HMCS Fraser (H48)
 The Fraser
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The HMCS Fraser (H48) was a destroyer in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II . Commissioned in 1932 as HMS Crescent (H48) for the Royal Navy, it was part of the Royal Navy's C-Class, which comprises only five ships (instead of the usual nine) . The British Labor Government wanted to document its readiness for disarmament by halving the usual class size. Because the class did not fit into the structure of the Royal Navy , their ships were left to the Canadian Navy. With her sister ship Cygnet , the HMS Crescent was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy in Chatham on February 17, 1937 and at the same time renamed HMCS Fraser .
During the war, the ship was initially used on the North Atlantic to secure British trade. During the evacuation of British troops from France, the destroyer collided on June 25, 1940 in the Gironde in poor visibility with the flak cruiser Calcutta and sank immediately. 45 HMCS Fraser men were killed and 150 men were saved.
History of the ship
The later HMCS Fraser (H 48) was ordered from Vickers in Barrow on July 9, 1930 as part of the 1930 construction program. The ship was laid down under the hull number 668 on December 1, 1930 and was named HMS Crescent when it was launched on September 29, 1930. The keel was laid and launched on the same day as the sister ship HMS Cygnet (hull number 667). The HMS Crescent was the 12th ship of the Royal Navy with this name since 1588. The last new building with the name was a cruiser I. Class from 1892 of the Edgar class , which was sold to Germany for demolition in 1920. Finally, the old one had battleship Glory of Canopus class name from 1920 to 1922 as a depot ship out. The new Crescent was completed on April 15, 1932 and then carried out tests with propellers used by Italian ships . The tests showed no significant advantages over the propellers required by the Admiralty.
The new destroyer first came to the "2nd Destroyer Flotilla" like her sister ship Cygnet and also took part in the Home Fleet's 1934 voyage to the Caribbean. During the Abyssinia crisis in autumn 1935, the flotilla was sent to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean for six months from September . After the return and overhaul, the ship was part of the international neutrality surveillance in the Bay of Biscay in the early phase of the Spanish Civil War . Then the ship was used for reservist training in Chatham . The destroyer was then handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned as HMCS Fraser on February 17, 1937 in Chatham . She was stationed in Esquimalt on the Pacific coast, where she arrived on May 3rd. In September 1939, the Fraser moved to her war station in Halifax .
After the war began, they were moved to Halifax , Nova Scotia , where the Fraser was the first of the Pacific destroyers to arrive on September 10, 1939 to be used as an escort for convoys in the North Atlantic . The Canadian destroyers were subordinate to the "North America and West Indies Station" of the Royal Navy. This moved the Fraser in March 1940 to the Caribbean to the so-called "Jamaica Force" and it was used there to monitor the German ships that had called at ports of neutral countries.
Since from May 1940 the destroyer was to be deployed from the British Isles because of the much greater submarine danger and the ships were needed there more urgently, the destroyer moved to Europe and arrived in Plymouth on June 3 , where it had been before from Canada the St. Laurent , Restigouche and the Skeena had arrived.
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The first missions of the HMCS Fraser took place in the evacuation of the British troops from northern France. From June 21, she evacuated soldiers and refugees from Saint-Jean-de-Luz , almost on the border with Spain, to larger British ships at sea. The Restigouche also joined this mission on the 22nd . While marching back shortly before the French surrender came into force, the Fraser collided with the cruiser Calcutta in the Gironde on June 25, 1940 in poor visibility , broke into three parts and sank to 45 ° 44 ′ 0 ″ N , 1 ° 31 ′ 0 ″ W . 47 men of the Fraser and 19 of the Calcutta were killed. 150 men from the Fraser could be picked up by the Restigouche (117) and the Calcutta (33) despite the darkness and heavy seas , which had to break off the operation and run back to Plymouth.
As a replacement for the sunken Fraser , the Royal Canadian Navy took over the HMS Diana on September 6, 1940 as HMCS Margaree . This was used as an escort on convoy OL8 to Canada from October 17th . On October 22nd, she collided with the motor ship Port Fairy (8072 GRT), which was only able to save 34 of the 176 men on board the Margaree . The 142 dead included a number of Fraser survivors .
Renewed use of the name
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From June 1957 to August 1994 there was another Fraser in service with the RCN. She was one of the series of seven St. Laurent class Destroyer Escorts of 2,263 ts built in Canada. The ships were a modification of the British Whitby-class frigates (Type 12).
literature
- Marc Milner: Canada's Navy. The first century. University of Toronto Press, Toronto et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8020-4281-3 .
- Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. An international encyclopedia. Arms and Armor Press, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .
Web links
- Chronicle of naval warfare 1939–1945
- Service history HMCS Fraser
- HMCS Fraser (H48)
- HMCS FRASER (1st) (H48)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Milner: Canada's Navy. The first century. 1999, p. 70 f.
- ↑ a b c Milner: Canada's Navy. The first century. 1999, p. 84.
- ↑ Milner: Canada's Navy. The first century. 1999, p. 87.
- ↑ HMCS FRASER (2nd) (233) .
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