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HMCS Sackville History
HMCS Sackville was one of more than 120 corvettes built in Canada
during the Second World War. Corvettes soon became the workhorses of the North Atlantic, escorting convoys and attacking
submarines. HMCS Sackville was built at Saint John, NB
and commissioned on 29 December 1941.  Serving in several well known
escort groups, C1, C2 and C3, Sackville escorted convoys from St. Johns to Londonderry,
Ireland.
From January 1942 to August 1944. Sackville was one of the original members
of the famous Barber Pole Group. This group with its red and white Barber
Pole Stripes painted on the funnel is still represented in the current
Navy.
During August 1942, in
a west bound convoy, 250 nautical miles east of Newfoundland, Sackville encountered a
U-boat on the surface. At a range of less than a fourth of a mile,
Sackville fired a star shell and the U-boat crash-dived. The corvette
accelerated, steamed into the swirl of water and fired a pattern of depth
charges.
The powerful blast
literally threw the U-boat to the surface. She slipped back into the water
and disappeared. Sackville was credited with a probable kill. Ninety
minutes later, Sackville engaged another surfaced U-boat in a lethal
ballet. Sackville zigged to ram, and the U-boat zigged to avoid, but
Sackville got one good 4 inch shell away, punching a large hole in the base
of the conning tower. Sackville was credited with a possibly damaged.
In September 1943,
Sackville was part of the escort group with the combined westbound convoys
ON. 202 and ONS. 18. These ill fated convoys became victims of the first
use of the acoustic torpedoes.
... In addition to
several merchant ships, four of the escorts were torpedoed and sunk: the
frigate HMS Lagan, the four stack destroyer HMCS St. Croix, the corvette
HMS Polyanthus and the frigate HMS Itchen. Itchen had survivors from the
first two ships, and when she too was torpedoed there was heavy loss of
life.  See the convoy escort diagram
below for Sackville’s position and the last few minutes of activity before
HMS Itchen was torpedoed. When Itchen blew up, pieces of her superstructure
landed on the Canadian corvette HMCS Morden. It was during the enemy action
prior to the sinking of Itchen that Sackville having fired depth charges
experienced a tremendous explosion. It was thought that the depth charges
detonated a torpedo close alongside. The number one boiler was severely
damaged. Much later, when efforts to make repairs were unsuccessful it was
decided to take Sackville from active service and use her as a training
ship and later a Canadian Naval Auxiliary Vessel (CNAV) research vessel.
This action prolonged the life of the ship, making her available as The
Canadian Naval Memorial.
Thanks to Trustee and WWII Corvette veteran Max Corkum.
Trustees and friends of Sackville - Personal and Anecdotal
Information
The education service crew HMCS Sackville is on the hunt for personal
and anecdotal information that can be included in the growing historical
database and for publication on the Sackville web site. Old
photographs, with an accompanying statement or paragraph describing its
content, e.g. who, year, location etc., are prime items for this
activity. Please take the time to dig through your old storage areas
and locate these important mementos! The Trust will record/digitize
the information for all to enjoy now and for years to come. When submitting
your material, please indicate whether you would like the photo or original
documents returned or have it recorded and included in the collection on
board Sackville. Do not let these important records of history vanish!!!
Protect your story and Canadian heritage by forwarding them to:
Education Services
(Attn: Gary Thain)
c/o Executive Director
HMCS Sackville
PO Box 99000 STN FORCES
Halifax, NS
B3K 5X5
gthain@hfx.eastlink.ca
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