NAC News -Edition K441 – HMCS Monnow
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of December 24th, 2021
Edition K441 HMCS Monnow (River Class Frigate – interesting, she was one of only two among the larger RCN warships that never saw a Canadian port)
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
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.
NOTICES
14 January 2022 10-11 (AM Eastern Time): CSIS and USNI present an online presentation in the Maritime Security series – Dialogue: FIFTH Fleet Mission and Operations Update featuring Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander, United States Naval Forces, Central Command / Commander, FIFTH Fleet and Commander, Combined Maritime Forces. Vice Admiral Cooper and Vice Admiral Peter H. Daly, USN (Ret.), Chief Executive Officer and Publisher, U.S. Naval Institute, will discuss the priorities and operational imperatives of the FIFTH Fleet area of responsibility.
Our NAC 2021 Sponsors – their sponsorship and support are essential in enabling us to provide you, the member, with this News and other NAC media. Check out their links at the bottom of our National site main webpage. NAC thanks our sponsors, BAE Systems Canada, Irving Shipbuilding Inc, Lockheed Martin Canada, Babcock Canada, Seaspan Shipyards, and Prospectus Associates for their support.
NAC Endowment Fund Campaign 2021 underway! This is your fund, and it provides some key support to several maritime activities. Donor form and information available here. And check out what your fund has done over the past many years.
Salty Dips Volume 11 – Some things pass. Some things change. Some just stay the same. by NAC-Ottawa…Christmas gift? Note you can order a print-on-demand soft/hard copy from Friesen Press and other providers. Soft and hard copy books. An e-book version in a wide-variety of formats is also available (Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, etc…)
NAC Children’s Books – 3rd in the series “Over the Horizon” now for sale $10 plus $3 for shipping. Special Holiday offer – buy all 3 for $25 (includes shipping) or 2 for $20.
___________________________________
THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES
Tough choices ahead for Canada as Ukraine and Russia teeter on brink of war
Change of leadership for Canadian Coast Guard in Western Canada (Editor – Roger, your NAC colleagues, shipmates, and friends salute you – BZ for your stellar service with the CCG and RCN)
Canadians who served in WW2 commemorated on board HMS Belfast (Editor – a great 2:37 min video that highlights the strong, long-lasting, and productive relationship the RCN enjoys with the RN. I did not know that about 10% of Belfast’s crew were Canadian, and that 18 Canadian wardships were awarded an WW2 Arctic Battle Honour. See related items in scuttlebutt section)
New subsea cable to connect Asia, Europe, and North America through the Arctic
__________________________________
CANADA
A merry little Christmas: The wartime boom in holiday songs (Editor – the following is an actual 3:21 min clip from the movie mentioned in the first link. More poignant now that I know the background. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas | Meet Me In St. Louis | Warner Archive)
Canadian frigate HMCS Fredericton returns home following six month mission
HMCS Harry DeWolf crew returns home after first deployment
New MLI paper titled: No Other Option (Editor – lengthy paper covering “Politics, policy and industrial considerations in the Canadian Surface Combatant Program”)
Halifax hosts annual International Security Forum
Canada upgrades its Halifax-class frigates and keeping the Halifax operationally effective will be an on-going challenge if/as CSC moves timewise to the right Military shipbuilding faces fresh delays as a result of COVID-19: procurement chief
Military procurement chief stands by naval helicopters despite recent problems
Military member waits almost a decade for defence department to process grievance
Top soldier retreats on criticism of military exodus
CCGS Hudson – more problems and other CCG challenges
New equipment for Canadian Coast Guard will help clean up oil spills
Prosecutor expects 29 sex misconduct cases to stay in military justice system and Upcoming court martial proceedings (Editor – I did not know this sort of information was posted. It would seem several sexual assault charges are proceeding) and Military faces fresh calls for end of ‘duty to report’ for sexual misconductthen Military centre for assault victims sees explosion in requests after year of allegations
Submariner Spotlight: CPO2 Jason Thompson
Steward work in the Royal Canadian Navy
North Atlantic vessels to test new hull paint developed in Nova Scotia
