The River class was a series of fourteen destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) that served before and during the Second World War. They were named after Canadian rivers.

The River class was a dissimilar collection of warships, consisting of twelve vessels purchased from the Royal Navy and two built specifically by British yards for the RCN. They included two A class, five C class, two D class, one E class, two F class, one G class and one H class.

and were the first ships specifically built for the RCN and were adapted from the Royal Navy's A class.

History The majority of the River-class ships began the Second World War with the same equipment that they were built with; however, this was gradually modified as the war progressed. Modifications included removing gun mounts to make room for additional depth charge and torpedo systems, as well as adding new communications and radar masts. The River class were the backbone of the RCN destroyer fleet and served as leaders of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force during the Battle of the Atlantic. Four of the class were lost and one severely damaged during the war: and were sunk by collisions in 1940; was torpedoed by in 1942, and Skeena was driven aground on Viðey Island near Reykjavík, Iceland in 1944. Saguenay lost much of her stern in a November 1942 collision, and was subsequently relegated to training duties. The surviving ships were all decommissioned and scrapped following the war.

1939 On 23 October 1939, the German-flagged tanker Emmy Friederich scuttled herself on encountering Saguenay in the Yucatán Channel.

1940 On 8 March 1940 Assiniboine, along with intercepted and captured the German merchant ship Hannover near Jamaica. Hannover was later converted into .

On the night of 25 June 1940, Fraser was tasked to join the destroyer and light cruiser on Operation Aerial to rescue 4,000 refugees trapped by the German Army from the coast of Bordeaux, France. The warships encountered rough seas and poor visibility, forcing the commanding officer of Fraser to close quarters with the other two vessels. Fraser executed a turn to port to bring the ship behind Calcutta but in doing so, the two ships collided. The bow of the heavier Calcutta sliced into Fraser with such force that the destroyer was cut into three pieces. Fraser lost 47 sailors, and a further 19 were lost from Calcutta. Many of the survivors from Fraser transferred that summer to Margaree and were lost when that vessel sank on 22 October 1940 as a result of a collision with the freighter .

Margaree was lost on 22 October 1940, when she collided with the freighter MV Port Fairy at position . Of the 176 aboard Margaree at the time, 34 were rescued by Port Fairy, but the other 142, including the captain and four other officers, were lost.

In November, Ottawa assisted in sinking the Italian submarine .

1941

1942 On 31 July 1942, Skeena and depth charged and sank the German submarine while escorting ON 115 at .

While escorting convoy SC 94 on 6 August 1942, Assiniboine achieved her first victory when she rammed, depth charged and shelled south of Cape Farewell, Greenland.

On 14 September 1942, while escorting Convoy ON 127 east of St John's, Newfoundland, Ottawa was torpedoed by . Less than 30 minutes later, unable to maneuver, she was hit by a second torpedo. The second attack broke her in half, sinking her. 114 crew lost their lives, including the commanding officer, while 65 survivors were rescued by nearby vessels.

On 15 November 1942, Saguenay was rammed by the Panamanian freighter Azra off Cape Race, Newfoundland. The impact of the collision set off Saguenays depth charges, which blew off her stern. She made port at Saint John, New Brunswick, where her stern was plated over. On 23 May 1943, Saguenay was transferred to Halifax, to serve with the Western Ocean Escort Force working from Halifax and St. John's, Newfoundland. In October 1943 Saguenay was towed to Digby, Nova Scotia, as a tender assigned to , the Royal Canadian Navy's training depot for new entries (recruits). She was used for teaching seamanship and gunnery until 30 July 1945, paid off in late 1945, and broken up in 1946.

St. Laurent had her first victory on 27 December 1942 when she was credited with sinking while escorting Convoy ON 154 north of the Azores, along with the corvettes , and .

1943 On 2 March 1943 Assiniboine was damaged by her own depth charges during a battle with . She made Liverpool on 7 March and took 3 months to repair.

, formerly HMS Fortune joined the River class in May 1943. HMCS Gatineau joined in June.

1944 On 6 March 1944 at 1830 hrs, the German U-boat was sunk in the North Atlantic, in position following a lengthy hunt to exhaustion. It was initially torpedoed by the British and an unsuccessful attempt was made at towing the submarine to port. The U-boat was subsequently sunk by depth charges from Icarus, Canadian corvettes and , Canadian frigate , Canadian destroyers HMCS Chaudière and , and the British corvette .

St. Laurent was credited with the 10 March 1944 sinking of in the North Atlantic, along with the destroyer , corvette and frigate .

