NAC News – Edition K368 HMCS Trentonian
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of July 31st 2020
Edition – K368 HMCS Trentonian ( Revised Flower Class Corvette – on 22 February 1945 German submarine U-1004 torpedoed and sank her with the loss of six lives)
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
- ★ The Memory Project The Project is looking for new speakers to join their team, and they hope that NAC members might help them get the word to potential speakers.
- Navy Bike Ride 2020 – Battle of the Atlantic Challenge: This is a virtual event and you can register thru the summer. The event runs 13 June to 30 August 2020. Check it out! While the original one-day ride event was cancelled, this virtual bike ride event is a great opportunity to support your Navy, support their charities of choice and keep fit. Check it out! Your NAC will be a sponsor – an Orca class sponsor! And it’s free! (but do feel free to step up and buy the tee and while you are at it – donate to their charities of choice!)
- 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)
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CANADA
- ★ RCN accepts delivery of the first of six Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships and here and
- Navy enters new era by welcoming long-awaited Arctic warship into fleet
- HMCS Fredericton returns after six-month mission marked by helicopter crash
- RAdm Santarpia takes over as new Commander of MARLANT and JTFA
- Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy: 2019 annual report (Editor – link enclosed)
- LGen Christopher Coates assumes role as Commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command
- Naval training restarts under four-phase plan
- Orcas back to training at sea
- RCN prepares for scaled back RIMPAC exercise
- It’s the mileage, not the years: Military says it plans to keep subs afloat past retirement dates (Editor – new fighters, new submarines, and climbing debt does not make a great combination…)
- DM/CDS Update following special Defence Management Committee on Racism
- Kuwait honours Persian Gulf veterans
- Quebec shipyard late delivering Coast Guard icebreakers after pushing federal government on purchase
- Getting Your NTOG PATCH! – NTOG – Episode 5
- Canada’s secret Cold War submarine drone (Editor – cold war activities that were highly classified back then)
- Return of sailor with white supremacist past sparks protest in navy
- Rear Admiral lashes out at ‘hateful’ comments as navy looks to drop ‘seaman’
- Crawl to Sail: RCN sail experience 2020
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USA & AMERICAS
- USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: July 27, 2020
- ★ 1 Marine Dead, 8 Missing After Southern California ‘Training Mishap’
- NORTHCOM Nominee Supports Building New U.S. Arctic Base for Icebreakers
- Proposed COVID-19 Relief Package Includes $2.2B for Shipbuilding, 4 Hospital Ships
- US challenges Venezuela’s maritime claims
- CIMSEC: Maritime crime during the pandemic: unmasking trends in the Caribbean
- USS Shamal Interdicts Drugs From Go-Fast Vessel
- Ecuador on alert over huge Chinese fishing fleet off Galapagos Islands
- Report to Congress on Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles
- Navy Verifies USS Gerald R. Ford’s Sixth Advanced Weapons Elevator
- Navy Memo to Shipbuilders, Maintainers on Fire Safety After USS Bonhomme Richard Blaze (Editor – sage words to all navies during dockyard periods!)
- ★ Boarding a US NAVY NUCLEAR SUBMARINE in the Arctic – Smarter Every Day 240 (Editor – really interesting conversations in this 29:24 min video)
- CIMSEC: Sea Control 191 – the arctic with Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan and Katie Burkhart (Editor – wide ranging discussion in this 42:41 min podcast)
- What Happens If The U.S. Navy Can’t Fix The Fire-Damaged Assault Ship ‘Bonhomme Richard’? (Editor – two BHR links about the fire in the Scuttlebutt section)
- The U.S. Navy is investing in Mine Countermeasure unmanned vehicle Knifefish program
- USS Roosevelt Earns Arctic Service Ribbon
- Amphibious Assault Ship Tripoli (LHA 7) Sails Away From Ingalls Shipbuilding
- Check Out This Sailor Holding A Laser Rifle Aboard The Nuclear Submarine USS Minnesota (Editor – wow, check out the USN fact sheet link included)
- Offshore Supply Vessel Attacked off the Coast of Mexico
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INDO-PACIFIC
- Singapore PM: U.S.-Chinese Relations at ‘Very Dangerous’ Level
- Japan Sortieing More Jets During Heightened Senkaku Tensions
- South China Sea dispute: Australia says Beijing’s claims have no legal basis
- Malaysia rebukes Beijing as South China Sea ‘lawfare’ heats up
- China expands its amphibious forces in challenge to U.S. supremacy beyond Asia and Chinese Type 075 Big Deck Amphib Preparing for Sea Trials
- Philippine Navy’s brand new frigate Jose Rizal departs for RIMPAC exercise in Hawaii
- Vietnam inks $348 Million agreement with Japan to build six patrol boats
- Royal New Zealand Navy Commissions HMNZS Aotearoa Polar-Class Support Vessel
- US Navy, Japan MSDF Flex Mine Warfare Capabilities during Exercise 2JA
- Navy keen on 3rd aircraft carrier to retain edge over China, even as 2nd delayed yet again
- Now South Korea’s Getting An Aircraft Carrier, Too
- China-developed AG600 amphibious aircraft succeeds in maiden flight over sea (Editor – a large 4 engine amphib aircraft in this 1:59 min video included)
- ★ Chile picks Japan’s trans-Pacific cable route in snub to China (Editor – note, transatlantic cable at the bottom of the European section.)
