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_BELEAF_ OP t1_jeg7klu wrote

Reply to comment by Canucklehead_Esq in My Grandfather, on a Canadian corvette in WWII. The ship escorted vital supply ships to Britain, and was almost totally unarmed, with cardboard gun-shaped decoys on deck. He worked below deck in the boiler room during the U-boat threat, and lived to tell the tales. by _BELEAF_

Ok thanks for the info! Wouldn't 1941 be near the start of our efforts across the Atlantic? Edit: as you can see this is dated 1941 on the photo.

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Canucklehead_Esq t1_jeg869t wrote

No. WW2 began in 1939 for most combatants. By 1941 corvettes would have been in service.

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_BELEAF_ OP t1_jeg8z0c wrote

Right. But to to my knowledge, North America didn’t enter significantly until 1941. And that was the near peak of U-boats and their massive destuction of the USA and Canadian Navies.

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Canucklehead_Esq t1_jegaebp wrote

The US didn't enter until 1941. Canada declared war in Sept 1939. In the early part of the war U-boats dominated the North Atlantic, blockading the UK. The Allied response was to organize large convoys and protect them with small ships like the corvette, that were specifically made to hunt substances. The corvette and the new of the Canadian Navy were instrumental at that.

The U-boat threat would probably have been at its peak sometime in 1941 or 1942, but convoys and the development of increasingly effective antisubmarine warfare turned the tide soon after.

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_BELEAF_ OP t1_jegbbqs wrote

Right, ok. Thank you. Does what you know compromise my understanding of the events and this particular situation? I mean, this was straight from my grandfather. And he was lucky to survive.

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Canucklehead_Esq t1_jegc4at wrote

I think the substance of what you have is correct, except about the corvette's armaments.. if your grandfather served on a ship before this one, it may have had a fake gun

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_BELEAF_ OP t1_jegd2ji wrote

Ok, thank you again! It seems feasible to me that this all may well have been the case for his particular ship. I imagine that you'd have a mix of older and newer ships at that point. And literally everything was put into service as everything was getting wiped out in those years.

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