Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory
рдпрд╛ рдИ-рдкреБрд╕реНрддрдХрд╛рд╡рд┐рд╖рдпреА
The years 2019 to 2025 mark the eightieth anniversary of the longest battle of the Second World War, the Battle of the Atlantic. It also proved to be the warтАЩs most critical and dramatic battle of attrition. For five and a half years, German surface warships and submarines attempted to destroy Allied trans-Atlantic convoys, most of which were escorted by Royal Canadian destroyers and corvettes, as well as aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Throwing deadly U-boat тАЬwolf packsтАЭ in the paths of the convoys, the German Kriegsmarine almost succeeded in cutting off this vital lifeline to a beleaguered Great Britain.
In 1939, the Royal Canadian Navy went to war with exactly thirteen warships and about 3,500 regular servicemen and reservists. During the desperate days and nights of the Battle of the Atlantic, the RCN grew to 400 fighting ships and over 100,000 men and women in uniform. By V-E Day in 1945, it had become the fourth largest navy in the world.
The story of CanadaтАЩs naval awakening from the dark, bloody winters of 1939тАУ1942, to be тАЬready, aye, readyтАЭ to challenge the U-boats and drive them to defeat, is a Canadian wartime saga for the ages. While Canadians think of the Great War battle of Vimy Ridge as the countryтАЩs coming of age, it was the Battle of the Atlantic that proved CanadaтАЩs gauntlet to victory and a nation-building milestone.
рд▓реЗрдЦрдХрд╛рд╡рд┐рд╖рдпреА
TED BARRIS has published twenty books of non-fiction, half of them wartime histories. The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the Libris Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany received the RCAF Association NORAD Trophy. Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire was longlisted for the RBC Charles Taylor Prize. Ted Barris is a Member of the Order of Canada.