- The Untold Story of the Development of Indian Submarine Force
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EUROPE
- Ships moving in as Arctic sea ice level reaches record low
- Carrier Ike Now Operating in Mediterranean After Months in Middle East
- Putin: Russian Navy to be armed with hypersonic strike systems
- Royal Navy Tracks Russian Sub Through English Channel
- Meet!! The British Royal Navy New Attack Helicopter (Editor – excellent way to solve swarming boat problem!)
- French Navy future nuclear attack submarine SNA Suffren begins trials in Toulon
- Hellenic Navy commissions 6th Super Vita-class fast attacking crafts
- Russian Vyborg Shipyard laid the Purga ice-class coastguard ship of project 23550
- Russia to unveil latest submersible vehicle at Army-2020 arms show
- Crimean Shipyard floats out advanced cruise missile corvette
- Ukraine inks contract with French company to build 20 fast patrol boats 98 Mk I
- Google’s new transatlantic data cable to land in Cornwall
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MIDDLE EAST
- Carrier USS Nimitz in the Middle East as Eisenhower Strike Group Begins Trip Home
- Iran moves mock-up U.S. carrier to mouth of Gulf: satellite images and Iran blasts dummy US aircraft carrier with missiles
- Warship Escorts New Ferry through the Gulf of Aden
- UN Awaiting Houthi Approval to Visit Decaying Oil Tanker off Yemen
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
- Naval News Monthly Recap – July 2020 (Editor – lots going on in this 5:47 min video)
- CIMSEC: Fight illegal fishing for great power advantage
- Examining LNG as Fuel (Editor – the realities of it all in this interesting summary)
- ★ CIMSEC: The cod wars and today: lessons from an almost war (Editor – resources of all kinds become important enough to fight over, even between allies)
- CIMSEC: Bilge Pumps 8 – Narco subs, Mers el Kebir, and naval icebreakers (Editor – somewhat eclectic 1hr 43 min podcast)
- Expeditionary Seabase USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams Deploys for AFRICOM
- CIMSEC: Arctic governance: keeping the Arctic Council on target
- Korea, Japan take part in anti-piracy multilateral drill in waters off Somalia
- Opinion: GPS Has Big Problems; Ligado Is Not One Of Them
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SCUTTLEBUTT
- Fire and explosion damage to aircraft carrier USS Franklin 32902 (Editor – in the last edition I included a link called “Importance of Training, Experience, and Maintenance” to help you evaluate some of the realities of the news articles. The USS Franklin story in this 17:17 min video will illustrate part of the school of hard knocks that the USN has endured on the path to achieving the magnificent super-carriers the USN operates today.)
- CIMSEC: Sea Control 190 – Greyhound with Doyle Hodges (Editor – amusing 40:13 min podcast about the Greyhound movie)
- USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) Day One (July 12, 2020) Fire Analysis, Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano (Editor – insightful and detailed 49:32 min video)
- Watch: Naval Historian Updates on USS Bonhomme Richard Fire Response (Editor – follow up 33:49 min video)
- Black Tot Day: The End Of The Rum Ration
- 75 Years Ago: The Last Nazi U-Boat Surrenders
- Treachery on Anticosti Island (Editor – Tom Clancy and team couldn’t write this stuff!)
