WW2 Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Transport

[Mike Cecil]

Across the sea in ships....

There were various routes, and their dominance depended upon enemy submarine and surface ship activity to a certain extent.

From Canada, freight destined for Australia such as Blitz trucks went mostly down the US east coast, across the Carib. and through the Panama Canal, then across the Pacific to NZ and Australia. When losses mounted to an unacceptable degree in the Carib., significant proportions of the trucks, etc were shipped by train to the US and CDN west coast, and loaded there for transit across the Pacific. All these were mostly free running voyages.

Aust and NZ products headed for Canada, USA and Britain went either across the Pacific, through the canal, across the Carib. and up the east coast, often 'free running' (not in convoy, not escorted) to US and CDN east coast ports. There, ships for GB would be allocated to a convoy for the cross-Atlantic run. Same in reverse.

Or the other route (to Britain) was west across the Great Australia Bight, then north west across the Indian Ocean to Kenya or west direct to Capetown then up the African west coast.

Losses of Blitz trucks headed for Australia were in the thousands, along with smaller numbers of aircraft. Also rifles, web equipment and other military items. Likewise, Australian goods headed for the UK, Canada and the USA had a loss rate, mostly on the Carib. and Atlantic legs of the voyages. The Pacific was not immune, but the Japanese submarine warfare was not as wide ranging/intensive as that waged by the Germans in the Atlantic and the ocean was a hell of a lot bigger. (So the Japanese tended to concentrate on choke points rather than chance encounters on the open ocean, as to a certain extent, did the Germans in the Carib.)

The CMP was made by Ford and Chev - the two dominant vehicle types on Aust roads before WW2. Both Ford Canada and GM Canada had 'parented' Australian operations in the 1920s, and had the infrastructure in place to support the assembly and rebuilding of Blitz trucks.

Mike C

[Keith Webb]

I didn't realise they were lost in such numbers coming to Australia.

I wonder who shouldered the bill for those. I assume the ones we ordered were paid for by the Australian government, but were they C.O.D as it were or once they left the factory?

I imagine those losses were ours rather than Ford Canada.

[Ganmain Tony]

In a distant part of my memory I seem to remember German Surface Raiders contributing significantly to allied merchant vessel tonnage losses as well..

[Mike Cecil]

Hence my comment 'submarine and surface raider' although by the time the Blitz trucks were being transported to Australia in qty, the threat from German surface ships (raiders) had diminished significantly.

An example of loss was the Port Huon (July 1942):sunk with over 2,000 chassis, mostly CMP, aboard, and a deck cargo of 14 aircraft, all destined for Oz.

Payment was Aust government, but how and when depended upon the mode of supply: US Lend Lease, Canadian Mutal Aid, or cash purchases direct from manufacturers. The first two were a post-war balancing of Aust supplied against US/CDN supplied, while cash was, well, cash ie immediate.

Mike C

[alamotex]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

An example of loss was the Port Huon (July 1942):sunk with over 2,000 chassis, mostly CMP, aboard, and a deck cargo of 14 aircraft, all destined for Oz.
Mike C

Mike Where did you aquire such info re shipping losses and their cargos ? I have good reason to believe that most of the 600 odd GL III(c) gunlaying radars manufactured in Canada by Research Enterprises Ltd were shipped across the Atlantic to the UK where many were transhipped to other war zones. I would be most interested to learn how many never reached their intended destination due to shipping losses. I suspect that one of the destinations was Russia via the Murmansk run.

Cheers Brian

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Brian,

The sources are varied: the best place to start is 'Lloyds Shipping Losses of WW2', a 2 volume set detailing all known ship loss and damage for whatever reason. Rare book and expensive if you can find a copy. Jordan's Merchant Ship Fleets 1939 is another good source of info, but tends to repeat the basic data in Lloyds when it comes to losses.

I combine these with data from Australian government sources such as shipping reports, cablegrams, survivor notifications, convoy reports, overseas orders and re-orders (they often give the reason for re-ordering) for munitions and the like. No one source provides a complete picture, but it is not a bad start.

Alas, my concentration on Australia relevant data means I have little on items not going from or to Australia, so nothing on the radar sets you refer to.

Mike C

[alamotex]

Thanks Mike 86 of those GL III(c) radar sets were shipped to OZ sometime in 1943 (or perhaps early 1944) and we know that all arrived safely. A contingent of Canadian technical personnel was sent out to provide training and assistance. This has been well documented and just one or two of those personnel are still alive today...I correspond with one of them.

Cheers Brian

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

I didn't realise they were lost in such numbers coming to Australia. I wonder who shouldered the bill for those.

Merchant vessels and their cargoes were insured, just as in peacetime. Premiums varied according to vessel type, shipping route, free running or in convoy, etc. etc. Business is business!

[Mike Cecil]

Tony,

In general terms that's true for unchartered ships carrying mixed cargoes (civilian trade cargo or civilian and military mixed) and for charter ships (ships on govt. charter from private owners), but it also depended upon the nature of the use and which controller -US, CDN, Australian or British - as to the nature and extent of the coverage.

Ships from 'enemy' countries taken as a prize of war were used as if they were wholly owned by the Commonwealth (or British government), for example the Danish ships Anglo-Maersk and Astoria, taken over in 1940 (along with their cargoes), or the Italian Remo, seized at gun-point in the open ocean after fleeing an Australian port. The Danish had to go to court at the end of the war to recover their ships by court order.

The Brits also chartered ships such as the Kanimbla from Australian shipping companies for use as Merchant Cruisers early in the war, and later, these were transferred to Australian Govt. Charter and used as Merchant Cruisers, Landing Ships and transports until well after the end of WW2. These ships were on an outright government payment for loss or damage basis at a pre-determined rate. The government also paid for the refurbishment back to a passenger carrying vessel at the time of the cessation of the charter.

Mike C

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

it also depended upon the nature of the use and which controller -US, CDN, Australian or British - as to the nature and extent of the coverage.

Yes I'm aware there were some rather complex arrangements entered into Mike, notably between the British Govt. and the Norwegian merchant fleet, which under exiled Norwegian requisition formed the worlds largest shipping company. Unlike the Danish fleet it wasn't confiscated by the Brits, but as you mention it was some time after the war before accounts were finally settled and vessels returned to their legal owners in fit state.

I find it quite fascinating how war and commerce coexisted in WW2, and I'm reminded of the story of MV San Demetriou, a British merchant tanker which sailed in convoy from Halifax with a load of aviation fuel, and was attacked by a German cruiser in mid-Atlantic. With the vessel ablaze the crew abandoned ship, but after two freezing nights in a lifeboat they spotted it still afloat, and despite being still ablaze they decided to reboard and attempt to resume passage. Amazingly enough they reached Ireland a week later, with most of the aviation fuel still unconsumed by fire, and having received no assistance from another vessel, and the captain having been picked up in the other lifeboat, they were legally entitled to salvage money of several thousand pounds, which they were duly awarded in court!

It was the subject of a movie at the time, titled "San Demetriou, London", which I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it before. It crops every now and then on late night TV so you may need to record it like I did!

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Both Ford Canada and GM Canada had 'parented' Australian operations in the 1920s, and had the infrastructure in place to support the assembly and rebuilding of Blitz trucks.

Likewise Ford and GM in NZ, India, and South Africa - all were established by Ford and GM Canada as wholly owned subsidiaries, operating under the old Commonwealth arrangements which afforded Canada export priveleges over the US. They were acquired by Ford and GM USA some time after WW2.