HMCS IROQUOIS^1. was the first "Tribal" destroyer to commission in the Royal Canadian Navy and her arrival marked a new departure in naval warfare for the rapidly expanding Canadian navy. As far back as the dark days of 1940,^2. when the RCN comprised little more than a scant force of some six pre-war "River" Class destroyers, and even before the first stalwart corvette had made her way to sea, Canadian naval planners were beginning to think in terms of an offensive strategy which would carry Canada's war at sea to the very doorstep of the enemy. Aggressively armed, the Tribals were designed as hard hitting, swift moving ships of war which would operate with the. Royal Navy's Home Fleet destroyers in the North Atlantic and in the danger studded waters about the British Isles.

    IROQUOIS' keel was laid down in the Vickers-Armstrong Yard at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 19 September, 1940. The following year, on 23 September, she was launched by Mrs Vincent Massey, wife of the High Commissioner for Canada.  A disappointing series of delays, occasioned by the shortages of material and labour in beleaguered Britain, postponed her eventual commissioning date for still another year. The main body of IROQUOIS' company began to arrive in the United Kingdom in October 1942 and were accommodated in HMCS NIOBE.  Courses were arranged at RN establishments for a large proportion of the personnel, since many of them had had little or no previous experience in destroyers. On Monday, 30 November 1942, at Newcastle, under the command of Commander W.B.L. Holms, RCN, and with the Naval Chaplain on the staff of the Flag Officer-in-Charge, Tyne, officiating, IROQUOIS was commissioned in the RCN.

    IROQUOIS passed the first nine days of December 1942 storing ship and carrying out preliminary power trials. On 11 December the destroyer proceeded from Methil on the Firth of Forth for the windswept Royal Navy anchorage at Scapa Flow, "where all seems devised for the welfare of ships and the discomfort of men".  Upon arrival, 12 December, IROQUOIS came under the administration of the Rear-Admiral (Destroyers) Home Fleet for working-up exercises.  During "work-ups" in the turbulent winter waters off the Orkneys, weaknesses in IROQUOIS' hull structure began to appear.  On 29 January the destroyer returned to North Shields on the Tyne where four weeks were required to make good the damage and install additional stiffenings.

    Work was completed by 24 February 1943 and IROQUOIS shaped course for Londonderry whence she sailed  independently to Halifax for examination by dockyard and building officials who were to begin construction of Tribal destroyers in Canada.  Unfortunately, the ship had run into heavy weather off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and upon her arrival in Halifax on 6 March it was again found necessary to dock the ship for repairs. Many of the difficulties which had plagued IROQUOIS during her long and tedious "work-up" resulted from the fact that since the original tribal structure had been developed by the Admiralty, a vast amount of new equipment and armament had been added and the ship's hull had not the strength to carry it.  It was not until IROQUOIS had been adequately strengthened that this trouble was finally overcome.  The RCN Tribals which were later built in Canada were stiffened during construction.  But IROQUOIS, Canadian pioneer in the "Tribal" Class of destroyer, was to experience to the hilt all the frustrations, set-backs and tribulations which accompany inevitably the adoption of a new class of warship.

    At noon on 15 March, IROQUOIS left Halifax for the return voyage to Britain, stopping en route for a brief call at St. John's, Newfoundland.  Shortly after proceeding Out to sea, on 19 March, the destroyer ran into a severe north-westerly gale. At the height of the storm, two of IROQUOIS' men, attempting to go to the aid of an injured shipmate, were washed overboard and lost.

    Arriving back at Scapa on 24 March, IROQUOIS was allocated for service with the Home Fleet and the next three weeks were taken up with exercises in northern waters.  During the latter part of April 1943, IROQUOIS  was employed on close escort duty with such mighty warships of the British navy as the battleships KING GEORGE V and MALAYA. While in company with the latter, on 24 April, IROQUOIS ran into her old bugbear, heavy weather,  sustaining damage which put her back into dry dock again, this time at Devonport.  During her period in dry dock, the  severely tried destroyer was subjected to still further damage when an RAF barrage balloon, which had broken from its moorings during a gale, landed on the ship just abaft the after funnel carrying away the wireless antenna.

    On 3 June IROQUOIS became operational again and, having been transferred to the Plymouth Command, proceeded to sea in company with the Polish destroyer ORKAN and HMS WENSLEYDALE to provide an anti-submarine escort for the RN battleship RAMILLIES bound for the Clyde.  The remainder of the month passed in a busy round of activity, escorting Gibraltar bound convoys out to sea and returning with incoming ones. On 9 July 1943, IROQUOIS sailed as part of the escort for the liners CALIFORNIA, DUCHESS OF YORK and PORT FAIRY, bound from Britain to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the transports were to embark troops for service in the Middle East.

    Towards evening on 11 July, the convoy and its escorts were steaming a zig-zag course some 300 miles west of Vigo, Spain, in calm, cloudless weather.  At 2035 an enemy plane was sighted, shadowing the convoy and hovering just out of gun range.  Half an hour later it was joined by two more Focke-Wulfs and shortly afterwards the planes came in to the attack, down sun, from the north-west. The aircraft concentrated their attacks on the troop transports CALIFORNIA and DUCHESS OF YORK which were shortly mortally ablaze.  IROQUOIS was singled out for attack at 2136 but a heavy barrage from her 4" high angle guns and multiple pom-pom forced the plane to alter sharply away.

    Three minutes later another Focke-Wulf came in for a second attack on IROQUOIS.  Her Captain ordered "full ahead" and violent avoiding action was taken; the bombs fell harmlessly astern.  The enemy then withdrew eastwards leaving the escort (two destroyers and a frigate) to carry out the difficult and arduous task of rescuing survivors.  Submarines were known to be in the vicinity and at first IROQUOIS, then the RN frigate SWALE, who joined the group from Gibraltar, carried out an anti-submarine sweep during the rescue operation.  Together the escorts succeeded in picking up some 1880 survivors, 660 being accommodated in IROQUOIS.  The ship's company performed throughout the ordeal with great skill and determination; many feats of gallantry and devotion to duty were noted by the Commanding Officer.  At 0135 on the 12th, having given orders to MOYALA to sink the hulks of the DUCHESS OF YORK  and CALIFORNIA with torpedoes, IROQUOIS shaped course for Casablanca where the survivors (some of them seriously wounded) were disembarked.  Commander Holms and two of IROQUOIS' crew were afterwards presented with the Czechoslovak Military Cross for rescuing nine Czechoslovak officers borne in the troop ships.

    Before she left Casablanca, the destroyer embarked one German officer and five ratings to be landed in the United Kingdom.  These prisoners were survivors of U-506. a 740 ton enemy submarine which had been sunk on 12 July 1943 by a US Liberator aircraft operating from the Gibraltar area.  They had been picked up by HM Destroyer HURRICANE and conveyed to Casablanca.  It is interesting to note that their Commanding Officer, who did not survive the sinking, had claimed to have sunk, during the three patrols he did in the submarine, seventeen ships, totalling in all 99,961 tons.^3.  IROQUOIS, on the evening of 19 July, proceeded to sea in company with her sister ship HMCS ATHABASKAN and the Polish destroyer ORKAN, with orders to carry out a sweep against enemy submarines and shipping in the Bay of Biscay.  The group patrolled in the "Musketry" ^4. area of the bay.  At 2225 the 21st, IROQUOIS sighted a Spanish fishing vessel to the eastward, the MONOLO of Corunna, and, on being instructed to sink her, did so after embarking her crew of fourteen.

    At 0827 the following morning, IROQUOIS sighted and sank another, the ISOLINA COSTADE, while a third, the VIVERO, fell a victim to ORKAN's guns.  These vessels were sunk in an area which had been prohibited to them by Admiralty several months before because there was good reason to believe that they were less interested in fishing than in the more profitable occupation of spying.  In the southern Bay of Biscay approaches, where British shipping movements were important, there was ample opportunity for it.  Warnings had been issued repeatedly by broadcasts and leaflets dropped by aircraft, as well as by intercepting British warships. This was the first action taken against them to enforce the orders. Westward of the area about fifteen more fishing vessels were sighted spread over a large area.  As they were not in a position likely to prejudice the success of the operation, they were not molested. The following day ORKAN fired on a lurking Focke-Wulf 200 aircraft and drove it off.

    On the afternoon of the 24th, the group were directed by a Sunderland to a position where they found a raft containing five survivors of U-55^ which had been sunk by aircraft on the 20th.  Dead bodies in life belts were also seen in the area.  During the early morning of the 25th, survivors of U-459. sunk by the RAF, were rescued.  These were made up of five officers and thirty two men.  Survivors of a Wellington aircraft which had been shot down during the action against this submarine, were also sought by the group.  IROQUOIS, some three miles from ORKAN found the  aircraft's dinghy.  In it was the tail gunner, but four  other reported survivors were not seen. ^5.

    Upon completion of this mission with the Plymouth Command, IROQUOIS was dispatched northwards to rejoin the Home Fleet.  Her arrival at Scapa was delayed, however, due to another period in dock, this time to repair damage sustained while in collision on 28 July with the trawler KINGSTON BERYL in the Irish Sea.  Arriving at Scapa on 26 August, IROQUOIS was assigned to the desolate "Murmansk Run", the treacherous route to North Russia, where bitterly needed supplies for the hard pressed Russian front were convoyed through waters daily searched by Nazi U-boats and aircraft and menaced by German battleships and cruisers.

