Betrayed: Scandal, Politics, and Canadian Naval Leadership (review)

Politics. They beset any organization; occasionally for the greater good, all too often to the detriment of the whole. Navies are no exception. The history of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is very much one of politics, both internal and external – indeed, its very survival has always been mired in political controversy. In Betrayed, Richard Mayne takes up the story of one political tempest that culminated in the ousting of the professional head of the RCN – all of this at the height of the Second World War.

When Canada declared war on the 10th of September, 1939, the Canadian Navy was a tiny force of six destroyers and a handful of trawlers. By war's end, this flotilla-sized fleet had turned into a truly blue-water navy: two light fleet carriers; a pair of powerful light cruisers; modern fleet destroyers; myriad landing craft and supporting vessels; and above all, an immense anti-submarine force. HMC ships had seen action around the globe, and forces were being deployed for the culminating stages of the fight against Imperial Japan. No organization can be expected to undergo a fifty-fold expansion (from fewer than 2,000 regular force officers and men to some 110,000 serving personnel, all volunteers) without growing pains, and those the RCN had aplenty.

Getting that vast influx of men properly trained, and keeping them upto date with the latest techniques and tactics was a huge challenge in and of itself. Combined with the rapid pace of technological development (radar, new anti-submarine warfare weaponry and associated electronics), and the need to repair and upgrade existing vessels – with insufficient shipyard capacity and in competition with other industries and the other services for skilled and semi-skilled labour – the existing naval infrastructure had difficulty coping. It is very much to the credit of the Chief of the Naval Staff Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles, and Naval Staff Headquarters (NSHQ), that the Navy did as well as it did. Nevertheless, several disastrous convoys highlighted serious shortcomings in the RCN's capabilities.

The focus of Canada's naval war was the fight against the German U-boat, and to accomplish this, the Naval Staff was forced to juggle a number of competing issues. The maximum number of escorts and escort groups had to be kept at sea at all times, but those ships needed maintenance and had to be upgraded with the latest technology – by a shipbuilding industry working at capacity. Trained manpower was in short supply, and needed to be spread as widely as possible; while ship captains did their best to keep their crews together. There was, of course, the normal disconnect between those at sea, unaware of the overall picture, and the shore-based administrators, seemingly disinterested in the concerns of those bouncing about the North Atlantic. Moreover, there was tension felt by many "Wavy Navy" (Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, i.e. RCNVR) officers unaccustomed to a stricter discipline and more rigid hierarchy than experienced in private life: some felt that the regular RCN was biased against them.

This is the situation described in Betrayed. Interlocking networks of RCNVR officers (ofttimes lawyers) were able to use connections from their prewar careers to pass sometimes faulty, often incomplete, information about the problems in the "Corvette Navy" up to the highest levels, outside of proper channels. Very dangerous politically. Mayne untangles the various threads that connected all the players, and explores the roles played by men ranging from the Naval Minister Angus Macdonald and his executive assistant John Joseph Connolly down through the members of the Naval Staff, and senior British officers in Liverpool. Ultimately, Percy Nelles would pay the price. Not neglected is the cut-throat and competitive world of the prewar RCN officers, each trying to gain every inch in the all-important promotion game. Unfortunately, those shenanigans were not put aside by all senior officers, even during the war...