Harry DeWolf
Encyclopedia
Vice Admiral
Henry George "Harry" DeWolf (26 June 1903 – 18 December 2000) was a Canadian naval officer who was made famous as the first commander of during World War II
.
DeWolf is often acknowledged as the most decorated Canadian naval officer in World War II and considered by military historians to be Canada's greatest naval officer for having won a string of victories at sea, and for having helped negotiate an independent role for the Royal Canadian Navy
in the North Atlantic, rather than have it operate as a subsidiary to the Royal Navy
or United States Navy
.
. His father owned and operated DeWolf & Sons, a shipbrokerage business.
DeWolf entered the Royal Canadian Navy
in 1918 at age 15 when he attended the Royal Naval College of Canada
at Esquimalt, British Columbia
. The original RNCC had been destroyed in the Halifax Explosion
the previous winter.
DeWolf graduated from RNCC in 1921 and was sent on an exchange with the Royal Navy
to serve on board the battleship
. He was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant
in 1924 and took a 6-month course in gunnery, torpedoes and navigation at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Returning to Canada in the summer of 1925, he was posted to one of the RCN's two destroyer
s, .
In early 1930, Lieutenant (Navy) DeWolf received his first command, the Battle class trawler at Halifax. In May 1931 he married Gwendolen Gilbert of Somerset, Bermuda who he had met while serving aboard HMCS Patriot which had spent a winter training there several years earlier. In 1932, Lt. (N) DeWolf was posted to the destroyer and then in 1933 to the destroyer .
In July 1935 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander
and posted to National Defence Headquarters
(NDHQ) in Ottawa. He was made Assistant Director of Intelligence and Plans and was part of the RCN's negotiation team for acquiring four used destroyers from the RN.
In 1937, Lt. Cmdr. DeWolf studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and then served on an exchange with a RN cruiser
squadron in the Mediterranean Sea
during the Spanish Civil War
.
in late May and early June 1940. St. Laurent returned to convoy duty in the North Atlantic and the following month in July 1940, DeWolf's ship rescued 859 German and Italian prisoners of war, survivors of the SS Arandora Star
which had been torpedoed by a U-boat; DeWolf was promoted to Commander
in 1940. He and his ship were mentioned in despatches twice during his service on St. Laurent.
Years later, he recalled the following incident, which took place while in command of the St. Laurent:
as well as operations to secure the English Channel
in preparation for Operation Overlord
. Most of his more famous battles took place at night in the English Channel, when DeWolf secured his reputation as a fearless and skillful tactician and became known to his crew as "Hard-Over-Harry" for various bold manoeuvres off the coast of France. DeWolf earned the Distinguished Service Order
for rescuing survivors of in range of coastal guns along the French coast.
Cmdr. DeWolf left Haida and was recalled to Ottawa
where he was promoted to Captain in September 1944, becoming Assistant Chief of Naval Staff.
He served as Flag Officer Pacific Coast at Esquimalt from 1948 to 1950, then was recalled to NDHQ where he served as Vice Chief of Naval Staff from 1950 to 1952, then was posted to Washington, D.C.
as principal military advisor to the Canadian ambassador from 1952 to 1956.
DeWolf was promoted to Vice-Admiral in January 1956 and served as Chief of the Naval Staff
before retiring from the RCN on 31 July 1960.
, although they spent their summers in Ottawa
, his last RCN posting. DeWolf was an active golfer and fisherman and he was active in the Royal Canadian Navy Benevolent Fund, which raises money for retired sailors down on their luck.
He died in Ottawa on 18 December 2000 at the age of 97 and was buried at sea
on board HMCS Ville de Québec
.
On 23 September 1992, the Town of Bedford named a 1.4 hectare waterfront park on the Bedford Basin
after DeWolf. The minutes of the 28 November 2000 meeting of the Halifax Regional Council
reveal that DeWolf contributed $100,000 CDN to the municipality, presumably as thanks for naming the prominent Admiral Harry DeWolf Park after him.http://www.halifax.ca/council/minutes/2000/c001128.pdf
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...
