For Posterity's Sake A Royal Canadian Navy Historical Project RCN TRADE BADGES WORLD WAR II 1950 Mid-1950s 1960 - 1968 1960 - 1968 (RCNR) D.E.M.S. 1940 photo of HMS Javelin showing stern entirely blown off. They played key roles in the corvette HMCS Chambly's (K116) sinking of German submarine U-501 on September 10, 1941, the RCN's first confirmed submarine sinking of the Second World War. In September, the Germans planned to blast their way back into North Atlantic convoys using increased anti-aircraft fire and a new acoustic homing torpedo. What are these records? In one day alone Restigouche used its HF/DF set to locate and drive off five U-boats as they made their sighting reports: two were damaged. Royal Naval Division (RND) officers and men who served during the First World War: The National Archives guide to Royal Naval Division service records; Service records (ADM 339) on TNA, Lives of the First World War and FindMyPast (£) An index with links to TNA records on Ancestry (£) Approximately 50,000 original service records at NMRN; The service records of those who … WW1 Medical Military Records Available Online - Search Now! Indeed, a huge proportion of the 25,000 ships brought safely across the Atlantic during the war moved under Canadian escort. You will not receive a reply. Training, maintenance, leadership, and equipment all seemed to be inadequate. The situation overseas was better. The Germans claimed a great victory in the battle for ONS-18/ON-202, but the truth was quite different: three escorts and six merchant vessels were lost, but so were two U-boats. stoker-1st-class-frederick-sears-royal-navy Free Account Registration To view the record for Ernest W Sears you must be a Full Access Member , take the first step here. That marked the end of a successful summer for Canadians on the North Atlantic Run. In reaction, the RCN increased the size of escort groups, and scrambled to acquire new equipment like radiotelephones and radar. This included complete minesweeping equipment, a single magnetic compass and the most basic of asdic, the type 123A. Date of death Saturday 17 March 1917 (aged 22) In late December, ONS-154, escorted by C-1, was routed through the widest portion of the air gap, battered by the tail end of a hurricane, and beset by 20 U-boats. and we’ll get back to you with as much information as we can. The Royal Navy ranks can be an even more confusing prospect, given that records often listed a sailor’s trade as his rank, the two being used interchangeably. American unpreparedness for the onslaught left Allied shipping unguarded, and tonnage losses spiked to three times the previous yearly average. Even the Americans confided to the British their concerns about the ability of the Canadians. Died: Saturday 17 March 1917 (aged 22) Connected records. In the most serious British battle of the fall, for SC-104 in mid-October, eight losses to the convoy were balanced by two U-boat kills by RN destroyers. By the time U-132 arrived in the St. Lawrence River in early July, traffic was moving in convoys. The RCN was also short of destroyers and shipboard high frequency direction finding (HF/DF) radio-interception gear. Fortunately, all the escorts carried type 271 radar and by forming a tight barrier around the convoy they fought it through with only six ships lost. What saved the struggling NEF was the sudden transformation of the war itself on December 7, 1941. They did extremely well, with a concentration of successes in the open ocean in the late winter and early spring. These destroyers soon joined escort forces for convoys in the Western Approaches. The first to do so was QS-33, which lost one ship and the armed yacht HMCS Raccoon to U-165 on 7 September off Cap Chat. The HMS Trinidad was to be involved in the ‘Russian Convoys’; operations which were to supply Murmansk in Northern Russia with the necessary military equipment to preserve the Eastern … The corvette smothered the U-boat in gunfire, blowing off the sub’s anti-aircraft gun and riddling the conning tower with holes. She participated in the failed Operation Vigorous attempt to deliver a supply convoy to Malta, in … In the battle for ON-115 a week later, C-3 fought the “wolf pack” to a stalemate for most of the passage. First World War casualty details for Stoker 1st Class Albert Edward Thompson Royal Navy, HM S/M. It comes from the days when they used to "stoke" the boilers with coal from a coal bunker. The Canadian naval staff rejected the British claims. He was on board HMS Pembroke between September and November 1943 again … What ultimately drew the whole RCN into the war against the U-boats was the extension of pack attacks westward. Command Chief Petty Officer 1st class (CPO 1) Senior Appointment Chief Petty Officer 1st class (CPO 1) Appointments. But none was sunk. My father, Harold Mathew Mackenzie, was on lots of ships as a Stoker 1st class. Terms of Service apply. However, by late 1942, the U-boats began to concentrate in the mid-ocean again. The close escort only fought if the system failed. By the time EG-9 arrived on September 20, a full battle was underway. 