As convoys of Allied ships set out from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland toward Europe through the Second World War, thousands of kilometres of ocean and German U-boats lay between them. Royal Canadian Navy warships escorted the Merchant Marine and other carriers of troops, munitions, fuel and military and civilian supplies during the Battle of the Atlantic. This multi-nation struggle over Atlantic shipping lanes began hours after Britain declared war on Germany on Sept. 3, 1939: a German U-boat sank the British ocean liner SS Athenia that day, and the war did not cease until 1945, more than 8,500 destroyed vessels and 70,000 Allied casualties later.

By June 1944, the Allies had largely gained control of their shipping lanes, and although German U-boats continued to sink ships until the war’s end, their efficacy was reduced. The Canadian Navy had evolved by then into the world’s top submarine-hunting navy, a status it retained for decades. Its last submarine “kill” of the Second World War came 75 years ago on March 21, 1945, when the frigate New Glasgow rammed a U-boat off the coast of Ireland. VE Day, for Victory in Europe, came on May 8, 1945, while the formal surrender of Japan and the end of the entire conflict came on Sept. 2.