Allied Warships

HMCS Swansea (K 328)

Frigate of the River class

Navy	The Royal Canadian Navy
Type	Frigate
Class	River
Pennant	K 328
Built by	Yarrows Ltd. (Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada)
Ordered	Oct 1941
Laid down	15 Jul 1942
Launched	19 Dec 1942
Commissioned	4 Oct 1943
End service	14 Oct 1966
History	Decommissioned 2 November 1945. Recommissioned as a Prestonian class frigate with penant number 306 on 14 November 1957. Decommissioned 14 October 1966.

Commands listed for HMCS Swansea (K 328)

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	Commander	From	To
1	T/Lt.Cdr. Clarence Aubrey King, DSO, DSC, RCNR	4 Oct 1943	4 Nov 1944
2	T/A/Lt.Cdr. John Trumbull Band, RCNVR	5 Nov 1944	15 Apr 1945
3	Lt.Cdr. Georges Albert LaRue, RCNVR	16 Apr 1945	2 Sep 1945

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Notable events involving Swansea include:

10 Mar 1944
German U-boat U-845 was sunk in the North Atlantic, in position 48°20'N, 20°33'W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Forester, the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, the Canadian corvette HMCS Owen Sound and the Canadian frigate HMCS Swansea.

10 Mar 1944
On that clear moonlit night, following the sinking of U-845, three of the attacking ships, Swansea, Forester and St. Laurent lay stopped while their whalers were launched and scrambling nets deployed to facilitate a total of Three Officers and Forty-two men being retrieved from the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Half that number, One Officer and Twenty-two men were rescued by HMCS Swansea to become POW's. (1)

7 Apr 1944
HMS H 50 (T/Lt. A.F. Wicker, RNVR) conducted A/S exercises off Lough Foyle with HMCS Stormont (T/Skr.Lt. G.A. Myra, RCNR), HMCS Matane (Lt.Cdr. A.F.C. Layard, DSO, RN), HMCS Swansea (A/Cdr. C.A. King, DSO, DSC, RCNR) and HMCS Owen Sound (T/Skr.Lt. J.M. Watson, RCNR). (2)

8 Apr 1944
HrMs O 9 (Lt. R.W. van Lynden, RNN) participated in A/S exercises off Lough Foyle together with HMCS Matane (Lt.Cdr. A.F.C. Layard, DSO, RN), HMCS Swansea (A/Cdr. C.A. King, DSO, DSC, RCNR), HMCS Stormont (T/Skr.Lt. G.A. Myra, RCNR), HMCS Owen Sound (T/Skr.Lt. J.M. Watson, RCNR) and HMS Abelia (A/Lt.Cdr. O.G. Stuart, RCNVR). (3)

14 Apr 1944
German U-boat U-448 in the North Atlantic north-east of the Azores, in position 46°22'N, 19°35'W, by depth charges from the Canadian frigate HMCS Swansea (A/Cdr. C.A. King, DSO, DSC, RCNR) and the British sloop HMS Pelican (Cdr. J.S. Dalison, DSO, RN).

14 Apr 1944
Following a devastating creeping attack, U-448 surfaced, then sank. Of a total of Five Officers and Thirty-seven men, Swansea rescued Seventeen and Pelican picked up the remaining Twenty-five. (1)

22 Apr 1944
German U-boat U-311 sunk in the North Atlantic south west of Iceland in position 52°09'N, 19°07'W, by depth charges from the Canadian frigates HMCS Matane (Lt.Cdr. A.F.C. Layard, DSO, RN) and HMCS Swansea (A/Cdr. C.A. King, DSO, DSC, RCNR).

22 Apr 1944
The fact that U-311 was destroyed by the depth charge attacks of Matane and/or Swansea, was unknown until years after WWII, when German and British intelligence attributed the kill to these two ships, as opposed to attack by aircraft, the latter having been thought to be the case prior to the post-war analyses. (1)

14 May 1944
HMS H 28 (Lt. A.S. Melville-Ross, DSC, RN) conducted A/S exercises off Lough Foyle with HMCS Stormont (T/Skr.Lt. G.A. Myra, RCNR), HMCS Swansea (A/Cdr. C.A. King, DSO, DSC, RCNR), HMCS Alberni (T/A/Lt.Cdr. I.H. Bell, RCNVR) and HMCS Port Arthur (T/Lt. K.T. Chisholm, RCNVR). (4)

1 Sep 1944
German U-boat U-247 was sunk in the Channel about 11 nautical miles south-east of Lands End, in position 49°54'N, 05°49'W, by depth charges from the Canadian frigates HMCS Saint John (A/Lt.Cdr. W.R. Stacey, RCNR) and HMCS Swansea (Lt.Cdr. A.F.C. Layard, DSO, RN).