At long last — Phoenix general compensation damages forms available for retirees
VAC’s Salute! – December 2021 (Editor – all editions will not be included but just so that you know the magazine is there. The VIP may be of particular interest to some)
____________________________________
USA & AMERICAS
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Dec. 20, 2021
Columbia-class: the US Navy’s new missile submarine will make history || 2021 (Editor – 4:05 min video)
Opinion: 3 retired generals: The military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection (Editor – not a maritime issue, but one of significant interest to us as their neighbours. Disquieting how Canada and the US be similar in so many ways, yet so fundamentally different in others)
French Navy FREMM Frigates “Hook” US Navy ASW Award, Again
Coast Guard Must Be Prepared for Conflict
US approves EMALS, AAG, sale to France
Northrop Grumman Wins Contract for French Navy E-2D Aircraft
Austal USA Delivers 30th LCS to the U.S. Navy
Raytheon Missiles & Defense awarded $578 million contract for Standard Missile-2 production
Senate Confirms Grady to Serve as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
U.S. Navy’s First DDG 51 Flight III Destroyer Starts SPY-6 Radar Testing and Training
Damaged USS Connecticut Pulls Into Homeport of Bremerton Ahead of Repairs
Boeing’s Unmanned Tanker Completes Deck Testing on Carrier USS Bush and VIDEO: Navy Wraps Up MQ-25A Deck Handling Tests on Carrier USS George H.W. Bush (Editor – a big aircraft in a 1:29 min video)
US Navy completes final weapons elevator on aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford
NAVSEA to Proceed with COBRA II Littoral Mine-Countermeasures System
China Enters into Largest and Longest LNG Import Deal with U.S.
Royal Caribbean Reports 48 COVID Cases Aboard Symphony of the Seas and Caribbean Ports Turning Away Cruise Ships Over Omicron Fears
Grand Jury Charges Three Companies Over Southern California Pipeline Spill
The Undiscovered World of Subsea Volcanoes
____________________________________
INDO-PACIFIC
Severe Weather Wrecks Southeast Asia as 200 Dead, Ports Shut
China’s 2nd aircraft carrier conducts exercises in South China Sea and Liaoning aircraft carrier group holds drills in ‘strategically important’ West Pacific
Report: AUKUS Nuclear Sub Program’s Cost Could Balloon to $120B and Implementing Australia’s nuclear submarine program then Treaties committee recommends Commonwealth approve AUKUS nuclear information sharing
Second-hand Japanese boats could rapidly expand Australia’s submarine force
China Transferring Navy Type 056 Corvettes To The Coast Guard
Singapore, India, and Thailand Conclude Trilateral Maritime Exercise
German Navy Chief: Frigate Deployment to Indo-Pacific First of Biennial Deployments to Region
Australian, Canadian Navies Wrap Pacific Deployments; U.S. Submarine Shifts Ports to Guam and Carl Vinson CSG And Royal Australian Navy Conduct Bilateral Training Exercise
Indian Navy’s second P15B destroyer kicks off sea trials
Taiwan Navy launches third and fourth indigenous mine-laying ship
Austal Starts Sea Trials of Royal Australian Navy First Evolved Cape-Class Patrol Boat
China develops world’s most powerful Stirling engine
Taiwan’s submarine program steers into a minefield
4th And Final LMS ‘Rencong’ Delivered To Royal Malaysian Navy
Indonesia faces rising Chinese pressure at sea
Pakistan to buy two second-hand Minehunters from The Netherlands
Albatross flying boat returns and will be built in NT
Bangladesh ferry fire: Dozens killed near Jhalakathi
Mauritius oil spill: Captain guilty over tanker spill
Serco’s Antarctic voyage departs Hobart
China’s Ningbo Zhoushan Port Complex Reaches 30M TEU in 2021
Photos: China Floats First Large Domestically Built Cruise Ship
Three Ships with Fake Identities Seized at Indian Scrapyards
___________________________________
EUROPE
Russia demands NATO deny membership to Ukraine, other ex-Soviet nations and What is Russia’s Vladimir Putin planning? plus Is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine? And other questions and again Russia urges West to move quickly to guarantee Ukraine won’t join NATO and pragmatically UK Chief of Defense Staff notes importance of dialogue with Russia to avoid miscalculation
Sevmash hands over two nuclear subs to the navy
Fire engulfs Russian warship under construction, 3 injured
US Navy, French Navy Ink Strategic Interoperability Framework
Cost of the Carrier Strike Group 21 deployment
Naval Group Lays the Keel of the First FDI Frigate for the French Navy (Editor – 6:25 min video)
France finally signs off on huge H160 Joint Light Helicopter order
Could ‘Ellida’ be Britain’s future amphibious assault ship?
