NAC News – Edition 374

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of September 11th 2020
Edition – 374 “In the nature of man we find three principle causes of quarrel. First, competition: secondly, diffidence [distrust]; thirdly, glory. The first maketh men invade for gain, the second for security; the third, for reputation.” Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan, 1651 (Editor – an interesting lens to look at world events today)
Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (comments welcome to help improve this service)
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NOTICES
- Vanguard Launches First-Ever Virtual Event For Canadian Defence Industry (Editor – note it’s a virtual event…first-ever Canadian underwater/submarine event that will take place on October 29th and 30th, 2020)
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CANADA
- Retired Vice-Admiral Mark Norman sees stronger role for Canada on the world stage
- ★ Second World War Tribute (Editor – know anyone with WW2 service?)
- The Work of a Warship – Episode 4 – Proudly Flies The Ensign (Editor – RCN 5:59 min video)
- Royal New Zealand Navy’s Te Kaha Frigate Starts Post-Upgrade Sea Trials
- 60 Seconds With… Cyclone Pilots! (Editor – amusing 1 min video)
- The sinking of U-484
- Navy’s gender-neutral change to ranks not legally binding, says ex-military lawyer (Editor – hopefully just a formality)
- Proud navy appointment (Editor – The Lieutenant-Governor of BC has officially joined Victoria’s naval reserve unit, HMCS Malahat as their Honorary Captain.)
- ★ NAC Ottawa Speaker’s Evening September 2020 (Editor – 43:45 min video copy of this week’s NAC video presentation if you missed it live)
- Ballard rolls out fuel cell industry’s 1st commercial module to power ships
- From bosun to admiral (Editor – nice to see Roger Girouard getting some local recognition)
- Master Sailor Diyako Salehi: Serving the country that allowed him to flourish
- 1,600 vets received priority hiring from feds, but report says number could have been higher (Editor – video clips included)
- THOMAS D. IRVINE: Where’s federal action to save Legion branches?
- 6 crew members on cargo ship docked in Metro Vancouver test positive for COVID-19
- Four new China-built barges join NWT’s fleet
- Historic site at CFB Esquimalt to be reborn
- Canadian Forces Member Assistance Program (Editor – this and the next three links are being added to the NAC Veteran’s Corner page)
- Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) programme
- Veteran’s Transition Network
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USA & AMERICAS
- USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Sept. 7, 2020
- Budget cuts to impact delivery time line for US Navy SSBNs
- For New Robotic Ships, Pentagon Ignores China’s Dangerous “Phony War Fleet”
- ★ How to Hunt with Sonar (Editor – great, if a bit quirky, explanation of the black art in a 17:05 min video.
- ★ White Board: How to catch a Borei SSBN (Editor – a 14:07 min video about the Borei SSBN acoustics [how is this not classified!?]), and about the submarine class itself in this really interesting 19:13 min video) Project “Northwind” 955 Borei
- ‘Sci-fi awesome’ hypersonic bullet downs a cruise missile (Editor – note naval gun application)
- Six Firms Working on Concept for U.S. Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vessel
- Martin UAV V-BAT to be Evaluated During Operational Coast Guard Patrol
- Tanker Carrying Gasoline Seized by US Arrives off Texas
- Panama Canal Plans New Megaproject to Solve Water Supply Problems
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INDO-PACIFIC
- Analyst: China Exceeded Expectations in Speed of Naval Growth
- Peter Jennings (ASPI): Canada + Australia in the Indo-pacific
- India yet to formally invite Australia to join Malabar naval exercise along with US & Japan
- Big blow to China as Thailand scraps KRA canal project
- ★ Submarines: the industry policy puzzle
- U.S. Navy Joins Australia, Japan, South Korea for Multinational Group Sail
- Germany Anticipates Growing Role In Indo-Pacific Region
- South Korea Seeking More F-35Bs for Future LPX-II Carrier
- China’s Type 039A “Yuan” Sub Brief 10 Minute Trailer (Editor – detailed and interesting 11:08 min video. Note the technology theft)
- China sends aircraft carriers on unprecedented dual missions in Bohai, Yellow seas
- China’s new AWACS ready for South China Sea missions
- South Korea To Double Down On F-35 And Procure STOVL Variant For LPX-II
- Palau Provides Pentagon With Green Light for US Military Base Construction
- BRP Ramon Alcaraz to undergo sea trials after repairs
- T7 Global inks agreement with Mitsui E&S to supply ships in Vietnam
