By TERRY PUGH
They were the smallest ships in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War, but they punched far above their weight.
Flower-class Corvettes were small, lightly-armed Canadian-built ships used for anti-submarine warfare. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, they played a pivotal role in the Battle of the Atlantic – a campaign that lasted the entire length of the war from 1939 to 1945.
They also comprised the largest component of the RCN’s fleet. Of Canada’s 400 warships that saw active service in World War II, 111 were Corvettes.
A little over 200 feet in length from stem to stern and with a beam of only about 30 feet, each of these tiny vessels carried a crew of about 80 sailors. On the stormy North Atlantic, they rolled and pitched like corks, making life cold, wet and miserable for their closely-packed crew.
But while large battleships, cruisers and destroyers were beyond the capacity of Canadian shipyards of that era, the Corvette could be manufactured in Canada. It was also relatively cheap and could be turned out quickly and reliably.
Modelled on the British Navy’s ‘Flower Class’ Corvette, the RCN vessels each carried a four-inch foredeck gun, a two-pound ‘pom-pom’ gun, and a couple deck-mounted machine guns; but their most formidable weapons were the 70 depth charges that rolled off their sterns – underwater bombs that spelled doom for any U-boat caught in the explosion.
Corvettes were most effective when they worked as a team, with two ships tracking a submarine and closing in for the kill. While depth charges were effective, corvettes also used their speed to ram U-boats when they surfaced.
The first ten Corvettes built in Canada in 1940 followed the British tradition of naming them after flowers. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is credited with the original idea, joking that having one of Hitler’s sea wolves (U-boats) destroyed by a vessel named for a flower; like HMS Buttercup, would be seen as an embarrassment for the Nazis and a public relations victory for the British.
But, the RCN brass, reasoning that ‘flowers don’t knit mittens’, and looking to generate patriotic support at home, soon began naming the vessels after towns and cities in Canada.
Seven of the 111 RCN Corvettes were named after Saskatchewan communities: Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Weyburn, Kamsack, Rosthern and Battleford.
All seven ships were involved in battles during the war, primarily in the North Atlantic, according to the informative ‘For Posterity Sake’ website (www.forposteritysake.ca). Three ships, the HMCS Moose Jaw, the HMCS Regina, and the HMCS Rosthern, were credited with sinking U-boats.
While five survived the war, two did not.
The HMCS Weyburn was sunk in Feburary, 1943, when it struck an underwater mine in the Mediterranean – 12 members of her crew died.
The HMCS Regina went down almost immediately after being torpedoed off the southern coast of England in August, 1944. Thirty sailors, including one from Regina, two from Saskatoon and one from Prince Albert, lost their lives.
Thousands of sailors from across Canada served in the RCN during the war, with the prairie provinces contributed a sizeable portion of the 100,000-strong Canadian navy. Many of those sailors ended up as Corvette crew members who began their training at land-based stations such as the HMCS Unicorn in Saskatoon.
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
On September 3, 1939, the very day that Great Britain and France declared war, the German submarine U-30 sank a British ocean liner, the Athenia, which was headed to Montreal with 1,103 passengers and 115 crew on board. The attack killed 128 people, including four Canadians, and provided a tragic illustration of how vulnerable single ships were on the open ocean.
To counter the U-boat threat, Great Britain and Canada, with considerable assistance from the United States, organized merchant ship convoys to transport essential war materials, food, petroleum and other vital supplies from North America to Britain. The merchant ships were protected by Destroyers, Cruisers, Corvettes and other warships. The first convoy sailed from Halifax on September 16, 1939, and reached its destination safely. Canadian warships escorted the convoy to a point midway across the Atlantic, where British warships took over.
In the fall of 1940, German U-boats prowled the North Atlantic like wolves, hunting for Allied merchant navy convoys. Between October 15 and October 19, 1940, seven German U-boats attacked Convoy SC-7 and sank 22 of its 34 ships.
That was just a taste of what was to come. The convoys lost 200 ships during the first nine months of the war. That number increased to 350 during the second half of 1940. Throughout 1941, the under-equipped and out-gunned Canadian navy relied heavily on its fleet of Corvettes to even the odds.
In 1942, armed escort protection for convoys was beefed up with the establishment of the Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF) and the construction of a new naval base at St. John’s. (At the time, Newfoundland was a separate British colony. It became part of Canada in 1949.) The NEF benefited from US-made destroyers, which were obtained by Canada in exchange for allowing the United States to use Canadian ground bases and some of the first Canadian-made corvettes.
In addition to providing armed protection for merchant vessels, corvettes also served as rescue craft, plucking oil-soaked survivors from the icy ocean.
