U-Boats Offshore

Canada Post Corporation's on-going tribute to heroic achievements and sacrifices of Canadians during the Second World War continues with a set of four stamps marking 1942 as the "darkest days" of the war. By 1942, German U-boats had battled their way across the Atlantic to invade the coastal waters of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and into the Gulf St. Lawrence. Five U-boats attacked five convoys, sank 17 merchant ships, a loaded troop ship and two warships. But it was the sinking of the Caribou, the North Sydney-Port aux Basques passenger ferry, with the loss of 136 civilian lives, that finally brought the reality of war to Canada's shores. In September, the St. Lawrence was closed to all shipping except the coastal trade. With Canadian air superiority and less shipping, by the next month the U-boats had all but disappeared. But it was a coup for the Germans for it forced the Allies to re-route war material.