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HALIFAX — An investigation into a Second World War tragedy off the coast of Nova Scotia has revealed that the deaths of hundreds of U.S. sailors was not only covered up, but used as fodder to feed Canada’s propaganda machine. Now, more than seven decades later, the truth about what happened that night off Sable Island can be revealed and the record of the sailors’ sacrifice set straight.

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The plight of the doomed crew of the American destroyer USS Ingraham has been kept from Canadians, largely because wartime censors believed the loss of the 300 sailors off Halifax could have damaged the war effort. Those same censors also saw an opportunity to turn a bungled — and deadly — convoy mission into a propaganda victory.

The story begins in the bustling port of Halifax in August 1942. The watch phrase of the day — Loose Lips Sink Ships. Wartime censors had tight control over the press; a grip so tight that even naming Halifax was forbidden. The vital harbour where huge convoys gathered could only be called “an East Coast Canadian port” in the newspapers.

H.B. (Bruce) Jefferson was the Atlantic Regional Censor of Publications in wartime Halifax. He had a commanding view of Halifax Harbour from his office in the flag tower atop the downtown Dominion building where he recorded the movements of the thousands of vessels entering and leaving Halifax.