HMCS ROSTHERN
HMCS Rosthern K169 was built in the fall of 1940 by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company and comissioned in Montreal in June, 1941. She arrived in Halifax on June 26, 1941, and from there went on to join Newfoundland Command.
She sailed from St. John’s for Iceland in October, 1941 on escort duty with Convoy SC-48. At the conclusion of that voyage she proceeded on to the Clyde River in Scotland, where mechanical defects kept her for two months, and then arrived back in Halifax on December 28, 1941 for further repairs.
She did not resume service until February, 1942, when she left Argentia, Newfoundland on February 27, 1942 with convoy HX.177 for Londonderry, Northern ireland, and was thereafter employed almost continuously on North Atlantic convoys until June 1944.
HMCS Rosthern took part in three major convoy battles in September 1942, February, 1943 and March, 1943.
In October 1942, while on convoy escort duty, she and sister ship HMCS Summerside picked up survivors from an American oil tanker that had been torpedoed and damaged by a German U-boat.
In the spring of 1944, HMCS Rosthern left Londonderry for the last time and on her return to Canada was assigned to protecting coastal waters on North America’s east coast. She also became a training ship at Halifax for navigation and ship-handling. She carried out workups at Bermuda in December, 1944, escorting HMCS Provider on the homeward trip.
HMCS Rosthern had no long refits during the war, and unlike other corvettes, never did have her forecastle lengthened. Her crew was paid off on July 19, 1945 at Sorel, Quebec. In June, 1946, she was broken up for scrap steel in Hamilton, Ontario.
(Sources: www.forposteritysake.ca; www.canada.ca/en/navy/services/history/ships-histories/rostehrn.html)
HMCS MOOSE JAW
HMCS Moose Jaw K164 was built in Collingwood, Ontario and commissioned at Montreal on June 19, 1941. She arrived at Halifax in June 1941 for final fitting-out. After working up, she arrived at St. John’s, Newfoundland in August, 1941 to join Newfoundland Command. In September, 1941, she and sister corvette HMCS Chamblyfought their way through a severe storm on their way to reinforce the beleagured convoy SC.42, which had lost 18 ships, 40,000 tons of cargo, and 160 sailors.
The two corvettes successfully teamed up to destroy one of the German U-boats that had wreaked such havoc on the convoy.
After sinking the U-boat, HMCS Moose Jaw served on convoy duty between St. John’s and Iceland. In Janaury, 1942, she arrived at Londonderry from Convoy SC.64, the inaugural ‘Newfie-Derry’ convoy. On February 19, 1942, she ran aground on the south entrance of St. John’s harbour enroute to join convoy HX 176, and although re-floated soon afterward, proved to be holed and leaking in several places. She was repaired and assigned briefly to WLEF. She ws detached in September, 1942 for duties in connection with Operation Torch, the landing of Allied forces in North Africa, and from there escorted Convoy SC.107, which lost 15 ships to U-boats. During the next five months, HMCS Moose Jaw escorted UK-Mediterranean convoys, returning to Halifax in April, 1943 with convoy ONS.2. Refitted there, she joined Quebec Force at the end of May, 1943 for escort duties in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, later transferring to Gaspe Force. She underwent a major refit, including forecastle extension, at Liverpool, Nova Scotia during the winter of 1943-44. She joined the Western Approaches Command in May, 1944 to guard agianst the possible invasion of England. She served in the English Channel until September, 1944, when she escorted coastal convoys form her base in England until the end of the war. She left for home in May, 1945 and was paid off at Sorel, Quebec on July 8, 1944. The ship was broken up for scrap at Hamilton, Ontario in 1949.
(Sources: www.forposteritysake.ca; www.junobeach.org)
HMCS REGINA
HMCS Regina K234 was built at Sorel, Quebec beginning in March, 1941, and launched on October 14, 1941. She arrived in Halifax on January 6, 1942 and was commissioned on January 22, 1942. She served with the Western Local Escort Force from mid-March, 1942 till September 1942. In July, 1942, she rescued 25 survivors from the Alexander Macomb, a merchant ship which had been sunk by a German U-boat.
Crossing as escort to convoy SC.108, she arrived at Belfast on November 22, 1942 for refit, following which she was employed as escort to convoys travelling between Great Britain and the Mediterranean Sea, nortth of Philipville, Algeria. In November, 1942, she was reassigned to ‘Operation Torch’, which involved the Allied landings in North Africa
On February 9, 1943, the HMCS Regina attacked the Italian submarine Avorio while escorting two stragglers from a convoy to Bone, Algeria and forced her to surface. The badly-damaged submarine was towed partway to Bone, but it foundered and sunk. The HMCS Regina is credited with the submarine’s destruction.
