Remembering the RCN Ships

Posted by Susanna McLeod May 19, 2008

Today’s blog is more of an In Memoriam for the ships and crews lost during the longest battle of World War Two. Twenty four RCN ships were lost, and their names were recorded on a plaque at the Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto and included by John D. Harbron in his book, The Longest Battle: The RCN in the Atlantic 1939-1945, published in 1993 by Vanwell Publishing, St. Catherines, Ontario.

HMCS Alberni

HMCS Bras D’or

HMCS Chedabucto

HMCS Esquimault

HMCS Guysborough

HMCS Louisburg

HMCS Ottawa

HMCS Raccoon

HMCS St. Croix

HMCS Skeena

HMCS Trentonian

HMCS Weyburn

HMCS Athabascan

HMCS Charlottetown

HMCS Clayaquot

HMCS Fraser

HMCS Levis

HMCS Margaree

HMCS Otter

HMCS Regina

HMCS Shawinigan

HMCS Spikenard

HMCS Valleyfield

HMCS Windflower

And just so we don’t think the German Navy went unscathed, of 39,000 U-boat seamen, 28,000 were lost at sea during World War Two, “the largest losses by any single military or naval force on either side during the war,” stated John Harbron.

The statistics are utterly sad, for both sides, on the human level. The men and women fought bravely, fiercely and with sheer determination for their own countries. May it never happen again.