29123 - 9 APRIL 1915 . The RCN had been driven to the brink of collapse in 1942, in the face of enormous enemy pressure. The RCN achieved a pinnacle of sorts in October, when the frigate Annan of EG-6 sank U-1006 north of the Shetlands. When the ship went into action, they could also be utilised with damage control parties for instance, passing vital information to combat floods and fires. Enthusiasm for attacking and sinking U-boats were the hallmarks of Prentice’s training schemes throughout the war, and it may account for the success of Canadian corvettes in destroying U-boats. Star above - Stoker 1st class 25. Canadians congratulated the escort of ONS-127 for a difficult job well done, blaming the losses directly on the lack of modern radar. There was little in the first year of the war to suggest that submarines were a major … And yet the searching asdics failed to penetrate the complex water layers. By the spring of 1941, the British had pushed anti-submarine escort of transatlantic convoys to south of Iceland, leaving a gap between there and the limits of RCN escorts on the Grand Banks. Chief Petty Officer Bernard Henry Ellis, No. Thirty-nine Germans were rescued, but U-744 — slowly filling with water — was torpedoed and sunk. Apart from atrocious weather and water conditions, the bottom off Halifax was so boulder strewn that asdic echoes bounced in all directions and ships often unwittingly tracked themselves. Only three men survived: two from Itchen and one who had been rescued from St. Croix; Polyanthus’s lone survivor perished. Prior to oil fired boilers, stokers were primarily responsible for transporting and shovelling coal to the furnaces. RCN groups continued to sink U-boats until the end of March 1945, even if they were unable to keep up with the RN. This meant that Canadian escorted convoys — roughly 35 percent of the traffic — were more easily intercepted, more easily attacked, and spent longer in the danger area. Some records are free to view but others are available on either a subscription or pay per Stoker 1st Class James Henry Allen . Although … Indeed, it was. Company, Highland Light Infantry of Canada Galt [H] Ableson Gordon L. Stoker First Class Royal Canadian Navy Galt [H] Adam Kenneth F. Pilot Officer Royal Canadian Air Force Elmira [H], Preston [R] … Convoys and airpower had reduced the effectiveness of the submarine in 1917–18, but the optimism of naval officers about the submarine problem was fired by the perfection of “asdic” (now called sonar). These battles confirmed the need for modern equipment, but there was little the RCN could do to acquire it before the year ended. Those same poor acoustic conditions saved U-517 several days later after it attacked the little Quebec-Labrador convoy NL-6. Our experts are more than happy to help you with the missing piece of your jigsaw puzzle. In 1941, most corvettes lacked good visual signalling equipment, radiotelephones, and even telescopes to read flag signals. These problems were manifest in all the operations of the NEF, especially in the battle for SC-42 in September 1941.The slow eastbound convoy was escorted by the destroyer HMCS Skeena and three corvettes, with support from now-Commander Prentice’s training group, Chambly and Moose Jaw. According to his service record during this time he served on various ships frequently returning to Pembroke II. Pickard and Chief Engine Room Artificer W. Spence, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1942. Stoker 1st Class HMS Hecla (F 20) + Bennett, John Frank, SANF 23 Engine Room Artificer 4th Class HMS Hecla (F 20) + Bicknell, Alfred, RN 41 Stoker 1st Class HMS Hecla (F 20) + … The Royal Navy in World War 2 was a huge and complex organisation spread all across the world. Fisher was the sole survivor of HMCS St.Croix, the Canadian destroyer sunk September 20, 1943 in the North Atlantic. The elimination of Iceland as an escort relay point in February (to free escorts for elsewhere) forced convoys to travel a predictable route across the Atlantic by the spring of 1942.The advantage for the RCN was that its four Newfoundland- based escort groups gained access to excellent facilities in Northern Ireland, including training. U-1232 was lining up for another shot when the frigate Ettrick ran over it by accident, smashing the conning tower, rolling the U-boat over and snagging the sub with its CAAT gear. In 1890 a major revision of the Royal Navy uniform regulations had established three different types of uniform to differentiate petty officers and ratings. He was awarded the France’s legion of honour medal for helping liberate the country. ON-115 eventually suffered losses in the Grand Banks fog: three ships were hit, two sunk. U-517 then escaped destruction when it entered Forteau Bay and ran afoul of the corvette Weyburn, which was unable to get an asdic contact. "Penarth." As the RN’s Monthly Anti-Submarine Report for January 1943 conceded, “The Canadians have had to bear the brunt of the U-Boat attack in the north Atlantic for the last six months, that is to say, of about half of the German U-boats operating at sea….” That they did so with a fleet manned largely by reservists who “put up a good show is immensely to their credit.” In short, during the last half of 1942 the Canadian Navy shouldered the weight of the U-boat war. Stoker 1st Class Francis Albert Anstis DKX/122179 This is the story of Frank Anstis Naval service during WW2. The decisive battle of the Atlantic war was looming and any weakness in Allied escort forces had potentially disastrous consequences. This allowed contact to be maintained until the last possible moment, and eliminated the sudden burst of speed in the final attack run that would alert the U-boat. Two groups of RCN River-class frigates, EG-6 and -9, joined three British groups to form an outer barrier to the English Channel between Brest and the south of Ireland. The importance of destroyers was enhanced if their sweeps were directed by HF/DF. They perfected systems for classifying bottomed contacts, including profiling them using their navigational echo sounder. It was not until November that the first U-boat kill fell to an RCN support group, when Snowberry of EG-5 sank U-536. By then the carnage in the mid-ocean had ended and the Germans had temporarily abandoned pack attacks. Chief [Engine Room, Electrical, Aircraft and Ordnance] Artificer. However, what was wanted from 1941 to 1943 was less the ability to sink U-boats than skill at defending convoys, and equipment shortages made this task especially difficult. Writers were primarily clerical, being responsible for legal, pay, welfare and career issues for a crew. The root cause of both was the lingering problem of outdated equipment, but this was exacerbated by the over-commitment of the RCN to operations in support of its allies. U-1006 was the only U-boat sunk by the Allied navies in the North Atlantic in October 1944. 3 As quoted in Marc Milner, North Atlantic Run: The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle for the Convoys (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 140. The RCN was aware of the need for action, too. And to make matters even worse, the Germans now had a radar detector to warn of first generation — metric wavelength — sets. Map showing the major theatres of operation for the RCN during the Battle of the Atlantic. Taken from The Naval Service of Canada 1910-2010: The Centennial Story Kildorrey. In the spring of 1943, victory around the transatlantic convoys was won by a combination of better weather, improved intelligence, increased air support, and designated “support groups” that were able to hunt and kill U-boats. At the least, HF/DF-directed sweeps reduced the number of U-boats the escort had to fight. But it was not an easy or direct path. First Class Stoker Tom Bellis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bellis, 13 Back Brook street, Chester, who as we reported last week, was killed by a mine explosion, on Feb. 4 th last, while serving on board a minesweeper. When his group dissolved in August due to increased operational commitments, the Americans and British soon established the “Western Support Force” to fill the need. The RCN killed one more U-boat in the summer of 1942 (but it was not credited until 1982), when Morden sank U-756 in the battle for SC-97 on September 1. All that Itchen ever found of the corvette was wreckage and a single man clinging to it: Polyanthus, too, had been completely destroyed by a single homing torpedo. Commander J.D. The sinking of U-744 was a classic deep water ASW operation of the period: a large group of ships holding a deep contact, pounding it relentlessly with masses of depth charges and hoping that a lucky attack or sheer exhaustion in the submarine would end the action. Hello all, My Grandfather served with HMS Pembroke II from 1902 until 1922. The first area to feel this inflexibility was the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Meet the Experts: Forces War Records Web Manager Neil White talks about his grandfather, who served in Burma in World War Two. Probably arising from this incident, Stoker First Class T Robson was killed and is interred at St Pol de Leon Cemetery, Brittany, France. At the time it was believed it killed one and seriously damaged another. The RCN was not without ideas about how to fix these problems, but for various reasons none of these could be implemented. (DND photo H-96), SS Athenia arrives in Montreal, circa 1932. Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles, Chief of the Naval Staff, arrives at Naval Service Headquarters in Ottawa. Only 15 early model radars were fitted to Canadian corvettes before the end of the year, and communications remained a major impediment: in mid-October, Shediac missed a flag signal ordering a change in convoy course and the next morning found itself alone at sea. 210422. “I joined because I felt it was my duty,” he said. Harris commenced training at HMS DRAKE in late 1945, after … One was sunk by the RCAF early in the battle, while Restigouche used its HF/DF to help drive off shadowers. Eventually Assiniboine rammed the U-boat, sending it to the bottom and the destroyer into port for months of repairs. In the fall of 1942, they used that new warning device to help them home-in on Canadian escorts using their SW1C sets. Or do you need help with your original photographs? Probably arising from this incident, Stoker First Class T Robson was killed and is interred at St Pol de Leon Cemetery, Brittany, France. The officer-like uniform of chief petty officers and higher ratings was called Class I, the traditional sailor's dress worn by most ratings below that level was Class II, while ratings of certain branches wore a third variation, Class III. Bliss was right. Tony German, a junior officer on Weyburn’s bridge, later recalled, “It is a fact that Weyburn didn’t get a sniff of him on asdic although we’d seen him twice, as large as life.”1. Some of the records cover periods of service up to at least 1950. 748, B The burden of this new role fell on the RCN’s corvettes, those jacks-of-all-trades built for local work. and Auxiliaries’, From Source to Screen - The Journey of a Record. Portside view of the frigate HMCS Annan (K404). In 1942 the only Canadian ship fitted with HF/DF was Restigouche. C-2 was operating in support of HX-280 when Gatineau picked-up U-744 on asdic at a great depth. The RCN was not really a part of this great Allied offensive: it remained tied primarily to close escort work. Engine Room and Electrical Artificers (rated 1st through 4th class) also ranked as chief petty officers, and wore Class I uniform without specialty badges as well, but with plain cuffs. Whilst Stoker 1st Class George Morgan survived the actions of March 1942, he was to die just 6 weeks later during HMS Trinidad’s attempts to return home (via Philadelphia where it would undergo further repairs and a refit). Kildorrey. Stoker 1st Class K/24581 Royal Navy HM Submarine L.55 22 Bradwell WW1 04/06/1919 Frederick Charles AMIS Private G/34042 Royal Sussex Regt. Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships … The frigate raced back and sank the U-boat after a brief but fierce gun battle. At his time of death, he served at HMS Sultan, a Royal Navy shore base in Singapore. EG-9 was sent to help. RN officers found this particularly distasteful, although highly effective. Get the latest from our blog in your favourite RSS reader or direct to your browser by using our RSS feed below: This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Stoker 1st Class P/KX 93942 Fred Williams H.M.S. E.26. In May he transferred to the Stoker Branch and completed appropriate training at the shore establishment HMNZS PHILOMEL. Lives of the First World War. But the real measure of the RCN’s war against the U-boats lay in the shipping safely escorted. As the steamer sank, Weyburn looked in vain for the U-boat. Warrant Officer Class 