Returning to Canada late in March, 1943, she briefly rejoined WLEF before commencing a refit at Sydney, Nova Scotia in June, 1943. The work was completed at Pictou, Nova Scotia in mid-December, 1943, and workups were carried out there, followed by further repairs at Halifax and Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
The HMCS Regina joined the Mid-Ocean Escort Force in Feburary, 1944, and at the beginning of March, 1944 left Argentia, Newfoundland to escort convoy SC.154 to the United Kingdom, but was detached in mid-ocean with the Canadian frigate HMCS Valleyfield to escort a Royal Navy tug towing the convoy rescue ship HMS Dundee toward Horta. She left Horta on March 14, 1944, this time escorting the damaged HMCS Mulgrave under tow for the Clyde. Arriving at Londonderry toward the end of March, 1944, HMCS Regina was assigned to the Western Approaches Command on the west coast of England to guard against invasion by Axis forces. In June 1944, the corvette took part in Operation Neptune, the naval part of the Invasion in the Normandy. On June 6, her first duty was to escort the convoy EBM-2 from Milford Haven, Wales to Normandy and served thereafter as escort for several convoys or individual ships and was also assigned to anti-submarine patrols.
HMCS Regina was employed as an escort in the English Channel and on coastal convoys. On the fateful night of August 8, 1944. at about 9:30 p.m., she was escorting a convoy when a merchant ship, the Ezra Weston, was hit by a torpedo fired by a German U-boat (U667). The HMCS Regina turned and slowed down to pick up survivors, thinking that the merchant vessel had struck an underwater mine. The U-boat then fired a torpedo at the HMCS Regina. The corvette blew up as it was hit and sank within 30 seconds. One officer and 27 crew members died in the explosion and sinking. The commander and 65 crew members were picked up by British and American ships; however, two of the men who were rescued died shortly afterward.
Among the crew who perished that night were four young men from Saskatchewan, including Douglas Peter Robertson and Donald McIntosh, both of Saskatoon, John Thompson of Prince Albert, and John Charles Henry Rathbone of Regina. Another crew member from Saskatchewan, Kenneth William Dillabaugh, was rescued after he survived the explosion because he was on an upper deck of the corvette and was blown overboard.
(Sources: www.forposteritysake.ca; www.canada.ca/en/navy/services/history/shiups-histories/rosthern.html; www.uboat.net)
HMCS SASKATOON
HMCS Saskatoon K158 was built in the fall of 1940 and commissioned in Montreal in June, 1941. She arrived in Halifax in June, 1941 and joined the Halfiax Force after working up and completing a trip to the Bahamas. She remained on local escort duty until March, 1942 when she joined the newly-formed Western Local Escort Force. She served with this force on the ‘triangle run’ between New York, Boston and Halifax until the end of the war, becoming a membr of Escort Group W-8 when it was established in June, 1943 and transferring to W-6 in April, 1944.
During her career she had major refits at Halifax in the fall of 1942, and at Pictou, Nova Scotia during the winter of 1943-44, when her forecastle was extended.
She was paid off on June 25, 1945 at Sorel, Quebec, and soon afterward sold for conversion to a merchant vessel. She began her new career as Rio Norte, then the Egyptian-registered Mabruk, and was later taken up by the Egyptian Navy as Misr. She was sunk by collision at Suez, Egypt, on May 17, 1953.
(Sources: www.forposteritysake.ca; www.canada.ca/en/navy/services/history/ships-histories/saskatoon.html)
HMCS BATTLEFORD
HMCS Battleford K165 was built at Collingwood, Ontario, with construction beginning in September, 1940. Launched on April 15, 1941, she was comissioned at Montreal on July 31, 1941, and arrived at Halifax on August 4, 1941.
She remained in Halifax for six weeks while undergoing repairs, radar installation, and sea-training for her crew.
HMCS Battleford was briefly a member of Sydney Force, but was transferred to the Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF) and left Sydney on November 28, 1941 to escort convoy SC.57 to Iceland. She returned to Halifax on January 7, 1942, and underwent a refit in Liverpool, Nova Scotia that kept her idle until the end of March, 1942. She escorted a convoy that arrived in Great Britain in early May, 1942, and underwent further repairs in Cardiff, Wales in mid-June, 1942. Following those repairs she carried out workups at Tobermory, Scotland.
From July, 1942 to May, 1943, she was a member of Escort Group C-1. In December, 1942, she was escort to convoy ONS.154, which was badly mauled, losing 14 ships.
