NAC News – Edition 513
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of May 12th, 2023
Edition: 513 “The Battle of the Atlantic lasted for five years, eight months, and five days. Between September 1939 and May 1945, merchant ships completed 25,343 voyages – delivering more than 165 million tons of cargo from North America to the United Kingdom – under Canadian escort. Securing that cargo came with a tool. In addition to the 2,3438 RCN casualties, the battle claimed 752 airmen of the royal Canadian Air Force. Costlier still in the vital campaign, Allied merchant navies lost 2,233 ships (fifty-eight of the Canadian). Lives lost among Allied merchant navies exceeded 30,000. Of 12,000 Canadians who served in the merchant navy, 1,146 lost their lives – one seafarer in eight. Another 198 became POW’s overseas.” Battle of the Atlantic – Gauntlet to Victory, page 426, Ted Barris, 2022
Rod Hughes: Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (Comments welcome to help improve this service.) Links to keep in touch with the NAC and RCN can be found at the bottom of this email. Contact Kevin Goheen executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone to be added to the NAC News email distribution. (Influencer or good candidates to become a NAC member, and note the first year’s NAC/Branch membership dues are waived)
NOTICES
31 May – 1 June 2023 CANSEC trade show will be held at Ottawa’s EY Centre. A CDR13:46 min podcast speaking with CADSI President and CEO, Christyn Cianfarani gives “the inside scoop” on CANSEC 2023.
2 November 2023 Mark your calendars, the Deep Blue Forum 2023. Venue – The Westin Ottawa, 11 Colonel By Drive.
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THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES
About two thirds of Canadians support increasing defence spending to reach NATO target: Nanos and NATO’s 2 per cent military spending benchmark is ‘self-evident’: Finnish president
Standing Committee on National Defense Arctic Report (Editor – you’ll love the summary of the recommendations starting on page 1)
Naval Diplomacy: The Case For A Maritime G7 (Editor – Canada gets slammed)
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CANADA
Canadian Armed Forces Welcomes New Commander-in-Chief: King Charles III
Canada wants more cooperation with Aukus allies on advanced technologies
Military woes leave Canada at risk in a dangerous world
New Seaspan contracts aim to modernize shipbuilding
Scientists discover colossal underwater mountain off Vancouver Island
N.S. veteran, 99, set to mark anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic (Editor – includes a 2:41 min video) plus Battle of the Atlantic Stories – PO Colin Cope, RCNVR (Editor – 20 sec video) and Battle of the Atlantic Stories – LW Elsa Lessard, WRCNS (Editor – 30 sec video) and Battle of the Atlantic Stories – LCdr Douglas Meredith, RCNVR (Ret’d) (Editor – 45 sec video) and Lieutenant David Allison Killam, DSC, O-38960
RCN Fleet Weekend 2023. Editor – short RCN PR video)
Saskatchewan Celebrates Navy Reserve Centennial and Naval Reserve centennial gala honours history, sets sights on progress
National Council of Veteran Associations Slams Treatment of Veterans and the NCVA member groups
NAC Naval Affairs Program Briefing Note #9 Canadian Surface Combatant (Editor – please share to anyone you think may benefit from the knowledge)
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USA & AMERICAS
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: May 8, 2023
Coast Guard offloads $10.2 million in seized cocaine, transfers 3 smugglers to federal agents in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Mexico claims proof of Chinese fentanyl smuggling
Navy Orders Four CMV-22B Osprey COD Aircraft, Bringing Total to 48
Navy SEALs Receive Long-Awaited Dry Minisub
US Navy Honors Baseball Veterans With USS Cooperstown Commissioning
Navy to Commission Guided-Missile Destroyer Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (Editor – 72nd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be commissioned, with 17 additional ships currently under contract for the DDG 51 programme!)
US Submarines Are Popping Up More Often And It’s Not Clear Why
Navy links uncrewed air, sea tech to solve Integrated Battle Problem
Colombian Semi-Sub Smuggling Kingpin Sentenced to 20 Years
U.S. to Invest $4B to Electrify Ports and Reduce Truck Emissions
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INDO-PACIFIC
Chinese Warships Circle Japan, Aircraft Carrier USS Ronald Reagan Prepare for Spring Patrol
Pentagon Starts Work to Build Ballistic Missile Defense Capability in Guam
China’s military told to be on ‘high alert’ as US, Japan and South Korea move closer
Chinese Militia Boats Cross Indian, ASEAN Warships Exercising in South China Sea and Cluster of Chinese Vessels Spotted Near Russian Rig off Vietnam – Ship Monitors
China delivers two Type 054A/P frigates to the Pakistan Navy, wraps up four-ship deal
China’s Aircraft Carriers: Political Theater Or Deadly Threat?