1 On to the Royal Navy trades, and three of the more common and unusual ones you will find in the Forces War Records database. E.26. Cemetery: … It was, in the end, a very small proportion of the 1,000 U-boats sunk by the Allies between 1939 and 1945, and a very modest portion of the 500 of these claimed by naval vessels. Submarine Detector . We add around 200,000 new records each month. By December 8th, 1941, he was promoted to Stoker 1st class and serving onboard HMS Repulse a Renown-class battlecruiser of the Royal Navy, launched during the First World War. Radar aerial (SW-1C and SW-2CQ) on foremast of HMCS Drumheller (K167), Halifax, November 1941. But with only one destroyer, and with only Restigouche and the British corvette Celandine with modern radar, the escort was overwhelmed. No one in Ettrick knew what had struck it until the hull was examined in drydock and bits of U-1232 removed; the sub, however, survived. Halifax – The Spring Board by John Horton, in which the flurry of dockyard activity during the Second World War is clearly evident. and Auxiliaries’ from our Historic Archive. When the Canadian Navy ordered its initial wartime shipbuilding program in early 1940, its main vessel — the corvette — was completed as a jack-of-all-trades, but would prove to be master of none. It was only partially successful, and it may simply have been the aggressive patrolling by Saguenay and Skeena during the transit that kept the pack at bay. Commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent. 5 The class designation followed British usage; Canadian frigates generally were named after Canadian towns, with destroyers taking river names. No naval counterattacks were effective against these two intrepid submariners. Trumpet / Bugle Major. The escort had much new equipment aboard, but the radars and HF/DF sets were not yet calibrated and the assigned British destroyer failed to show. U-806 sank the minesweeper Clayoquot just off Halifax on Christmas Eve, and then, in early January, U-1232 began a successful cruise off Nova Scotia. George Morgan was promoted to ‘Stoker 1st Class’ in rank. “This is another real good turn you have done us,” Winston Churchill replied. Senior British officers were not impressed, sharply criticizing what they labelled poorly directed sweeps. Since the previous February, Allied cryptanalysts had been unable to read the signals of Atlantic U-boats. Chapter 5: Fighting the U-Boats, 1939-45 by Marc Milner. Through most of 1942, with the U-boats attacking inshore, this was not a serious problem. Some Neck!’ speech to Parliament to help boost wartime resolve and morale. Stoker 1st Class Died of illness Jan. 12, 1947 Hope, Albert E. Able Seaman Died of illness Feb. 13, 1947 Carne, Wilfred J. Meanwhile, Prentice operated as distant cover and a “striking force” around ONS-102. Stoker 1st Class. Stoker 1st Class William Fisher, RCNVR, with Wren Jill Humphreys. The bulk of the navy’s destroyers were already overseas guarding Britain against invasion. Show more. However, events at sea undermined the Canadian case. Stoker 2nd Class . The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and … With the advent of the Internet, we have created as a historical archive for your free use a Last Post database that … On completion of training he sailed for Britain via the United States. Attacks against convoys in the mid-ocean began in earnest in early June, when ONS-100, the hundredth slow convoy returning from the United Kingdom to Halifax, was attacked while escorted by C-1.The next slow convoy, ONS-102, escorted by the “American” group A-3 of two U.S. Coast Guard cutters, a USN destroyer, the Canadian destroyer Restigouche, and three RCN corvettes, reinforced by Prentice’s training group of Chambly and Orillia, fared much better. The British frigate Lagan of C-2 already had its stern blown-off by a homing torpedo, and while conducting a sweep, St. Croix of EG-9 was struck by a homing torpedo that left it shattered. As with all of the Armed Services, potential recruits signed up to the Royal Navy with a good idea of what they wanted to do (their trade), sometimes based on their civilian work. This is Royal Navy, not US Navy. Stoker 1st Class P/KX 93942 Fred Williams . The key components of this very late war ASW were the latest asdic and radar. Two signalmen on HMCS Assiniboine use a flashing light to communicate with another ship in the convoy (seen in background), July 10, 1940. The Canadian Navy had long anticipated U-boat attacks in the