Category Archives: canada

Bertholfs Hitting it Hard

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The Coast Guard only has 10 Legend (Bertholf) class National Security Cutters to its name.

Ordered starting in 2005 to replace the long-serving Vietnam-era 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters that had almost 50 years on their hulls, the Bertholfs are the largest non-logistics/icebreaker cutters the service has ever had, pushing 418 feet oal with a 4,600-ton displacement.

They have a lot going for them, with an economical CODAG engineering plant that allows for a 12,000nm range when on patrol and bursts of “over 28 knots,” they have extensive helicopter/UAV support facilities and a modest self-defense capability.

When it comes to sensors, while they aren’t in the same category as a true frigate, they have decent air/surface-search radars, IFF/TACAN, a SLQ-32 EW suite, and a sonar that reportedly has mine-hunting capabilities.

While great for busting smugglers and policing duties, the NSCs are armed akin to an LCS…

Importantly, they have all the goodies needed to operate as part of a modern naval task force including Link 11 and Link 16 and underway replenishment gear, allowing them to both tank and transfer from larger vessels and send to smaller ones– which allows them a “mother ship” role to smaller cutters on a deployment.

As some proof in the pudding, three of the service’s Bertholfs were recently underway in three different parts of the world, adding a speck of white to otherwise haze gray formations.

USCGC Midgett (WMSL-757), taking part in RIMPAC ’24 off Hawaii, was captured in a great shot last week conducting a dual transfer with the Italian Thaon di Revel-class offshore patrol vessel ITS Raimondo Montecuccoli (P432) from the Royal Canadian Navy replenishment ship MV Asterix.

Photo by Royal Canadian Navy Sailor First Class Brendan McLoughlin.

Meanwhile, the crew of the USCGC Stone (WMSL 758) returned to their home port in North Charleston last week following a 63-day patrol in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea in support of homeland defense and counterdrug operations.

During her deployment, she steamed in tandem with U.S. Second Fleet and Canadian Joint Task Force-Atlantic maritime forces.

Canadian Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332) and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone (WMSL 758) steam in formation, on June 9, 2024, while underway in the Atlantic Ocean. Stone and Ville de Québec operated in the Atlantic Ocean in the U.S. 2nd Fleet area of operations in support of maritime stability and security in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Alana Kickhoefer)

Likewise, the crew of the USCGC James (WMSL 754) returned to their home port in North Charleston last week after completing a 98-day patrol in the South Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

While down south, James worked along with the George Washington Carrier Group, called in several Latin American ports, conducted a live fire exercise, and steamed alongside ships from Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

Legend-class cutter USCGC James (WSML 754), left, and Brazilian navy Niterói-class frigates União (F 45) and Independência (F 44) operate in formation with Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) as part of a bilateral exercise between the U.S. and the Brazilian navy in the Atlantic Ocean, May 18, 2024. Porter is deployed as part of Southern Seas 2024 which seeks to enhance capability, improve interoperability, and strengthen maritime partnerships with countries throughout the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility through joint, multinational, and interagency exchanges and cooperation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David C. Fines)

Besides these three Bertholfs, keep in mind that a fourth member of the class, USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751), is still underway in the Westpac and has been operating in the South China Sea with white hulled partners from South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines.

(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Julia VanLuven)

Going further, a fifth Bertholf, USCGC Kimball (WMSL-756), has been bird-dogging a Chinese task force that was poking around the Aleutians earlier this month.

That’s five very busy hulls out of the ten the Coast Guard has. Talk about punching above its weight class.

A Lot Has Changed in the Arctic Since 2019

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A force of 37 U.S. and Canadian Soldiers was tactically inserted in 50 below F weather by a ski-equipped LC-130H Hercules onto Arctic Ocean ice just east of Little Cornwallis Island in Nunavut, Canada, during exercise Guerrier Nordique 23 on March 15, 2023. Notably, almost all involved were reservists with the LC-130 coming from the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing– the only ski-equipped airlift squadron in U.S. service– while the soldiers were largely from the Vermont and Utah National Guard and Canadian 35th Brigade Group, 34th Canadian Brigade Group, and the Canadian Rangers. 230315-A-FN054-945

The Pentagon this week released its 2024 DOD Arctic Strategy, which is the first update to DOD’s approach to the region since 2019. A lot has changed in the region in the past half-decade, with Russia and China getting more active in the Arctic while Sweden and Finland are now NATO allies.

Note that Thule Air Base is now Pituffik Space Base, under Space Force command since 2020, and still operates the POGO station under the aegis of the 821st Space Base Group. Also note the old Shemya Air Force Base in the Aleutians is Eareckson Air Station and is primarily just a 10,000-foot emergency strip with a small group of about 100 contractors, similar to the facility at Wake Island.

“The Arctic region of the United States is critical to the defense of our homeland, the protection of U.S. national sovereignty, and the preservation of our defense treaty commitments,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. “Our Arctic strategy will guide the Department’s efforts to ensure that the Arctic remains a secure and stable region.

The 29-page document is here.

Warship Wednesday, July 17, 2024: Under Four Flags

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi

Warship Wednesday, July 17, 2024: Under Four Flags

Above we see the sailors of the Northern Red Banner Fleet loading the 24-spigot Hedgehog ASW device on their new (to them) Wickes/Town-class destroyer, Zhivuchy/Zhguchiy (“Tenacious”), which they took over from the British some 80 years ago this week, on 16 July 1944.

By this point in the war– her second– she had already passed through American, British, and Canadian hands and still had some fighting left on her dance card.

The Wickes

Our ship was one of the iconic first flights of “Four Piper” destroyers that were designed in 1915-16 with input from no less an authority as Captain (later Admiral) W.S. Sims. Beamy ships with a flush deck and a quartet of boilers (with a smokestack for each) were coupled to a pair of Parsons geared turbines to provide 35.3 knots designed speed– which is still considered fast today, more than a century later.

The teeth of these 314-foot, 1,250-ton greyhounds were four 4-inch/50 cal MK 9 guns and a full dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes.

They reportedly had short legs and were very wet, which made long-range operations a problem, but they gave a good account of themselves. Originally a class of 50 was authorized in 1916, but once the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917, this was soon increased and increased again to some 111 ships built by 1920.

Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Inboard Profile / Outboard Profile, June 10, 1918, NARA NAID: 158704871

Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Main Deck / 1st Platform Deck / S’ch L’t P’f’m, S’ch L’t Control P’f’m, Fire Control P’f’m Bridge, Galley Top, After Dk. House and 2nd Platform Deck. / June 10, 1918, Hold NARA NAID: 158704873

Wickes class. A close-up of her stern top-down view of plans shows the Wickes class’s primary armament– a dozen torpedo tubes in four turnstiles and stern depth charges.

