Since the Gulf of St. Lawrence was a strategic spot for enemy invasions (German submarines were known to be there starting in 1941), Gaspé became a strategic spot for the Ministry of National Defence. A naval base with 3000 men was built at Sandy Beach in order to patrol the Gulf. Strategic forts were sprinkled over the territory, and remnants of that time still exist today, such as the Fort Peninsula galleries at the entrance to Forillon National Park, the Fort Ramsay naval base at Sandy Beach, and the shoreline batteries at Cap-aux-Os and Fort- Prével.
The Fort Prével gun battery was one of the defense facilities built by the Canadian Department of Defense during World War II to protect the St. Lawrence River from German U-Boat attacks. From 1941 on, the naval and aviation base built in Gaspé was protected by military facilities overlooking both shores of Gaspé Bay, from Péninsula on the north shore to Prével on the south shore. Two giant guns were installed at Fort Prével, the biggest in their class in North America and able to launch very high caliber short-range rounds.
May1, 1942 marked the official inauguration of the HMCS Fort Ramsay naval base in Gaspé. This base was located inside the point at Sandy Beach, on the banks of the bay, near Gaspé. This base included maritime defence, a fuel depot, jetties, ammunition stores, maintenance facilities, a launching cradle, a communications centre and a hangar and apron for seaplanes. At the time only one ship was moored there: the Venning.
Following the first torpedo attacks in the St. Lawrence, military authorities decided to reinforce defences in the Gaspé by creating the Gulf Escort Force to include seven corvettes, five Bangor minesweepers, three additional fairmiles motor launches joining the three already present, and an armed yacht. The number of ships assigned to the Gaspé base now totalled 19. In addition to patrolling and escorting convoys, these ships rescued survivors from torpedoed ships.
You can see these silent witnesses of military history on the property of the Auberge Fort Prével located at 2053, boulevard Douglas, (highway 132) Saint-Georges-de-Malbaie, Quebec.