Gulf. “Gloucester". WW2 Italian Prisoner of War Camp Records Released, Soldiers of the Great War 1914-18 'Getting started researching your military ancestor', Forces War Records On Who Do You Think You Are Live, 2 million exclusive records, found only on our site, Records transcribed in the UK for maximum accuracy, 1 on 1 Personal assistance from military photo and document experts, Access to Orbats mapping tool, allowing you to trace your WW1 ancestors steps. World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1207446. Stoker 2nd Class Percy James Pinnock Submitted by David on 13th August 2014 Percy James Pinnock, was one of the first Luton-born casualties of the war to be … D. Wilson Aircraftman 1st Class … Seventeen U-boats were directed to attack. The RCN destroyed 33 enemy submarines during the war: three Italian and the rest German. Stoker 1st Class Alexander Cuthbertson Brown Royal Navy, HMS Paragon. The Canadian Navy had to admit defeat and the government closed the Gulf to oceanic shipping in September 1942.Actual losses to Gulf shipping were negligible: for the QS-SQ series only 1.2 percent. But the expansion of the war in 1942 resulted in two defeats for the RCN that year. At sea. POUNDER, WALTER CONNOR (35), Stoker 1st Class (no. All boats were essentially the same, although they could be adapted to serve in several roles by the expedient of having pre-drilled rails on their decks spaced to allow the fitting of various types of armaments. Sadly, subsequent historians of the Atlantic war failed to notice. Had previously assisted in rescuing the survivors of HMS Bulwark in Sheerness Harbour. For three hours, C-2 boiled the ocean with barrages of depth charges, shattering machinery in U-744 and causing its pressure hull to leak, but the intrepid submariners refused to quit. Fought largely by reservists in small ships built in Canada and operating from Canadian bases, the defence of North Atlantic trade against the submarine menace defined a naval role for Canada within a much larger alliance. Canadian fortunes were redeemed the next night when Prentice’s Chambly blew U-501 to the surface right in front of Moose Jaw. It disappeared in a shattering blast caused by a torpedo detonating just below its magazine. Its captain was no ordinary submariner, and attacks during the day achieved nothing. With the loss of Ottawa, and with Assiniboine and St. Laurent in refit, the RCN was now down to one destroyer for each of its four mid-ocean groups. Prentice, Commanding Officer, on the bridge of the corvette HMCS Chambly (K116) at sea, May 24, 1941. Convoys were instituted immediately, and the first to sail from Halifax, HX-1, left with an escort of HMC Ships Saguenay and St. Laurent on September 16. 1st and 2nd Class Sick Berth Steward First Writer Victualling PO Gunner’s Mate, Torpedo Gunner’s Mate (CPOs) Chief Yeoman of Signals or Chief Tel Chief Sailmaker Chief Stoker Chief Mechanician ERA 4th Class, 3 rd Class 2 Remembered at . The British corvette Dianthus helped even the score around SC-94 by ramming and sinking another sub. Class Royal Canadian Air Force Ayr Ball R.J. C-1 fought blind, holding the U-boats to a draw for the first two days, sinking U-356 in the process (not awarded until after the war).Then the defence was overwhelmed and ONS-154 lost 15 ships, with no apparent retribution exacted upon the enemy. The Broke was part of the Dover patrol, when it took part in the Battle of Dover Strait in April 1917, during which it was severely damaged after ramming German ship SMS G42 and close quarter fighting took place between the German and British crews. On the January 6, 1943, the Canadian Cabinet agreed to the temporary withdrawal of Canada’s mid-ocean escorts. Nonetheless, both the navy and the government took intense public criticism for their inability to keep the nation’s main artery open in the face of enemy attack. 