Marine Technology Magazine December 2021 Edition focused on Subsea Vehicles
Russia’s 2nd Lada-Class Submarine ‘Kronstadt’ starts Sea Trials
In focus: the Bofors 40mm Mk 4 gun that will equip the Type 31 frigates
New Light AUVs For Danish Navy’s Mine Countermeasures Vessels
Fincantieri to Build a 2nd Logistic Support Ship for Italian Navy
Migrant crossings: More than 900 cross Channel in two days
Russia’s Northern Sea Route Posts Record Year for Traffic Volume
Rotterdam Becomes First European Seaport to Surpass 15 Million TEU
First Automated Kite Sail Installed to Begin Ship Trials in 2022
____________________________________
MIDDLE EAST
U.S. Navy Seizes Giant Weapons Cache From Smugglers in Arabian Sea
Iran: Navy takes delivery of optimally overhauled destroyer, military aircraft
Germany approves arms transfers to Egypt
____________________________________
GLOBAL INTERESTS
Maritime momentum in West Africa and Nigeria Promotes Decline in Piracy in Gulf of Guinea
Narco Submarines, What You Need To Know (Editor – detailed 12:53 min video)
The Largest Icebreakers In The World (Editor – slow start but a good look at some big icebreakers in a 10:05 min video. One weighs 61,880 tones!)
Britain’s New Polar Research Vessel Docks in Antarctica for First Time
____________________________________
SCUTTLEBUTT
Battle of North Cape: HMS Belfast and the sinking of the Scharnhorst (Editor – 13:16 min video. Although not mentioned in the video four RCN ships were part of the two escort forces of convoys JW55A (west bound) HMCS Athabaskan, CO Cdr. J.H. Stubbs, DSO RCN, and JW55B (east bound) with HMCS Haida, Cdr. G. DeWolf, RCN; HMCS Huron, LCdr. H.S. Rayner, DSC, RCN; HMCS Iroquois, Cdr. J.C. Hibberd, DSC, RCN. An impressive group of RCN CO’s!). Sinking Hitler’s Second Capital Ship – The Battleship Gneisenau (Editor – 9:20 min video)
A Deadly Trap – The Italian Navy Massacre at the Battle of Cape Matapan (Editor – 10:00 in video)
Victor Sub Brief Supercut (Editor – Holiday length special analysis in a 2:23:32 hour video)
Yankee Sub Brief Super Cut (Editor – and if you have more holiday time here is another part of the USSR’s submarine story in a 2:27:06 hour video, enjoy)
SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – DECEMBER
(If you see any omissions or errors please inform me, and more modern significant dates are also welcome. 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 website, the encyclopedic guidance of NAC member and author Fraser McKee, and anywhere else I can find credible information.
- 1 December 1948 HMCS Shearwater, RCN Air Station, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is commissioned.
- 2 December 1946 HMCS Middlesex goes aground on Shut-in Island near Halifax and becomes a total loss.
- 2 December 1968 The Canadian submarine HMCS Rainbow is commissioned; purchased from the United States, it was originally the USS Argonaut launched in 1944.
- 3 December 1969 As the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure is decommissioned, the aviation fuel tanks are emptied and cleaned, but on of the tanks does not vent properly; two sailors are overcome by the fumes and another two lose their lives during the rescue attempt.
- 4 December 1940 HMCS Prince Henry is commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
- 4-6 Dec 1950 A United Nations task force under Captain J.V. Brock, RCN, in HMCS Cayuga, and consisting of HMC Ships Athabaskan and Sioux, His Majesty’s Australian Ships Warramunga and Bataan, the USS Forest Royal, covered the seaborne withdrawal of civilians and elements of the 8th Army (US) threatened by enemy advances in the Chinnampo area, Korea.
- 5 December 1950 HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Cayuga bombard the port of Chinnampo, Korea (04-05 Apr).
- 6 December 1917 Halifax Explosion. A huge explosion in Halifax harbour destroys the naval facilities and much of the city.
- 7 December 1941 Canada declares war on Romania, Hungary, Finland, and Japan.