    IROQUOIS' first assignment (Operation "Holder") into Arctic waters was not, however, carried out as convoy escort but as part of a special naval force dispatched to North Russia with vital war supplies, a number of important passengers and mail for British personnel at Polyarnoe, North Russia.  The destroyers IROQUOIS and HURON with HMS ONSLAUGHT, left Scapa on 1 October for Skaalefiord in the Faeroes, where, after refuelling, they shaped course for Kola Inlet.  The destroyers arrived at Murmansk at 0200 on 6 October and, after speedily disembarking passengers and cargo, sailed again at 2215 on the same day, carrying with them several members of the Russian diplomatic corps.

    Back in port only two days, IROQUOIS was sent out again to take part in operation "F.Q.".  This operation was designed to carry relief personnel and stores to the garrison at Spitzbergen and it was timed to coincide with operation "F.R." (the passage of a number of Russian minesweepers and small A/S vessels to Murmansk) so that the heavy covering naval force would be available for both operations.  IROQUOIS, with HMCS HAIDA, HM Ships VIGILANT, JANUS, HARDY and USS CORRY, formed the destroyer screen for the British battleship ANSON, the fleet carrier USS RANGER and the cruiser HMS NORFOLK, which comprised the support force. On 2? October IROQUOIS was ordered to the Clyde to pick up the destroyer depot ship HMS TYNE and escort her back to Scapa.  After her arrival back at base on the 30th, IROQUOIS lay alongside TYNE until 5 November cleaning boilers.

    In operation "F.T." which occupied the next three weeks, IROQUOIS, with her sister Tribals HAIDA and HURON, formed part of the destroyer flotilla under HMS ONSLOW assigned to escort convoy JW-54A to Russia and convoy RA-54B on the return journey.  The convoys to North Russia had been discontinued during the summer months of 1943 and JW-54.A was the first one to sail when they were resumed in November of that year.  Convoy JW-5U, consisting of 19 merchant ships, left Loch Ewe on I? November.  Its progress was impeded by a north-westerly gale on the first day out and though U-boats were known to be in the vicinity, all ships arrived safely.^6.  On 26 November IROQUOIS was alongside at Polyarnoe, when a Russian submarine, returning to her  base at the end of a 21 day patrol, entered the harbour firing a salute of four guns.  The Admiral in charge explained to the curious Canadians that this salute was to indicate that the submarine had been successful in sinking four enemy ships.  In keeping with a Northern Fleet custom, the Admiral further elaborated, four pigs and a liberal amount of vodka would be immediately bestowed upon the submarine's crew.

    On Christmas Day, 1943, the four Canadian Tribals were at sea escorting convoys on the "Murmansk Run".  ATHABASKAN was part of the close escort for RA-55A, returning from Kola Inlet to Britain and IROQUOIS, HAIDA and HURON were on escort duty with JW-55B, the third convoy in the new series destined for Russia and the fateful convoy which was to lure the SCHARNHORST to her destruction. Unhappily for Grand Admiral Doenitz, Commander-in-Chief of the German navy, who reasoned that since two convoys had already passed unmolested by German forces, the enemy would probably be less prepared for trouble, a heavy British battle fleet had put to sea to reinforce the passage of north-bound JW-55B and home-bound RA-55A. Ironically enough, the suspicions of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, flying his flag in the battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK, had been aroused by the very ruse which the enemy had employed to trap them.  On 23 December Force 1, comprising the RN cruisers BELFAST⁷., " NORFOLK (who had stalked the BISMARCK to her doom) and SHEFFIELD had steamed down the Norwegian coast from Kola Inlet in the event the SCHARNHORST, hidden in her anchorage at Altenfiord, might be tempted to come out.

    At 2300 on the same day, Force 2^8. steamed out of Akureyri, Iceland, ready to do battle if the German raider should put to sea.  The SCHARNHORST, blithely unaware that any capital ships were in the area, departed Altenfiord escorted by the German 4th Destroyer Flotilla at 1900 on 25 December.  It was to be her last sortie into the North Atlantic. During the next twenty four hours, SCHARNHORST twice attempted to close convoy JW-55B and twice was driven off by the accurate gun-fire of the British cruisers in Force 1.  From their station as close escort for the merchant ships the Canadian Tribals watched with understandable concern the glow of the fire-works over the horizon.  At this point HMS ONSLOW, Senior Officer of the convoy escort, passed the code word "Strike"—the order for the destroyers to form up on their divisional leaders for a torpedo attack.  This order was cancelled shortly
afterwards when the SCHARNHORST retired.  Despite the fact that the German battle cruiser possessed fire power far superior to the British cruisers present, (who endeavoured  to hold SCHARNHORST until the DUKE OF YORK, hurrying up from the south-west, could engage her) the Nazi warship chose to rely on her superior speed and fled. Not, however, that the SCHARNHORST was in any way lacking in gallantry.  As the only capital ship in northern waters in operational readiness, she was under orders from Doenitz not to risk destruction in a duel with heavy ships. When the superior guns of the DUKE OF YORK finally caught and crippled her, SCHARNHORST went down, about 60 miles north east of Norway's North Cape, with her colours flying and all guns that had not been disabled still firing. The convoy, meanwhile, proceeded on its way. Constantly shadowed by both German U-boats and aircraft, the merchant ships were all brought safely into Kola Inlet on 29 December.

    As the year 1943 drew to a close, IROQUOIS could look back on the first six months of her operational career with a feeling of satisfaction.  Her ship's company was surely and firmly welding the destroyer into a first class fighting ship.⁹  But IROQUOIS' severest tests and greatest triumphs were to come in 1944--the year of the invasion, when the destroyer, in company with other Allied warships was to distinguish herself in a series of night actions off the French coast particularly in the Bay of Biscay.

    IROQUOIS arrived back at Scapa, after an uneventful return voyage with RA-55B, on 6 January. Shortly afterwards she was transferred, along with HAIDA, to the Plymouth Command in order to strengthen the naval forces pressing home the attack against enemy shipping along the French coast and to establish a firm control of the entire Channel area in readiness for the grand assault in June 1944.  From the 4th to the 13th of February, IROQUOIS, together with HAIDA and ATHABASKAN, was recalled for duty with the Home Fleet to take part in: Operation "Posthorn".  This was planned as an air strike from the carrier HMS FURIOUS ^10. against enemy shipping in the shoal studded waters between Stadlandet and Ytteroerne on the Norwegian coast.  The German coast-wise traffic off Norway was of great importance to the enemy's hold on the northern areas of that country for it was the primary means of communication with the remote Nazi garrisons stationed there. The three Canadian Tribals formed part of the destroyer screen for the heavy support force consisting of the battleships HMS ANSON and FS RICHELIEU and the RN cruisers BELFAST and NIGERIA ^11.

    The hunt for enemy shipping, however, did not prove very fruitful and, no worth-while targets being encountered by the aircraft, an attack was carried out on an alternate objective, the beached SS EMSLAND.  A merchant ship of 5,200 tons, the EMSLAND had been damaged earlier by aircraft of the Coastal Command and was now undergoing repairs.  An attack was successfully carried out and the battle force returned to Scapa on 12 February. None of the surface ships saw any action throughout this operation.

    On 18 February 1944 IROQUOIS departed Plymouth for Halifax where she was to go into refit.  While on passage, some 250 miles off the French coast, IROQUOIS' asdic operator gave the alert that torpedoes were approaching on the starboard bow.  The destroyer was successfully manoeuvred to comb the tracks of the torpedoes, believed to be "gnats" ^12., fired from a submerged U-boat.  After a brief stop-over at Horta in the Azores, IROQUOIS arrived in Canada on 26 February 1944.  A refit began in Halifax which lasted until 26 May.  On 1 June she sailed for Liverpool via St. John's, Newfoundland. She arrived back in England on 8 June, two days after D-Day, when the eyes of a tense world watched with hope and with prayer as the Allied forces of liberation challenged Hitler's Panzer divisions on the blood-stained beaches of Normandy. To IROQUOIS' crew, secured alongside at Liverpool, undergoing intensive courses in harbour training while new radar equipment was being installed, it must have proved a frustrating time indeed.  But plenty of action awaited her return to the Plymouth Command and IROQUOIS' company would have many occasions to sing the praises of her new radar equipment.

    On 1 August 1944, IROQUOIS sailed to rejoin the 10th Destroyer Flotilla at Plymouth.  During this month the ship really hit her stride and her Commanding Officer, Commander J. C. Hibbard, DSC, RCN, noted with pride in his report for August that:
 

"August 1944 has been HMCS IROQUOIS' best month since commissioning.
The ship steamed a total of 9,750 miles and spent 26 days at sea carrying out
anti-shipping patrols off the French coast.  Most of this time was spent within
sight of the French coast, and the majority of the nights at sea  ship's company
was closed up at Action  Stations".

    Force 26, consisting of the British cruiser BELLONA (Senior Officer), the RN destroyers TARTAR and ASHANTI and the Canadian Tribals HAIDA and IROQUOIS, was sweeping near lie d'Yeu in the Bay of Biscay on the night of 5 August when radar echoes of an enemy convoy working slowly to seaward of lie d'Yeu were picked up. The British-Canadian force held their fire until the moment when they could cut in between the enemy and the land, and at 0034 on the 6th the order was given to move in and engage the enemy.  When the action was broken off two hours later, the convoy and its escort, believed to have totalled 6 or 9 ships, had gone down to almost total destruction. IROQUOIS' Commanding Officer noted later in his account of the action that:
 

"A young and inexperienced ship's company went through their baptism of fire
showing  most commendable steadiness such that the greatest possible use was
made of the opportunity presented to achieve the object of destroying enemy ships."

