History Browser

The Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which saw German U-boats penetrate the Cabot Strait and the Strait of Belle Isle to sink 23 ships between 1942 and 1944, marked the only time since the War of 1812 that enemy warships inflicted death within Canada's inland waters. The battle advanced to within 300 kilometres of Québec City. A war that pervaded people's lives but was still somehow remote, had become immediate, threatening, and very real. This site outlines the story of this battle.

Many of those whose lives were claimed by the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence have no known grave. Their lives, and their sacrifices, are commemorated on Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials on both sides of the Atlantic. This website gives account of these memorials and awards.

Table of contents with links to various topics concerning the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Second World War.

Originally established in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. Over the years the Canadian War Graves Commission has retained the original principles which are discussed on this site.

From this resource educators and students can find and send an electronic postcard commemorating Remembrance Day, Veterans Week, and peacekeeping.

In 1939, Prime Minister Mackenzie King had a dream which he believed was a sign of "the power of the airplane in determining ultimate victory" for the war effort. That dream became a reality in the form of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).

In 1944 German U-boats returned to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which had been re-opened to trans-Atlantic vessels, intent on repeating their successes of 1942. By this time the Royal Canadian Navy was more adept at anti-submarine warfare, and its convoy procedures were much improved. Maritime air patrols were more proficient too. The U-boats returned with a potentially deadly advantage, however: the newly invented schnorkel mast.

A list of books and academic papers about the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of the Second World War.

The Canadians pushed rapidly eastward through France towards Belgium while British and American troops advanced into Holland. After an unsuccessful Allied airborne attack it became apparent that the war would continue into 1945.

This memorial commemorates 3,475 men and women of the land forces of the British Commonwealth and Empire who died during the Second World War and whose names could not appropriately be recorded on any of the campaign memorials in the different theatres of war. The names of 199 Canadians form the second largest total of those remembered here.