Battle of the St.Lawrence 1942

HMCS Arrowhead (DND - 1940) Convoy escort lead through the St. Lawrence

Despite what common knowledge may say, the Second World War reached the shores of North America, specifically speaking in Canada and up the St. Lawrence river throughout 1942. Despite the fact that the facts will tell you, nearly two dozen ships were sunk, and more than 340 sailors killed, with no single German U-Boat being sunk, it was still a tactical victory for the Royal Canadian Navy.

War in the St. Lawrence by Roger Sarty (2012)

If the RCN needed to admit defeat in the St. Lawrence, it would have meant the end of its convoy runs to Britain and the Allies in Europe and a massive blow to moral and an embarrassment for Canada. Beginning in 1942, The Canadian government took a great number of heated questions and concerns from the public over its inability to keep Canadian waters safe from the continued threats of Nazi German U-Boats in the Gulf of the St. Laurence.  Nazi Germany understood the strategic importance of the St. Lawrence. U-Boats could operate a minimal depths and attack convoys in hopes of breaking the Allied supply chain and lead to victory in Europe. The only issue was, German U-Boat commanders feared entering the St. Lawrence despite the fact that no U-Boat had even been successfully attacked or sunk in its waters.


Despite initial success in attacking the Canadian convoys in the St. Lawrence, successful German U-Boat attacks fell to 1.2% by the end of 1944 when the German's gave up on cutting off the St. Lawrence. The most successful U-Boat run was in September of 1942, when the German U-Boats U-165 commanded by Hoffman (or Hoffmann) and U-517 commanded by Hartwig. Out of the 18 ships and 2 warships sunk in the St. Lawrence between May and September 1942, 2/3 were claimed by Hoffman and Hartwigg. It was this success that led Germany to order more U-Boats into the St. Lawrence, and suggested entering the river, not just the gulf.

In late September 1942 U-69 commanded by Ulrich Graf arrived at the Cabot Strait, however his U-Boat was operating the new Metox radar warning system, which did not identify a distance to detected targets, just a warning that targets were in the area. The Metox system was so advanced, that it also detected the Royal Canadian Air Force which began patrolling the St. Lawrence that fall, in an attempt to curb the U-Boat attacks. Graf worried by the high number of targets his radar was detecting abandoned the Gulf in early October, leaving U-106 commanded by Hermann Rasch on its own in the gulf. 

In its first few days, U-106 would sink the merchant steamer Waterton, and quickly became over run with warnings from its Metox radar, and almost immediately abandoned the St. Lawrence gulf and went back out to sea. The U-43 which followed Rasch into the St. Lawrence a week later. Despite is constant rader warnings, U-43 decided to hold out, in hopes of glory. Glory would never come, it failed in attacking convoy SQ-43 off the coast of the Gaspe on October 21, which resulted in a massive counter attack by the RCN and the RCA. The U-43 narrowly escaped the massive depth charge attack from the HMCS Gananoque, having most of its lights destroyed from the explosions. U-43 abandoned the St. Lawrence early the next month.

In a final attempt to close the St. Lawrence, Germany ordered three more U-Boats to enter the Gulf and head up river. U-183, U-518, and U-522. U-183 knew of the effectiveness of the RCN and RCA patrols and refused to enter the gulf altogether, while U-522 off the coast of Newfoundland intercepted convoy SC-107, and reported it to U-520, U-521, U-402, U-89, U-84, and U-132, which were in the area. It led to one of the most decisive naval battles in RCN history and the most interrupted convoy of the war. Of the 39 ships that were part of the convoy,  14 were sunk. 

On November 9, U-518 braved the gulf despite the warnings from its radar and landed German Spy Walter Aldred Waldemar von Janowski on the shores of Quebec. After paying for a hotel room in out dated money, police were alerted to his presence and he was arrested.

Following the unsuccessful deployment of its spy, U-518 left the St. Laurence  near the end of November, and it was clear that a tactical Canadian victory was at hand. German U-Boat commanders feared the water of the St. Lawrence despite the fact that no U-Boat was lost in its waters. It was a victory that gained one prisoner, and no confirmed kills for the Allies, but it was a decisive victory which allowed the convoys to continue to reach Europe.

