naval affairs

NAC News – Edition K394 HMCS Thorlock

NAC News – Edition K394 HMCS Thorlock

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of January 29th, 2021

Edition – K394 HMCS Thorlock (WW2 Revised Flower Class)

Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca  (comments welcome to help improve this service)

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NOTICES

  • US CSIS Maritime Security Dialogue series – U.S. Navy: Setting the Theater in the Arctic.  2 February 2021 at 1000 EST.  A discussion with ADM Robert P. Burke, USN Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Africa and Commander, Allied Joint Forces Command Naples

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CANADA

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USA & AMERICAS

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INDO-PACIFIC

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MIDDLE EAST

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GLOBAL INTERESTS

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SCUTTLEBUTT

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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – FEBRUARY

(If you see any omissions or errors please inform me, and more modern significant dates are also welcome.  The list draws primarily from the Directory of History and Heritage’s comprehensive “Significant Dates in Canadian Military History”, the now defunct “Canada Channel”, “Legion Magazine”, Roger Litwiller’s excellent website, the encyclopedic guidance of NAC member and author Fraser McKee, and anywhere else I can find credible information.)

  • 1 February 1911 The first recruiting posters for the RCN are issued to post offices throughout Canada.
  • 1 February 1968 The personnel and organization of the RCN, Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force were unified into a single organization, the Canadian Forces.
  • 5 February 1944 HMS Puncher, an aircraft carrier, is commissioned into the Royal Navy at Vancouver with a Canadian crew, but a British air complement.
  • 6 February 6, 1943 – Italian aircraft attack and sink RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Louisbourg east of Oran while she is escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to Bone, Algeria; 2 Officers, 35 crew, and 5 RN seaman are lost.
  • 8 February 1943 HMCS Regina commanded by LCdr Harry Freeland, RCNR sinks the Italian submarine Avorio in the Mediterranean Sea.
  • 10 February 1942 HMCS Spikenard is torpedoed by U136 and sunk in the North Atlantic.  There were only 8 survivors and 57 perish.
  • 14 February 1945 Five Motor Torpedo Boats (459, 461, 462, 465, 466) of the Canadian 29th Flotilla burn in Ostende harbour.  26 RCN crew are lost.
  • 15 February 1965 The Maple Leaf becomes Canada’s official flag.
  • 16 February 1945 HMCS St. John commanded by A/LCdr William R. Stacey, RCNR sinks the German submarine U-309 off the northeast coast of Scotland near Moray Firth.
  • 18 February 1944 Sixteen Canadian minesweepers, in four divisions of four ships, begin to leave St. John’s for British waters to take part in the invasion of Normandy.
  • 19 February 1944 Motor Torpedo boats of the 29th and 65th (Canadian) Flotillas began to be commissioned (continues until 31 March).
  • 22 February 1943 – Operation Torch – RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Weyburn strikes a mine laid by U-118 off the Strait of Gibraltar; the explosion kills one seaman of her crew of 77; before the ship sinks, all but two depth charges are rendered safe by throwing the detonators over the side; British destroyer HMS Wivern starts to remove the wounded and survivors when twenty minutes later an after bulkhead gives way and the corvette begins to sink; the two depth charges explode, killing 8 more sailors and wounding others in the water; Wivern’s engines and boilers are hit, leaving the ship dead in the water; 84 RCN and RN sailors are wounded in total. Gibraltar.
  • 22 February 1945 HMCS Trentonian is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine U1004 near Falmouth England, six of her ship’s company were lost.
  • 24 February 1944 HMCS Waskesiu commanded by LCdr James P. Fraser, RCNR sank the German submarine U-257 in the North Atlantic.
  • 27 February 1930 HMCS Thiepval is lost in Barkley Sound, British Columbia.
  • 28 February 1946 HMCS Cornwallis is paid off (taken out of service) and new recruit training begins to be conducted at local naval depots.
  • 28 February 1991 Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Persian Gulf War ends.