Category: Royal Canadian Navy: Ships

A dramatised account of the career of one of the most famous of RCN ships. A Tribal Class destroyer, she won fame from the Murmansk run to the Channel battles of 1944.

A heavily illustrated guide to the mainstay of the wartime RCN.

A well-illustrated ship-by-ship account of the war-built frigates.

A fully illustrated ship-by-ship account of a group which were the workhorses of the local escort of convoys.

A fully illustrated ship by ship operational history of the 14 Canadian C-H Class destroyers. A revised and updated edition was published by Vanwell in 2008 (ISBN: 1551250934) with Keith Butterley named as joint author.

This book describes life on one of the busy Atlantic based corvettes, which was part of the famous "Barber Pole" Escort Group, so named for the red and white stripes painted on their funnels.

A slim pamphlet recording the class alphabetically by name with a brief account of their doings.

Sackville is now preserved in Halifax, the only survivor of the 123 Canadian corvettes which served in World War II. A leading Canadian historian gives a full account of her active career and how she reached her new status as a museum.

A very brief account of her busy war.

Edited by the ship's chaplain this is a largely photographic record of her war in 1944-45. She served briefly but with distinction from the Mediterranean to the Arctic.

The frigate transferred from the RN to the RCN and served principally in the Atlantic and Arctic. The first half of the book is essentially a series of anecdotes from survivors, while the second has potted biographies of the crew. It was compiled for a reunion.

A mainly pictorial view of Canadian warships which of necessity largely depicts WWII. The photographs are excellent.

She was tragically lost when dragged on to rocks off Iceland in atrocious weather.

A logbook-cum-picture book which includes newspaper cuttings and other contemporary accounts of this Canadian Tribal.

Strictly RN but Canadian manned she was torpedoed off Norway in August 1944 and struggled back to the UK but was a constructive total loss.

JOHNSON, Bill. The Prince Robert.22p. Sidney, B.C.: ViP Graphic Studio, 1988.

Prince Robert was a Canadian Pacific passenger ship converted as an A/A cruiser and seeing service in almost every theatre of conflict.

MACLEOD, M. K. The Prince Ships 1940-1945 (CFHQ Reports, No. 5). 200, [36] p., Ottawa: Combined Forces Headquarters, 1965.

A detailed official account of their RCN roles, including an evaluation of their effectiveness. Available online at http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/cfhq/cfhq005.pdf .

MACLEOD, Malcolm. HMCS Preserver (Fairmile Depot Ship 1942-1945). (CFHQ Reports, No. 10). 48, [4]p. Ottawa: Combined Forces Headquarters, 1966.

The first Preserver was employed as a depot ship supporting the Fairmile motor launch flotillas operating off Canada's East Coast during the Battle of the Atlantic. As a depot ship she provided services required to maintain, supply and refuel the motor launches assigned to patrol coastal waters and escort local convoys. The CO of Preserver controlled the operations of such flotillas, operating out of the bays and inlets of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Available online at http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/cfhq/cfhq010.pdf .

MACPHERSON, Ken, & BURGESS, John. The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–1981: A Complete Pictorial History of Canadian Warships. 240p., bibliog., illus., index. Toronto: Collins, 1981. ISBN: 0002168561.

Arranged in three sections: pre-war, WWII, post-war. Within this framework the arrangement is by class, with a picture of at least the major vessels and potted biographies. Extensive appendices.   A second edition was published in 1985 (ISBN: 0002174693) and a third in 1993 (ISBN: 0920277918) . The fourth edition takes the story up to 2002 and was published by Vanwell (ISBN: 1551250721). Ron Barrie was co-author of this edition. 

CLARK, Joseph A.P. HMCS Loch Achanalt: A Memoir. 69, (7)p., illus. [Ontario?]; Highwoods Prospect Publishers, 1995.

Built by Henry Robb in Leith, the frigate was lent to the RCN after being launched in 1944. She served in the Western Approaches and Channel and was laid up in 1945 before transfer to the RNZN. This is the collected reminiscences of fifteen of the crew, including the author.

RUSSELL, E. C. HMCS Haida: a Brief History.56p., illus. Toronto: [n.p.], 1964.