To learn more about the Battle, please read

The Legion Magazine (Sept/Oct 2012) "Hidden Victory in the St. Lawrence"
War in the St. Laurence (2012) by Roger Sarty

Remembering History - The Battle of the St. Lawrence - 1942

The Polish-Soviet War 1919 - 1921

Despite having left left the Great War in 1917 so it could complete it's Soviet Revolution, Soviet Russia was back at war within two years against its neighbour, Poland, a neighbour that it has been to war with on numerous occasions.

With the support of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia went to war against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian Peoples Republic over territorial controls of what is modern Ukraine and parts of Belarus.

When the Great War ended in 1918, the Treaty of Versailles only vaguely defined the international borders between Poland and Bolshevik Russia.

Jozef Pilsudki

Poland's Chief of State, Jozef Pilsudki believed that 1919 was the perfect time for Poland to expand it's borders as far East as possible, then lead a Polish Intermarum federation against the Russian Imperialists.

Yavhen Petrushevych

Vladimir Lenin, saw Poland as a strategic gap that had to be filled for the Red Army to assist other Communist movements in Eastern Europe. By 1919, polish forces had successfully taken control the majority of Western Ukraine, having emerged victorious from the Polish-Ukrainian War. The West Ukraine People Republic led by Yavhen Petrushevych tried to create a Ukrainian state on territory claimed by the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Russians.

With the Russian civil war turning in favour of the Bolsheviks, the Poles and Ukrainians set aside their differences to defend themselves against the advancing Red Army.

Polish Offensive Early 1920

The Red Army had initial success in early 1920, but was quickly met by swift Polish counter attacks, resulting in heavy losses on both sides. With a quick sweep, the Red Army pushed its way into the Polish capital of Warsaw, causing fear among Western nations, as the German's and Russians did not get along, and their were getting close to one another.

Russian Offensive Summer 1920

By midsummer 1920, the total fall of Warsaw seemed inevitable, but by late August,  Polish forced achieved a decisive victory and began to advance eastward until the Soviets sued for peace and the war ended in October 1920 with a ceasefire agreement.

A Formal treaty, the Peace of Riga was signed on March 18, 1921 dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Russia. Much of the territory ceded to Poland would become part of the Soviet Union following World War Two.

The war left nearly a hundred thousand dead and nearly three hundred thousand wounded. At it's peak during the Battle of Warsaw, there were nearly 1.6 million troops in combat.

To learn more about the Polish-Soviet War, please see:

White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20 (1972) by Norman Davies

Remembering History - The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1921

The Thirty Years War - An all European Conflict

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Throughout history there have been numerous conflicts that encompassed large portions of Europe, yet there very few that compare to the scale of warfare seen during the Thirty Years War.

The Thirty Years War was a smaller series of wars, very much like the Northern Wars (previously written about) that were fought between 1618 and 1648 mainly in Central Europe (Modern. Germany) and involved most of the European Powers of the era. The Thirty Years War is remembered as one of the longest and most destructive in European history prior to the two World Wars. It is also one of the longest continuous wars in modern history.

Pinpointing the cause of the war is highly debated among historians, and no one can truly agree on a single cause that accurately explains the cause for war. Originally it was described as a religious war between Protestantism and Catholicism in the Holy Roman Empire, yet this theory weakens when it is realised that disputes within both religions over internal politics and the balance of power played a significant part in the wars escalation over the years.  As the years went on, the war became less about religion than it did about the continuation of the Bourbon-Habsburg Rivalry to control Europe.

The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 ended the war between German Lutherans and Catholics but did not resolve the underlying religious issues, which were made worse by the spread of Calvinism throughout Germany in the following years. Calvinism became a third major religion in the region that was not recognised by Augsburg.  The Holy Roman Empire, which was already fragmented in hundreds of small city states began to rival each other over religious beliefs, leading to what is considered to be a spill into surrounding states.