During that battle, on December 27, 1942, she particpated with other Royal Canadian Navy escort warships (HMCS St. Laurent H83, HMCS Chilliwack K131, and HMCS Napanee K118) in the destruction of the German U-boat, U356. The following day, on Decmber 28, 1942, while investigating a radar contact, HMCS Battleford found four German U-boats on the surface preparing a concentrated attack on Convoy ONS.154. Assisted by HMCS Chilliwack, the two corvettes attacked with gunfire, forcing two of the enemy U-boats, U-664 and U-662, to lose contact with the convoy.
Arriving in Halfiax on April 23, 1943, with her last ocean convoy, ONS.2, she commenced a two-month refit at Liverpool, Nova Scotia. She joined the Western Local Escort Force (WLEF) in mid-June, 1943. Early in April, 1944, she commenced a long refit at Sydney, Nova Scotia, that lengthened her forecastle. Following the refit, she proceeded to Bermuda to work up. On her return to Halifax, she was employed for the rest of the war as a local escort with EG W-3 and was paid off at Sorel, Quebec on July 18, 1945.
Unlike many other corvettes, she was not broken up for scrap steel after the war. She was sold to the Venezuelan Navy in 1946 and was renamed Libertad. She met an untimely end when she was wrecked on April 12, 1949.
(Source: www.forposteritysake.ca)
HMCS KAMSACK
HMCS Kamsack K171 was built in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario over the winter of 1940-41. She was launched in May, 1941 and commissioned at Montreal on October 4, 1941.
The vessel arrived at Halifax on October 13, 1941, where she served briefly in the Sydney Force before being transferred to the Newfoundland Escort Force. On January 1942, she left St. John’s to pick up convoy SC.65 for Londonderry. In June, 1942, after three round trips, she was reassigned to the newly-formed Western Local Escort Force (WLEF), which was responsible for escorting convoys from North America to the mid-ocean rendezvous with escort vessels based in Great Britain. HMCS Kamsack served in WLEF for the rest of the war. From June, 1943, she was a member of EG W-4, and from April, 1944, a member of EG W-3. During this period she had two extensive refits: the first, begun at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, on November 12, 1942, was completed at Halifax on January 18, 1943. The second, in the course of which her forecastle was extended, was carried out at Baltimore, Maryland, between late December 1943 and mid-March, 1944.
HMCS Kamsack was paid off on July 22, 1945 at Sorel, Quebec. On December 24, 1945, the HMCS Kamsack arrived in New York City where it was sold to the Venezuelan Navy and renamed the Federacion. She served in the Venezuelan Navy until it was broken up in 1956.
(Sources: www.forposteritysake.ca; www.canada.ca/en/navy/services/history/ships-histories/rostehrn.html)
HMCS WEYBURN
HMCS Weyburn K173 was built beginning in December, 1940 and launched July 26, 1941. She was comissioned in Montreal on November 26, 1941, and arrived in Halifax on December 6, 1941.
She joined the Halifax Force for local escort work, but was soon in need of repairs. These were carried out at Halifax during March and April, 1942, following which she joined the Western Local Escort Force. In July, 1942 she transferred to Gulf Escort Force for Quebec City-Sydney convoys but in September, 1942 was allocated to duties in connection with Operation Torch, the landing of Allied forces in North Africa. She arrived at Londonderry on September 27, 1942 from convoy SC.100, and at Liverpool on October 2, 1942 for fitting of Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. The work was completed on October 21, 1942 and in November, 1942, HMCS Weyburn began four months’ employment as escort to U.K.-Mediterranean convoys. On February 22, 1943, at 11:23 a,m., HMCS Weyburn struck a mine four miles west of Cape Espartel east of Gibraltar. Twelve members of her crew, including her commanding officer, were lost with the ship. The mine had been laid by a German U-boat, U118, on February 1. 1943.
One of the crew members on board the HMCS Weyburn, Ordinary Seaman Daniel Tanzey, volunteered to stay on the sinking ship to deactivate the many depth charges so they would not explode when the ship went underwater. He successfully deactivated all except two, both of which exploded and quickly sent Weyburn sinking down to the bottom of the ocean. Tanzey died in the explosion.
Fortunately for the survivors of the Weyburn, the British destroyer HMS Wivern was nearby and was able to rescue most of the Weyburn’s crew from their sinking ship and the surrounding water moments before the Weyburn’s two remaining depth charges exploded. The HMS Wivern was seriously damaged in the explosion and several of her crew were injured , including Dr. Philip Evans, a Welsh doctor who had both his legs broken. Despite his injury, Dr. Evans courageously insisted he be carried around so he could attend to all the wounded men from both ships. If it wasn’t for the Wivern, the situation would have been much worse for Weyburn’s crew.
(Sources: Greg Nikkel, Weyburn Review, February 21, 2024; www.forposteritysake.ca)