Picture of the day

Ah - here we are. They're in Kitchener:

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https://powsincanada.wordpress.com/pows-in-canada/pows-who-died-in-canada/

Makes sense, considering the historically large German population, and Kitchener's pre-WW1 name.
 
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But there are others, unaccounted for . . . forgotten. On a cold Lethbridge night, and if the wind is low, you can hear their moans, their regrets . . . and as they re-enter our world, with the knowledge that they can't make things right, they look for revenge . . .
 
MarkCNP said:
But there are others, unaccounted for . . . forgotten. On a cold Lethbridge night, and if the wind is low, you can hear their moans, their regrets . . . and as they re-enter our world, with the knowledge that they can't make things right, they look for revenge . . .
Click to expand...

Well that makes my Halloween costume easy for this year -- a sheet with eyeholes in it topped by a German helmet....
 
^^^^Considering that they're about to leap out of a functioning aircraft with 50+ pounds of kit depending on a few yards of silk to bring them to a (relatively) safe landing, I'd be worried too!!!!!! ;)
 
is it the last Canadian carrier on it's way to India for "scrapping" after a complete refit which may or may not have reappeared as an Indian carrier instead?
HMCS Bonaventure=INS Vikrant
 
I was on the Bonny in 69. Being from Ontario, it was the biggest ship I had ever seen. I was impressed. Then I saw it in a photo alongside one of the US big carriers. It looked like a tender then. But I was still impressed
 
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HMCS Magnificent (CVL 21) was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier that served the Royal Canadian Navy from 1948–1956. Initially ordered by the Royal Navy during the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy acquired the carrier as a larger replacement for its existing carrier. She was generally referred to as the Maggie in Canadian service. Following its return to the United Kingdom in 1956, the ship remained in reserve until being scrapped in 1965.
In May 1944, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) intended to expand its fleet in size of ships with if it were to take on a larger role in the Pacific theatre.[4] In October, the RCN offered to exchange the American-built escort carriers the RCN was currently operating, Puncher and Nabob, with the intention to acquire larger aircraft carriers from the Royal Navy.[8] The six Majestic class ships were considered surplus to Royal Navy plans, and the three furthest along in construction were offered for loan.[3]

In January 1945 the RCN negotiated the loan of two ships, Warrior (Colossus class) and Magnificent with the option to purchase at a later date.[4] Government approval of the deal was approved in February 1945.[8] Initially acquired from the Royal Navy to be part of Canada's Pacific fleet during the Second World War, Maggie was eventually acquired to replace Warrior, as the latter had been built in a hurry to serve in the Pacific and was unable to operate in cold climates.[5]

Due to delay in her completion, Magnificent was fully capable of operating in cold climates. The carrier was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 21 March 1948.[4]
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HMS Warrior was a Colossus-class light aircraft carrier which served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1948 (as HMCS Warrior), the Royal Navy from 1948 to 1958, and the Argentine Navy from 1959 to 1969 as ARA Independencia.

Royal Canadian Navy service[edit]
Acquisition
As the focus of future operations at sea during the Second World War shifted to the Pacific theatre, planning began in May 1944 that the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) would require a larger fleet both in numbers and in size of ships. In the effort to get bigger, the RCN returned the escort carriers currently on loan, Puncher and Nabob in exchange for the loan of two light fleet carriers. The acquisition of two ships, Warrior and Magnificent, was completed in January 1945 with the option to purchase them outright at a later date. Negotiations were completed in May, however the war ended before the ships were completed.[1]

Construction and service
Warrior was launched on 20 May 1944 and completed on 24 January 1946. She was loaned to the RCN, commissioned as HMCS Warrior and placed under the command of Captain Frank Houghton.[2] She entered Halifax harbour on 31 March 1946, a week after leaving Portsmouth. She was escorted by the destroyer HMCS Micmac and the minesweeper HMCS Middlesex. Initially, Warrior was equipped with Seafires of 803 Squadron and Fireflies of 825 Squadron.[1] The RCN experienced problems with the unheated equipment during operations in cold North Atlantic waters off eastern Canada during 1947. The ship was transferred west to Esquimalt in November 1947. The RCN deemed her unfit for service and, rather than retrofit her with equipment heaters and with reduced defence spending, the RCN could not afford two aircraft carriers. Warrior was then returned to the Royal Navy in exchange for Magnificent in February 1947.[1]
http://www.forposterityssake.ca/Navy/HMCS_WARRIOR_31.htm

HMCS_Bonaventure_%28CVL_22%29_underway_1961.jpeg



HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22) was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and the successor Canadian Forces Maritime Command from 1957 to 1970 and was the third and the last aircraft carrier to serve Canada's military. The ship was laid down for the British Royal Navy as HMS Powerful in November 1943 but work was suspended in 1946 following the end of the Second World War. At the time of purchase, the Canadian Navy made it a requirement that new aircraft carrier technologies be incorporated into the design. Bonaventure never saw combat during her career, however, she was involved in major NATO fleet-at-sea patrol during the Cuban Missile Crisis.[2]

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USS Willapa (AVG-53/ACV-53/CVE-53) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier (originally an auxiliary aircraft carrier) in the United States Navy, leased to the United Kingdom.

Willapa was laid down on 21 May 1943 at Seattle, Washington, by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation and reclassified CVE-53 on 10 June 1943. Launched on 8 November 1943, the ship was transferred under lend-lease to the Royal Navy on 5 February 1944 to be manned by a Canadian crew.

Renamed HMS Puncher (D79), the carrier served the Royal Canadian Navy except for Fleet Air Arm personnel in the Atlantic and Mediterranean for the duration of hostilities. Stationed with the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Puncher initially served in a training role, but was re-tasked to strike and convoy air protection (CAP) after her sister ship, HMS Nabob was torpedoed off Norway in 1944. Also part of her squadron was the US escort carrier USS Shamrock Bay. Puncher also provided convoy air protection on the Murmansk/Arkhangelsk convoy route which she did six times. Strike operations included against German occupied Norway industrial and shipping targets such as the steel works at Narvik on the west coast of Norway.

and the last one........
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Laid down as the merchant vessel Edisto, but converted to an aircraft carrier while building, she was commissioned HMS Nabob at Tacoma, Wash., on 07 Sep 1943. After working up, she entered Burrard Drydock at Vancouver on 01 Nov for modification to RN standards, completing 12 Jan 1944. About this time it was arranged that she and a near-sister Puncher, should be manned largely by Canadians while remaining RN ships. In Feb she embarked 852 Squadron (FAA) of Avengers at San Francisco and sailed for the U.K. via New York, where she took aboard a flight-deck cargo of Mustangs for the RAF. She joined the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow on 01 Aug, and that month took part in two operations off the Norwegian coast, the second being and attack on the Tirpitz. On 22 Aug, Nabob was torpedoed by U 354 in the Barents Sea, resulting in a hole some 32 feet square abaft the engine room and below the waterline. Amazingly, she made Scapa under her own power on 27 Aug, but was not considered worth repairing and was paid off at Rosyth on 10 Oct. She left there in 1947 to be broken up in Holland, but was resold and converted for merchant service, emerging in 1952 as the German MV Nabob. Sold Panamanian in 1967 and renamed Glory, she was broken up in Taiwan in 1978.
 
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