Henry George "Harry" DeWolf (26 June 1903 – 18 December 2000) was a Canadian naval officer who was made famous as the first commander of during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
DeWolf is often acknowledged as the most decorated Canadian naval officer in World War II and considered by military historians to be Canada's greatest naval officer for having won a string of victories at sea, and for having helped negotiate an independent role for the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
in the North Atlantic, rather than have it operate as a subsidiary to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
or United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
Early years
DeWolf was born in Bedford, Nova ScotiaBedford, Nova Scotia
Bedford is a community in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was an independent town from 1980-1996. Bedford lies on the northwestern end of Bedford Basin, an extension of the Halifax Harbour...
. His father owned and operated DeWolf & Sons, a shipbrokerage business.
DeWolf entered the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
in 1918 at age 15 when he attended the Royal Naval College of Canada
Royal Naval College of Canada
The Royal Naval College of Canada was a naval college set up in Canada by the Royal Navy; it existed from 1911 to 1922. The school educated about 150 students until it closed due to declining numbers and cuts from Ottawa. The aim of the college was to instruct recruits a course of study that...
at Esquimalt, British Columbia
Esquimalt, British Columbia
The Township of Esquimalt is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the west by Esquimalt Harbour and Royal Roads, to the northwest by the...
. The original RNCC had been destroyed in the Halifax Explosion
Halifax Explosion
The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in "The Narrows"...
the previous winter.
DeWolf graduated from RNCC in 1921 and was sent on an exchange with the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
to serve on board the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
. He was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
in 1924 and took a 6-month course in gunnery, torpedoes and navigation at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Returning to Canada in the summer of 1925, he was posted to one of the RCN's two destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
s, .
In early 1930, Lieutenant (Navy) DeWolf received his first command, the Battle class trawler at Halifax. In May 1931 he married Gwendolen Gilbert of Somerset, Bermuda who he had met while serving aboard HMCS Patriot which had spent a winter training there several years earlier. In 1932, Lt. (N) DeWolf was posted to the destroyer and then in 1933 to the destroyer .
In July 1935 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
and posted to National Defence Headquarters
Department of National Defence Headquarters (Canada)
The Major-General George R. Pearkes Building is the principal location of Canada's National Defence Headquarters and is located in Ottawa, Ontario....
(NDHQ) in Ottawa. He was made Assistant Director of Intelligence and Plans and was part of the RCN's negotiation team for acquiring four used destroyers from the RN.
In 1937, Lt. Cmdr. DeWolf studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and then served on an exchange with a RN cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
squadron in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
HMCS St. Laurent
DeWolf returned to Canada in 1939 and was appointed Commanding Officer of the destroyer . The St. Laurent was posted to convoy duty out of Halifax. The St. Laurent under DeWolf reportedly fired the RCN's first shots of the war as they helped rescue British and French troops escape from continental Europe during Operation Dynamo after the Fall of FranceBattle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in late May and early June 1940. St. Laurent returned to convoy duty in the North Atlantic and the following month in July 1940, DeWolf's ship rescued 859 German and Italian prisoners of war, survivors of the SS Arandora Star
Arandora Star
SS Arandora Star was a British registered cruise ship operated by the Blue Star Line from the late 1920s through the 1930s. At the onset of World War II she was assigned as a troop transport and moving refugees. At the end of June 1940 she was assigned the task of transporting German and Italian...
which had been torpedoed by a U-boat; DeWolf was promoted to Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
in 1940. He and his ship were mentioned in despatches twice during his service on St. Laurent.
