Monument in London, Ont., honours Canadians who served in WW II's Battle of the Atlantic

Isha Bhargava · CBC News

· Posted: May 02, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

A Royal Canadian Navy basal successful London, Ont., has built a nationalist memorial paying homage to the sailors and air unit personnel who served and mislaid their lives successful the Battle of the Atlantic — the longest continuous battle of the Second World War. 

The monument, extracurricular the HMCS Prevost at the Forks of the Thames, volition database each vessel and the names of the navy merchants and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) members who were mislaid astatine sea. It will beryllium unveiled this play for the naval campaign's 80th anniversary. 

The September 1939 to May 1945 battle lasted astir the entirety of the war. It was a crucial Canadian publication that protected convoys carrying important supplies specified arsenic food, substance and ammunition along the Atlantic Ocean from Halifax to Europe.

"What we're gathering is simply a ellipse of honour that lists by ship every sailor mislaid astatine the Atlantic and up connected the hill, arsenic if precocious and inactive protecting america from the skies — the airmen listed that gave their lives protecting those convoys," said Jeff Topping, the Prevost honorary captain who spearheaded the project.

"Telling the stories of the ships is 1 thing, but it's truly astir those who gave their each during the Battle of the Atlantic. We wanted to archer their stories and that's wherever the conception came of listing each the names, truthful you could see them and remember them."

More than 2,000 sailors from the Royal Canadian Navy and the Merchant Navy of Canada ne'er came home, portion the RCAF lost 873 unit and 350 aircraft that provided aerial screen to the convoys, according to HMCS Prevost. 

The Atlantic 'a critical proscription route' 

The Battle of the Atlantic played a pivotal relation successful allowing Britain to go an "arsenal" for European allies as critical resources crossed the Atlantic successful important quantities, said Jonathan Vance, a past prof astatine London's Western University. 

"Everything the allies would yet request to decision Nazi Germany had to travel into Britain from overseas, mostly from North America, including supplies that Britain needed to prolong itself," helium said, calling the conflict an "Atlantic lifeline."

"This was a captious proscription way close from Day 1 — if we hadn't won it, nary of the different battles would've happened due to the fact that the supplies couldn't person gotten adjacent to the front."

Despite the Battle of the Atlantic's importance, little is known astir the individuals who served successful it, said Vance, adding it took years for the Canadian authorities to admit merchant seamen arsenic veterans. 

"It was specified captious enactment and a batch of the enactment went unnoticed successful ample measure," helium said. "Crews were not military; they were merchant seamen who got mislaid successful the shuffle erstwhile it came to remembering veterans and their contributions."

The monument's archetypal signifier started successful 2010 with a elemental memorial connected a elevation extracurricular the Prevost, but members wanted to bash much and scoured done archives successful Ottawa to guarantee each sanction was accounted for. It took months, but they're confident the database is complete, said Topping, adding the navy has raised much than $500,000 successful donations from organizations crossed the country.

In London, astir 70 sailors joined astatine HMCS Prevost, either before oregon during the war, who ne'er returned home, helium added. 

"Nowhere successful Canada is determination a azygous spot wherever each the names are listed due to the fact that if you deliberation of ships going down astatine the sea, galore sailors person nary grave." 

Topping hopes this memorial volition assistance different Canadians larn and admit those who were progressive successful the battle. 

"All of these sailors, airmen and merchant navy gave their lives for our freedom," helium said. "The freedoms we bask contiguous were arsenic a effect of what they did 80 years ago, truthful we anticipation that radical volition come honour, wage tribute and instrumentality distant a spot of past for that adjacent generation."

The Prevost will big a ceremonial connected Sunday, erstwhile it will showcase the partition to the nationalist astatine its determination connected 19 Becher St., starting astatine 1 p.m. ET.