Survivors of the action who later were picked up stated that eight or nine hundred special troops who were being "evacuated in the coasters had gone down with their ships.  None of the Allied ships sustained any hits, but an unfortunate accident in HAIDA, when a shell exploded upon entering the breach of one of her after guns, killed two of her gunners and wounded eight more.

    However, the damage to HAIDA was not crippling and Force 26 regrouped and went into attack a second enemy convoy at 0335.  The results of the second action were inconclusive although some damage was believed to have been inflicted and the convoy forced to put back to port.  At 0630, with daylight approaching, Force 26 was ordered by Commander-in-Chief Plymouth to return to harbour.  As the group altered to the westward to comply, IROQUOIS was detached to reinforce EG-2 and EG-11, ^14. "hunter-killer" groups which were engaged in tracking down U-boats in the English Channel.  At 1611 on 6 August, while IROQUOIS was patrolling in line abreast with the 2nd Escort Group, HMS LOCH KILLIN destroyed U-736 in a brief single-handed attack with her newly fitted Squid ^15. . Three officers and sixteen ratings from this U-boat were picked up and transferred to HMCS KOOTENAY for passage to Plymouth^16.

    On the night of 14/15 August 1944, IROQUOIS took part in another operation against enemy shipping in the approaches to La Rochelle.  On this occasion IROQUOIS formed part of Force 27 with the British cruiser MAURITIUS (Senior Officer), and the destroyer HMS URSA. A small enemy convoy rounding Les Sables d'Olonne on a southerly course was engaged at 0305 on the 15th.  In the brilliant bursts of Force 27's star-shell, the enemy
was revealed as two merchant vessels and an Elbing destroyer. At once, the destroyer turned to cover the convoy with smoke, at the same time firing a broadside of torpedoes. All torpedoes passed harmlessly ahead of IROQUOIS. Immediately afterwards, shore batteries on Les Sables d'Olonne and Ile de Ré opened a hot and heavy barrage of  fire against the Force.  The fire was uncomfortably accurate, but by good fortune all of the Allied ships  escaped damage.  At the end of the engagement the two  merchant ships were burning fiercely but the destroyer, having suffered a number of hits, escaped at high speed.

    At 0335 the Force was reformed and a northerly course resumed.  An hour later, IROQUOIS' radar (which performed with remarkable efficiency during these operations) picked up another contact at six miles.  This proved to be a small tanker which was repeatedly hit by all three ships until it had run itself aground.  Towards morning, at 0620,  a convoy of several ships crawling down the coast east of Ile d'Yeu was engaged by the destroyers, the shoal watersbeing too treacherous in which to risk the cruiser.  The enemy, believed to consist of two merchant ships escorted by two "M" Class minesweepers, returned the fire with much spirit.  The enemy ships, however, were quickly silenced and, as Force 27 withdrew, the ships, burning heavily, had beached themselves.  At 1015 on 16 August the Force shaped course to return to Plymouth, well-pleased with the results of their patrol:
 

2 medium merchant vessels set on fire, beached and destroyed.
1 small tanker beached and destroyed.
2 "M" Class minesweepers destroyed.
1 small merchant vessel or "M" Class  minesweeper set on fire and damaged.
1 "Elbing" destroyer damaged, but escaped, no other vessels escaped ^17.

    The following week, on the night of 22/23 August, IROQUOIS took part in her final assignment with operation "Kinetic".  Again with MAURITIUS and URSA in Force 27, IROQUOIS sailed from Plymouth at 1630 on 20 August with orders to carry out an offensive patrol in the Bay of Biscay.  Throughout the morning of 21 August the Force patrolled in the vicinity of Ile d'Yeu and in the afternoon proceeded into the area near Les Sables d'Olonne to confirm the results of the previous week's action.  The patrol throughout the next two days was quiet except for a brief burst of fire from the battery in the approaches to the Gironde River which straddled both IROQUOIS and MAURITIUS on the morning of 22 August. Towards evening the Force turned in towards Audierne Bay, the only area where enemy forces proceeding from Brest to Lorient could be intercepted with some measure of sea-room.

    At 0017 on the 23rd, IROQUOIS obtained a contact close inshore off Pointe du Raz.  Force 27 stood out to sea for a tantalizing 20 minutes to let the enemy get well--out into the bay.  IROQUOIS was then ordered to lead the ships in, in line ahead, followed by URSA and MAURITIUS.  Fire was opened at 0209 at a range of 4,000 yards.  Star-shell illumination revealed an enemy convoy of two armed merchant ships, one "M." Class minesweeper and a flak ship. According to MAURITIUS' account of the action:
 

"The enemy immediately made smoke and  turned to give an end-on target, returning
Force 27's fire with spirit.  The shore  battery at Audierne joined in, but on the
whole their fire was ragged and inaccurate. One medium sized merchant ship was hit
almost immediately by MAURITIUS, blew up and sank at once.  The remaining three
ships were repeatedly hit, one trawler being driven aground on fire in the  entrance
to Port Audierne.  The second merchant ship was set heavily on fire and sank close
westward of the reef off Port Audierne.  The minesweeper was stopped, damaged
and aground, not  many hundred yards from the place Captain Pellew, with two frigates in
1797 drove the French 80-gun Ship-of-the-Line DROITS DE L'HOMME ashore, causing
over 1,000 French sailors and soldiers to perish." ^18.

    IROQUOIS' activities off the coast of France during the last week of August 1944 constituted a relatively peaceful assignment.  She was ordered to patrol in the Bay of Biscay and to land armed parties at various points along the coast and outlying islands.  Where the Resistance Forces (FFI) were strong, she was to establish liaison with the leaders of the underground and gather intelligence information.

    On the afternoon of 26 August, a party of four from IROQUOIS equipped with a portable W/T set disembarked and went ashore at Port Joinville on Ile d'Yeu.  The day previous, the last of the German garrison had evacuated the island, taking with them the Mayor and nineteen citizens for having weapons in their possession.  Also, prior to their departure, they had looted the local post office and wrecked all radar equipment on the island, as well as the lighthouse, which was the third largest in France.  IROQUOIS' men received a hearty reception from the FFI ^21. and the 4,000 French civilians on the island. The local population, anxious to show their pleasure, not only co-operated to the full, but, with the last of their remaining store of food, entertained the group at a party.  There was a festive note in the air and Frenchmen everywhere were eager to celebrate an occasion dear to their hearts.  On this day, 26 August 1944 General De Gaulle had made his triumphant entry down the Champs Elysees to mark the formal liberation of Paris.

    On the 27th and 28th of August, IROQUOIS carried out similar landings at St. Guenole on the Penmarch Peninsula where the FFI were very active.  The landing parties returned to the ship with valuable information concerning enemy movements, the positions of shore batteries and the extent of mining in coastal waters.  IROQUOIS' routine of watch-keeping off the Biscay coast was broken early in September when the destroyer was detached on a special assignment, (Operation "Octagon"), to act as destroyer escort, as far as the Azores, for the SS QUEEN MARY bound for Canada.  Among her valuable cargo of passengers the liner carried Prime Minister Churchill, on his way to meet President Roosevelt for their second historic meeting at Quebec. Upon her return to Plymouth, IROQUOIS was taken in hand for boiler cleaning prior to her return to the Biscay area. A final assignment to land armed parties at Les Sables d'Olonne on the 23rd and 30th September 1944 completed IROQUOIS' operations in the Biscay area.  On the 16 October she departed Plymouth, detached from the 10th Destroyer Flotilla and temporarily transferred to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow.

    Three weeks later, on 6 November, IROQUOIS was back under the operational control of Commander-in-Chief Plymouth where she remained until the middle of March 1945. Throughout this period the destroyer operated on detached duty as close escort for capital ships and troop transports in the dangerous coastal waters off the British Isles where schnorkel-equipped U-boats now lurked.  Prior to the general introduction of schnorkel in the summer of 1944, only the boldest of U-boat "aces" dared to traverse these in-shore waters where their chances of escaping unscathed were slim indeed.  Schnorkel revolutionized the tactical grounds on which the submarine war was fought.

Operating often in defiance of Allied air power, it threatened one of the pillars on which ascendancy over the Nazi underwater fleet had been built.  Between the l8th and 28th December 1944, two enterprising U-boat captains patrolling in the English Channel, sank eight ships—a small number in comparison with the vast volume of shipping which now ploughed the convoy lanes in support of the advancing armies of liberation, but what was disquieting was the fact that they escaped to tell of their success.  Their immunity to air and surface attack aided by the difficult asdic conditions prevalent in in-shore waters, the U-boats, on the eve of the Allied victory in Europe, were enjoying their greatest successes since the brisk spring of 1943.