- GALLERY: No oil spill risk from fire-stricken supertanker, Sri Lanka Navy says and Sri Lankan navy tows fire-stricken tanker to sea as wind strengthens
- Captain’s Texts Tell of Ordeal of Capsized Cattle Ship
- Work starts on world’s 1st large containership LNG conversion
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EUROPE
- ★ What Are The Most Dangerous Waters in the World Today? (Editor – useful explanation by a very credible author)
- ★ Tensions escalate between Greece and Turkey in eastern Mediterranean (Editor – 4:56 min video with further amplification in this 2:29 min video Turkey-Greece eastern Mediterranean claims explained)
- Mission UNIFIL – the German Navy’s corvette Magdeburg sets sail towards Cyprus
- Two U.S. Air Force B-52s Just Hunted Down a Destroyer and Practiced Sinking It
- U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Jets Arrive at RAF Marham
- Belgian Navy’s MCM Program: Future Concept of Mine Warfare and Program Milestones (Editor – a look at modern MCM in this 6:37 min video)
- Several NATO Countries Organizing Joint Arctic Operation, Royal Navy Says and In a controversial move, Norway sails frigate into Russian economic zone together with U.K. and U.S. navy ships
- Russia’s Shoigu worried about constant presence of non-littoral states’ ships in Black Sea
- Danish Navy Ship To Start Training At Devonport (Editor – 2:36 min video included)
- Why Russia Is Building two Project 23900 LHD amphibious assault ships (Editor – 8:26 min video)
- L3Harris Receives Contract for Two Low-Frequency Active Towed Sonar (LFATS) Systems
- Poland’s New AIP Submarines Will Transform Navy
- IXblue Delivers Navigation System For France’s 1st FDI Frigate
- HMS Trent Joins NATO Mediterranean Operations
- HMS Queen Elizabeth to hold ‘most aircraft on a Royal Navy carrier since HMS Hermes’ and HMS Queen Elizabeth Leaves Portsmouth Following Coronavirus Cases (Editor – with 3:07 min eye candy video included)
- Happy Hunting For Russian Subs? Britain Could Scrap Its Anti-Submarine Fleet
- The Advanced Thinking Behind Sweden’s New A-26 Submarine
- Russian Navy Submarine And Warships Hit By Runaway Floating Dock
- Construction of new icebreaking tanker fleet underway amid looming crisis in Arctic LNG project
- Ballard Launches Fuel Cell Module to Power Ships
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MIDDLE EAST
- Iran Prepares Massive Military Exercises in Sea of Oman, Indian Ocean
- Report: Three More Iranian Tankers Under Way With Fuel for Venezuela
- Counter Piracy CTF 151 visits US Coast Guard Facility in Bahrain
- Royal Navy Minehunters HMS Blyth, HMS Ledbury Due Home After Three Years in Gulf
- Type 23 Duke-class frigate HMS Argyll conducts naval training with Japanese Navy in the Gulf of Aden
- U.S. Carriers Resume Port Visits to Oman After 7-Month Gap
- Navy Ends Search for Missing Sailor from USS Nimitz
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
- ★ The Shadowy World Of Submarine And Ship-Launched Torpedo Countermeasures
- List: Major Oil Spills from Ships (Editor – for perspective…)
- Panama: Before Grounding, Wakashio Deviated from Course to Pick Up Cell Signal for Birthday Celebration (Editor – a very big oops)
- Thwaites: ‘Doomsday Glacier’ vulnerability seen in new maps
- USS Hershel “Woody” Williams supports U.S. SOF interoperability
- Report: Reefer Ship Attacked Offshore Nigeria. Two Crew Members Kidnapped
- In Just 20 Years, Ships Could Cross an Open Arctic Ocean
- New Design Concept for VLCCs Gains Class Society Approval
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SCUTTLEBUTT
- How the USS Nautilus Forever Transformed U.S. Submarines
- Profile: Rear Adm. Edward “Iceberg” Smith and the Greenland Patrol
- Gallery: Wreckage of Major German World War Two Warship Discovered Off Norway
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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – SEPTEMBER
(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 September 1939 RCN, RCNR, RCNVR placed on active service.
- 1 September 1942 HMCS Morden commanded by Lt John J. Hodgkinson, RCNR sank the German submarine U-756 in the Atlantic.
- 1 September 1944 HMCS Saint John commanded by A/LCdr William R. Stacey, RCNR with HMCS Swansea commanded by CDR A. Frank C. Layard, DSO, RN sink U-Boat 247 off Land’s End, England. This was HMCS Swansea’s fourth submarine under two separate CO’s.
- 3 September 1814 Lieutenant Miller Worsley and Andrew Bulger lead 77 men by canoe north from Wasaga Beach, Ontario, captures American warship USS Tigress at anchor in False Detour Channel, about 88 km northeast of Mackinac Island; then go after USS Scorpion, which they capture September 5.
