The War At Sea

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    The Lost Leadership Cadre: Navy, Part 42

    December 25, 2010 by Marc Milner
    The small ships of the Sheep Dog Navy at war in the vile North Atlantic came to be seen as Canada’s naval war, and as the origins of the modern Canadian navy. But during the Second World War the overriding objective of the professional Royal...
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    The Accidental Enemy: Navy, Part 41

    October 22, 2010 by Marc Milner
    The winter of 1941-42 is usually treated by historians as a quiet one on the North Atlantic Run, but it is doubtful anyone guarding the convoy routes saw it that way. The North Atlantic was its typical vile self, with storm-battered ships and weary men...
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    Cutthroat Careerism: Navy, Part 36

    December 18, 2009 by Marc Milner
    Rear-Admiral L.W. Murray (left) speaks with sailors at St. John’s, Nfld., in 1942. PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA115347 The first months of Newfoundland Escort Force operations were trying. The rapidly expanding Royal Canadian Navy was confronted with the harsh realities of both war and the...
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    A Sad State Of Affairs: Navy, Part 34

    August 20, 2009 by Marc Milner
      HMCS Lévis, shortly after being torpedoed in September 1941. PHOTOS: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA136257 The convoy battles of late 1941 were a defining moment for the Royal Canadian Navy, and the outcome was not good. The confusion over Allied priorities, the navy’s push to...
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    The Fate Of Slow Convoy 42: Navy, Part 33

    June 18, 2009 by Marc Milner
    Personnel man a gun on board HMCS St. Croix in March 1941. PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA105295 The division of Allied labour worked out in August 1941 for operations on the North Atlantic made perfect sense. Fifty destroyers of the United States Atlantic Fleet’s Support...