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Allied Warships

HMCS Assiniboine (I 18)

Destroyer of the C class

NavyThe Royal Canadian Navy
TypeDestroyer
ClassC 
PennantI 18 
Built byJ.S. White & Co. (Cowes, U.K.) 
Ordered 
Laid down18 Oct, 1930 
Launched29 Oct, 1931 
Commissioned19 Oct, 1939 
End service8 Aug, 1945 
Loss position
 
HistoryFormer HMS Kempenfelt, transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy at Devonport on 19 October 1939.

Decommissioned on 8 August 1945.
On 10 November 1945 while en route for scrapping at Baltimore, Assiniboine broke her tow and was wrecked near East Point, Prince Edward Island.
Her remains were broken up in situ in 1952.

Commanding Officers:
Cdr. Edmond Rollo Mainguy, RCN
10 September 1939 - 2 April 1940

Capt. George Clarence Jones, RCN
3 April 1940 - 15 September 1940
Promoted to Cmdre. (Commodore) on 7 June 1940

Capt. Cuthbert Robert Holland Taylor, RCN
15 September 1940 - 29 October 1940

Capt. Leonard Warren Murray, RCN
30 October 1940 - 11 February 1941

A/Lt.Cdr. John Hamilton Stubbs, RCN
12 February 1941 - 1 October 1942

Lt. Ralph Lucien Hennessy, RCN
2 October 1942 - 1 December 1942

Lt.Cdr. Ernest Patrick Tisdall, RCN
2 December 1942 - 10 February 1943
Promoted to Cdr. on 1 January 1943

Cdr. Kenneth Frederick Adams, RCN
11 February 1943 - 30 September 1943

A/Lt.Cdr. Robert Philip Welland, DSC, RCN
1 October 1943 - 8 November 1944

A/Lt.Cdr. Ralph Lucien Hennessy, DSC, RCN
9 November 1944 - 21 February 1945

Cdr. Edgar Lorne Armstrong, RCN
22 February 1945 - 8 August 1945 

Former nameHMS Kempenfelt (i)

Noteable events involving Assiniboine include:

8 Mar, 1940
The British light cruiser HMS Dunedin (Capt. C.E. Lambe, CVO, RN) and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine (Cdr. E.R. Mainguy, RCN) intercept and capture the German merchant Hannover near Jamaica.

The Hannover later became the first British escort carrier, British escort carrier HMS Audacity.

31 Aug, 1941
HMCS Assiniboine (A/Lt.Cdr. J.H. Stubbs, RCN) picks up 3 survivors from the British merchant Embassage that was torpedoed and sunk on 27 August 1941 by the German submarine U-557 about 100 nautical miles west of Achill Island in position 54º00'N, 13º00'W.

3 May, 1942
HMCS Assiniboine (A/Lt.Cdr. J.H. Stubbs, RCN) and HMCS Alberni (Lt.Cdr. G.O. Baugh, RCNR) together pick up 47 survivors from the British tanker British Workman that was torpedoed and sunk by the German sumarine U-455 south-south-east of Cape Race in position 44º07'N, 51º53'W.

6 Aug, 1942
The German submarine U-210 was sunk in the North Atlantic south of Cape Farewell, Greenland, in position 54º24'N, 34º37'W, by ramming, depth charges and gunfire from the Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine (A/Lt.Cdr. J.H. Stubbs, RCN). (see map)

2 Mar, 1943
HMCS Assininboine (Cdr. K.F. Adams, RCN) was damaged by her own depth charges when she tried to attack the German submarine U-119 in the middle of the North Atlantic. She proceeded to Liverpool, U.K. for repairs (arrived there on 7 March) and was out of action for nearly three months.

14 Feb, 1945
HMCS Assiniboine (A/Lt.Cdr. R.L. Hennessy, DSC, RCN) was damaged in a collision the merchant Empire Bond in the English Channel. Assiniboine went to Sheerness for repairs that lasted until early March.


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