HMCS MILLTOWN

One of the versatile little triple duty ships of the R.C.N., HMCS MILLTOWN, was a Bangor steam minesweeper who led an active life on both sides of the Atlantic from her day of commissioning in 1942, until just after VE-Day in 1945.  Patrolling, escorting, minesweeping, all came under the list of duties to be performed by the minesweeper.

MILLTOWN was launched in Port Arthur on 22 January and commissioned on 18 September 1942.  Trials and calibrations quickly put behind her, she started her first winter at sea.  Patrolling the waters off Cape Breton Island, investigating reports of explosions and flashes out to sea, salvaging grounded vessels and towing them back to port, these were the policeman duties of HMCS MILLTOWN.  When she was not escorting allied merchant vessels on the “triangle run” (New York – Halifax – St. John’s), she was hunting enemy submarines.

Even while practising gunnery in some remote bay, she was likely to be sent off to chase a submarine, as MILLTOWN found out while a member of the Western Local Escort Force in March 1943.  Through the summer she made contact with enemy U-boats more than once, but she had no success against them.  Into the winter she continued to exercise her crew and to make sweep after sweep for mines in the approaches to Halifax.  All this was to stand her in good stead for more dangerous duty within sight of the enemy’s own stronghold.

For in February 1944 HMCS MILLTOWN was allocated to the 31^st Minesweeper Flotilla which operated out of Plymouth and Torquay in the English Channel.  Soon she was taking part in invasion exercises.

Then she went on sweeps ahead of the assault forces which landed on the coast of Normandy in June 1944.  Her activities, minesweeping in the western (American) assault area and making anti-submarine patrols around Cherbourg and Dieppe, showed that the allied forces were opening “the Victory Campaign”.

On 28 February 1945, MILLTOWN left Plymouth for Canada to undergo a refit in Saint John, N.B.  There was still work to do, however, for many mines remained unswept in the English Channel.  For this reason, on 23 June 1945, after she had returned to Halifax from Saint John, MILLTOWN sailed once more overseas.  She arrived at Plymouth on 9 July via St. John’s and the Azores.  Until 21 September she operated out of Portsmouth with the 31^st Minesweeping Flotilla.  On that date she left Plymouth for her final voyage home, in company with her fellow “Bangor” minesweepers, HMC Ships BLAIRMORE, FORT WILLIAM and GEORGIAN.

Her operational career was now over.  After calling at St. John’s, she continued on to Sydney where she landed stores.  In October she steamed to Shelburne, N.S., where she was paid off on the 16^th.  On 13 December 1946 she was turned over to the War Assets Disposal Corporation.  On 11 February 1959, the ship was sold to Marine Industries Limited, Sorel, P.Q., for scrap.