Early in 1945 the Japanese war machine was in a sorry state: “American submarines and aircraft destroyed in four years almost all of Japan’s merchant fleet. It was radically defeated even before American bombs incinerated the cities and Roosevelt obtained the entry into the war of the Soviet Union.”(1) Immediately after the surrender, the Japanese government confessed that shipping losses were the main reason behind defeat.(2) Japanese failure to protect its merchant fleet and thwart the U.S.
In Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia Canada sits one of the more unique Second World War era museum ships: the HMCS Sackville. The Sackville was one of 123 Flower Class Corvettes to serve with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. As of this writing it is the last of its kind.
Corvettes are small multi-role ships that for centuries have served as a key component of the world's naval powers. Dating back to the Age of Sail, corvettes have traditionally been smaller than frigates; but larger than offshore or coastal patrol craft.
Australian and New Zealand warships clearing World War II era munitions from the harbor at Rabaul have found what is believed to be a Japanese midget submarine. The wreck was found sitting upright on the sandy bottom at 180 feet underwater. Rabaul was one of the most important Japanese Naval bases during the War, and the site of sharp combat in January 1942 - when Japanese forces seized the harbor and associated military installations from Australian forces.
Following Hitler's December 1941 declaration of war upon the United States German Admiral Karl Doenitz sought to take advantage of the weakly guarded sea-lanes near the American coast and pick off the highly vulnerable, solitary, merchant ships plying these waters. Hitler approved Doenitz's plan, code named Operation Paukenschlag, or drumbeat/roll the drums. Doenitz' U-boats would carry Hitler's war to America and if successful deliver the first blows designed to cripple American shipping and industry.