Of the 111 Wickes completed, there were three subclasses besides the 38 standard-design vessels built at Bath Iron Works, Cramp, Mare Island, and Charleston. Then came the 52 Bethlehem-designed ships built at the company’s Fore River (26 ships) and Union Iron Works (26 ships) led by USS Little, the Newport News-built variants (11 ships) starting with USS Lamberton, and New York Shipbuilding-built variants (10 ships) led by USS Tattnall.

The subclasses were constructed to a slightly different set of plans modified by their respective builders, which made for some downright confusing modifications later. In addition, the Bethlehem-designed Little variants tended to have shorter legs and proved unable to cross the Atlantic in a single hop without stopping in the Azores for refueling or completing an underway replenishment.

Anyway…

Meet Fairfax

Our subject, USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93), was the first ship named in honor of Virginia-born RADM Donald McNeil Fairfax whose distinguished service in the Civil War included command of USS Cayuga, Nantucket, and Montauk.

Rear Admiral Fairfax, seen as an LCDR/CDR above, served with distinction in the Civil War and retired on 30 September 1881 after 43 years of service. He died at Hagerstown, Maryland, on 10 January 1894, aged 75.

Our tin can was laid down on 10 July 1917 at Vallejo by the Mare Island Navy Yard; named Fairfax (Destroyer No. 93) on 14 July 1917 in General Order No. 311; launched on 15 December 1917; sponsored by the daughter of the yard commandant.

The future USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) is being prepared for launching, at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 15 December 1917. NH 70607

Fairfax was commissioned on 6 April 1918, almost a year to the day that America entered the Great War.

She was beautiful in her original dazzle pattern war paint.

Possibly the best Wickes class profile I’ve ever seen. USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship’s trials. NH 2025

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) making smoke while steaming at 25 knots during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. NH 55612

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) making smoke while running at 25 knots, during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard. Note this ship’s pattern camouflage. NH 23

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship’s trials. NH 54131

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. NH 54132

War!

A war baby born an ocean away from the fighting, Fairfax soon found herself with orders for Hampton Roads, where she arrived in early June to escort a convoy across the Atlantic, a role she would continue for the rest of the year.

Destroyers Israel and Fairfax with battleship Virginia in the distance. NH 109504

U.S. Navy Destroyer on convoy duty in 1918. This ship may be USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93), whose camouflage scheme was very similar, though not identical, to that seen here. Courtesy of Jack L. Howland, 1983. NH 95211

While on a Hampton Roads to Brest convoy on 18 October, she raced to a distress signal from the 6,744-ton American cargo ship SS Lucia, torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine SM U-155 (ex-Deutschland, Korvettenkapitan Ferdinand Studt, commanding) some 1,200 miles off the U.S. East Coast.

SS Lucia, built in 1912, was an Austrian-flagged merchant ship that was interned at Mobile, Alabama in 1914 while the U.S. was still The Great Neutral. Seized by the United States Government in April 1917, she was operated by the U.S. Shipping Board and later by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps as ID # 3090. Signal Corps Photo # 165-WW 274A-10 while in Mobile, circa 1917, via NARA.

S.S. Lucia (Austrian/American Freighter, 1912) sinking in the western Atlantic after she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-155, on 17 October 1918. A boatload of survivors is in the process of leaving the ship. This ship was intended to become USS Lucia (ID # 3090) but was lost before the Navy could acquire her. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005. NH 51459-A

Luckily, Lucia took 22 slow hours to submerge fully, allowing Fairfax to rescue 86 survivors. The only souls lost were four killed in the torpedo explosion. The steamer had been fitted at great cost with controversial Donnelly buoyancy boxes that made her “unsinkable,” which may have had something to do with her slow death.

USS Fairfax Description: (Destroyer # 93) underway with the survivors of S.S. Lucia on board, circa 18 October 1918. They were later transferred to the USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser # 5). NH 54134

Sinking of S.S. Lucia 17 October 1918. Motor launch arrives alongside USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) with a load of survivors from the American steamship Lucia. This boat is from the USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser # 5). NH 41727

Sinking of S.S. Lucia 17 October 1918. Motor launch from USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser # 5) leaving USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) with survivors from the American steamship Lucia. Fairfax is visible in the background. NH 41728

Immediately after the conflict came to a halt, Fairfax remained overseas, and, on 3 December 1918, she deployed to the Azores to the troop transport George Washington (Id. No. 3018) carrying President Woodrow Wilson, and escort her to Brest so that Wilson could attend the Versailles Peace Conference.

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) view of the ship’s forward and midship superstructure, probably taken at Brest, France, in late 1918 after she shed her camouflage. Photographed by Zimmer. Note the small identification number painted below her pilothouse, canvas weather screens, and the 1-pounder automatic anti-aircraft gun mounted by her forward smokestacks. NH 54135

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) in harbor, circa late 1918. Photographed by Zimmer. NH 54136

That mission completed, she sailed for home on 28 December, arriving at Norfolk on 8 January 1919.

Quiet Peacetime Interlude

No more camo! USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor, 11 October 1919. NH 54137

While many of the Navy’s new Wickes-class destroyers were soon mothballed following the “War to End all Wars”– and many of those later disposed of or converted to other roles such as minelaying/sweeping or tending seaplanes in the 1920s and 30s– the sun shined on Fairfax and, after helping shepherd the historic first aerial crossing of the Atlantic made by Navy seaplanes (towing the crippled NC-1 to shore), she was only laid up for not quite eight years, from 19 June 1922 to 1 May 1930, then recommissioned.

Incidentally, it was in 1920 that she served as the first command of LCDR (later VADM) Willis Augustus (Ching) Lee Jr. (USNA 1908), just after Lee returned from winning seven medals in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and two decades before he would teach the Japanese just how good radar-controlled gunnery can be at night.

Once brought out of her short stint in mothballs, Fairfax’s peacetime role consisted primarily of conducting training cruises for both East and West Coast members of the Naval Reserve and summer cruises out of Annapolis carrying midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy to the Caribbean. She alternated this duty with regular gunnery exercises, fleet reviews, and fleet problems, a stint with the Special Service Squadron out of Balboa in the Canal Zone, and patrols in Cuban waters.

She was captured alongside at Annapolis on 18 March 1939 when the remains of Hiroshi Saito, the late Japanese Ambassador to the United States, were transferred to the cruiser USS Astoria (CA-34) for return to Japan.

Note the large hull numbers. Page from the Japan Times Weekly, published in Tokyo, 20 April 1939, page 523, NH 76141

She also participated in the 1939 New York City World’s Fair.

