HMCS Rimouski (K121)
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A Canadian Flower class corvette that served during the Second World War.
Commissioned to be built by Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing the HMCS Rimouski launched on October 3rd, 1940 - it saw active service throughout the war and was decommissioned on July 24th, 1945; it was salvaged for scrap metal five years later.
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[edit] Operation Kiebitz
The HMCS Rimouski saw active duty in the Canadian attempt to foil the German Operation Kiebitz, which would have seen the German u-boat U-536 arrive in Baie des Chaleurs off the shore of New Brunswick to pick up escaped POWs led by Otto Kretschmer from Camp 30 in Bowmanville, Ontario.
Outfitted with an experimental version of diffuse lighting camouflage , the Corvette is intended to wait for the German u-boat to enter the harbour and then move to capture it, while a slew of other Canadian naval vessels close off the mouth of the harbour and prepare to destroy the U-Boat if should manage to escape Rimouski. In the end the U-Boat escaped, and the sole German POW was recaptured by the Canadian forces onshore.
[edit] Normandy Landings
The HMCS Rimouski was one of 57 large ships Canada contributed to the D-Day landings, in addition to her eight flotillas.
[edit] Trivia
A common tradition of painting a mascot on a naval ship's gun shields, the HMCS Rimouski featured a boisterous cowboy with a 10-gallon hat lassoing a U-boat from the back of his steed.
[edit] Crew
- Commodore Angus George Boulton, commanded the HMCS Rimouski in 1941
- Lt. John Pickford, commanded the HMCS Rimouski from 1943-1944 becoming the youngest man to command a warship in the Atlantic War, later became a Rear-Admiral
- Douglas Clark
