Admiral Hipper class cruiser, PRINZ EUGEN arriving at the locks at Wilhelmshaven, Germany from HMCS IROQUOIS (foreground) on 28 May 1945. The Canadian destroyer was part of the Allied force, escorting PRINZ EUGEN and NURMBURG from Copenhagen, Denmark to Wilhelmshaven, Germany for the formal surrender, leaving Copenhagen the previous day. Roger Litwiller Collection, Lynford Bourne, […]
The First Women to Serve in Canada’s Navy
The legacy of women serving in Canada’s Navy is legendary, beginning in 1914 in the early days of the First World War. Six nurses joined the Royal Canadian Navy and served in His Majesty’s Canadian Hospital Ship (HMCHS) PRINCE GEORGE. At the time, concern was not given to making history or furthering women’s rights, in […]
The Sacrifice of SS Beaverford “The Heroic Saga of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Ship with Teeth.”
Many will know the celebrated legacy of the Royal Navy’s armed merchant cruiser HMS JERVIS BAY and her final moments as she battled the German pocket battleship ADMIRAL SCHEER protecting her North Atlantic convoy, HX-84 on 5 November 1940. The battle for the convoy did not end with the loss of JERVIS BAY. The Canadian […]
HMCS IROQUOIS Exploits After VE Day
Great detail has been recorded of the Royal Canadian Navy’s ships during the Second World War, including the Battle of the Atlantic, Operations in the Arctic, Mediterranean and many other ocean battlefronts. Sadly very little has been written about what happened to our ships after VE Day? Recently I have received a large collection of […]