naval affairs

NAC News – Edition K344 HMCS Sea Cliff; J344 HMCS Border Cities

NAC News – Edition K344 HMCS Sea Cliff; J344 HMCS Border Cities

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of February 15th, 2020

Edition – K344 HMCS Sea Cliff (WW2 River Class Frigate); and,

J344 HMCS Border Cities (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

  • Vanguard ShipTech 2020 Forum  Keynote Speaker: Mario Pelletier, Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, The Westin, Ottawa, ON 25 February 2020, 7:30 – 17:00
  • CDA Institute Conference – Ottawa 4-5 March 2020 – STICKHANDLING TICKHANDLING THROUGH ROUGHING AND INTERFERENCE: HOW TO POSITION CANADA IN A WORLD OF GREAT POWER PLAYS
  • 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

Details in regard event registration and accommodation will be forthcoming soon!

CANADA

USA & AMERICAS

INDO-PACIFIC

EUROPE

MIDDLE EAST

GLOBAL INTERESTS

SCUTTLEBUTT

SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES –  FEBRUARY

(It’s been a year for this “month-to-month” calendar – 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 “Canada Channel”, and “Legion Magazine”.

  • 1 February 1911  The first recruiting posters for the RCN are issued to post offices throughout Canada.
  • 1 February 1968  The personnel and organization of the RCN, Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force were unified into a single organization, the Canadian Forces.
  • 2 February 2003  HMCS Regina joins the Canadian Naval Task Group, part of the international anti-terrorism campaign in the Persian Gulf.
  • 5 February 1944  HMS Puncher, an aircraft carrier, is commissioned into the Royal Navy at Vancouver with a Canadian crew, but a British air complement.
  • 6 February 6, 1943 – Italian aircraft attack and sink RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Louisbourg east of Oran while she is escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to Bone, Algeria; 2 Officers, 35 crew, and 5 RN seaman are lost.
  • 8 February 1943  HMCS Regina sinks the Italian submarine Avorio in the Mediterranean Sea.
  • 11 February 1942  HMCS Spikenard is torpedoed by U136 and sunk in the North Atlantic.  There were only 8 survivors and 57 perish.
  • 14 February 1945  Five Motor Torpedo Boats of the Canadian 29th Flotilla burn in Ostende harbour.  26 Canadians are lost.
  • 15 February 1965  The Maple Leaf becomes Canada’s official flag.
  • 16 February 1945  HMCS St. John sinks the German submarine U-309 off the northeast coast of Scotland near Moray Firth.
  • 18 February 1942  Newfoundlands rescue 185 from USN ships driven onto the rocks in a storm, 203 perish.
  • 18 February 1944  Sixteen Canadian minesweepers, in four divisions of four ships, begin to leave St. John’s for British waters to take part in the invasion of Normandy.
  • 19 February 1944  Motor Torpedo boats of the 29th and 65th (Canadian) Flotillas begin to be commissioned (continues until 31 March).
  • 22 February 1943 – Operation Torch – RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Weyburn strikes a mine laid by U-118 off the Strait of Gibraltar; the explosion kills one seaman of her crew of 77; before the ship sinks, all but two depth charges are rendered safe by throwing the detonators over the side; British destroyer HMS Wivern starts to remove the wounded and survivors when twenty minutes later an after bulkhead gives way and the corvette begins to sink; the two depth charges explode, killing 8 more sailors and wounding others in the water; Wivern’s engines and boilers are hit, leaving the ship dead in the water; 84 RCN and RN sailors are wounded in total. Gibraltar
  • 22 February 1945  HMCS Trentonian is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine U1004 near Falmouth England, six of her ship’s company were lost.
  • 24 February 1944  HMCS Waskesiu sinks the German submarine U-257 in the North Atlantic.
  • 27 February 1930  HMCS Thiepval is lost in Barkley Sound, British Columbia.
  • 28 February 1946  HMCS Cornwallis is paid off (taken out of service) and new recruit training begins to be conducted at local naval depots.
  • 28 February 1991  Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Persian Gulf War ends.