- 3 September 1939 Battle of the Atlantic begins as merchant seawoman Hannah Baird of Verdun, Québec sees her ship, Donaldson liner SS Athenia torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat west of Ireland on route to Montréal, one week before Canada declared war and one week after the merchant service and military were placed on a war alert. The sinking kills 188 of those aboard, including Biards and three other Canadians, the first Canadian casualties of the Second World War.
- 3 September 1939 Britain declares war on Germany two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; France follows 6 hours later, and then Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada on week later. On September 5, 1939, the United States will proclaim neutrality.
- 3 September 1940 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces Lend Lease Programme, where 50 American destroyers will be traded to Britain, of which 7 go to Canada, in exchange for leases on naval and air bases in the British colonies, including St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Bermuda; Canada also agrees to shelter the destroyers in Canadian ports before they are handed over to British crews.
- 3 September 1942 World War II – HMCS Shawinigan and HMCS Trail together pick up 17 survivors from the Canadian merchant ship Donald Stewart that was torpedoed and sunk northeast of Cape Whittle in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in position 50°32’N, 58°46’W by German U-boat U-517.
- 3 September 1943 Canadian flotillas of landing craft engaged in the crossing of the Straits of Messina – the invasion of Italy.
- 3 September 2016 – Franklin Expedition – Parks Canada and the Arctic Research Foundation find the underwater wreck of Sir John Franklin’s flagship HMS Terror; it is “in pristine condition”, north of where the wreck of HMS Erebus — the expedition’s flagship — was found in 2014.
- 4 September HMC Ships Dunver and Hespler sank U-484 in Hebridean waters.
- 4 September 1990 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces formation of Operation Scimitar, to provide air cover for the two destroyers and the supply ship sent to the Persian Gulf in late August of 1991 as part of Operation Friction, tasked with enforcing the United Nations trade blockade against Iraq.
- 5 September 1814 Royal Navy Lt Miller Worsley, flying captured American colours in the USS Tigress, takes the USS Scorpion at anchor after fierce hand-to-hand fighting; sails both ships west to Fort Michilimackinac.
- 5 September 1918 The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service is authorized and begins operations in Nova Scotia.
- 7 September 1816 – Steamship Frontenac launched at Bath, west of Kingston; first steam powered vessel on the Great Lakes.
- 7 September 1942 HMCS Raccoon Torpedoed and sunk by U 165, while escorting convoy QS.33 in the St. Lawrence River. There were no survivors. 37 perished.
- 7 September 1943 HMS Nabob (an aircraft carrier) is commissioned into the Royal Navy with a Canadian crew and a Royal Air Force complement.
- 7 September 1955 HMCS Sioux leaves Yokosuka for Esquimalt ending RCN involvement in Korea.
- 8 September 1939 Mackenzie King says no to conscription; stresses munitions-making, and building up RCN and RCAF.
- 9 September 1919 Alexander Graham Bell sees his HD-4 hydrofoil, powered by twin aircraft engines, reach a new world water speed record of 122 kph; piloted by J.A.D. McCurdy at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
- 9 September 1942 War Cabinet closes the St. Lawrence River to all Allied shipping except coasters; due to German U-Boat submarine dangers.
- 9 September 1944 HMCS Dunver commanded by A/LCdr William Davenport, RCNR, and HMCS Hespeler commanded by LCdr Neville S.C. Dickinson, RCNVR sink the German submarine U-484 in Hebridean waters.
- 10 September 1814 Kingston naval dockyard launches the 112 gun HMS St. Lawrence, the largest warship ever to sail the Great Lakes; carrying more armament than Admiral Nelson’s Victory.
- 10 September 1939 Canada declares war on Germany
- 10 September 1941 HMCS Chambly commanded by CDR James D. Prentice, RCN, and HMCS Moose Jaw commanded by LT Frederick E. Grubb, RCN sank the German submarine U-501 off the coast of Greenland. This is the first U-boat kill made by the Royal Canadian Navy.
- 11 September 1833 – Quebec-built steamship ‘Royal William’ reaches England safely; the wooden paddle wheeler is the first ship to cross the Atlantic under steam all the way, although sails are raised whenever the wind is fresh; the two steam engines are kept running, but the ship goes slowly under sail because of the drag from the paddle wheels.
- 11 September 1942 HMCS Charlottetown was torpedoed and sunk in the St. Lawrence, near Cap Chat Quebec, by U517. She had just delivered a convoy to Rimouski and was returning to Gaspe. Ten of her ship’s company were lost.
- 12 September 1759 Admiral Saunders bombards Beauport and feigns a landing to divert attention away from Wolfe’s landing below the Plains of Abraham.
