Final Historical Note

No one Canadian sailor or ship experienced all the events described in this simulation. Parts of the story have come from the experiences of many Canadians at sea. All the "Diary Entries", "Letters Home" and "Memoirs" included in the simulation are authentic, as are all of the combat photographs. The tests, challenges and decision screens are all based on intensive research

Beginning the war with a mere 13 vessels and 3,500 personnel, the Royal Canadian Navy grew to become, for a brief time at least, the third largest of the Allied navies. At war's end the RCN comprised 373 fighting ships and over 110,000 members, including 6,500 women who served in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Services.

The main object of Canada's Atlantic forces was always the protection of shipping bring vital supplies and manpower to Great Britain. Without the convoy lifeline the Britsh people and the Allied armies would have been starve of food, fuel, vehicles, and war materials. Merchant ships made 25,343 successful Atlantic crossings to British ports under the escort of Canadian forces. These vessels delivered 164,783,921 tons of cargo to the Britsh people and the Allied armies. In the process Canadian warships and aircraft sank, or shared in the destruction of 50 U-Boats.

The Merchant Marine

In 1939 Canada had only 38 ocean-going merchant ships manned by approximately 1,450 Canadian seamen. That merchant fleet grew to be the fourth largest merchant fleet in the world, including captured enemy ships, Great Lakes ships were pressed into service as ocean-going vessels, as well as new ships built in Canadian shipyards. The Merchant Fleet sailors quietly took on an extremely dangerous task. Their ships were slow - easy targets - and often loaded with ammunition or highly infammable fuels or war materials. Unlike the warships, they could do nothing to fight off the U-Boat attacks. Voyage after voyage, these men, who had been torpedoed or had seen ships go down about them, sailed and sailed again. They displayed a powerful sense of duty and a quiet day by day heroism.

Shipbuilding

The number of ships that poured from Canada's shipyards during the war was extraordinary. In fact an official of the British Ministry of War Transport described this achievement as "remarkable", "astonishing" and "magnificent". From December 1941 to the war's end, Canadian shipyards produced over 400 major cargo vessels, 281 escort ships (destroyers, corvettes, frigates), 206 minesweepers, 254 tugs and 3,302 landing craft. This remarkable achievement was an important reason for the Allies' victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. By mid-1943 it was clear that no matter how many merchant ships German U-boats sent to the bottom, the production of new ships was even greater.