- 7 December 1941 HMCS Windflower is lost and 23 of her crew perish after a collision with a Dutch freighter SS Zypenburg on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
- 8 December 1918 The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service is discontinued and the cadets being trained are demobilized.
- 10 December 1939 The first Canadian troop convoy of 7,400 soldiers sails for Britain escorted out of Halifax by HMC ships Ottawa, Restigouche, Fraser and St. Laurent.
- 12 December 1969 RCN retires aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure after 12 years of service; “Bonnie” never saw combat, but was scrambled during the October Missile Crisis; later sold for scrap. Halifax, Nova Scotia
- 13 December 1940 HMCS Royal Roads is commissioned as a training establishment for Probationary Sub-Lieutenants.
- 14 December 1915 Flight Sub-Lieutenant A.S. Ince, RNAS while flying as observer in a Viewpoint aircraft shot down in flames a German two-seater. The victory, the first confirmed success credited to a Canadian airman, won for Ince the DSC, the first decoration awarded a Canadian in the RNAS.
- 17 December 1944 HMCS MONTREAL (frigate) rescues survivors of U-Boat 1209 wrecked on Wolf Rock southwest of Land’s End.
- 19 December 1945 The Government of Canada approves in principle the formation of a naval air branch.
- 20 December 1941 HMCS Adversus, ex-RCMP patrol ship, while on patrol was lost at sea when caught in a blizzard and run aground on McNutts Island near Shelburne, NS. All 16 crew survive.
- 20 December 1943 HMCS Prince David is re-commissioned as a Landing Ship Infantry (Medium).
- 24 December 1944 HMCS Clayoquot is torpedoed by a U806 and sinks while taking station on convoy XB.139, in the approaches to Halifax harbour. Eight of her crew were lost.
- 26 December 1954 HMCS ships HURON and IROQUOIS leave Korea for their home base in Halifax.
- 27 December 1942 HMC Ships St. Laurent commanded by LCdr Guy S. Windeyer, RCN, with HMCS Chilliwack, commanded by LCdr Clifton P. Coughlin, RCNVR, with HMCS Battleford commanded by Lt F.A. Beck, RCNVR, and HMCS Napanee commanded by Lt L.S. Henderson, RCNVR and other escorts in a melee sank the German submarine U-356 in the mid-Atlantic.
- 27 December 1944 HMCS St. Thomas commanded by LCdr Leslie P. Denny, RCNR in company with HMCS Sea Cliff commanded by LCdr J.E. Harrington, RCNVR directed St. Thomas onto her ASDIC contact and sank the German submarine U-877 in the North Atlantic.
- 28 December 1940 HMCS Prince David is commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
- 29 December 1837: Canadian ‘volunteers’ under Captain Andrew Drew (ex-RN) cross upper Niagara River, seize supply schooner Caroline, supporting W.L. Mackenzie’s rebellious force on American Navy Island above the Falls. 1 US citizen killed, the ship is cut loose, strands on rocks above the Falls, breaks up and goes over. Canadians row home.
- 31 December 1990 The crew of HMCS Preserver flies to the Persian Gulf to relieve HMCS Protecteur’s crew.
- 31 December 1992 New Canadian military honours are created: The Victoria Cross, Star of Military Valour, Medal of Military Valour and Mention in Dispatches.
Keep in touch with the NAC
If you are receiving NAC News, consider joining NAC – Membership and Renewal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/navalassn/
Twitter: @navalassn
Should you wish to donate or leave a memorial: NAC Endowment Fund
NAC reference to assist veterans and/or seniors is located at Veteran’s Corner
Keep in touch with the RCN
Facebook – RoyalCanadianNavy | MarineRoyaleCanadienne;
Twitter – @RoyalCanNavy | @MarineRoyaleCan;
LinkedIn – RoyalCanadianNavy-MarineRoyaleCanadienne
Instagram – RoyalCanNavy | MarineRoyaleCan;
Flickr – RoyalCanadianNavy-MarineRoyaleCanadienne
YouTube – RoyalCanadianNavy | MarineRoyaleCanadienne
Vimeo – RoyalCanadianNavy-MarineRoyaleCanadienne
Contact David Soule executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone to be added to the NAC News email distribution. (Perhaps an influencer or a good candidate to become a member)
|
You are receiving this email because you are associated with NAC and have been receiving NAC News.
Copyright © 2021