USS Fairfax (DD-93) at Poughkeepsie, New York, 17 June 1939. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. NH 67728

War, again

When Europe blew the lights out again in September 1939, Fairfax was assigned to the increasingly tense Atlantic neutrality patrol.

All was not calm on this duty, and a sistership, USS Greer (DD–145), was fired upon by German submarine U-652 in September 1941, leading to FDR’s “shoot on sight” order for threatening ships under American escort while supposedly at peace. The next month the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245) was sunk by U-552 near Iceland, still six weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

However, by that point, Fairfax had already been transferred to the Admiralty.

White Ensign

With Europe again at war, on 2 September 1940, FDR signed the so-called Destroyers for Bases Agreement that saw a mix of 50 (mostly mothballed) Caldwell (3), Wickes (27), and Clemson (20)-class destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for limited basing rights on nine British overseas possessions. Canada would receive seven of these ships including five Wickes, doubling the number of destroyers in the Canadian Navy in days. 

In respect of Canada’s naming tradition for destroyers, all seven RCN flush deckers were named for Canadian rivers (repeated in 2024 by the way), ideally, those that ran in conjunction with the U.S. border, a nice touch. In British service, they would receive names of small cities, and be known therefore as the Town class.

Sailed by scratch USN crews from Philadelphia the “flush deckers” sailed to Halifax in several small groups to prepare for a warm handover.  

Transfer of U.S. destroyers to the Royal Navy in Halifax, Sept 1940. Wickes-class destroyers USS Buchanan (DD-131), USS Crowninshield (DD-134), and USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193) are in the background. The sailors are examining a 4-inch /50-cal deck gun. Twenty-three Wickes-class destroyers were transferred to the RN, along with four to the RCN, in 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3199286)

Group of U.S. Navy and Royal Navy ratings who took part in the transfer of destroyers to the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, ca. 23-24 September 1940. LAC A104093

Naval ratings unloading a torpedo before the refit of an unidentified Town-class destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, March 1941. LAC A105202

Ratings of the Royal Navy taking over former U.S.N. destroyer at Halifax, 1940. LAC A104109

Union Jacks hoisted aboard former U.S.N. destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy, Halifax, 1940. LAC A104096

Decommissioned from the U.S. Navy on 23 October 1940 (she wasn’t struck from the U.S. Navy List until 8 January 1941), Fairfax was taken into custody by RCN personnel in Halifax on 26 November 1940, pending the arrival of an RN crew that would take her to St. Johns for repairs and across the Atlantic to Devonport for fitting British equipment.

During this period, she was commissioned as the sixth HMS Richmond (G 88) on the RN’s list going back to 1655. As such, she carried forth a trio of previous battle honors from those vessels: Quebec, 1759 – Havana, 1762, and Chesapeake, 1781.

Ready for action by June 1941, she was assigned to the 17th Escort Group based in Newfoundland and would ride shotgun on 11 convoys by the end of the year (HX 132, SC 034, OB 339, SC 037, HX 138, ON 001, TC 012B, HX 148, ON 017, SC 047, SC 048, and UR 017).

HMS Richmond G88 passing McNab’s Island, Halifax, NS, via Forposterity’s Sake

In her first convoy of 1942, UR 017, she had the misfortune of encountering the 10,000-ton type EC2-S-C1 Liberty ship SS Francis Scott Key, which crumpled her bow on 31 March 1942. This forced her to Liverpool for five months of repair, after which she was sent back to Halifax to rejoin her convoy defense mission. However, this was cut short when she suffered a collision with the Norwegian cargo steamer SS Reinholt (4801 gt), sending her back to Liverpool for repairs until June 1943.

Oh, Canada

Sent to Halifax once again to get back to convoy work, the twice-cracked Fairfax/Richmond was sheep-dipped into the Royal Canadian Navy, becoming HCMS Richmond in July 1943.

While in Canuk service, she chalked up another nine convoy runs (ON 198, ONS 016, HX 255, SC 142, ONS 018, XB 076, ON 204, HX 262, and ON 207) between just 22 August and Halloween.

The Red Banner

With the Soviets pouting over not getting an immediate slice of the surrendered/interned Italian Navy in late 1943, the Western Allies made a big push to send a nice package of mixed destroyers, submarines, subchasers, cruisers (USS Milwaukee), and even battleships (HMS Royal Sovereign) to appease Stalin. Of course, many of these ships were extremely worn out, mechanically unreliable, and had been repeatedly repaired– so you know Fairfax/Richmond was lumped into this bag.

With that, Fairfax reverted to RN service, arrived back in the Home Isles on 27 December 1943, was paid off, de-stored, and laid up in the Tyne where she sat until taken up by Palmer’s Yard for a brief refit pending transfer to the Russkis.

Her new crew arrived in early July for a fortnight of training on their new vessels, and, officially transferred on 16 July 1944 as Zhivuchy (011), after the name of a destroyer sunk in the Black Sea in 1916, she set out the next day for Loch Ewe as escort for HMS Royal Sovereign (now dubbed Archangelsk), along with seven other high-mileage Wickes/Clemson tin cans that had been part of the Bases for Destroyers deal (Derzkij, Dejatelnyj, Doblestnyj, Dostojnyj, Zarkij, Zguchij, and Zostkij), and 11 SC-497 class 105-foot subchasers. Interestingly, these “Town” class Wickes/Clemsons would be known as the Zhivuchy-class in Soviet service. 

Tagging along with the 33-ship RN convoy JW59 for the White Sea, this little hodge podge of most third-hand warships sortied from Loch Ewe on 15 August and arrived in Soviet waters at the Kola Inlet ten days later. In the running ASW battle to get there, the convoy lost the British sloop HMS Kite (U 87) to U-344 (ace Kptlt. Ulrich Pietsch) which was in turn sunk by a Swordfish from the jeep carrier HMS Vindex (D 15). As a bonus, U-354 (ace Oblt. Hans-Jürgen Sthamer) was sunk on 24 August by HMS Mermaid and HMS Loch Dunvegan.

In Soviet service, Fairfax/Richmond/Zhivuchy, under Captain 3rd Rank Nikolay Dmitriyevich Ryabchenko, spent her career in ASW patrols in the frozen Barents and White Seas. While on such a beat with Dejatelnyj (ex-HMS Churchill, ex-USS Herndon, ex-CG-17) on 8 December, they came across a German U-boat that they had been bird-dogging for three days. When the steel shark broke the surface, Ryabchenko ordered Zhivuchy to ram.

