HMCS Sioux circa. August 1951 - February 1952, probably in Korean waters |
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| Career (UK/Canada) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Vixen HMCS Sioux (R64/225) |
| Ordered: | 1941 Construction Programme |
| Builder: | J. Samuel White, Cowes |
| Laid down: | 31 October 1942 |
| Launched: | 14 September 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 21 February 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 October 1963 |
| Motto: | Then I will fight |
| Honours and awards: |
Normandy, 1944 Arctic, 1944-1945 Atlantic, 1945 Korea, 1950-1952 |
| Fate: | Scrapped at La Spezia, Italy, August 1965 |
| Notes: | Colours: White and vermilion |
| Badge: | Blazon Argent, a Sioux Indian head proper facing the dexter and wearing an appropriate feather head-dress of a Sioux Chief |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | V class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,710 tonnes (1,683 long tons) |
| Length: | 362 ft 10 in (110.59 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers Geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (29,828 kW) 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 36 knots (41 mph; 67 km/h) |
| Range: | 4,860 nmi (9,000 km) at 29 kn (54 km/h) |
| Complement: | 230 (14 officers) |
| Armament: | • 4 × 4.7 in (120 mm) guns (2×2) • 6 × QF 20 mm Oerlikon guns (2×2, 2×1) • 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes • 2 × Squid triple ASW mortars |
| Service record | |
| Part of: | 26th Destroyer Flotilla (WWII) |
| Operations: | World War II Korean War |
HMCS Sioux (R64) was a V class destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy that saw service in World War II.
She was launched as HMS Vixen for the British Royal Navy. She was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy, into which she was then commissioned in February 1944 while fitting out, and was completed on 5 March 1944.
Sioux was based with the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. Her duties involved escorting convoys to Russia (RA-58/JW-58 in April 1944); raids on German coastal shipping off the coast of Norway; and attempts to sink the German battleship Tirpitz, which was anchored at Altenfjord, Norway. On D-Day, Sioux provided naval gunfire off Juno Beach. In February 1945, after escorting convoy JW-64 to Polyarnoe; she was sent from there as part of a relief expedition to convey 500 inhabitants of a Norwegian island, left without food or fishing boats by the Germans, to safety. On 17 February 1945, she returned with convoy RA-64, fighting both determined JU-88 attacks and Arctic gales, and sailed to Halifax immediately thereafter, to prepare for transfer to the British Pacific Fleet and operations against Japan.[1]
She wore pennant R64 until she was paid off into reserve shortly after the war. She emerged again, fully modernized, in 1950. She wore pennant 225 until she was finally paid off in October 1963.
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The Chatham and Area Royal Canadian Naval Association branch acquired HMCS Sioux's ship's bell, which was used for baptism of babies onboard ship. The names of 48 children christened aboard the 'V' Class destroyer are inscribed on the bell.[2]
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