RCN River class Frigates: HMCS Swansea (K328), HMCS Teme (K458), HMCS Thetford Mines (K459), HMCS Toronto (K538
HMCS Swansea (K328)
(DND Photo)
HMCS Swansea (K328) River class Frigate. Built by Yarrows Ltd., Esquimalt, she was commissioned at Victoria on 4 Oct 1943, HMCS Swansea arrived at Halifax on 16 Nov 1943 and worked up off Pictou and in St. Margaret’s Bay, NS. Assigned to EG 9, Londonderry, she made her passage there with convoy SC.154, taking part in the sinking of U-845 on 10 Mar 1944. On 14 Apr 1944 she repeated the process in company with HMS Pelican, the victim this time being U-448. Eight days later, on 22 April 1944, this time with HMCS Matane, HMCS Swansea sank U-311 southwest of Iceland. This kill was only awarded long after the war once the records of German and British intelligence became available. She was present on D-Day, and for the next four months patrolled the Channel in support of the ships supplying the invasion forces. While thus employed, she and HMCS Saint John sank U-247 off Land’s End on 1 Sep 1944. She left Londonderry on 5 Nov 1944 for a major refit at Liverpool, NS, from Dec 1944 to Jul 1945. She received the first tropicalization of a frigate for Pacific service, and on VJ-Day HMCS Swansea was assessing the results in the Caribbean. She was paid off 2 Nov 1945 to reserve in Bedford Basin, but was twice re-commissioned for training cadets and new entries between Apr 1948, and Nov 1953. In early June, 1949, while the Maingay Commission was still hearing testimony, a group of junior hands on the HMCS Swansea, incensed at poor treatment by their commanding officer, locked themselves in their mess. The response was a forceful entry by armed troops, a rapid court-martial of the senior hands, and their sentencing to 90 days’ hard labour and dishonorable discharge from the navy. In Jun 1953 HMCS Swansea was part of the Canadian Squadron that attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II Fleet Review at Spithead. HMCS Swansea was rebuilt from 1956 to 1957, as a Prestonian class ocean escort (306). On 13 Feb 1959, HMCS Fort Erie, HMCS Buckingham, HMCS Swansea and HMCS La Hulloise returned to Halifax after a 5 week exercise in southern waters that included a port visit to Kingston, Jamaica. In Apr 1963, 12 RCN ships, HMCS Algonquin, Micmac, Cayuga, St. Croix, Terra Nova, Kootenay, Swansea, La Hulloise, Buckingham, Cape Scott, CNAV Bluethroat and CNAV St. Charles, took part in NATO Exercise New Broom Eleven, an exercise designed to test convoy protection tactics. She was paid off 14 Oct 1966 and broken up in 1967 at Savona, Italy.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3194362)
HMCS Swansea (K328) River class Frigate, in rough seas off Bermuda, Jan 1944.
(DND Photo)
HMCS Swansea (K328) River class Frigate.
(US Naval History and Heritage Photo, 80-G-419160)
HMCS Swansea (K328) River class Frigate.
HMCS Teme (K458)
(Dave Chamberlain Photo)
HMCS Teme (K458) River class Frigate. Laid down as HMS Teme at South Bank-on-Tees, she was named after a river on the English-Welsh boarder. Transferred to the RCN, she was commissioned in the RCN at Middlesbrough on 28 Feb 1944. After working up, HMCS Teme was assigned in May to EG 6, Londonderry, and spent her whole career with this group. She was present on D-Day, and on 10 Jun 1944 was rammed in the Channel by the escort carrier HMS Tracker, and cut almost in half abaft the bridge. She was towed by HMCS Outremont 200 miles to Cardiff, where she remained under repair until Christmas. In 19 Jan 1945, she went to Tobermory to work up, returning to Londonderry on 9 Feb 1945 to rejoin her group. At 0822 on 29 Mar 1945, U-315 fired a Gnat at HMCS Teme who was escorting the convoy BTC-111 off Lands End and hit her stern. She lost 60 feet of her stern, was towed to Falmouth where she was declared a total loss. On 4 May 1945, she was returned to the Royal Navy and sold for scrap on 8 Dec 1945. She was broken up at Llanelly, Wales, in 1946.
(DND Photo)
HMCS Teme (K458) River class Frigate.
(Ron Bell Photo)
HMCS Teme (K458) River class Frigate.
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459)
(John Lyon Photo)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate. Built by Morton Engineering & Dry Dock, Co., Quebec City, she was commissioned on 24 May 1944, at Quebec City. HMCS Thetford Mines arrived in Bermuda on 12 Jul 1944 to work up, returning to Halifax on 16 Aug 1944. Soon afterward she was assigned to EG 25. She was transferred with the group to Londonderry in November, and served in UK waters from then until VE-Day, working out of ‘Derry, and for a time out of Rosyth. On 7 Mar 1945, she helped sink U-1302 in St. George’s Channel, and on 23 Mar 1945, HMCS Thetford Mines rescued 33 of the 47 crewmembers of U-1003 (sunk by HMCS New Glasgow), 16 miles northwest of Innistrahull. Two of the rescued men later died. On 11 May 1945 she arrived in Lough Foyle as escort to eight surrendered U-Boats. She returned home late in May 1945, was paid off 18 Nov 1945 at Sydney and laid up at Shelburne. In 1947 she was sold to a Honduran buyer who proposed converting her into a refrigerated fruit carrier.
(RCN Photo)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4950808)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate, twin 20-mm Oerlikon AA Guns on a powered mount, ca 1945.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4950915)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate, escorting surrendered U-boats, May 1945.
(John Lyon Photo)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate, arrived in Lough Foyle escorting eight surrendered U-Boats, including this one, on 11 May 1945.
(John Lyon Photo)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K458), arrived in Lough Foyle escorting eight surrendered U-Boats, including these two, on 11 May 1945.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4950917)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate, bridge.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4950916)
HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) River class Frigate, bridge, ca 1944.
HMCS Toronto (K538)
(Thomas J. Simpson Photo)
HMCS Toronto (K538) River class Frigate. Laid down as HMCS Giffard (K538), she was renamed and commissioned on 6 May 1944, at Lévis as HMCS Toronto (K538). She arrived at Halifax on 28 May 1944 leaving on 18 Jun 1944 for a month’s working-up in Bermuda. In Aug 1944, HMCS Toronto was allocated to EG 16, Halifax, but for the next few weeks operated principally from Sydney. Following repairs in Nov 1944 she joined Halifax Force and was employed locally until May 1945, when she began five months’ training duty at HMCS Cornwallis. Paid off on 27 Nov 1945, she was placed in reserve at Shelburne, but was re-commissioned on 26 Mar 1953, after conversion to a Prestonian class ocean escort (319). She was paid off for the last time on 14 Apr 1956, having been lent to the Norwegian Navy, which renamed her HNoMS Garm. She was permanently transferred in 1959, and re-classed in 1965 as a torpedo boat depot ship – simultaneously renamed HNoMS Valkyrien, she served a further 13 years before being disposed of.
(DND Photo)
HMCS Toronto (K538) River class Frigate.