According to Russian sources, it is believed Zhivuchy sank U-387 (Kptlt. Rudolf Büchler) with all hands, although Western sources generally chalk that boat up to the British corvette HMS Bamborough Castle (K412), in roughly the same area at the same time.

Sadly, Dejatelnyj would be sunk just a month later on 16 January 1945 by U-956 (Mohs), taking the commander and 116 men with her. Only seven men were picked up by the Derzkij.

The Northern Fleet destroyer Zhivuchiy (011) is seen wearing her Soviet pennant.

As for the end of her career, the Soviets kept their Wickes/Clemsons for several years after VJ-Day, even if they didn’t need them. Heck, the last one wasn’t returned until 1952!

Fairfax/Richmond/Zhivuchy was eventually repatriated to Rosyth in poor condition on 24 September 1949, scheduled immediately for disposal, and then broken up for scrap by BISCO at Grangemouth the following summer.

She earned two battle honors while under British/Canadian service: Atlantic 1941-43 – Arctic 1942.

Epilogue

Few relics remain of Fairfax. Her engineering drawings and some logs are in the National Archives.

Neither the U.S. nor Canadian fleets have added a second Fairfax or Richmond to their naval lists, however, the Royal Navy has commissioned a seventh Richmond, a Type 23 frigate (F239) that has been in service since 1995.

020612-N-9407M-518 The Atlantic Ocean (Jun. 11, 2002) — British frigate HMS Richmond (F-239) launches an AGM-84A “Harpoon” missile during a joint U.S. and British exercise in which the decommissioned ship USS Wainwright was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. Ships used in these types of exercises are inspected and made environmentally safe before sinking, and are disguised to create reefs for marine life. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Isaac Merriman. (RELEASED)

She recently deployed to the Red Sea and fired the first Sea Ceptor combat launch in RN history.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Canadian Mosquitos in Full Color

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How about this great original Kodachrome of Type G class torpedo boats of the 29th Canadian Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla. The lead boat, MTB-460, was lost to a German mine off the coast of Normandy on 2 July 1944, some 80 years ago this month, with a loss of 10 officers and men.

Library & Archives Canada MIKAN No. 4950981

As well as two more taken at the same time:

MIKAN 4821111

MIKAN 4821109

Displacing some 44 tons, these 71.75-foot MTBs had a beam of just 20 feet and could operate in anything over 6 feet of water at a combat load. Capable of 39 knots on a trio of Rolls-Royce V-12s running on 100 octane avgas, they carried a single 6-pounder forward, a twin 20mm AAA DP gun aft, and a pair of forward-firing 18-inch torpedo tubes. Complement was 3 officers and 14 men, about the same as the standard American 80-foot Elco PT boat which had a heavier armament. They were constructed by the British Power Boat Company at their Hythe, Southampton boat yard and originally designed as motor gun boats (MGBs) but modified to carry torpedoes.

The RCN fielded two squadrons of MTBs during the last two years of WWII, the aforementioned 29th Flotilla which exclusively used BPB-made G-Type MTBs (No. 459, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 485, 486, and 491) and the 65th, which used earlier Fairmile D types (Nos. 726, 727, 735, 736, 743, 744, 745, 746, 748, and 797).

As detailed by the Royal Canadian Navy:

Motor torpedo boats (MTBs) were small warships about 22 metres long and six metres wide. Equipped with powerful engines, torpedoes, light naval guns, and machine guns, the Canadian MTBs operated chiefly at night in the English Channel as fast attack boats that disrupted enemy shipping off the coast of occupied Europe and defended Allied shipping from the German’s own fast attack boats and midget submarines. The MTBs also played an important role on D-Day when they helped protect the huge Allied fleet from German warships.

The MTB crews had an extremely dangerous job – their boats were small, the seas of the English Channel were rough, and German guns and mines were never far away.

The worst day in the history of the 29th MTB came on 14 February 1945 when five boats of its remaining eight boats were destroyed in a conflagration in Oostende which left 26 of its members dead.

Oddball is woofing with Jesus now

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I always thought this was perhaps the best hype scene in the best war movie.

“Hey look, you just keep those Tigers busy and we’ll take care of the rest.”

“It’s a wasted trip, baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers.”

Just lay off the negative waves…

QOR on the Line

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80 years ago today, on D+ 14 (20 June 1944) while in the recently liberated French town of Bretteville-Orgueilleuse, the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada had a war correspondent stop by and take a series of photos that capture the moment in time.

STEN-armed Rifleman R.G. Bodie, Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, on guard in the front line, Bretteville-Orgueilleuse, France, 20 June 1944. 

Lieutenant E.M. Peto (left), 16th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers (R.C.E.), with Company Sergeant-Major Charlie Martin and Rifleman N.E. Lindenas, both of “A” Company, Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, planning where to lay a minefield, Bretteville-Orgueilleuse, France, 20 June 1944.

Rifleman R.A. Marshall, Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, pointing out a hole in his helmet made by a German sniper’s bullet on D-Day. Bretteville-Orgueilleuse, France, 20 June 1944.

Rfn B. Brueyere, Rfn D.J Briere, Rfn W.J. Simpson, and Rfn H.G.Payne interrogating a local

Cpl W. Lennox watching his arcs in Bretteville-Orgueilleuse with the courtesy of a recently acquired second-hand German MG42.

As noted by The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum and Archive, the war diary for 20 June included:

0530 Two bombs are dropped in D coy MR91957180 area and a good bit of concussion is felt however luckily there are no casualties.

0800 3 Cdn Inf Div Sitrep Rep

Patrol report for night of 19/20 Jun 44
Proposed Patrols for night 20/21 Jun 44
Daily Int Summary QOR of C
Int Summ #10 18 Jun 44
Trace of enemy dispositions as soon from C coy

1000 It appears at first sight as though we are being invaded by the Free French Army but it soon develops that they are the French Cmdrs of the district and are putting the regular Gendarmes back into local power. There will be five of them in the town and they will control the local population but will report to us each day for any instructions. We are also giving them transportation to enable them to bring flour into the district as they only have a supply enough to last 24 hours.

1115 Several high officers of the 15 Scottish Div arrive to recce the ground for their attack through us. Put all them together with the French Officials still around it looks like an Army HQ.

Formed on 26 April 1860– predating the Confederation of Canada by seven years– as the Second Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles, The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (a title it earned in 1882) is the country’s oldest continuously serving infantry regiment, a lineage acquired after 1953 when it was amalgamated with the 1st and Canadian Rifle Battalions to form the current unit. After serving in the Fienan Wars, the North-West Rebellion, fighting the Boer, and earning two dozen battle honors on the Western Front against the Kaiser, the Queen’s Own Rifles got into WWII combat at Normandy.