An operational history, half of it describing WWII, of the destroyer which served with distinction for 20 years. A second edition of this leaflet was published in about 1997 with substantially the same text but different photographs.

READ, Charles Herbert. Memoirs of the Flight Surgeon of HMS Nabob. [vi], 173p. Coaldale, Alberta: Lammi Publishing, 2018. ISBN: 9780995006089.

The memoirs of a young Canadian who joined the RCN straight from medical school in 1944. He served on Nabob during her brief career. An excellent description of training, monotony, adventure and action until her near sinking off Norway during an attack on the Tirpitz.

This engaging memoir was first privately published in 2003 by the author. He was an engineer lieutenant in the RCNVR who served initially with Cobalt on the triangle run. But the bulk of the book concerns his service on Qu'Appelle, particularly service for the Normandy landings and with a notable account of Skeena's grounding and sinking. Towards the end of the war he served briefly on Battler then stood by Warrior in Belfast.

Cobourg completed in mid-1944 and saw the last year of the Atlantic Battle. The author served on her.

This book describes the 29th Flotilla, referred to as the "Fighting Sea Fleas." The complement of the 29th was later augmented by MTBs 485, 486,and 491 from the RN, but they were still manned by Canadian personnel, whose job was to keep the sea lanes open from the UK to the continent.

A tribute to a Canadian Tribal. Completed in 1943 she was sunk in action in the Channel in 1944.

A brief history laced with crew members' reminiscences of the Tribal destroyer which is now preserved in Toronto.

The Princes served as AMCs and as landing ships. An excellent account of their careers.

HMS Uganda was transferred to the RCN and went on to serve in the Pacific. However the crew achieved the unique distinction of voting themselves out of the war and returned to Canada in July 1945. An autobiographical account by a CPO.

Haida was a Tribal Class destroyer and fought long and hard in the Arctic, with the Home Fleet and in the Channel. She later fought in Korea and her story is told in this book in part as a plea for her to be preserved as a national monument – a battle which was won. Notably well illustrated.

Trentonian was commissioned late in 1943 and served in the Neptune Operation and in the Atlantic where she was torpedoed and sunk in 1945 while escorting a convoy.

A member of the successful 9th Escort Group.

These Canadian-built motor launches carried much of the unglamorous burden of inshore convoy and A/S work.

U 305 sank St. Croix in a convoy battle around ON202 in September 1943. This is a lightweight imaginative reconstruction of the careers of each vessel until their fatal meeting. Some months later the submarine was sunk with all hands.

The short bloody and ultimately tragic career of a flotilla formed in February 1944, which fought in the Channel until destroyed in a fire at Ostend one year later. Profusely illustrated with drawings by the author an Official War Artist as well as CO of the flotilla. An excellent book.

Describes six Canadian navy ships which were named after the communities on the Bay of Quinte who sponsored them. The ships are the corvettes Napanee, Belleville and Trentonian. Hallowell was a frigate, while Quinte and Quinte (II) were minesweepers, the first in World War II and the second during the Cold War.

A pot-pourri of information and facts. A second edition was published in 1957.

A history of the ship from the laying of her keel in 1939 to her change of name to Quebec in 1951. Uganda served in the Mediterranean until badly damaged at Salerno. After an extensive repair and refit she re-commissioned in the RCN and served in the Far East. Reprinted from the Sunday magazine section of the Daily Colonist.

Canada filled a manpower shortage in the RN by training many radar officers. Lynch joined up in 1941 and after training went to the UK then to Orion, refitting in San Francisco. He spent two years with her, mainly in the Mediterranean, including the invasions of Sicily and Salerno.

A profusely illustrated book on the ships which were the backbone of the Atlantic Battle.

A tribute to this corvette which had a busy and successful war from Torch to Neptune via the Atlantic battles. No copy seen.

Another of the series with full plans and design history of the classic corvette design. Operational history is limited to six short paragraphs.

The illustrated story of 21 luxury yachts pressed into service in two world wars. Some 16 were used in coastal defence in WWII.

Swansea was involved in more U-boat kills - four - than any other RCN vessel. This is intended as a history of a typical RCN frigate.