Allied Warships

HMCS Alberni (K 103)

Corvette of the Flower class

HMCS Alberni during the war.

Navy	The Royal Canadian Navy
Type	Corvette
Class	Flower
Pennant	K 103
Built by	Yarrows Ltd. (Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada)
Ordered	14 Feb 1940
Laid down	29 Apr 1940
Launched	22 Aug 1940
Commissioned	4 Feb 1941
Lost	21 Aug 1944
Loss position	50° 18'N, 0° 51'W

History	HMCS 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).
U-boat Attack	See our U-boat attack entry for the HMCS Alberni

Commands listed for HMCS Alberni (K 103)

Please note that we're still working on this section.

	Commander	From	To
1	Lt. Gerald Ormsby Baugh, RCNR	6 Jan 1941	4 Apr 1942
2	T/Lt. Aubrey Winston Ford, RCNR	5 Apr 1942	12 Oct 1942
3	T/Lt. Ian Hunter Bell, RCNVR	12 Oct 1942	21 Aug 1944

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Notable events involving Alberni include:

3 May 1942
HMCS Assiniboine (A/Lt.Cdr. J.H. Stubbs, RCN) and HMCS Alberni (T/Lt. A.W. Ford, RCNR) together pick up 46 survivors from the British tanker British Workman that was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-455 south-south-east of Cape Race in position 44°07'N, 51°53'W.

27 Oct 1942
HMCS Alberni (Lt. I.H. Bell, RCNVR) picks up 12 survivors from the American tanker Gurney E. Newlin that was torpedoed and damaged by German U-boat U-436 in the North Atlantic in position 54°51'N, 30°06'W.

The abandoned Gurney E. Newlin was finally sunk the next day by German U-boat 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 54°32'N, 31°02'W by German U-boat U-436

22 Feb 1944
HMS L 26 (Lt. A.G. Prideaux, DSC, RN) conducted A/S exercises at/off St. Margarets Bay with HMCS Alberni (T/A/Lt.Cdr. I.H. Bell, RCNVR). (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). (2)