u-boat attacks on canadian soil in WW2

[Shec]

An incident which may or may not have something to do with U-boat attacks on what is now Canada was the disasterous 1942 fire of the Knight's of Columbus Hostel,  a serviceman's leave centre in St. John's,  which some purport to be the work of a German agent who in turn may have been landed by U-boat.

http://www.janetmcnaughton.ca/fire.html

A distant relative of mine,Ordinary Seaman Irving Epstein RCNVR,  from Montreal died in that fire.

 

[3rd Herd]

Plenty of U-Boat activity in Canadian waters, but the only submarine attack on Canadian soil was an ineffective bombardment of a lighthouse by a Japanese vessel on the West Coast.

For a ref, try this: http://www.amazon.com/Military-History-Canada-Desmond-Morton/dp/0771065140

History Lesson Boys and Girls:

Known:

1) Dec 18,1941: Japanese submarine I-25 fires 10 deck gun shots at L.P. St. Clair, who shelters in mouth of the Columbia River.
2) Dec 18,1941: Japanese submarine I-17 torpodes and damages SS Samoa off Cape Medocino, Calforinia
3) Dec 20, 1941: Japanese submarine I-17 shells and sinks the tanker Emido
4) Dec 20, 1941: Japanese submarine I-23 shells Tanker Agiworld, then I-23 shells and disables small gunboat off Monterey Bay
5) Dec 20, 1941: Japanese submarine 1-15 rammed by garbadge scow off Okland California
6) Dec ?, 1941: Japanese submarine I-9 chases Tanker Idaho off Oregon Coast
7) Dec 22, 1941: Japanese submarine I-21  unsuccessful attack on Tanker HM Story
8) Dec 23, 1941: Japanese submarine I-21 sinks Tanker Montebello
9) Dec 24, 1941: Japanese submarine I-9 attempt to sink lumber carrier Barbara Olson
10) Dec 24,1941: Japanese submarine I-19 fires two torpedos at freighter Absoroka, one strikes but lumber cargo keeps freighter afloat.
11) Dec 29, 1941: RCN reports "Japanese submarine" 10 miles from Victoria (possible I-26).Stranraer flying boat hits trees on take from Ucluelet, four killed.
12) Jan 1, 1942: HMCS Outrade attacks and damages a "submarine " off the north end of Vancouver Island
13) January 17, 1942: 6 pounder on Odden Point opens fire on a "Japanese submarine"
14) January 17, 1942: US Army Aircraft report camouflaged surfaced "submarine" off  west coast of Vancouer Island.
15) Feb ? 1942: Japanese Glen performs reconanise flight over Prince Rupert. Coal Harbour also subjected to overflights as early as Jan. 1942
16) Feb 24, 1942: Japanese submarine I-17 starts "Battle of Los Angeles"
17) June 7/8, 1942: Japanese submarine I-26 sinks the SS Coastal Trader of the mouth of the Straits of Juan De Fuca
18) June 14, 1942: unidentified submarine sinks frieghter Ocean Vengance off the mouth of the Strait of Juan De Fuca, RCN patrol boat from Port Renfrew attacks submarine.
19) June 20th, 1942: Japanese submarine I-26 attacks/shells light house at Estevan Point.( aircraft at Patricia Bay crashes blocking runway, HMCS Santa Marie, HMCS San Tomas respond)
20) June 19/20, 1942: Japanese Submarine I-25 attacks SS Fort Camosun off Vancouver Island.
21) July 9, 1942: Bolingbroke #9118 helps sink a "Japanese submarine" with two US Coast Guard vessels in assistance off the British Columbia coast.
22) July 30, 1942: Japanese submarine I-26 attacks and sinks Soviet submarine IL-6 in the Stait of Juan De Fuca
23) August 23, 1942: the crew of a Stranarer Flying boat is loast in action against a Japanese submarine 49'47N,130'30W off Vancouver Island
24) Sept 9, 1942: Japanese submarine I-25 launches  Glen seaplane on first "fire bomb" raid off Cape Blanco.
25) Marc 1943: Japanese submarines I-34, I-35, modified to launch "fire balloons" from 620 miles off US/Canada Coast.
26) March 1943: FV Oslo finds overturned "Glen seaplane(Yokosuka E14Y1)" off  15 miles off Juan De Fuca, attempts to tow into harbour, rough seas causes plane to sink
27) Various crashes until end of war contribute to losses of RCAF crews
;D


Edit to add:

"Dr. Delgado,
I am wondering about a Japanese submarine wreck off the Oregon Coast, specically Cape Kiwanda. Has anyone confirmed that this was in fact a Japanese submarine. My reference for this is Bert Webber's "Silent Seige" pg. 357. Thank you very much
Alec"

"Dear Alec:

The story keeps cropping up, but no one has been down, located the wreck and come up with photos - it does not mean it isn't there, but for now, it remains in the dubious category.  The principal activity by I-boats and a few RO-class submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy on the Pacific Coast is well documented, and other than the Aleutians losses (such as Ro-65) there are none thought to have happened on the North American mainland...but you never know.