Jakarta aims to spend big on French submarines
Joint Philippines-U.S. Patrols in South China Sea May Begin This Year -Envoy
New Agency And New Regulator To Deliver Australia’s SSN Program
EU honours Spanish naval escort squadron
US Clears $207M Maritime Surveillance Systems Sale to Australia
Australia secures anti-ship missile capability
Thousands Rally In Australia Against Potential Submarine Base
Indigenous Kalvari Class Stealth Submarines Ensure IOR Security
IMDEX Asia 2023: Indonesia’s MCM vessel, Kraken Katfish, MU90 Torpedo (Editor – 12:17 min video) and IAI at IMDEX Asia 2023: Total Battle Unit Solutions (Editor – 6:43 min video)
Philippine Navy Wildcat Helicopter Marks Its First Deck Landing Aboard BRP Antonio Luna
New $180m contract to bolster Australia’s anti-ship missile capability
The Cost of Crime and Corruption for Pacific Fisheries
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EUROPE
Ukraine:
Innovative Submarine Drone Is Ukraine’s New Weapon Against Russian Navy
Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner boss ‘promised ammunition’ after retreat threat and a supplementary 3:46 min video Ukraine War: Wagner boss’ comments on Putin ‘may have overstepped the line’
The dirty five laundering Russia’s oil (Editor – strange bedfellows)
Shipments From Ukraine Slowing as Black Sea Grain Deal Deadline Nears then Ukraine Says Russia Has Effectively Stopped Black Sea Grain Deal
General:
March Back to Waterloo Station after King Charles III Coronation (Editor – because I like military bands and marching, a 16:28 min video) and Penny Mordaunt reveals how Royal Navy training helped her carry heavy ceremonial swords during coronation
Canada, Latvia to begin joint Ukrainian training mission next week and Kaliningrad: Russia fury as Poland body recommends renaming exclave (Editor – poke the bear)
Scotland to host huge NATO missile defence exercise
Russian Navy approaches NATO air- and missile defence exercise outside Northern Norway
Shipbuilders deliver cutting-edge missile corvette to Russian Navy
HMS Northumberland tests submarine hunting skills with Nato allies
Spanish Government Approved for Eight Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk Helicopters purchase
NATO Secretary General engages industry on critical undersea infrastructure
Update on IDAS Submarine-Launched Missile with TKMS and Powering the Future – TKMS Submarine Battery Developments
HMS Vanguard finally sails from Devonport after refit lasting more than 7 years
HMS Prince of Wales – Shaft failure investigation results
German Navy christens 2nd K130 Batch II corvette Emden
Type 31 Frigate costs rise by £40 million and Royal Navy Orders Sixth T31 Combat Management System for Type 31 Frigate Fleet
In focus: the 50 cal heavy machine gun in Royal Navy service
Russian Court Seizes Control of Four Tugs Owned by Maersk’s Svitzer
VIDEO: 24,188 TEU behemoth OOCL Spain makes debut call in Hamburg (Editor – 60 sec video included) and The Crazy Amount of Power Needed to Move World Largest Container Ships (Editor – 15:05 min video)
World’s Largest Cruise Ship Icon of the Seas Starts Sea Trials in June
DNV: Oil Demand Will Halve by 2050
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MIDDLE EAST
Arab League: Syria reinstated as Assad rehabilitation continues
U.S. to Increase International Coordination, Presence in Strait of Hormuz
Israel Aerospace Industries unveils 1st unmanned submarine BlueWhale more details BlueWhale™ System ELI-3325 Autonomous Submarine System
US Planning More ‘Robots at Sea’ In Middle East To Combat Iran and U.S., Israel Complete Unmanned Naval Exercise in Gulf of Aqaba
U.S. Coast Guard Seizes $30 Million in Drugs with International Task Force
U.S. Coast Guard Seizes $80 Million of Heroin in Gulf of Oman
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
Future of Arctic Council in doubt after end of Russian chairship
SCOTT TAYLOR: MV Asterix ensures CAF efforts in Sudan aren’t complete Gong Show
US Envoy Says Russian Ship Picked up Arms in South Africa
Spain Seizes Brazilian Fishing Boat with Cocaine Haul on Rough Seas
Study identifies 15 key pain points facing women at sea
Portuguese submarine NRP Arpão (S161) to call Cape Town 4 June
International Court Convenes as Heroic Idun Crew Awaits Release
Update: Crew of Monjasa Reformer freed from pirates
Japan to provide Mozambique with a coastal surveillance ship
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SCUTTLEBUTT
The Little Ship That Played a Big Role in World War II – #shorts (Editor – 60 sec video)
Grumman S-2 Tracker: Silent Hunter of the Deep | Uncovering the Cold War’s Anti-Submarine Warrior! (Editor – 2:44 min video)
Tanks and the Navy – The Origins of the Landship (Editor – 34:21 min video)
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THIS WEEK IN RCN/MARITIME HISTORY
13 May 1943 HMCS Drumheller commanded by Lt Leslie P. Denny, RCNR, HMS Lagan, and an aircraft from the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 423 Squadron combine to sink the German submarine U-753 in the Atlantic Ocean.
