Merchant Navy

Merchant Navy. World War II. , Battle of the Atlantic , Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week to keep fighting. This created a tonnage war: the Allied struggle to supply Britain versus the Axis attempt to stop the flow of merchant shipping that enabled Britain to survive. More people, ships and material were lost in the six-year Battle of the Atlantic than in all the naval campaigns of the previous 500 years combined. , Convoy System , Halifax was the main assembly point for eastbound convoys of merchant ships carrying the food, raw materials and weapons to Britain. Typically, a 40-ship convoy would be 10 columns wide with four ships in each column. A flagship sailed at the head, carrying the convoy commodore. Naval escort vessels, such as corvettes that could outmaneuver submarines, patrolled the flanks. , Facing the "Wolf Packs" , "Wolf-packs" of German submarines, known as U-boats (Unterseebooten), preyed on merchant ships, causing heavy losses and high mortality rates for merchant crews. In a North Atlantic winter, frigid waters brought death quickly, usually within five minutes. German U-boats also attacked close to home, sinking ships near Halifax and even in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. , Determined Volunteers , The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest and most complex naval battle in history, lasting the entire duration of the war. Merchant mariners won the campaign by sheer courage, returning again and again to do their vital job, even those who survived sinkings. To honour their contributions and sacrifices, the Canadian Parliament designated September 3rd as Merchant Navy Remembrance Day.