27, 1947 Hills, Edward R. … P/KX 122259), HMS Eagle, Royal Navy, †11/08/1942, Son of Thomas Connor Pounder and Elizebeth Pounder; husband of Lilian Pounder, of Pelton, Co. Durham ). But in the “slot” between Father Point and Cap Gaspé the river confined their movements to an easily intercepted route. Stoker 1st Class Stewart Potts (D/SKX942) served in the Royal Navy during World War Two. Most of the crew was captured before the U-boat sank: U-501 was the RCN’s first confirmed U-boat kill, and its first single-handed destruction of an enemy warship. Then suddenly U-744 bobbed to the surface near Chilliwack. The ex-USN 'four-stackers' were not the best anti-submarine warfare platforms, but they were good enough for the critical years of 1940–41. HF/DF could fix the direction and rough distance of a U-boat wireless transmission, and two sets could fix the sub’s location by triangulation. Higher Submarine Detector. H.M.S. That trend continued over the summer, as the best of the North Atlantic ASW veterans — ships as well as men — concentrated in British waters to support the Allied landings in France that started on June 6. Yarmouth. If this was done early and well enough, destroyer sweeps might help the convoy escape entirely. After a pause for several hours, and amid deteriorating weather, C-2 attacked again in the late afternoon. Mackenzie King leave the House of Commons, Ottawa, December 30, 1941, after Churchill’s famous ‘Some Chicken! Stoker 1st Class HMS Royal Oak (08) + Cumming, Leslie Thomas James, RM 33 Marine HMS Royal Oak (08) + Cummings, Harry, RN 40 Ordnance Artificer 1st Class HMS Royal Oak … In September, U-517 and U-165 moved into the St. Lawrence River and let the convoys come to them. Besides, there were some in the RCN who thought the corvette was an excellent ASW vessel, especially the Senior Officer, Canadian Corvettes, Lieutenant-Commander James Douglas “Chummy” Prentice, RCNR (Royal Canadian Naval Reserve). Died 1st February 1943. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ROYAL NAVY STOKER 1st CLASS VETERAN STICKER - UK - CARS - VANS - LAPTOPS at the best … Stoker 1st Class. Cemeteries; Regiments ; Dates . To receive the Distinguished Service Medal. The U-boat War in World War Two (Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945) and World War One (Kaiserliche Marine, 1914-1918) and the Allied efforts to counter the threat. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 28. The moment came in May, when U-553 sank the steamers Nicoya and Leto between Gaspé and Anticosti Island. The war against the U-boats from 1939 to 1945 was the formative experience for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in the twentieth century. He was aged 25 and one of 14 crew reported missing, believed dead. Destroyers provided escorts with the speed needed to “put down” shadowing U-boats, forcing them to submerge and so drive off the enemy. Of the five U-boats destroyed in the mid-ocean since May, Canadians sank four. Anyone with mechanical or engineering experience would be much more useful as an engine room artificer, for example, than as a writer. from:Middlesbrough (d.14th Aug 1941) Bert (or Bertie as my grandmother used to call him) was 21 years old when the Manchester was hit and was one of the casualties. Stoker 1st Class Charles Higgs Stoker First Class Charles Higgs, K/7429, was lost when the armed boarding steamer HMS Fauvette hit two mines laid by a German submarine and sank in the Thames estuary, off North Foreland, Kent, on March 9th, 1916. HMCS Restigouche (H00) departs Halifax May 15, 1942, fitted with her High Frequency Directing Finding (HF/DF) equipment. If you ever find a rank, trade or abbreviation confusing you can always seek help from our Experts via: magazine@forces-war-records.co.uk, or please read the manual ‘Rank and Badges in The Navy, Army, R.A.F. Add a record to our website. 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Hmcs Chambly ( K116 ) at sea, May 24, 1941 an email when it gets approved your photographs... 4Th February 1919 Age 32 County Memorial Chester Commemorated\Buried Portsmouth Naval Memorial Panel... Gunfire, blowing off the sub with depth charges, inflicting serious damage, they. Up for the RCN destroyed 33 enemy submarines during the war: three Italian and the sub escaped our!, Halifax, November 1941 system failed is Royal Navy, HMS Paragon the group (! Shipping unguarded, and tonnage losses spiked to three times the previous February, Allied cryptanalysts had been rescued St.... Intercepted while still west of Cape Race his time of death, he joined Royal! They could have turned the poor visibility to advantage abandoned pack attacks on of. ) Connected records Wilson: Aircraftman 1st Class Alexander Cuthbertson Brown Royal Navy, HMS Welshman Royal! Navy shore base in Singapore for Britain via the United States to attack targets... Mechanic 1st Class Paul Harris joined the Royal Navy, being rated as,! But U-744 — slowly filling with water — was torpedoed and sunk of Ultra intelligence RCN destroyed 33 enemy during., sinking one ship between Gaspé and Anticosti Island blow to Canadian prestige and morale contacts!