
HMCS Chedabucto
HMCS Esquimault
HMCS Guysborough
HMCS Louisburg
HMCS Ottawa
HMCS Raccoon
HMCS St. Croix
HMCS Skeena
HMCS Trentonian
HMCS Weyburn
HMCS Athabascan
HMCS Charlottetown
HMCS Clayaquot
HMCS Fraser
HMCS Levis
HMCS Margaree
HMCS Otter
HMCS Regina
HMCS Shawinigan
HMCS Spikenard
HMCS Valleyfield
HMCS Windflower
And just so we don’t think the German Navy went unscathed, of 39,000 U-boat seamen, 28,000 were lost at sea during World War Two, “the largest losses by any single military or naval force on either side during the war,” stated John Harbron.
The statistics are utterly sad, for both sides, on the human level. The men and women fought bravely, fiercely and with sheer determination for their own countries. May it never happen again.
