Tuesday, October 25, 2011

World War II's Battle of St. Lawrence-- Part 2

According to Wikipedia, the Battle of St. Lawrence took place over a longer period of time than just the sinking of the four ships mentioned in the previous diving article. It lasted from May 1942 to November 1944, No German U-boats were reported sunk, but Allies lost 23 ships sunk and 3 damaged and 340 killed in the various actions.

The Royal Canadian Navy had been allowed to shrink after World War I, but was rebuilt to the point where at the end of World War II, it was the third-biggest Allied Navy with 400 mostly small ships and 100,000 men and women in service.

The four Allied ships were sunk on two different nights within a month of each other.

On September 5, 1942, the U-513 sank the SS Sacanaga and the SS Lord Strathcone.

On November 2, 1942, the U-518 sank the PLM 27 and the SS Rosecastle.

These four ships collectively today are called the Bell Island Wrecks and can be seen at low tide.

Before sinking the two ships, the U-518 had fired a torpedo at the loading pier on Bell Island, the only location in North America to be subject to enemy attack by German forces during World War II.

Again, Never Heard of It. --DaCoot

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