The Early Cold War
Anti-Submarine Warfare

The Canadian navy's main Cold War mission was anti-submarine warfare against the naval forces of the Soviet Union and its allies. Canada's navy operated within a framework of alliances, especially the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), created in 1949.

Limbo Anti-Submarine Mortar, HMCS Kootenay

This photograph, taken aboard the Canadian destroyer HMCS Kootenay in the 1960s, shows one of the ship's three-barrelled Limbo anti-submarine mortars.

Developed from the Second World War Squid anti-submarine mortar, the Limbo's three barrels could be aimed to deliver depth charges at ranges of up to roughly 900 metres at any point around the ship. Each depth charge weighed about 175 kilograms and carried some 95 kilograms of explosive. Together, the depth charges were aimed in a way that would surround the targeted submarine in a three-dimensional pattern of explosions.

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CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum