HMCS KOOTENAY

Caution: This article contains dated, biased and/or racist language. 

During the winter of 1942-43 an agreement was worked out between the United Kingdom and Canadian Governments for the transfer of six “River” Class destroyers to the RCN.  Throughout 1942 the German U-boat campaign had been waged with ever-increasing fury and both sides were looking forward to the spring of 1943 as the crucial period in the Battle of the Atlantic.  To meet this challenge the RCN had twelve destroyers in commission in the fall of 1942, seven of them ex-USN “four-stackers” of First World War vintage which it was proving increasingly difficult to keep in operation.  In order to continue to play its part in the guarding of the convoy lanes, the acquisition of further destroyers was essential.  Hence the agreement with the United Kingdom for the transfer of the six “River” Class ships.

HMCS KOOTENAY was the second of these RN destroyers to be transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy.  As HMS Decoy, she had served in the Royal Navy since 1933, winning a total of seven battle honours for her service in the Second World War.  Throughout most of the campaign in the North African desert, HMS Decoy had operated in the Mediterranean escorting convoys or supporting the troops by bombarding enemy shore installations.  In the course of this struggle for the control of the Mediterranean, the ship was involved in operations off Greece and Crete.  During the evacuation of Crete at the end of May 1941, HM Ships Decoy and Hero embarked the King of Greece and other important personages and transported them to Alexandria.  In the spring of 1942 Decoy was sent to the Far East where reinforcements were desperately needed to stem the Japanese advance.  Returning to the United Kingdom in November for a refit, the ship was transferred to the RCN while these repairs were in progress.

Commissioned on 12 April 1943 at Jarrow on the River Tyne, she was renamed HMCS KOOTENAY after the river of that name which is situated in south-eastern British Columbia.  The exact meaning of the word “Kootenay” is not known, except that it is an [Native] word and the name of the [nation] that inhabits that part of the province.  When [settlers] first encountered the Kootenay Nation, they spoke a distinctive language of their own which was unlike that used by any other [Indigenous Nation].  In their dress, customs, and religion, they resembled the “Plains’ Indians” far more than they did their neighbours of the plateau.  However this is not surprising since they used to cross the mountains each year to hunt buffalo on the prairie, and so had ample opportunity to come in contact with the plains’ [nations]… 

HMCS KOOTENAY joined Escort Group C-5 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force at the end of May 1943, six weeks after her commissioning.  There she continued to serve for almost a year, escorting convoys between St. John’s and Londonderry.  By this time the Allied forces were gaining the upper hand in the Battle of the Atlantic.  The “hunter-killer” support groups had now arrived on the scene and aircraft coverage extended over most of the route from North America to the United Kingdom.  Shipping losses from U-boats during the month of May dropped to 157,000 tons, compared with 627,000 tons two months before.  Moreover the total number of U-boats destroyed or knocked out of action during the month exceeded for the first time the total of new German underwater craft coming into service.

Throughout the summer the trend continued and the number of merchant ship sinkings in the Atlantic fell toward insignificance.  Although the enemy returned to the attack in September with their new acoustic torpedo, this German underwater offensive was shattered in less than a month.  By the end of 1943 the Atlantic lines of communication were firmly held.  A handful of U-boats remained, scattered here and there along the convoy routes for their nuisance value.  Although they accomplished practically nothing, unceasing vigilance was still necessary to ensure the safe passage of the cargoes of war to the United Kingdom.  Every convoy had to be shepherded across the North Atlantic waters by escort ships, and it was this task which HMCS KOOTENAY continued to perform throughout the winter and spring of 1943-44.

During 1943, while HMCS KOOTENAY was serving with Escort Group C-5, a song was written for the group which put across very ably the spirit of the North Atlantic convoy lanes.  “The Barber Pole Song”, so called because of the striped funnel markings on the ships of C-5, was written by Surgeon Lieutenant W. A. Paddon, RCNVR, while he was serving with the group aboard HMCS KITCHENER.  The words went something like this:

It’s away outward the swinging foc’sles reel

From the smoking seas’ white glare upon the strand

It’s the grey seas that are slipping under keel

When we’re rolling outward bound from Newfoundland.

CHORUS:

From Halifax or Newfiejohn or Derry’s clustered towers

By trackless paths where conning towers roll

If you know another group in which you’d sooner spend your hours

You’ve never sailed beneath the Barber Pole!

It’s the grey seas that are slipping under keel

When we’re rolling outward bound from Newfoundland!

So beware harbours that berth the Barber Pole

If you’d keep the situation well in hand –

After grey seas that went slipping under keel

When we wallowed outward bound from Newfoundland.

CHOURS:

Be prepared for spacious doings, for a short and merry time,

With a glass and lass as every sailor’s goal

There’ll be song and celebration to remove the salty rime

From the breaded boys beneath the Barber Pole.

After grey seas that went slipping under keel

When we wallowed outward bound from Newfoundland!

It’s away, astern of us the Western Islands Iie

There’s an ocean lies before us to be spanned.

It’s the grey seas where sullen icebergs lie

When we’re rolling inward bound to Newfoundland.

CHORUS:

From Halifax or Newfiejohn or Derry’s clustered towers,

By trackless paths where conning towers roll,

If you know another group in which you’d sooner spend your hours

You’ve never sailed beneath the Barber Pole!

It’s the grey seas that are slipping under keel

When we’re rolling inward bound to Newfoundland!

HMCS KOOTENAY was transferred on 25 April 1944 from Escort Group C-5 to the newly-formed EG-11, which consisted of five “River” Class destroyers – HMC Ships OTTAWA (Senior Officer), KOOTANEY, CHAUDIERE, GATINEAU and ST. LAURENT.  The new group spent the month of May “working up” at Londonderry in preparation for its role in the invasion of western Europe, scheduled for early June.

To guard the invasion flotilla as it crossed the Channel to the Normandy beaches, a system of defence in depth had been worked out.  It was considered that the main threat to Allied shipping would come from German U-boats entering the Channel from the west, and a three-tier defence had been organized to protect the western approaches to the Channel.  An outer screen of ships consisting of six escort groups was to patrol a great rectangle of open sea, some 56,000 miles square, just outside the Channel.  Then, just inside the Channel mouth, destroyer patrols would provide a second line of defence.  Inside of these again, operating in the area from Lyme Bay to the Cherbourg Peninsula, there would be a third defensive ring to handle any enemy ships that penetrated this far.  EG-11 had been assigned to the second of these three defence forces and was to operate under the control of the Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.

Between 3 and 5 June, Escort Group 11 moved south from Moville to Plymouth.  On the 5^th the ships fuelled and the Commanding Officers were briefed concerning Operation “Neptune”.  The following day saw the ships of EG-11 on patrol off Start Point.  These patrols continued for the next month, during which time many contacts were investigated without success.  This was not surprising since the Channel was a particularly difficult area in which to hunt U-boats due to its shallow depth and to the sunken ships that littered the bottom.

However during the latter part of the summer HMCS KOOTENAY, along with several of the other ships of EG-11, took part in the destruction of three U-boats.

The first of these U-boat sinkings took place in the Channel about twenty miles south-west of Beachy Head.  On the night of 5/6 July HMS Statice gained contact with a U-boat in that area and carried out a series of attacks with depth-charges and hedgehog.  The target was lost during an attack shortly after midnight, and HMS Statice carried out a box search throughout the night.  The following morning HMC Ships OTTAWA and KOOTENAY were despatched to join in the search, and at 0938 OTTAWA obtained an asdic contact which she held until KOOTENAY could attack with depth-charges.  Several other attacks were carried out with hedgehog and with depth-charges.  A hedgehog attack by OTTAWA at 1059 brought about an explosion at a depth of one hundred feet and produced some light oil.  Another definite hit which brought up considerable quantities of wood and oil was scored by HMS Statice at 1120.  KOOTENAY attacking with depth-charges at 1159, struck the next blow which hit home producing a large amount of wood, clothing, oil, and books.  OTTAWA immediately closed the wreckage and lowered a whaler to collect evidence.  Although the books recovered were written in German, the Senior Officer of EG-11, Commander J. D. Prentice of HMCS OTTAWA, suspected a ruse and determined to hammer the U-boat until destruction was absolutely assured.

Numerous attacks were made during the afternoon, but only oil in great quantity and bubbles appeared on the surface.  By late afternoon the entire area in the vicinity of the contact was covered with oil and a long distinct slick extended for miles down-tide.  KOOTENAY and Statice were left to hold the target for the night while OTTAWA “boxed” the area.  A further promising contact was obtained by HMCS OTTAWA around midnight, which she proceeded to hold throughout the night.  However the next morning OTTAWA was ordered into port and the other ships, now under the orders of HMS Redpole, investigated the targets, buoyed them, and by afternoon had proceeded on patrol.  Instructions were later given to return to the targets and further depth-charge attacks were carried out before the hunt was finally abandoned on the following day.

It was afterwards considered that the first contact, which proved to be U-678, had been definitely destroyed, probably by noon on 6 July.  The second contact, which OTTAWA had turned up the following night, was considered to have been a wreck.  The ships of EG-11 were commended for their tactics in carefully investigating and hitting hard any suspected target.

Once the U-boat hunt had been abandoned on 8 July, Escort Group 11 resumed its patrol activities, returning to harbour later that day on the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.  On 10 July the group was ordered to proceed to Londonderry for a lay-over.  There they remained for a fort-night, while the ships had a boiler cleaning and the men were granted leave.

Returning to the Channel-Bay of Biscay area at the end of July, the ships, of EG-11 resumed their patrol activities under the control of the Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.  During the first part of August the group carried out several reconnaissance patrols close to the Brittany coast where several of the most important Nazi U-boat bases were located.  In the approaches to Lorient on 8 August fire was opened on the ships of EG-11 by shore batteries, and salvoes fell within four hundred yards of the ships.  The group retired after investigating a suspicious radar contact which turned out to be a large buoy not shown on the charts of the area.