The QOR, part of the 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, hit Juno Beach at Bernieres-sur-mer at 0812 on D-Day, with A Company on the right and B Company on the left in the first wave while C and D companies along with the Battalion Headquarters coming in just eight minutes later, losing 61 men that morning.

In all, they would remain in combat all through France and across Northeast Europe until VE Day, earning 10 more battle honors and paying for them with the last full measure of 463 of the Queen’s Own killed in action and buried in Europe. Meanwhile “almost 900 were wounded, many two or three times. Sixty more QOR personnel were killed serving with other units in Hong Kong, Italy, and Northwest Europe.”

Post-WWII, they saw service in Korea, NATO duty in Germany, UN duty in Cyprus, and more limited deployments to Cambodia, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Darfur, and Sudan.

Today, the Queens Own Rifles are garrisoned in Moss Park Armoury, Toronto, as part of the 32 Bde Group.

The regiment’s motto is In Pace Paratus (In peace prepared).

Crerar’s Chariot

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80 years ago today. Original Kodachrome color Image of Lt-General Henry Duncan Graham Crerar, commander of the First Canadian Army, seen on the open bridge aboard the Canadian V-class destroyer HMCS Algonquin (R17), while part of the Normandy Operation Neptune fleet, 18 June 1944.

Via Library and Archives Canada

Built 1942-43 as HMS Valentine (R17) and transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy on completion, Algonquin opened up with her 4.7-inch QF guns on German targets off Juno Beach at 0645 on D-Day and spent the next 48 hours providing very active NGFS for the British and Canadian troops until their advance inland had outstripped her range.

A 4.7-inch (12 cm) gun crew of the destroyer HMCS Algonquin piling shell cases and sponging out the gun after bombarding German shore defenses in the Normandy beachhead. LAC 4950888

Bofors and gunner and white ensign on HMCS Algonquin. LAC 4950797

Putting back in at Portsmouth on 9 June, she carried VADM Percy W. Nelles, RCN, and his staff to Normandy the next day and would return to carry Gen. Crerar to France as shown above.

Graduating from the Royal Military College in 1909, Crear served with distinction in the artillery during the Great War, witnessing the hell of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, and Vimy Ridge, and was ready to finish up a 30-year career as colonel commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada when Hitler marched into Poland. He had led the 2nd Canadian Division and I Canadian Corps in Italy before Normandy.

Going on to see much Arctic service in the rest of the war, including sinking a trio of German subchasers off Norway, Algonquin would be modernized to a Type 15 frigate (pennant DDE 224) in 1953 and continue to serve into the 1970s when she was scrapped, her name passed on to the lead ship of a new class of destroyers for the RCN.

Gen. HDG Crerar, CH, CB, DSO, CD, PC, would retire from the Army in 1946 and go on to the diplomatic service. He passed in 1965, age 79.

Warship Wednesday, June 5, 2024: Three Princes

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, June 5, 2024: Three Princes

 

Library & Archives Canada Photo CT214, MIKAN No. 4950871

Above we see a great original Kodachrome showing a naval rating, bosun pipe and boat whistle in the belt, checking the wicked edge of a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife held by a soldier from the Canadian 1e Régiment de la Chaudière aboard the landing ship infantry (medium) HMCS Prince David (F59), June 1944, with one of the ship’s landing craft from No. 529 Flotilla, LCA No. 1059, providing background. The CRs would go in on Juno Beach on D-Day as part of the 8th Canadian Brigade and continued to fight in North West Europe until the end of the war. Meanwhile, seven out of No. 529’s eight landing craft would be sunk that day.

As for Prince David, she had already seen lots of campaigning in WWII from the Aleutians to Martinique and had lots more to come.

The Three Princes

In 1930, Canadian National Steamships company, which had started a decade prior as an offshoot of the Canadian National Railway Co, ordered a trio of new three-funneled from Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, England, for use on Canada’s West Coast. These ships, augmenting the cramped older CNSS Prince George (3,372 GRT, circa 1910) and CNSS Prince Rupert (3,380 GRT, circa 1909), would be fine coastwise liners, at some 6,893 GRT and some 385 feet overall.

Powered by 6 Yarrow water-tube five-drum boilers powering twin Parsons geared turbines, these new liners could make an impressive 22.5 knots (23 on trials at 19,000 shp) and carry a mix of 400 passengers (334 first class in above deck cabins and 70 in belowdecks steerage) as well as light cargo and mail. They would be named Prince David, Prince Henry, and Prince Robert.

A watercolor retouched photo of CNSS Prince Robert in her original CN livery. CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum accession No. VR1991.320.1.

North Star, ex-Prince Henry

The three new vessels, completed for $2 million each, were delivered in the “Dirty ’30s” while the Great Depression was at its peak and soon suffered from a doldrums of low bookings and hazardous operations, sending them into a series of longer cruises to the West Indies and Alaska, with Prince Henry suffering from a six-month grounding off Bermuda that saw her sold to the rival Clarke Steamship Company of Montreal in 1937 and renamed under that house line as SS North Star.

Meet Prince David

Our subject was named, not for royalty, but after Mr. David E. Galloway, a vice president of Canadian National Steamships.

With the downturn in cruise ship bookings in the late 1930s, Prince David was laid up in Halifax in 1937 in fairly bad shape– then allowed to get worse. The below notes after an inspection by RCN surveyors on the liner as well as her two sisters in 1939 as the beat of war came to the world.

War!

Finally purchased for a song (the repaired North Star/Prince Henry for $638,223; Prince Robert for $738,310; and Prince David for $739,663) in late 1939, they were sent to be overhauled and refitted for service as armed merchant cruisers. Additions included stiffened deck sections for six deck guns (four Vickers 6″/45 BL Mark VIIs and two 12-pdr 3″/50 18cwt QF Mark Is) as well as magazines, searchlights, and a battery of assorted light machine guns left over from the Great War.

The main guns allowed a 2,000-pound broadside per minute gauged at five salvos.

A quartet of 6-inch/45 cal Mk VII guns awaiting Installation on HMCS Prince David, 19 August 1940. The ship on the right is a Canadian Navy Basset-class Trawler and the ship in the center background is “M.V. M.F. Therese. Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3394502

Chief Petty Officer placing a shell in the magazine rack on HMCS Prince David. Courtesy of Kyle Daun via For Posterity’s Sake

6-inch gun HMCS Prince David 1941 via Wikicommons

Prince David 50 cal Colt M1917 twins via Wikicommons

Petty Officer Williams instructing ratings in the operation of a Lewis machine gun aboard HMCS Prince David, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, January 1941. LAC 3567142

A few depth charges (but not listening gear) were installed for counter-submarine work.