Without going in into extreme details, as you can study the conflict for yourself, the warfare within the Holy Roman Empire led to the Bohemian Revolt between 1618 and 1621 and again between 1621 and 1625, followed by the Huguenot Rebellion between 1620 and 1628, all of which had the support of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman support led to the Danish Intervention (1625-29), the Swedish Intervention (1630-35), and the French Intervention (1635-48).



By the time of the Peace of Westphalia, an estimated 8,000,000 people were dead, and much of Europe lay in ruins. The Habsburg supremacy was curtailed, the rise of the Bourbon Dynasty began, the Rise of the Swedish Empire began its climax. The War led to the decline of feudalism, and the decentralisation of the Holy Roman Empire, and a decline in the influence of the Catholic Church in Europe.

List of Belligerents:

The Protestant States and Allies:

Sweden

France

Bohemia

Denmark-Norway (1625-1629)  

Saxony  

United Provinces of the Netherlands

Electorate of the Palatinate  

Brunswick-Luneburg

England  

Scotland  

Brandenburg-Prussia  

Transylvania  

Zaporozhian Cossacks  

Ottoman Empire  

Hungarian Anti-Habsburg Rebels

Against

Roman Catholic States and Allies:

Holy Roman Empire  (Catholic League, Austria, Kingdom of Hungary, and Kingdom of Croatia)

Spanish Empire  (including the Spanish Netherlands)

Denmark-Norway (1643-1645)

To learn more about the Thirty Years War please see: ]

The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy (2009) by Peter H. Wilson

The Thirty Years War (1982) by C.V. Wedgwood

The Thirty Years War (2002) by Stephen J. Lee  

Remembering History - the Thirty Years War, an All European Conflict with more than 8,000,000 Casualties

Soviet State Vs. Soviet State - The South Ossetia War of 2008

When the collapse of the Soviet Union occurred in December of 1991, it left several new countries to emerge from under the dust of the collapsed Iron Curtain. One of these new countries, Georgia, located on the northern side of the Black Sea became a strategic centre for the Russian Navy, as it was the key for granting access to the Mediterranean Sea to the Russian Fleet.

Almost immediately following the creation of the State of Georgia, the province, (Oblast) of South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia, wishing to either be an independent state, or return to being part of the Russian Federation. Georgia did not recognise the independence of South Ossetia and went to war with the province for nearly a year and a half between 1991 and 1992. The war ended with a majority of the province surviving under a de-facto Russian supported government. A similar war took place with the Abkhazia Oblast throughout 1992 and 1993 which only made matters more intense.

Other than the odd skirmish, the conflict laided dormant until 2008 when separatist talks were heard from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Georgia threatened military intervention should either province attempt to leave. The Russian Federation saw this as a threat to their military strategy in the Black Sea, and officially decided to defend South Ossetia and Abhazia from a potential Georgian attack.

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Believing that the Russian support was a bluff, Georgia attacked on August 7-8 2008 in an attempt to regain the territory which had been under Russian military control for nearly two decades. Georgia claimed its attacks were retaliation for attacks against its peacekeepers in South Ossetia, and called for International support because Russia was deploying non Peacekeeping forces.

The Georgian assault forced the Russian peacekeepers to defend themselves with the support of the Ossetian militia. This led to the Russian Federation to view the assault as an assault on their sovereignty, and the rights of South Ossetians to cede Georgia and join Russia. Within hours of the first attacks, Russia deployed its 58th Army and its Airborne troops claiming humanitarian intervention and peace enforcement.

On August 9, Russian marines landed in Abkhazia and with the support of the local Militia opened a second front against the Georgian army. The Georgian navy was defeated in a naval skirmish earlier in the operation. Georgian forced began to retreat, and Russian forced easily occupied a number of Georgian port cities.

On August 12, a ceasefire agreement was put forward by the French president, and the European Union. Georgia signed the agreement on August 15, and Russia on August 16. Russian troops created a buffer zone around Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as recognising the governments of both provinces as independent nations. Recognition also came from Venezuela, Nicaragua,  and the south Pacific Island nations of Nauru, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Belarus was in the process of recognising South Ossetia, when it was urged to refrain for such action by the European Union.

Remembering History - The 2008 South Ossetia War, a.k.a The Russo-Georgian War