Abstracts
Abstract
Sable Island is best known for its shipwrecks and ponies. Additionally, it has an unexplored place in the history of Canadian anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic. This paper examines how the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy used and sought to use Sable Island in their anti-submarine warfare operations throughout the Second World War (1939–45) and the early Cold War (1947–68). It argues that while Sable Island’s location made it an ideal base for submarine hunting aircraft, the harsh environment and challenges of building on a sandbar in the Atlantic Ocean limited its utility for Canada’s air force and navy.
Keywords:
- Royal Canadian Navy,
- Royal Canadian Air Force,
- Canada Department of Transport,
- airbases,
- United States Navy
Résumé
L’Île-de-Sable est surtout reconnue pour ses épaves et ses chevaux sauvages. Pourtant, elle occupe une place méconnue dans l’histoire de la lutte anti-sous-marine canadienne dans l’Atlantique. Le présent article examine la façon dont l’Aviation royale canadienne et la Marine royale canadienne ont utilisé et cherché à utiliser l’Île-de-Sable dans leurs opérations de lutte anti-sous-marine durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale (1939-1945) et au début de la Guerre froide (1947-1968). Il fait valoir que si la situation géographique de l’Île-de-Sable en faisait une base idéale pour les avions de chasse de sous-marins, l’environnement hostile et les difficultés liées à la construction sur un banc de sable dans l’océan Atlantique en ont limité l’utilité pour l’aviation et la marine canadiennes.
Appendices
Bibliography
- Birchall, L.J. “Early RCAF/RCN Maritime Cooperation.” In Salty Dips Vol.2: “… and All Our Joints Were Limber,” edited by Mach Lynch. Naval Officer's Association of Canada, 1985.
- Cafferky, Sean. Uncharted Waters: A History of the Canadian Helicopter-carrying Destroyer. Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, 2005.
- Campbell, Isabel. “A Transformation in Thinking: The RCN’s Naval Warfare Study Group of 1956.” In People, Policy and Programmes: Proceedings of the 7th Maritime Command (MARCOM) Historical Conference (2005), edited by Richard H. Gimblett and Richard O. Mayne. Canadian Naval Heritage Press, 2008.
- Canada. Department of External Affairs fonds. RG25. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
- Canada. Department of National Defence fonds. RG24/R112. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
- Canada. Department of Transport fonds. RG12. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
- Canada. Royal Canadian Navy Historical Section fonds. 81/250. Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence, Ottawa.
- Canada. Royal Canadian Navy. Maritime Commander Atlantic. “BEAVERDAM III Exercise Analysis,” 24 February 1959. 73/561. Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence, Ottawa.
- Cote Jr., Owen R. The Third Battle: Innovation in the US Navy’s Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet Submarines. Naval War College, 2003.
- Douglas, W.A.B., Roger Sarty, Michael J. Whitby, Robert H. Caldwell, and William Johnston. A Blue Water Navy. Vol. 2, pt. 2 of Official Operational History of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War, 1943–1945. Vanwell Publishing Limited. 2007.
- Douglas, W.A.B., Roger Sarty, and Michael J. Whitby. No Higher Purpose. Vol. 2, pt. 1 of Official Operational History of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War, 1939–1943. Vanwell Publishing Limited, 2002.
- Douglas, W.A.B. The Creation of National Air Force. Vol. 2 of Official History of the Royal Canadian Airforce, edited by Norman Hillmer. University of Toronto Press, 1986.
- Friedman, Norman. Cold War Anti-Submarine Warfare. Naval Institute Press, 2025.
- Haydon, Peter. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: Canadian Involvement Reconsidered. Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1993.
- Kealy, J.D.F. and E.C. Russell. A History of Canadian Naval Aviation 1918–1962. Naval Historical Section, Canadian Forces Headquarters, 1965.
- McLean, Doug. “Muddling Through: Canadian Anti-Submarine Doctrine and Practice 1942–45.” In A Nation’s Navy: In Quest of Canadian Naval Identity, edited by Michael Hadley, Ron Huebert, and Fred Crickard. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996.
- Orr, John. “Some Policy Aspects of Canadian Involvement in Strategic ASW, 1945–1968.” In People, Policy and Programmes: Proceedings of the 7th Maritime Command (MARCOM) Historical Conference (2005), edited by Richard H. Gimblett and Richard O. Mayne. Canadian Naval Heritage Press, 2008.
- Parks Canada. “Park Establishment: Sable Island National Park Reserve.” Government of Canada, accessed 6 June 2025. https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ns/sable/culture/creation.
- Plamondon, Aaron. The Politics of procurement: military acquisition in Canada and the Sea King helicopter. UBC Press. 2010.
- Polmar, Norman and Edward Whitman. Hunters and Killers. Vol. 2, Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943. Naval Institute Press, 2016.
- Johnston, William, William Rawling, Richard Gimblett, and John MacFarlane. The Seabound Coast. Official History of the Royal Canadian Navy, vol. 1, 1867–1939. Dundurn Press, 2010.
- Raymont, Robert Lewis. Robert Lewis Raymont fonds. Fonds 73/1223. Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence, Ottawa.
- Sarty, Roger. The Maritime Defence of Canada. Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1996.
- Weir, Gary E. “The American Sound Surveillance System: Using the Ocean to Hunt Soviet Submarines, 1950–1961.” International Journal of Naval History 5, no. 2 (August 2006). https://ijnh.seahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2012/01/article_weir_aug06.pdf.
- Whitby, Michael. “Fouled Deck: The Pursuit of an Augmented Aircraft Carrier Capability for the Royal Canadian Navy, Part 2, 1956–64." Canadian Air Force Journal 3, no. 4 (2010): 6–20.
- Whitby, Michael. “A ‘New Look’ at Cold War Maritime Defense: The Royal Canadian Navy’s Seaward Defence Report and the Threat of the Missile-Firing Submarine, 1955.” Naval War College Review 73, no. 4 (Autumn 2020): 112–38.