HMCS Vegreville (J257)
| Career (Canada) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Vegreville |
| Namesake: | Town of Vegreville |
| Operator: | Royal Canadian Navy |
| Builder: | Canadian Vickers Ltd., Montreal |
| Laid down: | 2 June 1941 |
| Launched: | 7 October 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 10 December 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 6 June 1945 |
| Identification: | pennant number:J257 |
| Honours and awards: | Atlantic 1944, Normandy 1944,[1] Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942[2] |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Bangor-class minesweeper |
| Displacement: | 672 tons |
| Length: | 180 ft (55 m) |
| Beam: | 28.5 ft (8.7 m) |
| Draught: | 8 ft (2.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | Single shaft, 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 triple expansion steam engines, 2,400 ihp. |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 77 |
| Armament: | 1 × QF 12-pounder (3 inch (76 mm)) gun 1 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) guns |
HMCS Vegreville was a Bangor-class minesweeper that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She saw action in the Battle of the St. Lawrence, Battle of the Atlantic and the Invasion of Normandy. She was broken up after the war in 1947. She was named for Vegreville, Alberta.
Vegreville was ordered as part of the 1940-1941 shipbuilding programme.[3] She was laid down on 2 June 1941 by Canadian Vickers Ltd. at Montreal, Quebec and launched 7 October later that year.[4] She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 10 December 1941 at Montreal.[5]
Service history
After commissioning, Vegreville transited to Halifax where she was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force as a convoy escort. In June 1942 she was reassigned to the Gulf Escort Force and moved again in September to Newfoundland Force.[5]
In January 1944, Vegreville was ordered to the United Kingdom as part of Canada's contribution to the invasion of Normandy. In the lead up to the invasion, she moved between the 32nd, 14th and finally the 31st Minesweeping Flotilla, with whom she fought with on D-Day. She remained in UK waters until September of that year.[5]
In September 1944, Vegreville returned to Canada and underwent a refit at Sydney. Following its completion, the ship was ordered back to the UK, arriving in February 1945. On 23 April 1945 she suffered severe damage to her port engine in the English Channel off France and was forced to return to port. Once there she was declared a total constructive loss and beyond economical repair. She was paid off on 6 June 1945 and laid up at Falmouth.[5] The ship remained there until taken to Hayle in May 1947 to be broken up.[6]
See also
- List of ships of the Canadian Navy
References
- Footnotes
- ↑ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
- ↑ "Battle Honours 2". Veterans Affairs Canada. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
- ↑ McClearn, Sandy (2007). "Bangor Class". hazegray.org. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
- ↑ "HMCS Vegreville (J 257)". uboat.net. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces, 1910-2002 (3 ed.). St. Catharines: Vanwell Publishing Limited. p. 184. ISBN 1551250721.
- ↑ Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
- Sources
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