RCN Flower class Corvettes: HMCS Hawkesbury (K415), HMCS Hepatica (K159), HMCS Kamloops (K176), HMCS Kamsack (K171)
HMCS Hawkesbury (K415)
(DND Photo)
HMCS Hawkesbury (K415) Flower class Corvette. Commissioned at Quebec City on 14 Jun 1944, HMCS Hawkesbury arrived at Halifax in mid-Jul 1944 and proceeded to Bermuda on 6 Aug 1944 for three weeks’ working-up. On 18 Sep 1944 she left for St. John’s to join convoy HXF.308 for passage to Londonderry, where she was to join EG C-7, then forming. She served the remainder of her career on North Atlantic convoy duty, leaving Londonderry early in 5 Jun 1945, for Canada, and was paid off on 10 Jul 1945 at Sydney. Taken to Sorel, she was later sold for mercantile purposes, entering service after conversion in 1950 to the Cambodian-owned Campuchea. She was broken up at Hong Kong in 1956.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3203514)
HMCS Hawkesbury (K415) Flower class Corvette, 11 July 1944.
HMCS Hepatica (K159)
(Kelly Macklem Photo)
HMCS Hepatica (K159) Flower class Corvette. Commissioned in the RN on 12 Nov 1940, at Quebec City, HMS Hepatica arrived at Halifax on 17 Nov 1940 and left on 18 Dec 1940 with convoy HX.97, armed with a dummy 4-inch gun. The real thing was installed, and other deficiencies remedied, at Greenock, completing on 6 Mar 1941. After working up in Apr 1941, she joined EG 4, Greenock. On 15 May 1941 she was transferred to the RCN and commissioned as HMCS Hepatica K159. In Jun 1941, after brief service as a UK-Iceland escort, she was assigned to NEF for the rest of the year, escorting convoys between Iceland at St. John’s. Late in Jan 1942, she escorted SC.64, the inaugural “Newfie-Derry” convoy, and for the next three months served on that run. In Jun 1942 she joined the Tanker Escort Force, operating from Halifax, for one round trip to Trinidad and the, late in Jul 1942, joined Gulf Escort Force as a Quebec-Sydney convoy escort. In Oct 1942 she was reassigned to Halifax Force, escorting Quebec-Labrador convoys and, in Dec 1942, to WLEF. She was to serve with WLEF for the remainder of the war, from Jun 1943 as a member of EG W-5 and from Apr 1944, with W-4. During this period HMCS Hepatica had to extensive refits from 11 Feb to 01 Apr 1943 and 20 Mar to 08 Jun 1944 both at New York. The latter refit included the lengthening of her fo’c’s’le, and was followed by three weeks’ workups in Bermuda. She left St. John’s 27 May 1945, as escort to HX.358, and on 23 Jun 1945 was handed over to the RN at Milford Haven . She was broken up at Llanelly, Wales, in 1948.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3200185)
HMCS Hepatica (K159) Flower class Corvette.
(Gordon Lees Photo)
HMCS Hepatica (K159) Flower class Corvette.
(Gordon Lees Photo)
HMCS Hepatica (K159) Flower class Corvette.
(RCN Photo)
HMCS Hepatica (K159) Flower class Corvette.
HMCS Kamloops (K176)
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4902568)
HMCS Kamloops (K176) Flower class Corvette. Built by Victoria Machinery Depot Co. Ltd., Victoria, BC, she was commissioned at Victoria on 17 Mar 1941. HMCS Kamloops arrived at Halifax on 19 Jun 1941 and was assigned to Halifax Force, serving as a local escort until the end of the year. In Jan 1942, she commenced a year’s duty as A/S/ training ship at Halifax and Pictou. In mid-Feb 1943, she completed a three-month refit at Liverpool, NS, and after working up at Halifax, joined WLEF in Mar 1943. She transferred in Jun 1943 to EG C-2, Newfoundland Command, and served with this group as an ocean escort for the remainder of the war. In Sep 1943, she was with combined convoy ON.202/ONS.18, which lost six merchant ships and three of its escort. On 28 Sep 1943, she sailed as escort to SC.143. The convoy was attacked by Wolfpack Rossbach. One merchant ship, S.S. Yorkmar was sunk, and one escort, the Polish destroyer Orkan was sunk. Three U-boats were sunk in the attacks on SC.143. In mid-Dec 1943 she began a refit at Charlottetown, PEI, completed on 25 Apr 1944, in the course of which her fo’c’s’le was extended. Following workups in Bermuda in Jun 1945 she rejoined EG C-2. She was paid off at Sorel on 27 Jun 1945, and sold her for scrap that October.
(RCN Photo)
HMCS Kamloops (K176) Flower class Corvette.
(DND Photo)
HMCS Kamloops (K176) Flower class Corvette, Halifax, 1941.
HMCS Kamsack (K171)
(William Gard Photo)
HMCS Kamsack (K171) Flower class Corvette. Built at Port Arthur, Ontario, she was commissioned at Montreal on 04 Oct 1941. She arrived at Halifax on 13 Oct 1941. She joined Sydney Force the following month but shortly transferred to Newfoundland Command, and on 19 Jan 1942, left St. John’s to pick up convoy SC.65 for Londonderry. In Jun 1942, after three round trips, she was reassigned to WLEF, then forming, and served in it for the rest of the war. From Jun 1943, she was a member of EG W-4, and from Apr 1944, a member of EG W-3 . During this period she had two extensive refits, the first, begun at Liverpool, NS, on 12 Nov 1942, was completed at Halifax on 18 Jan 1943; the second, in the course of which her fo’c’s’le was extended, was carried out at Baltimore, MD, between late Dec 1943 and mid-Mar1944. HMCS Kamsack was paid off on 22 Jul 1945, at Sorel and sold to the Venezuelan Navy. On 24 Dec 1945, the Venezuelan ship Kamsack, former HMCS Kamsack K171 arrived at New York City from Sorel, Quebec with a skeleton crew of RCN sailors: Gerald Fitzgerald OIC, Howard Ingram, Leo McTaggart, Maurice Harasym and Clifford Ashton. Renamed Carabobo, she was wrecked on passage to Venezuela in December, 1945.
(DND Photo)
HMCS Kamsack (K171) Flower class Corvette.
(DND Photo)
HMCS Kamsack (K171) Flower class Corvette.