Over its history, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has seen action in the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean, First Gulf, and Afghanistan Wars, as well as in United Nations peacekeeping missions and as part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operations. The RCN combines Regular Force and Reserve sailors, supported by civilian employees.
During the First World War, Canada’s war effort focused mainly on the Canadian Expeditionary Force (army) as the RCN was caught between a rock – the British Admiralty’s comparative lack of interest in Canadian naval defence – and a hard place – Prime Minister Borden’s reluctance to follow the advice of the Naval Service Headquarters (NSHQ) in Ottawa without U.K. Admiralty authorization. To start, NSHQ arranged transportation of any Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) officers and men resident in Canada wanting to go to Britain, as well as helped enroll men directly into the British navy. In the first years of the war, the RCN managed a patrol service in the Gulf of St Lawrence, until the Admiralty accepted a proposal for Canadians to be enrolled in the (British) Royal Navy (RN) auxiliary patrol. A fifth of the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR) in the war were sent to Britain with the remainder serving in Canadian waters.
In the Second World War, Canada’s naval involvement took different forms. Best remembered may be Canada’s naval involvement in Allied success in the 1939-1945 Battle of the Atlantic. This was not a single battle, but an ongoing series of fights between the German navy (especially U-boats) and air force (and later Italian navy) and the navies of Britain, Allied and U.S. merchant ships. Canadian reservists in small ships played a major role in escorting larger shops with food, war material, and other supplies, as well as armed forces personnel, from North America to the U.K. and U.S.S.R. The Royal Canadian Navy also engaged in surface warfare –conventional naval operations in Europe and the Pacific. Finally, the RCN also contributed substantially to the Combined Operations service, which managed large amphibious landings – coordinated land, sea, and air force invasions – and raids on occupied Europe.
Battle of the Saint Lawrence
- What was it like? This 1943 film depicts Canadian corvettes on convoy duty in the North Atlantic and engagement with a U-boat (on the National Film Board website)
Sinking of the SS Carolus near Metis-sur-Mer
Remembering the convoys
- Lorna Bethell
Ian Bovey - And the corvette officers landed in Metis for a visit
- Mother’s poem to son in Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR)
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