    After a busy winter on close escort duty, IROQUOIS spent a short period boiler cleaning at Plymouth early in March 1945.  On 16 March she departed for Scapa Flow to take part in a series of operations with units of the Home Fleet.  IROQUOIS sailed from Scapa for the first of these operations "Cupola"), on 19 March, as part of Force One ^22. detailed to lay mines in the narrow waters off Granesund on. the coast of Norway.  The operation was successfully carried out on the 20th under excellent weather conditions and without enemy opposition.  The destroyers saw no action and remained throughout in company with the heavy units standing about a hundred miles out to sea beyond the enemy's own mine barrier. Four days later, on 24 March, IROQUOIS set out again from her base at Scapa, this time as part of  Force Two ^23. . The operation ^24. was planned as an air strike against enemy shipping in the Trondheim leads, but, not finding any worthwhile targets on the morning of 26 March, the bomb-carrying Avengers attacked radar and other important installations along the channels.  On the morning of the 28th a second strike was flown off against several enemy merchant ships, two of them being set on fire. Although the surface forces saw no action, three ME 109's were destroyed in combat and one Allied Barracuda aircraft was lost ^25. .

    IROQUOIS, in company with the RN destroyers ONSLOW, (Senior Officer), ZEALOUS and ZEST took part in a surface ship action (Operation "Foxchase"), against shipping off the Norwegian coast ^26. on 4 April 1945.  At 0011 four medium-sized merchant vessels, accompanied by three escort vessels, were engaged in a vigorous exchange of gun-fire. All the destroyers scored hits on the convoy which promptly altered course and made for shore. Unfortunately, the Senior Officer, believing that the danger from E-boats and submarines in the vicinity (IROQUOIS reported two on the surface at 0035) made the battle area too hot for the destroyers, gave orders to withdraw to seaward. Intelligence reports later revealed, to the disappointment of the Force, that no enemy ships had been sunk and none seriously damaged. IROQUOIS' next assignment (Operation "Roundel") took her back to the familiar convoy route to North Russia. With her sister Tribals HAIDA and HURON, IROQUOIS formed part of a heavy force ^27. detailed to escort JW-66 ^28. to Kola Inlet.

    Although the inevitable surrender of German forces was now, after six years of bitter conflict, close at hand, and everywhere in Europe Nazi strength was shrinking to the battleground around Berlin, at sea, the enemy's submarine flotillas still fought with much of their old skill and daring. On 22 April 1945, three days before the destroyers shepherded JW-66 safely into the anchorage at Vaenga Bay, two merchant ships had been torpedoed and sunk close by the mouth of Kola Inlet. So it was that to the last day of the war,^29.  merchant ships had still to move in convoy and in the waters off Russia and Norway the danger from U-boats remained as acute as ever.

    Considerable enemy activity enlivened IROQUOIS' return passage to Britain with convoy RA-66.  Shortly before the convoy departed (midnight on 29 April), frigates of the Royal Navy 19th Escort Group succeeded in destroying two U-boats, U-307 and U-286. in the approaches to Kola Inlet.  In retaliation, the enemy claimed one of the Group's frigates, HMS GOODALL.  Although RA-66 passed through the danger area without loss, the going was hard, and both HAIDA and IROQUOIS reported "near misses" by torpedoes. It was to be the last chance the enemy was to have at the Canadian Tribals.  The convoy arrived without loss at the Clyde, 6 May 1945, in time to celebrate the Allied victory in Europe.

    Only the fighting was over; much work remained to be done.  On 9 May, IROQUOIS was ordered to Rosyth where she formed part of the destroyer screen for the British Force proceeding to Oslo, returning Crown Prince Olaf, after years of exile, to his capital.  Having completed this operation, IROQUOIS steamed for Copenhagen where she joined the British cruisers DEVONSHIRE and DIDO and the RN destroyer SAVAGE.  On 24 May she sailed, as part of this force, to escort the German cruisers PRINZ EUGEN and NURNBERG to Wilhelmshaven where they were to await their disposal by the Allies.

    For Canada's Tribals, the job in European waters was drawing to a close.  On 4 June 1945, HAIDA, HURON and IROQUOIS, in company, shaped course for Halifax. Here the ship was to be taken in hand for tropicalization prior to her departure for the Pacific where she was slated to join the British Fleet in the war against Japan. IROQUOIS arrived in harbour on 10 June and two weeks later went into refit.  However, before this was completed, the Japanese surrender on the 14th of August brought the war in the Far East to an end.  Her refit complete by the middle of December 1945, IROQUOIS was allocated to the Reserve Fleet early in the New Year ^30.  She was paid off 22 February.

POST WAR

    In three months time, on 27 May 1946, IROQUOIS recommissioned as Depot Ship for the Reserve Fleet (East Coast) taking over the duties of Senior Officer Ships in Reserve from HMCS QU'APPELLE whose crew transferred to IROQUOIS.  Routine care and maintenance on the destroyers in reserve was carried out by IROQUOIS' company; all other maintenance was conducted by Reserve Fleet personnel borne in the establishment ashore, HMCS SCOTIAN. Throughout the winter of 1946-47, the three Tribals, HAIDA, HURON and IROQUOIS, each a veteran of many gallant exploits in European waters, remained secured alongside "Jetty Zero" in the sheltered waters of Halifax harbour.

    In February 1947 when SCOTIAN was paid off as the administrative and accounting authority for the Reserve Fleet, IROQUOIS took over her duties and the staff of the Senior Officer Ships in Reserve (SOSR) transferred to IROQUOIS.  During the summer of 1947 the former Nazi U-boat, U-190^31.  having spent a brief period in commission as an RCN submarine, was allocated to the Reserve Fleet under the control of IROQUOIS while awaiting her final demise by RCN forces on 21 October 1947.

    In November 1947, IROQUOIS was taken in hand for a series of refits, which were not completed until a year and half later. On 24 June 1949 IROQUOIS advanced from "Reserve" to "Operational" Commission and Reserve Fleet personnel were transferred to HMCS LA HULLOISE who succeeded her as Depot Ship for the Reserve Fleet.  After a great deal of last minute bustle and preparation, IROQUOIS put to sea, 9 July 1949, with 101 UNTD cadets ^32. borne aboard for training.  Throughout July and August the destroyer cruised along the eastern seaboard, putting in for brief visits at Provincetown, Mass.,  New Haven, Conn., Saint John, N.B., and Corner Brook and  St. John's in Newfoundland.  Upon her return to Halifax,  IROQUOIS was paid off into Reserve Fleet on 3 September 1949.

    On 15 June 1950, the program to install anti-submarine weapons in IROQUOIS was begun ^33.  A year and a  half later, on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1951, IROQUOIS  recommissioned under Commander W. M. Landymore, RCN. A word on IROQUOIS' badge would be in order here. This is founded on the unofficial one prepared in 1942, which was in turn taken from a painting by the late C. W. Jeffries.  Depicted-in gold, is the head of an Iroquois warrior, cut off at the base of the neck, with the peculiar cox-comb "hair-do" and top-knot for scalp removal.  There is war paint on the face, two eagle feathers in the hair and a gold ring pendant from the ear. Ship's colours are black and gold. The motto, approved in August 1957, reads: "Relentless in Chase".

    After an inspection by Rear-Admiral DeWolf who visited the ship to view her new weapons, IROQUOIS steamed out to sea, 13 January 1952 for full power trials. On the 28th she was sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, where she came under the operational control of Commander Operational Development Force for evaluation trials. The first week in February was spent at sea in the approaches to Norfolk carrying out preliminary exercises. Here, on 6 February, the ship's company was grieved to receive the official announcement of the death of their beloved Commander-in-Chief, His Majesty King George VI. Upon their return to the Norfolk Naval Base, a solemn memorial service was held to honour the memory of the late Monarch.

    On completion of her trials on 13 March, IROQUOIS received the following message from the American Commander in charge of her operational development:
 

"Congratulations on expeditious completion of trials. Your efficient execution of
all tasks and hearty cooperation greatly admired. COMOPDEVFOR appreciates
opportunity to be shipmates with such a fine Command."

    IROQUOIS returned to Halifax on 15 March and shipyard workers took her in hand for final preparations prior to her departure to join the RCN forces in Korean waters.  Until the 5th of April 1952 the destroyer was hauled out on the Dartmouth slip for hull repairs, bottom cleaning and painting.  Throughout the next two weeks the ship was stored and ammunitioned.  On 17 April IROQUOIS went to sea, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral R. E. S. Bidwell, CBE, CD, RON, for a day of full calibre firings. On 21 April, having been assigned to the RON Special Force, IROQUOIS was sailed for Korea.  The destroyer passed through the Panama Canal on 30 April and arrived Sasebo, Japan, by way of Pearl Harbour, on 12 June 1952.

KOREAN WAR ERA

    When IROQUOIS arrived in the operational area a few days later, the war in Korea was already two years old. For the past twelve months, since July 1951, attempts to reach a truce negotiation had been underway; unfortunately, with scant success.  If any anxiety was felt throughout the ship that they might not be in time to "fire a gun in anger", they could take- -some comfort from the knowledge that HMCS CAYUGA, whom they were relieving in Korea, had felt thesame misapprehension a year earlier when she arrived in the area.  However, even those who wished that it would, the war was not to be brought to an end for yet another year. True, the bitterly fought see-saw operations, in which spectacular advances were followed by staggering withdrawals, as first the Communists, then the United Nations forces, parried for position in the nightmare struggle of advance and retreat, belonged to the past.

    By July 1951, when the peace talks first began at Kaesong, the major battles had been fought, the heaviest casualties suffered,  the majority of the incredible number of prisoners taken. Entrenched along the 38th parallel, the armies faced each other across the "no man's land" of the buffer zone, each side ruthlessly defending his position, cautiously probing for weak spots in the other's defences. From July 1951, until the armistice was signed on the 27th of July 1953, the military situation generally remained static.  The bored reflection, "war is mainly waiting", was never more truly borne out than by these two years on the battleground of Korea as the armies dug in to hold and survive while the seemingly endless "peace talks" dragged on in the tents at Panmunjom.  Savage outbursts of local activity flared up from time to time as a rugged hill-side or a barren ridge became the object of dispute; and men died, or were taken prisoner, or endured, as through two long years the "waiting war" went on.

    For the United Nations naval forces, the war was settling into a routine of vigilance and blockade. The heavy -naval bombardment in support of the UN forces backed up at Pusan, the daring and spectacular amphibious landings at Inchon, the assault at Wonsam, all belonged to the action filled first year of the war in Korea; each had taken it's place beside the great "combined operations" of history.

    After 1951 the Canadian destroyers in the Far East were committed to the task of maintaining the UN's "iron ring" about Korea.  Primarily the naval task was a blockading one.  Local operations involved breaking up the enemy's coast-wise traffic, the defence of the friendly west coast islands, and the bombardment of rail installations which skirted the foot of the cliff-bound east coast.  Not a small part of the duty of RON destroyers was the screening of aircraft carriers for the telling strikes which were made against enemy troop concentrations, supply dumps, bridges and--other vital installations.  The monotonous task of screening duty, however, was frequently enlivened by orders to proceed close in shore to bombard enemy shore positions or to assist guerilla forces in landings along the shore or on outlying islands in order to gather intelligence and take prisoners.

    IROQUOIS' first tour of duty in Korean waters lasted for five months and during this period the destroyer, back in an active war zone for the first time in seven years, and her first taste of fighting in the Pacific, was to carry out a varied program of activities. On 20 June 1952, she took over from ATHABASKAN, who was preparing to sail home to Canada, the duties of Commander, Canadian Destroyers Far East.  Her first operational assignment, screening the American carrier USS BATAAN, took her on 23 June up the west coast of Korea to the area of the hotly contested 38th parallel.  Teaming up with HM Cruiser CEYLON and HM Frigate AMETHYST, she made an attack on the southern tip of Ongjin Peninsula.  British planes, acting as spotters, directed fire on the coastal defences in the approaches to Haeju and also called for fire on troops digging in behind the coast.  Enemy guns, on attempting to return the fire, were quickly silenced by the concerted attack of the three warships.  Every third night IROQUOIS was detached to carry out in-shore patrols in the Paengyong Do ^34. area under CTE 95.12 ^35. HMS BELFAST.  While operating with IROQUOIS in the vicinity of the island of Chodo on 5 August  the British cruiser, veteran of many epic sea battles in  the Second World War, sustained a direct hit from an enemy shore battery.

    After a period at Kure, Japan, for maintenance, IROQUOIS returned to the operational area in the vicinity of Haeju on 30 August as Commander Task Unit 95.12.4. On arrival off the peninsula north of Mu-Do, a heavy bombardment of enemy positions was carried out using shore fire control spotting teams and air spots from HMS OCEAN. The results, recorded IROQUOIS' Commanding Officer, were "excellent". On the night of 3 September a tropical storm— "Mary"—moved into the area, forcing the destroyer to withdraw to seaward.  Apparently IROQUOIS found the China Seas typhoon kinder than the winter waters off Scapa Flow for she rode out -the storm unscathed.

    The following week, on 10 September, IROQUOIS together with the American carrier SICILY took part in Operation "Siciro", the code name being compounded from the two warships' names.  "Siciro" was designed as an assault by three Wolf-pack companies ^36. against a point on the Peninsula of Chomi Do in the Bay of Haeju.  The guerilla forces, about 350 strong, were led by US army officers and NCO's.  The Wolf packs pushed off from the island of Yongmae Do at 0100 on the 10th.  While the assaulting forces borne in junks, some steam, some sail, were making the three mile passage across the mud flats to their objective, IROQUOIS' gun-fire softened up the edges of the peninsula.  The British cruiser BELFAST made a timely appearance in the Haeju area and her offer to assist in the operation was not refused.  IROQUOIS' Commanding Officer described the 90 minute naval bombardment as a "battleof wits between the Ships' Gunnery Officers who wished to have a reasonable ammunition expenditure and the spotter who was determined to empty our magazines as rapidly as possible.  A reasonable compromise was achieved and both the spotter and the ships were satisfied with the outcome".

    SICILY'S aircraft arrived at 0620 to lend effective support to the withdrawal of the Wolfpack forces, and by 0830 the junks, with the assaulting force intact, were on the return journey to Yongmae Do.  Enemy casualties were reported later to be close to 400.  Several gun positions had been destroyed and three agents who had been in enemy hands were recovered and brought back.  Four South Korean Guerillas suffered light wounds.  IROQUOIS' Commanding Officer summed up the venture with these words:
 

"One would have thought that "Siciro"
carried out in full moonlight, with
uncertain water transport, with semi trained
troops, led by officers who gave their orders
through interpreters and with a rather fuzzy aim
was doomed to failure from the start.  Astonishingly
enough, almost everything happened according to
the plan and it turned out  to be a modest success."

 

    North Korea's rail system ran north and south along the east coast of the peninsula and it was in these waters that Canadian destroyers gained fame as ace members of the "Train Busters Club".  Unfortunately, during IROQUOIS' first operational assignment in the area, she was to suffer the only RCN casualties of the Korean war. During her patrol "CHARITY" had stopped a train by gun-fire at the coast's edge, just south-west of Sonjin.  The line had been blocked for several days, and faced with feverish attempts by the enemy to clear it, UN naval vessels were detailed in shore to see that it remained blocked.

    On the 2nd of October, IROQUOIS, together with the American destroyer MARSH, carried out a successful bombardment of the area.  As the two ships turned to seaward at the close of the engagement, shore batteries opened fire and shortly afterwards a full salvo bracketed IROQUOIS.  Despite her evasive tactics and an attempt to clear the area at high speed, IROQUOIS sustained a direct hit in "B" gun position. The destroyer's guns replied and the shore battery was soon effectively silenced. Aboard IROQUOIS, one officer and one seaman had been killed instantly. A second rating, critically injured, died a few hours later. Ten other men were wounded. Her fighting efficiency, however, was in no way impaired, and 'the destroyer, having transferred her dead and wounded
to USS CHEMUNG, an American supply ship carrying a surgical team, returned to complete her patrol in the area.

    On the morning of 6 October, with a guard of honour drawn from HMCS CRUSADER, Lieutenant-Commander John L. Quinn, Able Seamen A. E. Baikie and W. M. Burden were buried with full naval honours in the British Commonwealth Cemetery at Yokohama, Japan. At the same time, aboard IROQUOIS, ten miles to seaward of where the action had taken place, Commander Landymore led a simple memorial service in tribute to the fallen shipmates. Back at the rail block on 9 October, IROQUOIS carried out interdiction fire and routine patrols until she was relieved by HMCS CRUSADER on 14 October when she set course for Sasebo. During her brief period in dry dock the ship's company was inspected by Admiral Sir Rhoderick, R. McGrigor, KCB, CBE, DSO, RN. IROQUOIS undocked on 22 October and sailed for a week's operations off the west coast of Korea.

    On 1 November IROQUOIS was sailed in company with the RN carrier OCEAN for Hong Kong. On the morning of 4 November while the British carriers OCEAN and GLORY combined for exercises to test the defences of Hong Kong, IROQUOIS acted as plane guard for the operation.  On the 9th November, IROQUOIS represented the RON at a Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph and on the 11th the ship's company paraded to the Military Cemetery for a purely Canadian Armistice Day Service.  A wreath was laid on the grave of an unknown Canadian soldier.  At noon the following day, IROQUOIS set course to return to the operational area.

    While on passage in the Formosa Straits typhoon "Bess" overtook the destroyer and for three days and nights she battled the storm.  On the l6th the veteran destroyer limped into Sasebo, badly shaken up, but with no serious damage. Back with the west coast blockading forces on the 19th, IROQUOIS carried out bombardments against gun emplacements, observation posts and cave positions with good results before returning to Sasebo on the 22nd.  Here the ship was stored and final preparations made for the voyage home. IROQUOIS had completed her first tour of duty in the Korean theatre.  After a farewell visit from Rear-Admiral E. G. A. Clifford, RN, IROQUOIS sailed from Sasebo on 26 November, bound for her home port of Halifax via Pearl Harbour.  As the ship would be at sea on Christmas Day, the destroyer put into Esquimalt for a short stop-over on 16 December and half of the ship's company were granted leave which enabled them to be "home for Christmas". Leaving the west coast port on 20 December, IROQUOIS steamed south to Manzanillo, Mexico, where she arrived on 27 December.  After passing through the Panama Canal on 2 January, IROQUOIS reached Halifax by way of Bermuda on 6 January.  Here she secured at the familiar "jetty zero" to undergo refit.