- 75 Years Ago: The Sinking of USS Indianapolis
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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – JULY
(If you see any omissions or errors please inform me, and any more modern significant dates are also welcomed. 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 web site, the encyclopedic guidance from Fraser McKee, and anywhere else I can find credible information.)
- 1 July 1923 The RCN barracks in Halifax, known as HMCS Stadacona, is commissioned.
- 1 July 1934 Commodore Percy W. Nelles becomes the first Canadian-born and Canadian-trained Chief of the Naval Staff.
- 2 July 1944 Canadian MTB 460 (Canadian Motor Torpedo Boat) struck a mine in the English Channel. The commanding officer and 9 men were lost.
- 2 July 1940 861 German and Italian prisoners of war are rescued by HMCS St. Laurent after their transport ship was torpedoed on its way to Canada.
- 3 July 1944 Four Canadian motor torpedo boats sink two German merchant ships and damage other vessels in the English Channel.
- 4 July 1943 Canadian vessels of the 29th and 65th Motor Torpedo Boat Flotillas conduct raids on the French coast near Cherbourg.
- 5 July 1940 First Canadian registered merchant ship sunk in Battle of the Atlantic, CSL’s S.S. Magog, by U-99 (KL Otto Kretschmer) SW of Ireland. No casualties.
- 5 July 1950 HMC Ships Athabaskan, Cayuga, and Sioux sail from Esquimalt, BC, to join the United Nations naval forces operating in Korean waters.
- 6 July 1944 HMC Ships Ottawa commanded by Cdr James D. Prentice, DSO, RCN with HMCS Kootenay commanded by A/LCDR William H. Wilson, RCN, along with HMS Statice, sank the German submarine U-678 while on patrol in the English Channel.
- 8 July 1944 Canadian MTB 463 was lost to a mine in the English Channel. No crew was lost, although 5 men were wounded.
- 8 July 1954 Canada’s first icebreaking arctic patrol vessel, HMCS Labrador, is commissioned.
- 9 July 1914 HMCS Rainbow begins preparations for the international seal patrol in the North Pacific Ocean.
- 10 July 1943 Canadian landing craft drop soldiers of the 1st Canadian Division off on the coast of Sicily during the Allied invasion known as Operation HUSKY.
- 15 July 1920 RNCVR is disbanded. All troops released.
- 15 July 1958 The first review of the Royal Fleet ever held in Canadian waters takes place under the eyes of Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret off the coast of Vancouver Island at Royal Roads.
- 16 July 1914 First RNCVR seaman taken to sea in HMCS Rainbow to augment the RCN crew for a Bering Sea Fur Patrol; but diverted to assist her participation in the ‘Kamagata Maru Incident’ at Vancouver.
- 17 July 1940 HMCS Skeena rescues the crew of a torpedoed merchant ship, the SS Manipor, in the waters north of Scotland.
- 19 July 1943 HMCS HURON (Destroyer) is commissioned at Newcastle on the Tyne, England.
- 20 July 1944 HMCS MATANE (frigate) is hit by a German glider bomb off Brest and badly damaged.
- 23 July 1951 The RCN (Reserve) begins recruiting women for service with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (the Wrens) for the first time since the Second World War.
- 24 July 1917 The Military Service Act is passed allowing for conscription of single men.
- 24 July 1942 HMCS St. Croix commanded by LCdr A. Hedley Dobson, DSC, RCNR sank the German submarine U-90 while on patrol in the North Atlantic Ocean.
- 29 July 1948 HMCS Royal Roads is transformed into a Canadian Service College and begins training flight cadets, as well as naval cadets.
- 29 July 1972 HMCS Iroquois, the first of the DDH 280 class destroyers, is commissioned.
- 31 July 1940 HMCS Prince Robert, after conversion from a merchant vessel, is commissioned as an armed merchant cruiser.
- 31 July 1942 HMCS Skeena commanded by A/LCdr Kenneth L. Dyer, RCN with HMCS Wetaskiwin commanded by LCdrf Guy S. Windeyer, RCN sank U-588 in the North Atlantic.
- 31 July 1942 The Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRENS) is authorized