The Second World War Battle of the St. Lawrence between German U-boats and a primarily Canadian air force and navy has been not so much forgotten as ignored. The 24 ships sunk in the quarter-million-square-mile gulf represent only a small percentage of total losses of Canadian or Allied personnel and matériel during the extended Atlantic war. Despite the two-year length of the battle, all but three attacks on navy and merchant ships in the area occurred in just six months of 1942. No U-boats were ever sunk. In short, the battle has become a footnote overwhelmed by larger events that happened elsewhere in the war.

Nevertheless, the battle was fought and hundreds of lives lost deep inside Canada, not some distant battlefield, and for that reason the history deserves examination. Writer and historian Nathan M. Greenfield in The Battle of the St. Lawrence has done just that. From a Canadian perspective, it is shocking to learn that ships were sunk as far upriver as Rimouski, Quebec; that a civilian ferry plying the Cabot Strait was torpedoed with the loss of 136 people, including children; and that a German spy was disembarked in the Gaspé.

Greenfield does not so much bring new research to the history –Michael Hadley’s excellent U-Boats Against Canada (1985) remains the defining work – as imbue the history with tension and tragedy. Using logbooks and postwar interviews, Greenfield gives the reader a minute-by-minute comparison of what was happening on the subs and their targets, and details the horrific results on people and ships when the torpedoes struck. Greenfield reminds us of the human dimension of the battle. However, despite efforts to the contrary, he appears to lose perspective, perhaps overinflating the importance of a battle that will remain a footnote.

The Battle of the St. Lawrence will be of greatest interest to those who like some story with their history – some humanity and drama against the inhuman calculus of torpedoes, steel hulls, and the cold St. Lawrence.