13 May 1945 German submarine U-899 officially surrendered to the RCN near Shelburne, N. S. becomes the only German sub to surrender in Canadian waters during Second World War. Canadian ships, alone or in company with other ships and planes, sank a total of twenty-seven U-boats during the Second World War. Despite the undoubted and ongoing U-boat successes during the 2,060 days of war, 25,353 merchant ship voyages carried 181,643,180 tones of cargo from North American ports to the United Kingdom under Canadian escort. Over the bridge which the navy helped to build and maintain 90,000 tons passed daily towards the battlefields of Europe. In the Canadian ships lost, there were 1,797 Canadians who lost their lives, 319 were wounded, and 95 became POW’s. They paid a price yet created an achievement which would have been flatly dismissed as impossible before the war.
14 May 1917 Lieutenant R. Leckie (eventual Chief of Air Staff of the RCAF), but at the time was Royal Naval Air Service, flying a Curtiss H-12 flying boat shoots down the German Zeppelin L.22 over England.
15 May 1940 HMCS Prince Henry (ex-North Star, ex-Prince Henry) purchased from Clarke Steamship Company for $606,740, and preparations were begun to convert her to an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC). The Washington and London Naval Treaties placed limits on the number of cruisers that could be built by the participating nations. Canada was governed by the limits placed on the Royal Navy. An important role of heavy cruisers was service on distant stations and as the ‘patrolman on the beat,’ keeping watch over the trade routes of the world. By late ’42 to early ’43, the AMC’s were being withdrawn from escort service and converted to troopships, a vastly less costly and complicated process as well as a more important role.
15 May 1941 Ten corvettes in UK shipyards are formally commissioned as RCN ships. HMC Ships; Trillium, Arrowhead, Mayflower, Fennel, Spikenard, Hepatica, Quesnel, Snowberry, Bittersweet, and Windflower. The transfers were part of an exchange that eventually never happened, but Canada retained the ships.
16 May 1945 HMCS Matane is sent to escort 14 surrendered U-Boats from Trondheim to Loch Eriboll.
17 May 1942 – The Canadian built (Burrard Dry Dock Co, Vancouver) but British crewed SS Fort Qu’Appelle was on her maiden voyage from Canada to the UK, when she was torpedoed and sunk by U-135 about 450 nm north of Bermuda. The master, eleven crew members and one gunner were casualties. HMCS Melville rescued 33 crew members and one gunner.
17 May 1963 Approval is given for the RCN to begin work on the first Canadian military hydrofoil, HMCS Bras d’Or.
18 May 1914 The Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR) is authorized as part of the RCN.
19 May 1845 John Franklin begins the doomed voyage in search of the Northwest Passage.
19 May 1943 – The French barquentine SV Angelus’s forward mast was “square rigged” and her mid and aft masts were schooner “fore and aft rigged”. After France capitulated to Germany in June 1940, ships of the puppet Vichy France regime were subject to “requisition’ by the allied nations. On 11 May 1942, the corvette HMCS Prescott (K-161) seized the vessel, and the registered owner became the Canadian Government Merchant Marine Ltd, Montreal. A year later, the Angelus was sailing independently (no escort) from Barbados bound for Halifax, with a cargo of Molasses. At 11:30 am the ship was about mid-way between Bermuda and Halifax when she was intercepted by U-161. The Master, the Mate and eight crew members abandoned ship in a lifeboat before their ship was sunk by gunfire. Five days later, when the lifeboat was found by the USS Turner (DD-648), only the Mate and one crewmember were still alive. They were landed at Portland Maine.
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