Prince David and her two sisters were the largest ships in the RCN for most of World War II, a distinction only eclipsed when Canada acquired the brand-new light cruiser HMS Minotaur (53), transferred to Royal Canadian Navy in July 1944, which dutifully became HMCS Ontario (C53), soon joined by Uganda, who kept her name when she was recommissioned 21 October 1944– Trafalgar Day– but replaced HMS with HMCS.

The specs as AMCs: 

Prince David would be commissioned on 28 December 1940, three weeks after Prince Henry which broke out her duster on 4 December, while Prince Robert, who was in better material shape than her sisters, joined the RCN on 31 July 1940.

Prince David, assigned to the Royal Navy’s America and West Indies Station would conduct workups and escort a few Halifax-to-Bermuda convoys (BHX 109, BHX 113, and BHX 135) in 1941 between searching for Axis blockade runners as far away as Trinidad and Martinique. This included a brush with the Vichy-French tanker Scheherazade (13467 GRT, built 1935) and chasing a possible German warship– thought to be a Hipper-class cruiser but later believed to be either the auxiliary cruiser Thor (HSK 4) or a U-boat supply ship. Her sisters Prince Robert-– who bagged the zinc-laden 9,200-ton German steamer Weser off the coast of Mexico– and Prince Henry who haunted Callao for German ghost ships, were on similar missions at the time.

Prince David also helped convoy the fast troopship HMT Durban Castle, carrying among other passengers the exiled Greek royal family, including King George II, who was being spirited from Alexandria to England via Durban and the Cape of Good Hope– earning Prince David’s skipper a Greek War Cross in a gesture of Hellenic gratitude.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Prince David was transferred with her sisters to British Columbia in early 1942 where the “Esquimalt Force” was to provide some defense of the Canadian Pacific Coastline from the marauding Japanese that were making moves into the Aleutians and taking pot-shots via submarines of the California and Oregon coast. I-26 shelled the lighthouse at Estevan Point on Vancouver Island and I-25 torpedoed and shelled the 7,000-ton British-chartered freighter SS Fort Camosun off Cape Flattery, with 31 survivors rescued by the Flower-class corvette HMCS Edmundston. Hence, Japanese subs were definitely in the area.

The trio of Princes would spend the next 18 months patrolling a line covering Vancouver-Victoria-Prince Rupert and making a show of it for the local populace. To give them some more teeth, they picked up ASDIC sets and additional depth charges.

In August 1942, with the Americans, assisted by the Canadians, moving to kick the Japanese out of the Aleutians, badly needed convoy escorts to free tin cans for front-line service. To answer the call, Force D was formed at Esquimalt from the three Princes along with the two Flower-class corvettes HMCS Dawson and HMCS Vancouver.

Sailing for Kodiak on 19 August and beginning their first convoy escort to Dutch Harbor two days later, over the next two months the Princes, augmented by a couple old American four-piper destroyers as the smaller Flowers were relegated to ASW patrol off Adak, would shepherd over two dozen small (under 12 ships) unnamed convoys back and forth between the two ports as close to the coast as possible for the 350-mile run, hugging the fog-covered narrow passengers and channels of the Alaskan peninsula and the Fox and Iliasik islands. The convoys were typically made up of a Prince paired with a four-piper.

By the time the force was released on Halloween 1942, Prince Henry made 11 convoy runs, Prince Robert 13, and Prince David 10. A few submarine contacts resulted in depth charge runs, but no losses were incurred.

Sent back to Esquimalt, the Princes were soon back on patrol off Vancouver, continuing into March 1943.

LSI Days

With their role as blockade runner/surface raider hunters aged out by the first part of 1943, and more effective new destroyers coming on line for use as escorts, by this stage of the war, the Admiralty had decided to equip each Prince for more worthwhile service with five twin Mark XVI 4-inch high angle guns, two quad 2 pounder pom-poms, six 20mm Oerlikons, and extra pair of twin .50 cals, and four depth charge throwers. It was even put forth that the Mark XVI’s could instead be new 4.7-inch DP guns as a 4.7-inch suite would allow a broadside of 3,600 pounds per minute judged at five salvos per gun, plus her high-angle enough that they could be used in an AAA role.

However, as the retrofit would have cost some $7 million for the class, and funds were scarce, it was decided to rearm Prince Robert alone for $2 million for a fit that included the above guns (with twice the number of 20mm mounts as well as Type 291 radar and Type 242 IFF).

HMCS Prince Robert (F56), 4-inch Mk. XVI anti-aircraft guns and crew, during convoy escort in March 1944. She would spend the rest of the war on convoy duties, riding shotgun 19 times on runs to and from England and North Africa between October 1943 and September 1944. She was then sent to the Pacific. MIKAN No. 4950890

Prince Robert at Vancouver, B.C., 1943. CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum accession No. VR1993.57a.2

Prince Robert, mid-WW2. CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum accession No. VR1992.28.7.

Then, the Admiralty would simply convert Prince David and Prince Henry to landing ships for a more paltry $450,000 each.

The LSI conversion meant keeping the ASW weaponry, landing their 6 and 3-inch guns in favor of two twin 4-inch high-angle mounts, 10 single-barreled 20mm Oerlikons, and two 40mm Bofors. Radars, Types 272, 253, 285, and 291, were also added. Signals, cipher, and surgical suites were greatly expanded.

Prince David as LSI, not her davits and interesting false bow camo scheme. LAC 4821078

Prince David as LSI. Courtesy of Kyle Daun via For Posterity’s Sake

HMCS Prince David (F89) as LSI. Note maple leaf on the stack and “PD” identifier on her hull

Side davits for eight landing craft– manned by a dedicated 5 officer/50 rating detachment– were installed. The craft would be a mix of typically six Canadian-made unarmed 58-foot LCAs and two British-made machine-gun fitted 41-foot LCS(M)s. Each of these embarked forces as a semi-independent RN Flotilla, No. 528 (Lt R.G. Buckingham, RCNVR) in Prince Henry and No. 529 (Lt J.C. Davie, RCNVR) on Prince David, a mix of forces that would sometimes prove…rowdy.

Prince Henry and Prince David, after receiving their conversions in Vancouver, would go through the Panama Canal and, after a stop in New York, cross the Atlantic as convoy escorts for UT7 in January 1944– with David full of 437 American soldiers. They would then spend the next five months prepping for Overlord.

