The Royal Canadian Navy used escort carriers for escort, ferry, and related missions during its rapid wartime expansion. Canada is described here as the third-largest navy by tonnage at the war's end, with an unusual force composition. Its strength lay in trawlers, corvettes, frigates, destroyers, sloops, and other escort vessels instead of numerous cruisers or capital ships. Carrier operations added another practical capability to that utilitarian force structure. The experience also helped prepare Canadian personnel for the fleet carriers their navy operated later. Institutional competence grew through wartime work on smaller platforms before the service acquired more prestigious ships.
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Canadian escort carriers and the growth of an escort navy
Escort-carrier service contributed aviation experience to a Canadian force that expanded through numerous practical escort vessels rather than capital ships.