Argentia

War between Britain and Nazi Germany was declared on September 3, 1939, after Adolf Hitler's forces invaded Poland.

Argentia was selected in 1940 to be the location of the United States Navy's Naval Station Argentia being built under the United States-British Destroyers for Bases Agreement (which preceded the introduction of Lend-Lease in 1941) which saw fifty obsolete US destroyers given to Britain in exchange for control of selected lands controlled by Britain in the Western Hemisphere. The Argentia site was selected due to its proximity to Europe, the relatively ice-free nature of Placentia Bay, the safe navigational access channel, the sheltered harbour with secure deepwater anchorages nearby at Fox Harbour and Ship Harbour, as well as the local topography for an airfield and the existing railway line.

The base was urgently needed as part of the trans-Atlantic supply line which joined North America to Britain, in order to provide anti-submarine patrols to protect shipping from the German U-boat fleet.

The land beneath the village was traded to the United States for construction of the base under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement and the residents of Argentia and Marquise received the following notices:

In exercise of the powers conferred upon me by the Defence (requisition of land) Regulations, made under the Emergency Powers Defence Act 1940, on the 28th day of December AD 1940, I do authorize all persons who shall be engaged by the United States Government or its agents and contractors on the construction for that government of any naval, military or air works at Argentia to do any work on any land or place any thing in, on, or over any land upon the Argentia Peninsula, insofar as it shall be necessary for any such person so to do for the carrying out of any such work of construction including any preliminary work in relation thereto.

Provided, however, that this present authority shall not be valid to authorize the demolition, pulling down or destruction of any building or erection upon any such land, or the doing of any act which renders any such building or erection intangible.

Signed, Wilfrid Woods, Commissioner for Public Utilities

"The Defence (requisition of land) Regulations made under the Emergency Powers Defence Act 1940 on the 28th day of December, A.D., 1940.

I have to notify you that the lands and buildings lately belonging to and occupied by you at Argentia, for which said lands and buildings payment has been awarded, are required for occupation by the Government of Newfoundland not later than ________. Take notice, therefore, that the said premises must be completely vacated by you and peaceably yielded up to the Government of Newfoundland, its servants, agents, on or before the date mentioned.

Signed: WW Woods, Commissioner for Public Utilities"

When Argentia village was demolished during the Second World War and its people were moved mostly to nearby Placentia

Most people relocated to the nearby villages of Freshwater or Placentia. However, what little had been paid as compensation (usually no more than a few thousand dollars for homeowners in Argentia) proved inadequate for building equivalent new homes due to severe wartime shortages of labour and materials.

Those buried in the three local graveyards were exhumed and reburied in a new cemetery constructed by the US forces at the insistence of the local parish priest, Father A. J. Dee, who had also raised objections to the wartime delays in finding new housing for Argentia's living residents who were being forced to leave the village. The abandoned homes were ultimately burned or levelled by bulldozers.

The US flag was raised in Argentia on February 13, 1941.

HMS Prince of Wales in Ship Harbour, Newfoundland for the Atlantic Charter

The reason for the rush was made clear on August 7, 1941, when the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) carrying U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived at an anchorage outside Argentia near Ship Harbour. Roosevelt inspected the base construction progress and did some fishing from Augusta over the next two days. Augusta was joined by the British warship HMS Prince of Wales carrying British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 9, 1941. While in the Ship Harbour anchorage from August 9–12, the chiefs of staff of Britain and the US met to discuss the war strategies and logistics once the US joined the war. The two leaders and their aides also negotiated the wording of a press release that they called a "joint statement". Though not drafted as a legal agreement requiring signatures, Roosevelt and Churchill did sign their own draft markups of the joint statement which was issued as a press release on August 14, 1941, in Washington, D.C., and was issued simultaneously in London, England. Several days later the Daily Herald, a London newspaper, would characterize the contents of that press release as the Atlantic Charter. statement.

On August 28, 1941, Naval Station Argentia was officially commissioned by the US Navy. Argentia would prove to be an important base in the US war effort; by 1943 with the U.S. fully involved in the Second World War, Argentia saw upwards of 10,000 US personnel passing through on the way to the European Theatre. An adjoining United States Army base was established as Fort McAndrew to provide anti-aircraft artillery protection for the navy base and naval air station. In 1946 Fort McAndrew became part of the United States Army Air Forces and was renamed McAndrew Air Force Base in 1948.

With VE in 1945, Argentia saw a drop in personnel but by the start of the Cold War in 1947–1948, personnel numbers rose to 7,000. By the end of the Korean War in 1953, Argentia saw a total of 8,500 personnel posted in the area.

In 1955 McAndrew AFB was deactivated and turned over to the US Navy as the US Air Force moved its personnel to more remote and northern locations along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to build radar stations which would become part of the Pinetree Line and DEW Line systems. In the 1960s Naval Station Argentia became a key "node" in the US Navy's SOSUS underwater hydrophone system. As such, the base was the target for several espionage attempts by the Soviet Union. By 1969 the total US Navy and Marine Corps contingents had dropped to 3,000 and to 1,000 by 1971.

As facilities and structures closed, assets were transferred to the Government of Canada under the terms of the U.S.-Britain lend-lease program; Newfoundland having become a Canadian province in 1949. In 1973 Naval Air Station Argentia was closed and by 1975 the entire north side of the base was out of US hands. In 1994 Naval Operating Base Argentia, was officially decommissioned and the site was transferred to the Government of Canada. From 1994 to 2007, the Government of Canada carried out a $106 million environmental remediation program at Argentia which included the removal of many building structures, and the clean up, removal or safe containment of various hazardous materials on the land and in the water about the site. Concurrently, by 2001, the site was turned over to a private, not-for-profit organization to manage and lead the redevelopment of Argentia.

With the military base now closed, Argentia has no permanent residents and is zoned as an industrial area in support of its redevelopment as a seaport and industrial park for the Town of Placentia.

The former US Navy Air Station airfield on the Northside Peninsula has not been active for air traffic since 1973 other than for the Air Cadet Gliding Program.

Naval Station Argentia

By the mid-1960s roads were upgraded between Argentia and the newly opened Trans-Canada Highway at Whitbourne. In 1967 a new ferry terminal was opened by Canadian National Railway and the Ambrose Shea became the first seasonal ferry to call at the port, largely carrying tourists bound for the Avalon Peninsula (19 hours crossing time) from North Sydney, Nova Scotia. In the 1980s the terminal was upgraded by CN Marine and in 1989 the company's successor, Marine Atlantic, welcomed the MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood superferry (14 hours crossing time) on the Argentia summer run.