HMS Prince David, LSI(M). 6 February 1944, Greenock by LT SJ Beadell. Note her new camouflage, twin 4-inch mount, and davits. IWM A 21735

Invasion craft rehearsal. 24 to 28 April 1944, off The Isle Of Wight. Various crafts during an Invasion rehearsal. HMCS Prince David is shown (note her PD identifier on her hull) with davits loaded with LCAs. By LT EE Allen IWM A 23743

HMCS Prince David (F89). At anchor, 9 May 1944. Note the “PD” identifier on her amidships. LAC 3520344

Prince David’s LCA 1375 landing troops. Photo believed to be taken at Bracklesham Bay during Exercise Fabius (Normandy rehearsal) Landings in May 1944.

Prince David’s No. 529 Flotilla’s LCA 1375 and 1059 landing troops in May 1944 during Fabius. Royal Canadian Naval Photograph, negative No. A679

Royal Navy Beach Commandos aboard a Prince David embarked on a Landing Craft Assault boat of the 529th Flotilla, Royal Navy, during a training exercise off the coast of England, 9 May 1944. Note the “hawk, hook, and rifle” Combined Operations insignia on their sleeves. Prince David would send two boats of these men ashore on Juno Beach on D-Day. Photo by Lt Richard G. Arless. LAC PA-13628

Able Seaman Murray Kennedy splicing cable aboard HMCS Prince David, Cowes, England, 10 May 1944. Note the ship’s bell. LAC 3512521

On 2 June at Southampton, Prince Henry loaded 326 troops (including 227 of the Canadian Scottish Regiment) while Prince David embarked 418 (a mix of Régiment de la Chaudière and 5th Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment along with some RM/RN beach control party/clearance members) and set out for their staging areas that night, played out to sea by the Canadian Scott’s pipe band.

By 0500 on D-Day, as part of Group J-1, a bugle call stood the troops going ashore on deck and the first landing craft were lowered by 0620, with David’s boats making for their beach at Bernieres-sur-Mer (Nan White) and Henry’s headed for Courseulles sur Mer (Mike Red) for H-Hour which on the Juno area was 0755.

Lookout on the flagdeck of HMCS Prince David watching assault craft heading ashore to the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. LAC 3202146

An unidentified infantryman of Le Régiment de la Chaudière, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. Note that his Enfield is in a protective plastic bag. Starting with D-Day, the would earn 19 battle honors for WWII, fighting its way across Northwest Europe for the next 10 months. PD-360. LAC 3202207

Private Jack Roy of Le Régiment de la Chaudière preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944. Note the No. 38 field wireless set across his chest, E-tool slung over his shoulder, helmet skrim, and wrapped Enfield. PD-371 LAC 3396561

Royal Marines who will be removing mines and obstructions from the D-Day landing beaches, preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. PD-361 LAC 3202145

Men of the 5th Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment (British Army) including three sergeants, disembarking from HMCS Prince David on D-Day, France, 6 June 1944. Credited with a big part in liberating Bernieres-sur-Mer by the locals, the main drag in that French village today carries the name “Rue Royal Berkshire Regiment.” LAC 3525863

Landing craft depart from their LSI mother ship, HMCS Prince Henry (note the “PH” identifier on her amidships), headed for Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

Landing craft with infantrymen preparing to go ashore from HMCS Prince David off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944 aboard alongside LCIs after her LCAs took their loads to the beach and never returned. Library and Archives Canada Photo, PA-131501 MIKAN 3396559

Of No. 529 Flotilla’s eight landing craft, LCA 985, 1059, 1137, 1138, 1150, 1151, and 1375; and LCS (M) 101, all except 1375 would be sunk off Normandy.

With their troops landed by mid-morning, Prince Henry and David were dispatched back to England to embark on a second wave, each laden with casualties recovered from the fighting ashore. Prince David, the first LSI from Overlord to make Southampton on D-Day, carried 40 wounded and three dead, and arrived at the dock at 2230, received by waiting ambulances. The ships, however, had arrived back with their davits empty and at least three boat crews missing.

Prince David and Prince Henry would make another eight cross-channel sorties in support of Overlord, in all, landing 5,566 men between them.

Prince David carried 1,862 men to Normandy in four trips between D-Day and 10 July 1944, including members of the U.S., Canadian, and British forces.

Able Seaman Freddy Derkach (right) with personnel of the 65th Chemical Company, U.S. Army, including a mascot, aboard HMCS Prince David off Omaha Beach, France, 5 July 1944. LAC 3525871

Prince David with American officers on bridge LAC 3963986

Outfitted with the recovered LCA 1375, her only original landing craft, and her davits filled with other recovered LCAs and LCS(M)s, Prince David, along with her sister Prince Henry, would be transferred to the sunny climes of the Mediterranean where they would get ready to repeat Overlord along the French Rivera in the form of Operation Dragoon.

Gun crew sunbathing on “Y” gun of the infantry landing ship HMCS Prince David, Italy, July 1944. LAC 3202227

Loading Senegalese troops in Ajaccio Corsica for South France invasion late July 44

Prince Henry and Prince David in Adjacco prior to Dragoon. LAC PA211359

Prince David and Henry would become part of the Sitka Force, which would put ashore assorted special operations troops during Dragoon.

French 1e Groupe de Commandos aboard HMCS Prince David en route to take part in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, 10 August 1944. Note the mix of American and British kit and the prevalence of M1928 Thompsons. LAC 3525866

Prince David would carry over 1,400 Free French troops home during Dragoon in three waves, similar numbers repeated by Prince Henry.

Then came operations in Greek waters. Between September 1944 and January 1945, she made no less than 11 runs back and forth to Aegean ports, landing no less than 1,400 British Army, and 1,000 Free Greek troops (along with the Greek prime minister) while repatriating 400 Italian POWs.

Able Seaman Joe Nantais manning an Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft gun aboard HMCS Prince David off Kithera, Greece, 16 September 1944. PD-656, LAC 3394410

Georgios Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, speaking to the Ship’s Company of HMCS Prince David before disembarking from the ship which had returned him and his ministers to Greece. LAC 3191571

HMCS Prince David LCA-1375 liberation of Greece, Oct. 1944

British-kitted Free Greek troops disembarking from the landing craft of HMCS Prince David, Syros, Greece, 13 November 1944. Note the mix of BREN guns and M1 Carbines. LAC 3378808

Damaged by a mine on 10 December 1944, off Aegina Island, Greece, she continued her mission and landed her troops despite a 17-foot hole in her hull.

12 December 1944. Paratroopers of 2 Independent Para Bde Group receive last-minute orders before disembarking from Prince David in Greece. During the sea voyage, the ship struck a mine, which exploded below the forward magazine. The magazine was flooded and sealed off, and the ship sailed ahead on an even keel. Lieut. Powell-Davies, No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM NA 20769

HMCS PRINCE DAVID in dry dock at Ferryville, North Africa for repairs after striking a mine – LAC PA142894

In all, between Overlord, Dragoon, and Greece, Prince David carried no less than 7,043 officers and men in 19 journeys.