Years later, he recalled the following incident, which took place while in command of the St. Laurent:
"The mechanism of a live, armed torpedo was being painted by a sailor, who first lifted the safety catch to paint underneath it, and then lifted the firing handle to paint under that. The torpedo fired, naturally, and ran wild on deck," he said. "It slammed into the deck house, bounced off and kept changing around. Everybody, including me, was scared. The decks cleared pretty rapidly. Since we thought we were all going up any second, Petty Officer Ridge and myself decided to try and tame the torpedo. We got astride it. It was as slippery as a greased pig and we thought its propeller might cut our feet off. We rode and guided it over the rail and stuck one leg over the rail to hold it steady. The propeller was making a tremendous racket on the iron deck. We finally managed to release the air cock (the torpedo was driven by compressed air). We still had a live torpedo. When we got to port (in the United Kingdom) we hoisted it on the wall and left it there. I reported to headquarters, but I don't know what became of the torpedo." (The warhead was eventually placed in a North SeaNorth SeaIn the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
naval mineNaval mineA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
field.)
HMCS Haida
Cmdr. DeWolf took command of in August 1943. Under Cmdr. DeWolf, Haida earned the reputation as "the Fightingest Ship in the Canadian Navy", and was responsible for sinking 14 enemy ships in just over a year, earning numerous accolades. Haida and DeWolf saw service with convoys to MurmanskMurmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
as well as operations to secure the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
in preparation for Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
. Most of his more famous battles took place at night in the English Channel, when DeWolf secured his reputation as a fearless and skillful tactician and became known to his crew as "Hard-Over-Harry" for various bold manoeuvres off the coast of France. DeWolf earned the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
for rescuing survivors of in range of coastal guns along the French coast.
Cmdr. DeWolf left Haida and was recalled to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
where he was promoted to Captain in September 1944, becoming Assistant Chief of Naval Staff.
Cold War
During the postwar years, Capt. DeWolf commanded the aircraft carriers and between January 1947 and September 1948 before being promoted to Rear-Admiral.He served as Flag Officer Pacific Coast at Esquimalt from 1948 to 1950, then was recalled to NDHQ where he served as Vice Chief of Naval Staff from 1950 to 1952, then was posted to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
as principal military advisor to the Canadian ambassador from 1952 to 1956.
DeWolf was promoted to Vice-Admiral in January 1956 and served as Chief of the Naval Staff
Commander Royal Canadian Navy
The Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy is the commander and institutional head of the Royal Canadian Navy. The Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy is based at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario.-History of the post:...
before retiring from the RCN on 31 July 1960.
Retirement
Vice Admiral DeWolf (Ret.) and his wife retired to her home in BermudaBermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, although they spent their summers in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, his last RCN posting. DeWolf was an active golfer and fisherman and he was active in the Royal Canadian Navy Benevolent Fund, which raises money for retired sailors down on their luck.
He died in Ottawa on 18 December 2000 at the age of 97 and was buried at sea
Burial at sea
Burial at sea describes the procedure of disposing of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, but also can be done by private citizens in many countries.-By religion:...
on board HMCS Ville de Québec
HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332)
HMCS Ville de Québec is a that has served in the Canadian Forces since 1993.Ville de Québec is the third vessel in her class which is the name for the Canadian Patrol Frigate Project. She is the second vessel to carry the designation ....
.
On 23 September 1992, the Town of Bedford named a 1.4 hectare waterfront park on the Bedford Basin
Bedford Basin
Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast.-Geography:Geographically, the basin is situated entirely within the Halifax Regional Municipality and is oriented northwest-southeast, measuring approximately 8 kilometres long and 5...
after DeWolf. The minutes of the 28 November 2000 meeting of the Halifax Regional Council
Halifax Regional Council
Halifax Regional Council is the governing body for the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia.In April 1996, the councils for the City of Halifax, the City of Dartmouth, Town of Bedford, and Municipality of the County of Halifax were dissolved when those municipalities were amalgamated into...
reveal that DeWolf contributed $100,000 CDN to the municipality, presumably as thanks for naming the prominent Admiral Harry DeWolf Park after him.http://www.halifax.ca/council/minutes/2000/c001128.pdf