On 18 August EG-11 tracked down a U-boat in the Bay of Biscay about seventy miles off the mouth of the River Gironde.  Asdic conditions were not good and it proved extremely difficult to hold the contact for any length of time.  However at 1012 HMCS OTTAWA attacked with hedgehog and gained a hit.  Bubbles and diesel oil commenced to rise immediately after the explosion, and the target bottomed and did not move again.  From this time on the usual difficulties were experienced due to bottom echoes and to the oil and bubbles that were rising from the target.  Nevertheless further attacks were carried out by OTTAWA, KOOTENAY and CHAUDIERE throughout the rest of the morning and the afternoon.  By 1800 the U-boat was considered to have been definitely “killed” and HMCS CHAUDIERE was left to hold the target for the night.  CHAUDIERE left the area the following morning, but was later ordered to regain contact and attempt to raise further evidence.  She carried out several attacks, bringing to the surface a small amount of wreckage including a letter from a German seaman dated 11 August 1944.  The target, which proved to be the U-621, was considered destroyed, and at 1840 on the 19^th HMCS CHAUDIERE proceeded to rejoin the group.

EG-11 was ordered to return to Londonderry on 20 August.  While passing the Finistere coast, OTTAWA obtained a clear asdic contact at a range of 500 yards and the group again proceeded to the attack.  Movement of the target which could not be accounted for by the tide was reported for the first hour and a half and then ceased.  Visibility was poor throughout the attack so that no oil or debris could be observed floating on the water.  However the target was hit many times both by hedgehog and with depth-charges and by 2300, when it was considered that it must be well and truly “dead”, EG-11 proceeded on its way.  At the time the authorities did not consider that the target had been a U-boat.  However later it was learned that the U-984 had been sunk on that date and in that location and Escort Group 11 was credited with the “kill”.

The other ships of the escort group proceeded to Londonderry, but HMCS KOOTENAY was forced to return to Plymouth due to the break-down of her last main feed pump.  Although this was put right at Devonport, the ship was badly in need of a major refit which could not be undertaken in the overcrowded British ports.  And so, on 14 September, she sailed from Plymouth for Canada, crossing the ocean with Convoy ONS-254.  The refit, which was carried out at Shelburne, was not complete until the end of February 1945 when KOOTENAY was ready to rejoin Escort Group 11.

Returning to Londonderry with Convoy HX-345, HMCS KOOTENAY spent the last three weeks of April “working up” ship at Tobermory and at Lochalsh.  She arrived in the Plymouth area on 3 May and joined EG-11 on patrol in the Channel.  However the German surrender on 8 May 1945 meant that patrol work in European waters was just about over.  When the ships of EG-11 returned to Plymouth from patrol on 19 May, they were ordered back to Canada.  After stopping at Greenock to embark returning service personnel, the group sailed on 30 May, arriving in Halifax one week later.

Escort Group 11 was disbanded that same day, and HMCS KOOTENAY was assigned to transport duties.  In order to ease the congestion on the railways and speed up the return of servicemen to Canada, it was arranged that these men would be disembarked from returning RCN ships at St. John’s Newfoundland, instead of at Halifax, and transported from there directly to Quebec City.  KOOTENAY was engaged on this St. John’s-Quebec City run for the next three months, making six round trips during this time.

In the meantime the Japanese surrender had taken place and the Second World War was over.  Faced with a drastically reduced supply of man-power and of funds, the Royal Canadian Navy was forced to dispose of many of its war-time ships, among them HMCS KOOTENAY.  For her services during the Second World War, however, HMCS KOOTENAY had earned the following battle honours, which will be passed on to all future ships that bear her name:

ATLANTIC, 1943-45,

NORMANDY, 1944,

ENGLISH CHANNEL, 1944,

BISCAY, 1944.

Her war-time ship’s badge might also prove to be of interest to other ships of the same name.  Instead of designing her own badge, HMCS KOOTENAY adopted the one formerly borne by HMS Decoy.  This was of the shield shape then in use in the Royal Navy for all destroyers’ badges.  Its chief device was a lure, such as that used in falconry, depicted in gold against a green background.

Having finished her last run transporting troops on 6 October, 1945, HMCS KOOTENAY was sent to Sydney where she paid off into the Reserve Fleet on the 26^th.  Turned over to War Assets Corporation in March 1946, she was sold later in the year to the International Iron and Metal Company of Hamilton for scrapping purposes.

On 15 June 1954, a second HMCS KOOTENAY was launched at the Burrard Dry Dock Company’s North Vancouver shipyard, sponsored by Mrs. R. O. Campney.  The KOOTENAY was the sixth of the new “St. Laurent” Class destroyer escorts to be launched, and the second to be built at this west coast shipyard.  She is now rapidly nearing completion and the commissioning date for this new destroyer escort is expected to be 28 February 1959.