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Allied Warships

HMCS Alberni (K 103)

Corvette of the Flower class


HMCS Alberni during the war.

NavyThe Royal Canadian Navy
TypeCorvette
ClassFlower 
PennantK 103 
Built byYarrows Ltd. (Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada) 
Ordered14 Feb, 1940 
Laid down29 Apr, 1940 
Launched22 Aug, 1940 
Commissioned4 Feb, 1941 
Lost21 Aug, 1944 
Loss position50.18N, 00.51W (See a map)
 
HistoryHMCS Alberni never had her fo'c's'le extended.

At 11.40 hours on 21 August 1944, U-480 fired a Gnat at an unknown convoy and thought that she had sunk a frigate. In fact, the corvette HMCS Alberni (A/Lt.Cdr. Ian Hunter Bell, RCNVR) was hit and sunk in in the English Channel about 25 nautical miles south-east of St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight in position 50º18'N, 00º51'W. The survivors (three officers and 28 men) were rescued by the British motor torpedo boats HMS MTB-469 and HMS MTB-470 and taken to Portsmouth where the two injured men were treated. 59 off her crew went down with the ship. 

Hit by U-boat
Sunk on 21 Aug, 1944 by U-480 (Förster).


Noteable events involving Alberni include:

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.

27 Oct, 1942
HMCS Alberni (Lt. I.H. Bell, RCNVR) picks up 12 surivors from the American tanker Gurney E. Newlin that was torpedoed and damaged by the German submarine U-436 in the North Atlantic in position 54º51'N, 30º06'W.

The abandoned Gurney E. Newlin was finally sunk the next day by the German submarine U-606.

28 Oct, 1942
HMCS Alberni (Lt. I.H. Bell, RCNVR) and HMCS Ville de Quebec (Lt.Cdr. A.R.E. Coleman, RCNR) together pick up 81 survivors from the British whale factory ship Sourabaya that was torpedoed and sunk the previous day in the North Atlantic in position 54º32'N, 31º02'W by the German submarine U-436


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