"Victory in the St. Lawrence: Canada's Unknown War" (used book)

Victory in the St. Lawrence: Canada's Unknown War

by James W. Essex

About the book

Used Book. Hardcover. Dust jacket included. Good Condition.

-- From the dust jacket

The sailor next to me reached into his topcoat pocket and hurriedly proffered a crumpled photograph. I recognised it as the military funeral of 1942 at the tiny Anglican Church just down the road. It was the burial of a seaman from the HMCS Charlottetown, one of several who had been rescued, only to die of wounds later. He was killed in Canada by the Nazis.

This book, in a real sense, then, is his story and the story of hundreds of others who perished because of the German U-boats in the St. Lawrence. As Cmdr. George Bernard, Naval Officer in Command, Gaspe from 1943 to war’s end, said in later years:

“In 1942, marauding U-Boats entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and did a great deal of damage. They roamed the Gulf and River St. Lawrence at will and were seldom opposed. They sank Canadian warships and valuable merchant vessels almost with impunity.”

According to Bernard, it was for this reason that Canadian authorities played down the episode. They were prepared to accept the consequences because warships, which might have attacked the U-boats invading our inland waters were wanted more urgently elsewhere. This was “Victory in the St. Lawrence” – initially for the German U-boat: Canada’s turn would come next. But, what happened to both remained locked in memories of the participants only now being revealed long years after the war ended.

This was “Canada’s Unknown War.”