The threat from within: SS Caribou sunk during Battle of the St. Lawrence

Tremendous explosions shook houses and awakened the inhabitants of a small fishing village off the Gaspé Peninsula in Québec over the night of May 11-12, 1942.

German submarine U-553, lying in ambush in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had torpedoed two Dutch freighters, Nicoya and Leto. There were 18 casualties and 123 survivors.

A threat that no-one had dared mention until then had just materialized: German U-boats were in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Nazi Germany was threatening Canada from within.

During 1942, German submarines reigned supreme during the Battle of the Atlantic. U-boat wolf packs ravaged Allied convoys, sinking more vessels than the Allies could build. The United States' entry into the war brought even more German submarines to the east coast of North America.

Eventually they made their way into Canadian territorial waters, giving rise to a battle that is still little known both inside and outside Canada: the Battle of the St. Lawrence.

Between 1942 and late 1944, 16 German U-boats fired more than 50 torpedoes, sinking 24 ships, including three Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) warships: His Majesty's Canadian Ships (HMCS) Raccoon and Shawinigan, which lost all hands, and HMCS Charlottetown, which lost 10 sailors.

The sinking of SS Caribou

The greatest loss of life however, occurred on October 14, 1942, when the Newfoundland to Nova Scotia ferry SS Caribou was sunk by U-69, under the command of Kapitän-Leutnant Ulrich Gräf.

SS Caribou left Sydney, N.S.,…