On 6 July 1944, Ottawa and Kootenay were detached from a convoy to assist HMS Statice with a submarine contact off Beachy Head, Sussex. As Ottawa swept the area, she gained sonar contact and attacked with depth charges. Shortly afterward, large amounts of debris appeared on the surface, including caps marked U-678.

On 7 July 1944, Kootenay, Ottawa, and the corvette depth-charged and sank the German VIIC-class U-boat in the English Channel south-west of Brighton. HMCS Kootenay

On 18 August Kootenay, Ottawa, and Chaudière depth-charged and sank the German VIIC-class U-boat in the Bay of Biscay near La Rochelle. On 20 August, the same ships depth-charged and sank the German VIIC-class U-boat in the Bay of Biscay west of Brest.HMCS Kootenay

Skeena was lost in a storm on the night of 24 October 1944. She was anchored off Reykjavík, Iceland and dragged her anchor and grounded in waves off Viðey Island with the loss of 15 of her crew. Her hulk was written off and sold to Icelandic interests in June 1945; she was then raised and broken up. Her propeller was salvaged and used in a memorial near the Viðey Island ferry terminal.Remember the 24 Funds needed for HMCS Skeena memorial in Iceland Lookout, 23 Jan 2006 uboat.net page

1945 On 14 February 1945 Assiniboine collided with merchant ship Empire Bond in the English Channel. She made Sheerness for repairs and was operational again in early March.

Ships

Royal Navy NameRoyal Canadian Navy NamePennantnumberBuilderLaid downLaunchedCompletedCommissioned into RCNPaid offFateModified A class Built for RCN D79 John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston 27 September 1929English, pp. 15, 26. 11 July 1930 22 May 1931 22 May 1931MacPherson and Barrie, p. 46 30 June 1945 Damaged in a collision 15 November 1942 and de-rated to training ship, sold for breaking 1945 Built for RCN D59 14 October 1929 10 October 1930 10 June 1931 10 June 1931MacPherson and Barrie, p. 47 25 October 1944 Wrecked in Kollafjord, Iceland, 25 October 1944C class leaderKempenfeltAssiniboineD18 (changed in 1940 to I18)J. Samuel White, Cowes18 October 193029 October 193130 May 1932English, p. 45 19 October 1939MacPherson and Barrie, p. 50 8 August 1945Wrecked on Prince Edward Island en route for scrapping, 10 November 1945, scrapped 1952Whitley, p. 27C classCometRestigoucheH00HM Dockyard, Portsmouth12 September 193030 September 19312 June 1932 15 June 1938MacPherson and Barrie, p. 49 6 October 1945Scrapped 1946English, p. 47CrusaderOttawaH602 May 1932 15 June 1938MacPherson and Barrie, p. 48 13 September 1942Torpedoed by , 13 September 1942English, p. 49CygnetSt. LaurentH83Vickers Armstrongs, Barrow1 December 193029 September 193115 April 1932 17 February 1937 10 October 1945Scrapped 1947English, p. 50CrescentFraserH481 April 1934 17 February 1937 25 June 1940Sunk in collision with in Gironde estuary, 25 June 1940English, p. 48D classDecoyKootenayH75Thornycroft, WoolstonEnglish, p. 5125 June 19317 June 193217 January 1933 12 April 1943MacPherson and Barrie, p. 52 25 October 1945Sold for scrapping 1946English, p. 56DianaMargareeH49Palmers, Jarrow12 June 193116 June 193221 December 1932 6 September 1940 22 October 1940Sunk in collision with , 22 October 1940English, p. 60E classGatineauH61Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend24 March 1933English, p. 6329 May 19342 November 1934 3 June 1943MacPherson and Barrie, p. 51 10 January 1946 Scuttled as breakwater at Royston, British Columbia in 1948.F classQu'AppelleH69John Brown, Clydebank21 August 1933Lenton, pp. 158–5912 October 19346 June 1935 8 February 1944MacPherson and Barrie, p. 53 27 May 1946 Sold 1947 for scrapping at Sydney, Nova Scotia.SaskatchewanH7025 July 193329 August 193427 April 1935 31 May 1943 28 January 1946 Broken up 1946 at Sydney.G classOttawaH31Vickers Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness20 September 193415 August 1935 6 March 193620 March 1943 31 October 1945 Broken up 1946. H classChaudièreH99Vickers Armstrongs, Walker28 February 1935Lenton, p. 16110 March 193621 October 193615 November 194317 August 1945Broken up 1950 at Sydney.

Notes and references

Sources Butterley, Keith, and Macpherson, Ken. River class destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy. 2nd ed. St. Catharines, Ont. : Vanwell Pub., c2008.

Macpherson, Kenneth R. and Barrie, Ron. (2002)(Third Edition) The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–2002. Vanwell Publishing.

External links