- 13 September 1750 General Wolf’s forces conducted an amphibious assault and stormed the cliffs of Quebec City and defeated the French. This battle marked the beginning of the end of France’s rule in North America.
- 13 September 1942 HMCS Ottawa sunk by U91 who hit her with two torpedoes in the North Atlanta while she was escorting convoy ON.127. 113 of her Ship’s Company were lost, plus 6 RN seaman, and 22 merchant seamen.
- 14 September 1942 500 km east of Newfoundland, German U-Boat U-91 torpedoes and sinks RCN River Class destroyer HMCS Ottawa (A/LCdr Clark Anderson Rutherford, RCN) in the North Atlantic, while escorting convoy ON-127; hit by two torpedoes, she blows up and sinks immediately; 113 of her ship’s company are lost, plus 6 RN seaman and 22 merchant seamen; there are 69 survivors; Battle of the Atlantic growing in intensity.
- 16 September 1939 – RCN escorts the first of many ship convoys for Britain; RCN vessels guard the freighters in formation to protect against German U-Boat attacks. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- 16 September 1942 The first of sixteen RCN corvettes sails for the Mediterranean Sea to take part in the North African landings (Operation Torch).
- 17 September 1904 – Captain Joseph Bernier departs from Québec on the Canadian government steamship ‘Arctic’; given the command because of his interest in the Polar regions (he had devised a plan to reach the North Pole via the Bering Strait); will make 12 expeditions into polar seas in the next 20 years; he will spend the winter in Hudson Bay collecting Canadian customs duties from whalers and traders. Québec, Québec
- 19 September 1940 HMCS Bras D’or sank in a storm in the St. Lawrence with the loss of all 30 hands.
- 19 September 1941 German U-74 torpedoes and sinks RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Lévis 200 km off Cape Farewell, Greenland; 18 lives are lost.
- 19 September 1969 Ottawa to reorganize Canadian Armed Forces; 50% cut in NATO manpower; retirement of RCN aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure.
- 20 September 1943 German U-boat U-305, using a new acoustic torpedo (GNAT), hits and sinks RCN Town Class destroyer HMCS St. Croix, while she is escorting convoy ON.202, south of Iceland; 65 members of the ship’s company perish; five officers and 76 men are rescued by HMS Itchen, however, only two days later, the Itchen is also torpedoed by an enemy submarine; only one St. Croix sailor, Stoker W. Fisher, survives the two sinkings; one of the men lost was Surgeon Lt W. L. M. King, RCNVR, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s nephew.
- 20 September 1917 Borden government passes the Military Voters Act and Wartime Elections Act, giving the vote to soldiers and sailors under 21, and serving women; wives, widows, mothers, and sisters of servicemen also get the vote; the first women ever to be able to vote in Canadian federal elections
- 21 Sept 1943 In 24 hours, Canadian and British minesweepers cleared a lane through a minefield laid by U-boats off Halifax. No lives were lost.
- 22 September 1917 Flight Sub Lieutenant N.A. Magor, the Canadian pilot of a large American flying boat sank the UC 72 in the North Sea with direct hits by two 230 lb bombs. This was one of a few submarines destroyed by air action during WW1.
- 24 September 1940 HMC ships Annapolis, Columbia, Niagara, St. Clair, St. Croix and St. Francis, ex-American destroyers from the fifty given to Great Britain in exchange for bases, are commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy.
- 24 September 1941 Canada joins eight other allied governments in pledging support to the Atlantic Charter, an eight-point declaration issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
- 24 September 1955 HMCS Sioux returns to Esquimalt, the last ship of the RCN to return from the Korean conflict.
- 24 September 1965 – Military RCN commissions HMCS Ojibwa, first of three 2000-ton RCN Oberon class submarines. Chatham, England
- 25 September 1940 Canadian armed merchantman Prince Robert captures German ship Weser off Mexican coast.
- 27 September 1854 Steamship Arctic sinks off Cape Race, Newfoundland with 300 people on board after colliding with the 250-ton French iron propeller ship S.S. Vesta; the 3,000-ton side-wheeler was the largest and most splendid ship of the Collins Line (United States Mail Steamship Company) in competition with Samuel Cunard’s Royal Mail Steam Packet Company; casualties include 92 of her 153 officers and men, and all the women and children on board, including the wife, the only daughter, and the youngest son of shipowner E. K. Collins; first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner.
- 27 September HMCS Labrador arrives in Esquimalt via the Artic. She was the first naval ship and the first deep draught vessel of any kind to traverse the North West Passage.
- 27 September 1994 USN closes Argentia submarine detection base; last US military base in Canada.
- 30 September 1994 Halifax-class frigate HMCS Regina is commissioned in Saint John, New Brunswick.