    Three months later, on 29 April, 1953 IROQUOIS, in company with HMCS HURON, was sailed for Kingston, Jamaica, the first leg of her return passage to the Far East.  The voyage was made uneventfully except for some engine room difficulties experienced by both Tribals off the west coast of Mexico.  The trouble was eliminated in IROQUOIS when fourteen buckets of shrimps were removed from her condensers.  IROQUOIS arrived at Sasebo on the l6th of June. The peace talks, which had dragged on interminably for almost two years, seemed now, at last, to be approaching an armistice agreement. Unfortunately, the "release" of 25,000 North Korean anti-communist prisoners of war oh 18 June stimulated fresh outbursts of activity along the eastern and central sectors of the front and with peace talks once again suspended, the long awaited truce agreement was postponed another five weeks.

On 19 June IROQUOIS sailed for the operational area and on reaching the vicinity of Chodo, 22 June, took over the command of Task Unit 95.1.4 from HMS MODESTE. However, affairs on her west coast patrol were unusually quiet and the destroyer, relieved by HMS COCKADE on 2 June sailed for a courtesy visit to Tokyo where the ship's company enjoyed a lavish program of entertainment and hospitality.  Officers and men rose gallantly to several "unorthodox" occasions and the Commanding Officer noted with pride that his officers, guests at one of the many official dinners, "conducted themselves agreeably fish in spite of the shock of finding/eyes in the soup . . . ."

    IROQUOIS returned to the operational area  6 July when she joined the screen of the American carrier  BAIROKO. On the 14th IROQUOIS was detached to relieve  HMS CHARITY in the familiar Haeju area. Heavy fog  necessitated a cancellation of all bombardment plans  and on the 19th IROQUOIS, relieved by HMCS ATHABASKAN,  returned to Sasebo, where she secured alongside the destroyer depot ship HMS TYNE. At 1000, on 27 July 1953, the Korean Armistice^37.  was signed  and at 2200 the "cease fire" went into effect.  For the United Nations ships in the Far East, however,  the job was not yet done. Patrols continued to be carried out among the  islands still under UN control, but the warships steamed  at night with their navigating lights on and their scuttles undarkened.

    In accordance with the armistice some UN-held islands north of the 38th parallel had to be evacuated. Ghodo, within eighty miles of the Yalu River on the west coast, was one of these. IROQUOIS played an important part in the evacuation of this island. Gear and installations had to be removed and there were twelve elderly persons remaining there who had previously declined offers to be taken off. Two officers from the ship went about renewing the offers. Two finally yielded to their urgings and six weeks supply of food was left for the remaining ten. When the last landing ship tank was loaded and had withdrawn from the beach, a demolition team of seventeen men from the destroyer, headed by Lieutenant D. A. Wardrop, RCN, remained behind with a similar group of US Air Force personnel, to blow up a few remaining installations. They completed their work at 0500 on 1 August and the island was declared evacuated^38..

    IROQUOIS remained in the area until the ten day period allowed for adjustments to the "cease fire" line  had elapsed. On 6 August she assumed command of Task Unit 95.1.2. This truly international group of warships embodied a New Zealand frigate, an Australian frigate, a Dutch frigate, several American minesweepers, a South Korean patrol craft and a Royal Navy fleet auxiliary—a heterogeneous naval force which provided, observed IROQUOIS' Commanding Officer, "an almost continuous pantomime on the Radio Telephone".

    Relieved by HMS CRANE on the 14th, IROQUOIS returned to Sasebo. During the "uneasy truce" conditions which prevailed throughout the next eighteen months, when the volatile prisoner-of-war question remained an explosive issue to threaten the delicate balance of international relations in the Far East, IROQUOIS, and the other Canadian destroyers who followed her, carried out peaceful patrols in Korean waters with a view to ensuring that the conditions of the armistice agreement were adhered to.

    As a training ground, IROQUOIS' "tours of ops" in the Korean theatre proved particularly valuable and as with the other RCN destroyers in Korea, her fighting efficiency showed a marked improvement in proportion to the amount of time spent in the Far East. Several factors contributed to make this so. For one, the waters on Korea's west coast presented some of the most difficult navigational hazards to be found anywhere in the world. Added to the maze of islands which dot the coast, are the challenges of shifting mud flats and a tide that rises and falls 31 feet.  Also the opportunities presented for exercises with other navies of the United Nations provided many invaluable lessons in group operations.

    In October 1953 IROQUOIS left the operational area for Hong Kong where she underwent her semi-annual docking.  Here, at the Tai Koo docks, on 1 November, Captain Landymore turned over command of IROQUOIS to his Executive Officer, Lieutenant-Commander S. G. Moore, CD, RCN.  The destroyer returned to Sasebo 26 November and the following week participated in exercises with HURON, CRUSADER, HMAS TOBRUK and HMS COMUS.  Towards the middle of December, IROQUOIS returned for a week's patrol in the Paengyang Do area where the Commanding Officer assumed the duties of Commander Paengyang Do Island Naval Defence Unit.

    Back at Sasebo at year's end, IROQUOIS was relieved by HMCS CAYUGA 1 January 1954 and sailed the same day for Hong Kong, the first stop on her return voyage to Canada.  Prior to her departure the destroyer received a fine tribute from Vice-Admiral R. P. Briscoe, USN, Commander of the United Nations Naval Forces in the Far East:
 

"By your excellent performance in all  tasks assigned, you proved yourself a
 worthy and valuable member of our naval team in the West Pacific.  You are a
credit to your flag, your navy and to the United Nations.  Well done and
sincere best wishes."

    On her homeward voyage, IROQUOIS called at Singapore, Colombo, Gibraltar and Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Voyaging by way of the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean she completed her first circumnavigation of the globe when she arrived at Halifax on the morning of 10 February^39.

    On  23 March 1954 command of the destroyer passed to Commander M. F. Oliver, CD, RCN.  By the end of May her refit was completed and the Tribal put to sea for trials on the first of June.  Rear-Admiral R. E. S. Bidwell, GBE, CD, RCN, informally walked around the ship on 11 June and addressed the ship's company.  During the evening of the llth, the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General G. G. Simonds, GB, CBE, DSO, CD, the Quarter- Master General, Major-General S. F. dark, CBE, CD, and the General Officer Commanding Eastern Command, Major-General E. Co Plow, CBE, DSO, CD, were received on board for passage to St. John's Newfoundland where the CGS was to inspect the Newfoundland area of the Eastern Command.  At the instant of embarkation the GOC's flag, suitably illuminated, was broken at the fore, for, it is believed, the first time in Canadian naval history^40.. "

During the return passage on 15 June, IROQUOIS received a message from CANFLAGLANT at sea in HMCS QUEBEC, indicating that should IROQUOIS encounter the cruiser on passage an "attack" by torpedo was to be made. At 1930 a white puff of smoke from QUEBEC was sighted at a radar range of 23.5 miles. Speed was increased to 28 knots and the Generals repaired to the upper deck to watch the fun.
 

"With the flag of G.O.C. flying at the fore, IROQUOIS went into attack,
being bracketed by star shell as she did so'.  Torpedoes were 'fired' at
a range of 3000 yards and had not IROQUOIS already been declared 'sunk'
by Canflaglant, I feel sure that the attack would have been successful^41. "

    On arrival back at Halifax the destroyer was ammunitioned in preparation for her return to the Far East to relieve HMC Destroyer CRUSADER.  She set sail on 1 July 1954. Four days after her arrival at Sasebo, 22 August, IROQUOIS was sailed for Paengyong Do where Commander Oliver assumed the duties of CTG 95.1.2. IROQUOIS' first mission in the operational area was the rescue of a Korean fisherman sighted on the morning of 27 August hanging on to a piece of wreckage from his craft demolished during the previous day's storm.  Seven others of his crew had perished.

    The Tribal's third tour of duty in the Korean theatre followed a pattern similar to her previous ones, although the weather seemed bent on exceeding itself in the number and velocity of typhoons for which the area is renowned.  Between September and November 1954, IROQUOIS tangled with "June", "Kathie", "Lorna", "Marie", "Pamela", and "Ruby"--a succession of "femmes fatales" calculated to make even a seasoned sailor's hair stand on end.

PEACETIME

    When the fighting in Korea ceased, one of the urgent problems which gripped the sympathy of many was the  plight of the civilian population who inherited the tragic aftermath of war.  While the problem was handled on a  large scale by the United Nations Korean Relief Fund, most Canadian destroyers chose to express their concern  on a more personal level.  On 1 December, as the first snowfall of winter swept in on blustery winds from the north, the Commanding Officer of IROQUOIS with one of his officers put ashore for Sochang Do, a barren island off the west coast of Korea, with a large bundle of clothing donated by the ship's company and purchased in Hong Kong.  In Korea, it is also customary to exchange gifts during the Christmas season, and the villagers were eager to express their gratitude.  Four live hens were proudly presented to IROQUOIS' company.  "Oddly enough", commented IROQUOIS' captain, "the men would have nothing to do with either killing them or eating them, so the Wardroom took over and found them, cooked Chinese style, quite tasty."

    On 2 December on the arrival of the Netherlands frigate VAN ZIJLL in the area, IROQUOIS in company with HMCS HURON, weighed and proceeded from the Korean islands for the last time.  Both destroyers shaped course for Okinawa where they participated in large-scale "Hunter-Killer" exercises with the American carrier PRINCETON, seven US destroyers and the US Submarine CARP.  At the conclusion of the very valuable training exercise, a plaque, mounted with the badges of HURON and IROQUOIS, was presented to the Rear-Admiral V. F. Rodee, USN, aboard PRINCETON. After a pleasant Christmas Day spent at Sasebo,  IROQUOIS departed the following day for the passage home,  a long and colourful voyage which included visits to Colombo, Cochin, Bombay, Karachi and the gallant island  of Malta in the Mediterranean.

