HMCS Rimouski (K121)

HMCS "Rimouski" (K121) was a Royal Canadian Navy Flower-class corvette which took part in convoy escort duties during World War II.

"Rimouski" was laid down at George T. Davie & Sons Ltd., Lauzon on 12 July 1940 and launched on 3 October 1940. She was commissioned into the RCN on 26 April 1941

"Rimouski" served in the Battle of the St. Lawrence and participated in RCN operations as part of Operation POINTE MAISONNETTE, the Canadian military's counter-offensive to the German military's Operation KIEBITZ. Operation KIEBITZ was a plan by the Kriegsmarine to have several senior naval officers (including Otto Kretschmer and Wolfgang Heyda) attempt to escape from the Camp 30 prisoner of war camp at Bowmanville, Ontario to rendezvous for a planned extraction by U-536 off Pointe de Maisonnette, New Brunswick on September 26-27, 1943.

Canadian military intelligence and police intercepted and decoded the encrypted Kriegsmarine instructions to its prisoners at Camp 30 and the RCN planned a response centred on an anti-submarine task force that would be hidden near the extraction point. "Rimouski" was outfitted with an experimental version of diffuse lighting camouflage for the operation. Military guards were aware of the tunneling efforts at Camp 30 but deliberately (and covertly) allowed them to proceed so as to not tip off the Kriegsmarine. Incidentally, Wolfgang Heyda did escape, however not by the tunnel as he used a zip wire on electrical cables to carry him outside the camp fence. He made his way by Canadian National Railways passenger trains to northern New Brunswick only to be apprehended by RCN and Canadian Army personnel on shore at the Pointe de Maisonnette lighthouse.

U-536 lurked offshore for the coded light signal from the escapees and the RCN personnel attempted to replicate what the escapees would have done, however the submarine detected the presence of the RCN task force led by "Rimouski" and remained submerged and evaded attack and/or capture.

The following spring, "Rimouski" was one of 57 RCN warships that participated in Operation Neptune, the code name for the Normandy Landings as part of D-Day (Operation Overlord).

A common tradition of painting a mascot on a naval ship's gun shields, the "Rimouski" featured a boisterous cowboy with a 10-gallon hat lassoing a U-boat from the back of his steed.

Crew

* Commodore Angus George Boulton was the commanding officer in 1941.
* Rear-Admiral John Pickford was the commanding officer from 1943-1944, being the youngest commanding officer in the RCN during World War II.
* Douglas Clark was the commanding officer from 1944-1945.

Decommissioning

"Rimouski" was decommissioned from the RCN on 24 July 1945. She was scrapped in December 1950 in Canada.

References

* [http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/search3.php?query=Rimouski&Submit=Find+Vessel HMCS "Rimouski" on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.]