Canada Ping!
Posted on 09/19/2014 9:34:42 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the name of the first of the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) yesterday in Hamilton, Ontario.
Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Harry DeWolf is named in honour of a wartime Canadian naval hero. HMCS Harry DeWolf is the first of the AOPS designed to better enable the RCN to exercise sovereignty in Canadian waters, including in the Arctic.
The AOPS will be known as the Harry DeWolf Class, with HMCS Harry DeWolf as the lead ship. Subsequent ships in the class will be named to honour other prominent Canadian naval heroes who served their country with the highest distinction. This is the first time in its 104-year history that the RCN is naming a class of ships after a prominent Canadian naval figure.
A native of Bedford, Nova Scotia, Vice-Admiral Harry DeWolf (RCN) was decorated for outstanding service throughout his naval career, which included wartime command of HMCS St. Laurent from 1939-40, and later, his 1943-44 command of HMCS Haida, known as the “Fightingest Ship in the RCN.” Yesterday’s announcement was made at HMCS Haida, which now serves as a museum ship on the Hamilton waterfront.
Canada defends more coastline than any other country, as it is bounded by three oceans. The AOPS will conduct sovereignty and surveillance operations in Canadian waters on all three coasts, including in the Arctic. The AOPS will also be used to support other units of the Canadian Armed Forces in the conduct of maritime-related operations and to support other government departments in carrying out their mandates, as required.
The AOPS will be built by Irving Shipbuilding Inc. in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Canada Ping!
“Her Majesty”. Hahaha!
Royal Canadian Navy?
This is a joke right?
There is a lot of water to watch in the north and Canada wants to keep control of it.
Don't forget Canada's fine record of Anti-Submarine warfare either.
Captain of my uncle's ship, HMCS Restigouche.
He was posted as a first lieutenant at Base Esquimalt, on the Canadian destroyer HMCS Restigouche (aka Rusty Guts). In September 1939, Restigouche was ordered to Halifax and at the start of the war assigned to convoy duty to escort merchant ships to England. At that time the RCN had only six destroyers and 3,500 men.
Piers was always close to the action. He was present when the Royal Canadian Navy fired it's first shots in World War II. In June 1940,during the evacuation of France, German General Erwin Rommel was bearing down on the British Army's 51st Highland Division at St. Valérie on the Channel coast near Dieppe. Restigouche was ordered to take off wounded soldiers, and Piers went ashore in a whaler to find out what could be done to evacuate the stranded Scottish soldiers. The General of the Highlanders,General V.M. Fortune, told him the troops would not leave because they had no orders to do so. As Piers was returning to Restigouche, the Germans fired on him. Capt. Harry Dewolfe returned fire to protect his young officer. "Here were these Scottish troops without arms, without food. Harry Dewolfe, in the meantime, was firing at the German army on the cliffs," Piers recalled years later in an interview with CBC Radio.
In June of 1941, the RCN promoted the 28 year old Piers to Lieutenant-Commander and gave him the helm of HMCS Restigouche. In August, he escorted the British Battleship HMS Prince of Wales,with Winston Churchill aboard, to Argentia Newfoundland, for WSC's secret Atlantic Charter meetings with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
One ship does not a Navy make. Canada needs 40 of them.
Harper needs to crank them out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.