naval affairs

NAC News – Edition 336 HMCS Montreal

NAC News – Edition 336 HMCS Montreal

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of December 20th, 2019

Christmas Edition – 336 HMCS Montréal; J336 HMCS Wallaceburg (WW2 Algerine Class minesweeper)

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

Contact David Soule executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone (who may be a member or perhaps a good candidate to join) to be added to the NAC News email distribution.

★   Editor’s stars of the week

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NOTICES

  • NAC Naval Affairs  – need a Christmas gift for someone in your family or do you want to donate a book to a local school library – This book has now been published. Information on where and how to order can be found at – “Mom’s in the Navy”
  • Vanguard ShipTech Forum   (Editor – The Westin, Ottawa, ON 25 February 2020, 7:30 – 17:00)
  • ★Robert Hampton Gray VC. DSC. RCNVR memorial fund raising
  • 2020 NAC BOA Gala, conference and AGM – 30 April – 3 May 2020 in Ottawa.
  • 30 Apr (Thursday) – Evening – 2020 BOA Gala Dinner at Canadian War Museum
  • 1 May (Friday) – Day – NAC National Conference
  • 2 May (Saturday) – Morning – NAC National 2020 AGM
  • 3 May (Sunday) – 1000-1400 – National RCN BOA ceremony/parade and associated social gathering
  • Vanguard Launches First-Ever Canadian Submarine Event  (Editor – The next big RCN procurement challenge!  The Deep Blue 2020 Forum, a one-day event, will take place on 29 October 2020, details to follow)

CANADA

USA & AMERICAS

INDO-PACIFIC

EUROPE

MIDDLE EAST

GLOBAL INTERESTS

SCUTTLEBUTT

SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – DECEMBER

(Month by month build of a comprehensive list of significant RCN/Maritime events – if you see any glaring omissions or errors please inform me, and any more modern significant dates are welcomed.  The list draws primarily from the Directory of History and Heritage’s comprehensive “Significant Dates in Canadian Military History”, the “Canada Channel”, and “Legion Magazine”)

  • 1 December 1948  HMCS Shearwater, RCN Air Station, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is commissioned.
  • 2 December 1946  HMCS Middlesex goes aground on Shut-in Island near Halifax and becomes a total loss.
  • 2 December 1968  The Canadian submarine HMCS Rainbow is commissioned; purchased from the United States, it was originally the USS Argonaut launched in 1944.
  • 3 December 1969  As the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure is decommissioned, the aviation fuel tanks are emptied and cleaned, but one of the tanks does not vent properly; two sailors are overcome by the fumes and another two lose their lives during the rescue attempt.
  • 4 December 1940  HMCS Prince Henry is commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
  • 4 Dec 1950  A United Nations task force under Captain J.V. Brock, RCN, in HMCS Cayuga, and consisting of HMC Ships Athabaskan and Sioux, His Majesty’s Australian Ships Warramunga and Bataan, the USS Forest Royal, covered the seaborne withdrawal of civilians and elements of the 8th Army (US) threatened by enemy advances in the Chinnampo area, Korea.
  • 5 December 1950 HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Cayuga bombard the port of Chinnampo, Korea (04-05 Apr).
  • 6 December 1917  Halifax Explosion.  A huge explosion in Halifax harbour destroys the naval facilities and much of the city.
  • 7 December 1941  Canada declares war on Romania, Hungary, Finland and Japan.
  • 7 December 1941  HMCS Windflower is lost and 23 of her crew perish after a collision with a Dutch freighter SS Zypenburg on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
  • 8 December 1918  The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service is discontinued and the cadets being trained are demobilized.
  • 10 December 1939  The first Canadian troop convoy sails for Britain escorted out of Halifax by HMC ships Ottawa, Restigouche, Fraser and St. Laurent
  • 12 December 1969  RCN retires aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure after 12 years of service; “Bonnie” never saw combat, but was scram­bled dur­ing the Octo­ber Mis­sile Crisis; later sold for scrap.
  • 13 December 1940  HMCS Royal Roads is commissioned as a training establishment for Probationary Sub-Lieutenants.
  • 17 December 1944  HMCS MONTREAL (frigate) rescues survivors of U-Boat 1209 wrecked on Wolf Rock southwest of Land’s End.
  • 19 December 1945  The Government of Canada approves in principle the formation of a naval air branch.
  • 20 December 1943  HMCS Prince David is re-commissioned as a Landing Ship Infantry (Medium).
  • 24 December 1944  HMCS Clayoquot is torpedoed by a U806 and sinks while taking station on convoy XB.139, in the approaches to Halifax harbour.  Eight of her crew were lost.
  • 26 December 1954  HMCS ships HURON and IROQUOIS leave Korea for their home base in Halifax.
  • 27 December 1944  HMCS St. Thomas sinks the German submarine U-877 in the North Atlantic.
  • 28 December 1940  HMCS Prince David is commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
  • 29 December 1942  HMC Ships St. Laurent, Chilliwack, Battleford, and Napanee sink the German submarine U-356 in the mid-Atlantic.
  • 31 December 1990  The crew of HMCS Preserver flies to the Persian Gulf to relieve HMCS Protecteur’s crew.