naval affairs

NAC News – Edition 379

NAC News – Edition 379

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of October 16th, 2020

Edition – 379   “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”   Edmund Burke 1770

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

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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – OCTOBER

(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 October 1910 Captain E.H. Martin, RCN, is appointed Captain-in-Charge, Halifax, thus establishing the Atlantic Command.
  • 2 October 1952 HMCS Iroquois is hit in action by shore artillery batteries.  Three men are killed, and ten wounded, becoming the only battle casualties suffered by the RCN during the Korean conflict.
  • 4 October 1944 HMCS CHEBOGUE (frigate) is torpedoed by U -1227 800 miles west of the British Isles but was able to reach port.
  • 8 October 1944 HMCS Mulgrave strikes a mine off Le Havre, is beached and becomes a total loss.
  • 8 October 1992 The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and other dignitaries unveil the Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa.
  • 8 October 2001 Minister of Defence Art Eggleton announces the details of Canada’s contribution to the campaign against terrorism. Canada’s initial commitment involved 2000 personnel from the Canadian Forces and included the deployment of ships, aircraft and a small contingent of soldiers.  It is the biggest mobilization of the armed forces since the Korean War.
  • 13 October 1710 The defenders of Port Royal surrender to a British naval expedition.
  • 13 October 1910 Her Majesty’s Dockyard, Halifax, is transferred to Canadian ownership by a British Order in Council.
  • 14 October 1944 HMCS Magog (frigate) is torpedoed and badly damaged by U-Boat 1223 in the St. Lawrence River off Pointe des Montes.
  • 16 October 1915 An Order-in-Council gives the Hospitals Commission authority to provide retraining and rehabilitation for disabled veterans.
  • 16 October 1944 HMCS Annan A/LCDR Charles P. Balfry,  RCNR, sank the German submarine U-1006 south of the Faeroes.
  • 17 October 1944 HMCS Prince Henry and HMCS Prince David engage in landing liberation forces in Greece (17-18 Oct).
  • 19 October 1940 HMCS Bras D’Or an auxiliary minesweeper founders in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, she sank with all hands (5 officers and 25 crew).
  • 20 October 1940 HMS Windflower, the first corvette built in Canada, is commissioned into the Royal Navy with a Canadian crew.  She is turned over to the RCN in 1941.
  • 21 October 1910 HMCS Niobe arrives in Halifax, the first Canadian warship to arrive at her base in Canada.
  • 21 October 1942 HMCS Royal Roads becomes the Royal Canadian Naval College and commences training cadets.
  • 21 October 1943 HMCS Chedabucto sank after night collision with the cable vessel Lord Kelvin, 30 miles from Rimouski, Quebec.  She is later beached and becomes a total loss.
  • One officer was lost.
  • 21 October 1944 HMCS Uganda (later Quebec) is commissioned, becoming Canada’s first cruiser since Aurora was paid off in 1922.
  • 22 October 1914 HMCS Niobe makes her first operational patrol off the Strait of Belle Isle.
  • 22 October 1940 HMCS Margaree (Destroyer) lost in the North Atlantic, after collision with the freighter Port Fairy, while escorting the five-ship convoy OL.8.  142 of her ship’s company were lost, many of which were survivors of HMCS Fraser’s tragic sinking.
  • 23 October 1939 HMCS SAGUENAY (Destroyer) intercepted the German tanker Emmy Friederich which scuttled herself.
  • 23 October 1969 A major explosion occurred aboard HMCS Kootenay.  The blast and intense engine room fire would become known as one of the worst peacetime accidents in the history of the RCN, with nine of her crew killed.  Three years later, six crew members received medals honouring their bravery during the incident. Chief Petty Officer V.O. Partanan was posthumously awarded the Cross of Valour.
  • 24 October 1949 A programme for the construction in Canadian shipyards of anti-submarine destroyer escorts for the RCN was announced by the Minister of national Defence in Parliament.
  • 25 October 1944 HMCS Skeena was wrecked in a storm, and grounded near Reykjavik, Iceland. Fifteen lives were lost.
  • 26 October 1952 HMCS Crusader destroys a North Korean supply train near Songjin: RCN gunners account for the destruction of eight enemy trains during the conflict.
  • 28 October 1955 HMCS St. Laurent (second of name) is commissioned as the first warship of all-Canadian design and construction.
  • 30 October 1918 HMCS Galiano was lost, with all her crew of 39 and one female passenger, in Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island.  HMCS Galiano and her crew of Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reservists was the only Canadian Naval vessel lost during WWI – only 12 days before the armistice to end the “war to end all wars”.
  • 30 October 1942 A RCAF Hudson of No. 145(BR) Squadron destroyed U658 with a salvo of depth charges 320 miles out of St. John’s Newfoundland.  Later that same day, a Digby of No. 10(BR) RCAF Squadron sent U520 to the bottom far out in the Atlantic.