HMCS Red Deer (J255)

History
Canada
Name: Red Deer
Namesake: City of Red Deer
Operator: Royal Canadian Navy
Builder: Canadian Vickers Ltd., Montreal
Laid down: 1 January 1941
Launched: 5 October 1941
Commissioned: 24 November 1941
Decommissioned: 30 October 1945
Identification: pennant number: J255; 196 (1952)
Honours and
awards:		 Atlantic 1942-45,[1] Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942, 1944[2]
Fate: Sold for scrap 1959
General characteristics
Class and type: Bangor-class minesweeper
Displacement: 672 tons
Length: 180 ft (55 m)
Beam: 28.5 ft (8.7 m)
Draught: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion: Single shaft, 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 triple expansion steam engines, 2,400 ihp.
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement: 83
Armament:
  • 1 × QF 12-pounder (3 inch (76 mm)) gun
  • 1 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) guns
  • 2 × QF 20 mm Oerlikon guns
  • 2 × Mk.II DC throwers, 4 × DC rails, 40 depth charges

HMCS Red Deer was a Bangor-class minesweeper that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She saw action in the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of the St. Lawrence. She was named for Red Deer, Alberta. After the war she was briefly reacquired by the Royal Canadian Navy, but was not recommissioned and was scrapped in 1959.

Red Deer was ordered as part of 1940–1941 construction programme.[3] She was laid down on 10 January 1941 by Canadian Vickers Ltd. at Montreal, Quebec and launched 5 October later that year.[4][5] She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 24 November 1941 at Montreal with the pennant number J255.[5]

Service history

After commissioning, Red Deer was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force as a convoy escort. At various periods after that she served with Sydney Force, Halifax Local Defence Force and the Gulf Escort Force, as part of the Battle of the St. Lawrence.[5] On 12 January 1942 she rescued 95 survivors from the British merchant ship SS Cyclops, which had been torpedoed by U-123.[4][5]

Beginning in February 1944, Red Deer was assigned to Newfoundland Force. In May 1944 she began a refit at Liverpool, completing it in July 1944 and working up in Bermuda later that month. She returned to Newfoundland Force after working up and remained with the unit until the end of the war. She was paid off at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 30 October 1945 and laid up at Shelburne.[5]

After the war Red Deer was placed in strategic reserve at Sorel, Quebec. In 1952, she was reacquired by the Royal Canadian Navy and refitted in preparation for active duty and given the new pennant number 196. She was never recommissioned and was sold to Marine Industries of Sorel in February 1959 for scrap.[5][6]

Affiliations

126 RCSCC Red Deer is a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corp in Red Deer, Alberta, that is named after HMCS Red Deer.

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Battle Honours 2". Veterans Affairs Canada. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  3. ↑ McClearn, Sandy (2007). "Bangor Class". hazegray.org. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  4. 1 2 "HMCS Red Deer (J255)". uboat.net. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces, 1910-2002 (3 ed.). St. Catharines: Vanwell Publishing Limited. p. 183. ISBN 1551250721.
  6. ↑ Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
Sources


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