    IROQUOIS, in company with HURON, arrived off Halifax in the morning of 19 March 1955 and was met in the harbour approaches by the Flag Officer Atlantic Coast, Rear-Admiral R. E. S. Bidwell, in HSL 208^42. who preceded the Tribals into port.  Once alongside, the ship entered a five week leave and maintenance period.  Minor repairs to the machinery were begun as well as a small amount of work on the hull.  During the period, fourteen days specialleave, with added travelling time, was granted to each watch.  IROQUOIS proceeded to Bermuda in May 1955.  There, she was ordered to join and escort HMC Destroyer NOOTKA who, while in collision with the South Breakwater, Ireland Island, had damaged her bow.  IROQUOIS floated four-by-four foot shoring to her and remained with her until relieved by HMC Frigate TORONTO.

    In May also there was a UNTD southern cruise. With cadets embarked for training purposes, the cruisers QUEBEC and ONTARIO and the destroyers HURON and IROQUOIS left Halifax on the 19th.  Visited during May and June were Fort Pond Bay, Long Island; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Little Carrot Bay, Tortola.  A highlight in June was a night encounter exercise.  Early one evening, the group weighed and proceeded to take up strategic positions.  QUEBEC then attempted to break through the cluster of small islands in the vicinity of Tortola and reach the island of St. Croix to establish a wireless station on one of the islands en route.  A "hide-and-go-seek" game developed, followed by a chase at twenty five knots, which ended in the theoretical torpedoing and destruction of QUEBEC.

    A similar cruise in July 1955 took the ship to Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia; St. Andrew, New Brunswick; Eastport, Maine; and Argentia, Newfoundland.  IROQUOIS spent five days in the last-named port.  On departing, she suffered a flash-back fire in No. 2 Boiler Room due to the blowing out of two fire row tubes.  The fire was soon extinguished.  The ship rejoined the group to visit Charlottetown, P.E.I.;- Boston Mass.; and Mahone Bay, N.S. before returning to Halifax.

    On 8 August 1955, the First Canadian Destroyer Squadron was formed and IROQUOIS became one of its members. However, because of her accident, only two of her boilers could be steamed, and it was deemed unwise to sail her to take part in a forthcoming NATO exercise.  Because at the time 63 per cent of her ship's company had come aboard within the previous three months and were hence in need of training, it seemed to be fitting under the circumstances to ask permission to proceed on a "shake-down" cruise to Bermuda. The request was granted. The ship sailed on the 19th.  The next day  a thick fog was followed by a violent electrical storm. Large balls of St. Elmo's fire formed at the tips of the whip aerials so that the ship resembled a "Chinese procession".  The electrical storm was the precursor of  a gale which lasted for twenty-four hours.  The wind blew from the south-west and there were gusts up to  seventy knots. A short and very heavy swell from the same direction added to difficulties.

    During the afternoon the wind, which had slowly veered, commenced to die fitfully.  The sea became confused. At 1637, a gigantic wave arose from the depths alongside and broke over the starboard side.  This wave was out of sequence with those rolling toward the ship.  It gave no warning.  Catching the destroyer at the end of a fifteen degree roll to starboard, it struck almost broadside on, forcing her over forty degrees to port as measured by inclinometer.
The chair on which the Commanding Officer sat, tipped over with the violent movement of the ship. Its legs broke and he fell on the top of the standard compass. After he had got to his feet somewhat painfully, he found that the wave had sheared the whaler's davits off clean at deck level and that they and what remained of the whaler were lying against the torpedo tubes.  The wave had also stove in the starboard side of No. 1 motor cutter and forced the griping pads through the port side.  Minor damage was suffered by the starboard No. 1 Boffin, the loading platform having been bent and the cart-wheel sight crumpled like a sheet of paper.  Other minor damage was incurred in many" places, there being twenty nine work orders raised eventually upon hull items alone. This wave was later likened by Rear-Admiral Bidwell to the one which, in January 1943, smashed the bridge of HM Destroyer ROXBOROUGH and killed the Commanding Officer, the First Lieutenant and a rating.  IROQUOIS had to cancel the voyage to Bermuda and turn back to Halifax.  The following month she was able to take part in the anti-submarine, "hunter-killer" exercise known as "New Broom IV".  In October 1955, she began a refit.

    On 19 December 1955, the First Canadian Escort Squadron was formed with HMC Destroyer Escort ALGONQUIN becoming Senior Officer (CANGOMCORTRON 1) and IROQUOIS a member.  At the end of the month the ship joined other members to secure alongside Jetty #5 in the Halifax Dockyard, but the Commanding Officer did not think that IROQUOIS' appearance did credit to the rest, since she was still without funnels and generally seemed to be suffering from "an advanced state of leprosy". On the 25th of the following month, steam was finally got up in one of the boilers.  The ship got to sea on 16 February 1956.  Trials showed up defects in newly installed electronic equipment.  She was making her way back to the Dockyard three days later, when a storm came up. The wind blew steadily at fifty knots, gusting at about eighty.  Weakness now appeared in one section of the hull, and damage was caused to the new asdic dome, the front panel of which was split horizontally in four places.

    In March 1956, IROQUOIS steamed to southern waters, in the wake of other members of the Squadron who had preceded her.  She visited Trinidad, Barbados and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.  In South-West Roads, St. Thomas,  she took part in a convoy exercise and an anti-raider action.  The fleet of ships taking part was said to be one of the largest operational RON units assembled up to that time."  Following the exercises, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Miami, Florida; and Norfolk, Virginia, were visited. Miami was found by the Commanding Officer to be "the best leave port I have ever visited". Its only disadvantage was its restricted harbour which had only six wharves to cope with the heavy traffic.

    On 22 May 1956, IROQUOIS steamed up the St. Lawrence River in company with HAIDA and ALGONQUIN.  While in Montreal in June the ship embarked some seventy members of the Naval Officers Associations for a three hour voyage along the water-front.  During the cruise, the ship was accompanied by millions of shad-flies, "frantically annoying insects" which "made it next to impossible to speak on the bridge, except in dire emergency, unless one were willing to spend some time cleaning them out of one's mouth". Quebec City was popular with the ship's company and a wonderful reception was found awaiting all in Trois-Rivieres.  The Commanding Officer was told that this was the first time the town had been visited by an RCN vessel. One of the town councillors noted that "the last time the Iroquois visited Trois-Rivieres, two hundred people were killed^43."  From here, the ship went on to call at Sept-Iles, Quebec, Corner Brook,  Newfoundland and Pictou, N.S.

    Exercises followed during the summer months. On 19 September 1956, the ship left with HURON and MICMAC on the first leg of a fall cruise to European ports. Ponfa Delgada in the Azores was the first landfall. Here they were boarded by two barbers who cut hair at 50 cents the head at an average rate of speed of one customer each two and a half minutes. The Commanding Officer's position brought him special consideration: his hair cut lasted for four minutes and at no extra charge. Observing that the average daily wage in the Azores was calculated at something like 32 cents, there was no doubt that the barbers must have left, temporarily at least, wealthy men. The destroyers reached the Irish Sea and found it stormy. In Dublin Bay a pilot boarded IROQUOIS in a full gale. Happily the city made up for the weather by a warm welcome.

    Moving northward in October 1956, the ships proceeded up the River Foyle to Londonderry. During exercises out from this port on the 10th, a Neptune aircraft was lost with its entire crew of nine.  Bangor, Belfast and Southampton were visited. On 1 November 1956, IROQUOIS and MICMAC detached from the First Canadian Escort Squadron with whom they had been in company, to enter Lorient, France.  After an interesting visit in this city they went on to Lisbon.  The squadron was back in Halifax on the 21st. A spring cruise began in February 1957.  The rest of the" Squadron left ahead of IROQUOIS who was suffering from underwater defects.  She sailed to overtake the others on the 19th, at a point just north-west of San Juan.

    In the following month there were exercises  in South-West Roads, St. Thomas.  With the arrival in San Juan on the 15th, of CRUSADER, wearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Bidwell, nine destroyers were present.  Along with the submarine, HMS ALLIANCE, they made an impressive sight. On the l8th, the Canadian destroyers steamed out for an exercise  with the Dutch cruiser, DE ZEVEN PROVINCIEN, who represented a hostile raider attempting to
engage an important convoy.  Following exercises, IROQUOIS proceeded in company with HURON to Port of Spain, Trinidad; Great Courland Bay, Tobago; St. Johns, Antigua and Willemstad, Curacao.  In Willemstad there was found to exist a Committee for the Entertainment of Visiting Warships which was formed of representatives from the Government, the Navy and all the prominent civilian firms and organizations.  This committee saw to it that there was little time that was not occupied by some form of sport or recreation.