Repaired at Bizerte, North Africa, she left in March 1945 to refit at Esquimalt, from where she would join the British Pacific Fleet for the final push on Tokyo. However, the war ended while she was still pier-side in British Columbia.

Taking off the warpaint

Prince David would be paid off on 11 June 1945 and laid up at Vancouver. Sold to Charlton, she would be refitted for the migrant-run trade as Charlton Monarch, she soon suffered an engineering casualty off Brazil in 1948 and was subsequently scrapped.

As for her sisters, both survived the war, with Prince Robert assisting in the liberation of Hong Kong in 1945 after service with the British Pacific Fleet, and was paid off in December 1945. Sold to Charlton two years later, she began cut-rate migrant voyages as SS Charlton Sovereign, packed with as many as 800 European refugees headed to Australia and South America, later being sold to an Italian shipper and operated as SS Lucania. She was broken up in Italy in 1962.

Prince Henry, loaned to the Royal Navy in April 1945, would continue to serve under Admiralty orders until July 1946. Henry was bought by HMs Ministry of War Transport for $500,000 and, renamed Empire Parkeston, would carry British troops between Harwich and the Continent for another decade, taking a break for use in the Suez in 1956, carrying elements of 16 Parachute Brigade. Withdrawn in September 1961 after an airbridge was put in place for replacements to the British Army of the Rhine, she was broken up at La Spezia the next year.

As for Canadian National Steamships, they got out of the boat business altogether in 1975.

For more detail into the “Three Princes” during RCN service, a circa 1986 236-page volume is online at a Canadian Forces website.

Epilogue

The best memorial to HMCS Prince David is her For Posterity’s Sake webpage.

While in Esquimalt in July 1942, Prince David was used to film several extensive scenes for the 1942 Paul Muni and Anna Lee war romance “Commandos Strike At Dawn” which appears in the third act. These included not only troops loading on deck and the vessel shoving off but also underway.

HMCS Prince David with a bone in her teeth from “Commandos Strike At Dawn.” Note the splinter mats around her bridge and troops on deck.

Two of Canada’s three official war artists embarked on Prince David during the war to observe ops, and their works survive.

“Embarking Casualties on D-Day, HMCS Prince David” was painted by Harold Beament in 1944. As part of the invasion fleet, Canadian ships carried troops and equipment to Normandy and brought casualties back to England. HMCS Prince David, seen here, carried more than 400 troops to Normandy, including members of the Quebec-based Le Régiment de la Chaudière. One of three Canadian National Steamships liners converted for wartime use, Prince David later supported several assault landings in the Mediterranean and carried Greece’s government-in-exile back to Athens in late 1944. Beaverbrook Collection of War Art CWM 19710261-1012

Famed Canadian painter and war artist, Alex Coleville, was aboard Prince David for Dragoon and produced at least two from this period which are now in the Canadian War Museum.

HMCS Prince David in Corsica as LSI Alex Coleville CWM Photo, 19710261-1685

“On the Bridge” Alex Colville painted this view of the bridge of HMCS Prince David, a Canadian infantry landing ship serving in the Mediterranean. An officer (right) keeps watch with binoculars, while another member of the crew, wearing a Prince David sweatshirt, sunglasses, and headphones, operates equipment, possibly a radar set (bottom left). Following their involvement in the successful landings in the south of France early on 15 August 1944, Prince David and HMCS Prince Henry, another Canadian infantry landing ship, continued to transport reinforcements to the invasion area until the 24th. CWM 19820303-252.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Near Toronto? Time for CIAS!

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A Canadair CF-5 (officially designated the CF-116 Freedom Fighter) Serial No. 116742 from 433 “Porcupine” ÉTAC squadron based at CFB Bagotville, Quebec flies over Toronto, in September 1974. The pilot is doing a preview of the high-speed passes its squadron will make at the annual Canadian International Air Show (CIAS). Note the unfinished 1,800-foot-high CN Tower in the background.

(Toronto Star Archive)

Celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year, the Canadian International Air Show is North America’s longest-running airshow, and tickets go on sale this week.

The CN Tower still dominates the skyline.

Meanwhile, the top Freedom Fighter airframe, as detailed by Silverhawkauthor, was:

Originally ordered as RCAF 14742, re-marked before completion. Delivered directly to CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, where it served with No. 419 Squadron. With 433e L’Escadre de Combat when it visited Lossiemouth, UK in November 1975, and California in 1983. With No. 434 Squadron at CFB Chatham, NB in 1988. Back to No. 419 Squadron, with them in July 1989. Became instructional airframe 900B on 3 April 1993, used as a cockpit procedures trainer. In storage at Bristol Aerospace, Winnipeg, in December 1994. Reported damaged in handling accident at CFD Mountain View in the summer of 1995. Front fuselage in storage at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta in May 2006. Still there in 2009, stored for Cold Lake Museum. Nose section on display at Cold Lake Museum by 2010. Reported sold to Botswana, but that may just have been pieces of the airframe for spares.

 

Devil’s Brigade Loadout

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How about this great photo spread from 80 years ago.

Forcemen of the “Devil’s Brigade,” the U.S.-Canadian First Special Service Force— Sergeant Charles Shepard (6-2), Lieutenant Henry H. Rayner (5-2 &1-2), Private First Class James A. Jones (5-2 & 6-2)– preparing to go on an evening patrol in the Anzio beachhead, Italy, ca. 20-27 April 1944. Note the boot-blacked faces and hands and M1 Thompsons with lots of mags, always useful in breaking contact on a night patrol.

Photo by Lieut. C.E. Nye / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-183862 (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3378968)

Most of these men were also captured in the below image from the same photographer, including a very rare M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun (LMG). Also note the propensity of rubber helmet bands, sans camo netting, and the use of what is often termed hand-painted “OSS camouflage” on the shells.

(L-R): Pvt Dan Lemaire (5-2 & 6-2), Pfc Richard Stealey (6-2), Sgt Charles Shepard (6-2), Lt H.H. Raynor (5-2 & 1-2), Pfc James A. Jones (5-2 & 6-2), Forcemen of 5-2, First Special Service Force, preparing to go on an evening patrol in the Anzio beachhead, Operation Shingle, (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3378967)

A third image from this group, showing a platoon brief before setting off, has had the Devil’s Brigade arrowhead patches scrubbed by a censor.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3396066)

More LAC FSSF images are here.

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