Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star May 1945. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Telegram May 1945. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper Clipping – The Toronto Star May 9, page 31

HMCS Esquimalt – Minesweeper HMCS ESQUIMALT was operating with its sister ship HMCS SARNIA just off the east coast of Nova Scotia near Halifax when, at 6:20 in the morning of 16 April 1945, it was struck by a torpedo from a German submarine and sank so quickly it could not send out a distress call. Her seaboat was smashed and two of her six carley floats were useless, so those who could scramble from the fast-sinking vessel crowded into the four remaining floats. Many died in the first two hours while comrades watched helplessly. All were close to death. On one float, five of six men survived but on another only 12 out of 20 were alive when rescue came. It took seven hours until HMCS SARNIA arrived on the scene. As men died, their bodies were slipped overboard so that survivors in the water could get aboard the float. The torpedo, designed to inflict severe damage on larger vessels, destroyed the small mine sweeper A Halifax despatch said this was the second time within a few months that daring German raiders made their way through navy patrols to come practically within gunshot range of the port. In May, after the war with Germany had ended, a despatch said patrols would continue as an untold number of U-boats still were lurking in the North Atlantic and their fanatical commanders could strike one last blow before their fuel and food ran out. The commanding officer of U-190 surrendered to corvettes HMCS THORLOCK and VICTORIAVILLE on the 12th. [From the page dedicated to the memory of AS Donald White in the book Gananoque Remembers authored by Bill Beswetherick and Geraldine Chase.]