James Delgado"


VP

 

[armyvern]

History Lesson Boys and Girls:

Known:

;D

Nice List. They seem to have neglected the MV Caribou. Perhaps they are implying that the attack upon it by U69 during it's run from Cape Breton to Newfoundland did not occur in Canadian territorial waters as Newfoundland was not yet a part of Canada on that date. Regardless, sorry, but I'll go with my relatives death certificate as proof it occured. Sadly, she's not around to question their list anymore.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Looks like a strictly Pacific Coast list since it also does not include the RCN/RN/USN losses in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

HMCS Racoon
HMCS Charlottetown
HMCS Shawinigan

 

[3rd Herd]

Looks like a strictly Pacific Coast list since it also does not include the RCN/RN/USN losses in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

You are correct AJ, as the list is exclusively West Coast. Given that that popular perception war occurred in the either in two directions; the Aleutian Campaign or the "only attack on Canadian soil" being the Cape Estevan lighthouse shelling. I kept this strictly in the submarine genre but it is interesting to note the amount of causalities suffered particularly in the air verses submarine conflict. The list of loses of aircraft and aircrew is extensive and one most not over look loses in the ground crew trades. An excellent source on this is Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Boat Stations by Weicht, Chris published in 1997. In his appendices there is an exact by aircraft type breakdown of losses both human and material. For the official history or the air verses submarine on either coast a good starting point is The Crucible of War 1939-1945, The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force series a collaborative project by Greenhous, Harris, Johnston and Rawling. The airforce version of C.P. Stacey's official army history. An additional two book read on the U-boat east coast theme is Operation Drumbeat and Black May by Canadian author Micheal Gannon. Currently, I am working my way through amongst others Miracle at Midway as the author and research group have put together and to a certain extent "corrected" more than a few historical errors. Their reasoning for the actual destruction in regard to the carrier USS Lexington is worth the read itself. Sorry for the brief hijack, back to the East coast.

 

[time expired]

Urban myth,maybe,
                          Heard this from a old German submariner who heard it from a member
of another crew,so third hand information.That a U boat crew went ashore in a north shore
Quebec village bought supplies and even went to a movie using captured US dollars.This
was early in the war and the Germans were still pretty cocky,sound like something Kapitan
Prien might have tried.
                            Regards

 

[geo]

Going to a movie in north shore Quebec?
I dunno..... the villages were all french speaking - so the few movies that would be available wold have to have been in french AND, there weren't all that many back then.

U Boat crews coming ashore? - definitely - they were setting up remote weather stations inbetween their attacks on shipping.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Going to a movie in north shore Quebec?
I dunno..... the villages were all french speaking - so the few movies that would be available wold have to have been in french AND, there weren't all that many back then.

Raised a red flag for me as well

U Boat crews coming ashore? - definitely - they were setting up remote weather stations inbetween their attacks on shipping.

Also landing spies, including a supposed triple agent. Also wasn't 49th parallel a documentary  ;D

 

[CrazyCanuck]

The weather station wasn't found by the RCMP untill around the 60's I think, and I know that one German spy was quickly apprehended because his money was all circa 1917 taken off the bodies of Canadian Soldiers.

 

[geo]

oik... cdn soldiers in france & flanders in 1917 would not have had cdn currency on their person.
French & belgian currency woulda made more sense.

Any Cdn currency theses spies woulda had would be the currency german banks woulda had on hand in 1939 at the outbreak of war.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I seem to remember some shelling by U-boats on the east coast. It was common for them to use their guns to save on torpedo's. Plus in the early years the response from the RCN, RCAF would have been limited.

 

[3rd Herd]

And yes everyone does over look the previous war:

"Then on the morning of July 21, 1918, U-156 brazenly bombarded a tug and several barges off Cape Cod in broad daylight while vacationers looked on from the beach. During the bombardment, shells landed amid some cottages." While on the Canadian side of the boarder "Local newspapers were soon awash in lurid stories of U-156 lying offshore, signalling spies based in Nova Scotia while the navy and the army dithered. The district intelligence officer in German-settled Lunenburg County was unable to cope with the flood of “information” on local turncoats. He wanted the army deployed and martial law declared. The arrival of dory loads of  fishermen along the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland coasts, telling tales of German piracy just offshore, pointed to the Royal Canadian Navy’s inability to defend the fishing fleet. Canadians, not least politicians and the media, expected the navy to protect their shipping. The navy was under no illusions that it could. The fishing fleet was far too dispersed to protect in any event, and the navy lacked the vessels to do so."

Source:
Hadley, Michael L. U-boats against Canada: German Submarines in Canadian Waters.

Milner, Marc  "The U-boat Summer of 1918" http://www.legionmagazine.com/features/canadianmilitaryhistory/05-03.asp

 

[wannabe SF member]

although torpedos were all they had so if they had intended to strike the pier it is more than likley what they would have used.

R.

Actually some u-boats had deck guns for when they were on the surface.
The type VII, the most widely used, had an 88 mm gun as well as flak weaponry aside from their torpedoes.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_VII_U-boat
http://www.uboataces.com/uboat-type-vii.shtml

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Actually some u-boats had deck guns for when they were on the surface.
The type VII, the most widely used, had an 88 mm gun as well as flak weaponry aside from their torpedoes.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_VII_U-boat
http://www.uboataces.com/uboat-type-vii.shtml

As was pointed out by Colin above...