The Battle of the Atlantic

ANTI-SUBMARINE GRENADE LAUNCHED INTO THE AIRBY THE CORVETTE HMCS PICTOU DURINGSUBMARINE ATTACK, MARCH 1942. (LAC PA-116838)escorted much ofthe transatlanticshipping from NewYork north. Thiswas the TriangleRun, in which theCanadian escortgroups shuttledconvoys betweenNew York orBoston, Halifax,and the eastern partof Newfoundland,where the Canadianand Britishmid-ocean escortgroups took overthe run to theBritish Isles. Other Canadian warships assisted the British andAmericans in protecting the valuable tanker traffic from theCaribbean.While the RCN and RCAF had been able to limit losses off NovaScotia and Newfoundland during the first half of 1942, there wasstill a very large vulnerable area: the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The hugecommitments on the ocean shipping routes, moreover, left very fewaircraft and almost no warships to defend this inland sea. On thenight of May 11, the freighters SS Nicoya and SS Leto weretorpedoed off the Gaspé Peninsula. The war was suddenly right athome and in sight of shore.Once again, the navy organized convoys and the air force kept asmany aircraft overhead as they could. These efforts made the greatThe Battle of the Atlantic 14