HMCS Kitchener

There has been only one vessel named Kitchener in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Kitchener (K225)

Commissioned at Québec City, Quebec, on June 28, 1942, the Flower class corvette Kitchener arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July 16. She carried out 6 weeks of work-ups at Pictou, Nova Scotia, before briefly joining Western Local Escort Force in September. It may have been during this unusually long work-up that she starred in the film Corvette K-225 with Randolph Scott.

In October, she was assigned to duties in connection with Operation TORCH, and arrived at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on November 3. For the next 4.5 months, she escorted United Kingdom-Mediterranean convoys, returning to Canada in mid-April 1943 with convoy ONS.2. She joined Western Support Force in May, but in June transferred to Escort Group C-5, Mid-Ocean Escort Force, and during the following 4 months made 3 round trips to Londonderry. A major refit, commenced in October at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, was completed on January 28, 1944, and followed by 2 weeks’ working-up in Bermuda. In mid-April, she arrived at Londonderry where she was assigned to invasion duties with Western Approaches Command based at Milford Haven, United Kingdom. On D-Day, she escorted a group of landing craft to the beaches. From August until the end of the war, she served with Escort Group 41, Plymouth, United Kingdom, returning home in late May 1945 to be paid off at Sorel, Quebec on July 11. She was broken up at Hamilton, Ontario in 1949.

  • Builder: Marine Industries Ltd., Sorel, Quebec
  • Laid down: February 28, 1941
  • Launched: November 18, 1941
  • Commissionning date: June 28, 1942
  • Paying off date: July 11, 1945
  • The first corvette built with long forecastle.
  • Displacement: 1,015 tons
  • Dimensions: 63.5 m x 10.1 m x 2.9 m
  • Speed: 16 knots
  • Crew: 85
  • Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun, one 2-pound (0.9 kg) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 single mounts), one Hedgehog mortar, depth charges

Battle honours

  • Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942
  • Atlantic 1942-1943
  • Normandy 1944
  • English Channel 1944-1945

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