    The Tribals went on to visit Barranquilla, some twelve miles up the Magdalena River in Colombia; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  There were more exercises off Bermuda and then the Squadron sailed to Quonset Point, Rhode Island, for preliminary briefing for the exercise "New Broom VII". On 3 May 1957, the First and Third Canadian Escort Squadrons sailed in company with US Aircraft Carrier WASP and the US Oiler SEVERN, to carry out the "New Broom" exercise. The Squadrons were back in Halifax on the 9th. At the end of the month IROQUOIS proceeded to the Gaspe Peninsula.  Off the coast she met HURON.  The two Tribals steamed up the St. Lawrence River to visit Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres and Montreal.  The anti-submarine exercise', "Goldgulf", followed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

    On 6 September 1957, IROQUOIS proceeded to sea in company with ST. LAURENT, Commander Task Group 301.4, OTTAWA, SAGUENAY, ASSINIBOINE, HAIDA, MICMAC and NOOTKA. Next day, this fleet of destroyer escorts joined the Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic's force which was moving from bases in the Eastern United States to Eastern Atlantic waters.  IROQUOIS and NOOTKA were assigned to Commander Anti-Submarine Carrier Group (CTG 201.8), Rear-Admiral Wm Miller, USN, flying his flag in US Aircraft Carrier ESSEX.  The two Canadian ships thus became part of Screen Element 201.8.1.3 and, in company with six US destroyers, escorted ESSEX across the Atlantic. Making up this formidable task group were six carriers, including the 60,000-ton FORRESTAL and SARATOGA; two battleships, the 45,000-ton IOWA and MISSOURI; three cruisers, including the guided-missile heavy cruisers, BOSTON and CANBERRA, and the 17,000-ton tactical command ship and heavy cruiser, NORTHAMPTON, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral M. E. Arnold, USN, Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic; together with over fifty destroyers.

    On 12 September, IROQUOIS and NOOTKA detached for Portland, Dorset.  From the l6th to 28th, IROQUOIS took part in the NATO exercise "Stand Firm", then proceeded to a berth in Portsmouth.  She slipped with OTTAWA on 5 October, course being set for Ponta Delgada in the Azores.  When they left this port on the 8th, the two ships proceeded westward through the passage between Pico and San Jorge Islands. On the 9th, while passing north of the western tip of Fayal Island, a magnificent view was had of the new island which a week before had risen from the sea through the agency of a violent volcanic eruption.  IROQUOIS passed about six miles distant and, from her decks, it appeared that the new island or cone had already reached a diameter of 1000 yards. From the cone lava was being hurled out in eruptions which fired it hundreds of feet into the sky.  When it came back and fell into the sea, clouds of steam rose along with smoke and dust to lose themselves in the clouds. On arrival in Halifax, IROQUOIS prepared herself to undergo a refit.  It would be a long one for she was an old ship now and, because she was showing her age, maintenance had become a major problem.  For this reason it was decided to pay her off on 19 November 1957.

    A year had almost rolled by when, on 17 October 1958, HMCS IROQUOIS was recommissioned at No. 2 Jetty in HMC  Dockyard, Halifax.  There was cool, clear weather for the  ceremony.  Her new Commanding Officer was Commander W. D. F, Johnston, RCN.  Among others present at the ceremony were Rear-Admiral. H. F. Pullen, QBE, CD, RCN, Flag Officer Atlantic Coast, and the Commodore superintendent, Commodore  (E) J. MacGillivray, CD, RON.  A full power trial was completed on 24 October in fairly severe conditions.  Accurate fixing was not possible, but it was estimated that a speed of a little more than  twenty eight knots was achieved with assistance from the weather. The ship had her working-up exercises in Bermuda in November 1958 when she sailed to these islands in company with the new destroyer escort, HMCS ST. CROIX, who had been  commissioned on 4 October.

    In December, a visit was paid to New London, Connecticut, in company with the First Canadian Escort Squadron. IROQUOIS' shafts and propellers did not prove satisfactory and, in January 1959, she had to have them replaced.  During the succeeding winter and spring months she was engaged primarily in trials and exercises, with visits to Bermuda and Boston.  In July she joined other Canadian destroyer escorts to carry out duties and take part in ceremonies associated with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway by Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower. NATO fall exercises in the North Atlantic and the English Channel were the chief events of  1960.  On the ship's return to Canada she proceeded to Sorel, P.O., for a refit. The refit completed in May 1961, she came back down river to Halifax and in the following month transferred from the First to the Third Canadian Escort Squadron.  The end of that year was marked by exercises taken by her and her squadron in conjunction with the US Navy off the American seaboard.

    Until October 1962 IROQUOIS remained busy with exercises in her squadron.  Then the end came for the veteran.  On the 24th of the month she was paid off to reserve at Sydney, N.S. The Navy declared her surplus to requirements. She was handed over to Crown Assets Disposal Corporation, which, on 11 May 1966, sold her for scrap to the firm of Hierros Ardes Luis Arbula Arana of Bilbao, Spain.

On a teak plaque, which used to be proudly displayed on her quarterdeck, are emblazoned the battle honours which she won and which will be borne by any future HMCS IROQUOIS. They are:

Compiled by:
Directorate of History
Canadian Forces Headquarters
Ottawa, 31 January 1972.
 
 

1.  Particulars of the ship are as follows:

Standard Displacement: 1927 tons
Extreme Length: 377'
Extreme Breadth: 37' 6"
Draught: 9'
Armament:  3 Twin 4.7" guns; 1 Twin 4" anti-aircraft gun;  1 2-pounder;   4 barrel pom-pom;
                   6 20-mm Oerlikon guns; 2 Lewis guns; 2 Bren guns;
                   1 Quadruple 21" torpedo tube mounting;
                   2 Depth-charge throwers.

2. Privy Council approval for the construction of the first two Tribals to be built in the United Kingdom was given 5 April 1940.

 September 1941 to January 1943.

^3.  Interrogation of the six prisoners elicited the following claims of shipping sunk:
     First Patrol:  None.
     Second Patrol:  2 Freighters by torpedo
                             6 Tankers by Torpedo
                             2 Freighters by gun-fire.
     Third Patrol:     5 ships. Survivors of SS LACONIA picked up and transferred to French warships.
     Fourth Patrol:   2 ships sunk.

                      (Preliminary Report on Interrogation of Survivors in NHS 1650: U-506.)

^4. "An area bounded by 48° N, 43° 30' N, 12° W and 9° W.

^5.(Narrative:  Draft "A":  Canadian Ships with the Home Fleet,
   1943-45).

 ^6. In accordance with the German strategy to allow the first two Russian convoys to pass unmolested in the hope that
    defences would be relaxed for the passage of the third when it was planned to send the battle cruiser
    SCHARNHORST out to destroy it.

^7. Eighty RCN sailors were serving at the time in HMS BELFAST.

⁸ 'The battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK, the cruiser HMS JAMAICA, the RN destroyers SAVAGE, SCORPION
   and SAUMAREZ and the Norwegian destroyer STORD.

^9. Captain (D) Plymouth rated IROQUOIS "above average" as  a fighting ship.

^10. "HMS FURIOUS, in 1944 was 2? years old and the oldest operational carrier in the world.  She later shook herself
     to pieces in a final spasm of high speed steaming during  the winter of 1944-1945.  (Quoted in TIRPITZ, by D. Woodward).

^11. The possibility that TIRPITZ might sally forth was a threat which the Home Fleet had constantly to cope
with until the day of her final destruction in November 1944.  Although the German battleship had been severely
crippled during the daring attack by midget submarines in September 1943, the extent of her repairs was not
known, consequently, there was always the need to maintain a sufficient battle force off the Norwegian coast to
deal with such an emergency should it arise.  TIRPITZ, however, constantly battered by the RAF, was never to
put to sea again.  Nonetheless, even riding at anchor in a remote fiord, many miles from the sea, TIRPITZ
could continue to exercise her weight on the course of events in far distant waters and everything that the
Admiralty planned in the North Atlantic always had to be executed with the threat of this "fleet in being"
uppermost  in mind.

^12.  Acoustic torpedoes.

^13.  "Kinetic" was timed to fit in with the Allied drive on  the Breton Peninsula and to forestall any attempt by the Nazi to
       evacuate ships or essential personnel.

^14.  "The Second and Eleventh Escort Groups; i.e., "support  groups".

^15.  Weapon for attacking U-boats with ahead-throwing  projectiles.

^16. (Weekly Intelligence Reports, Naval Intelligence Division, 22 December 1944, Page 2)

^17.  From MAURITIUS Report of Proceedings, 3 September 1944, filed 1926-355 (held in NHS).

^18. MAURITIUS Report of Proceedings dated 11 September 1944,  filed 1926-355 (held in NHS).

^19.  "Sperrbrecher" was the German name given to merchant vessels which had been converted to naval use for
      the dual purpose of minesweeping and escort duties.

^20.  Report by Captain (D) Tenth Destroyer Flotilla, 15 September 1944, filed 1926-355.

^21. In the hard-fought battle to free France, the Allied armies were aided not only by the Regular French Army
(the 2nd Armoured Division of which had been recently landed in Normandy from North Africa and which played
an honourable part in the advance to Paris) but also by the valiant French Underground who supplied the invading
commanders with vital information concerning  the local scene and with what arms could be made available to
them harried the German retreat.

^22. Force One:  The carrier HMS PREMIER equipped with eight Avenger aircraft who would lay the mines, the carrier
HMS SEARCHER equipped with twenty Wildcat aircraft who would escort the Avengers, the carrier HMS QUEEN, the
cruiser HMS BELLONA.  The destroyer escort was drawn from the 17th Destroyer Flotilla:  HM Ships ONSLOW
(Senior Officer), SERAPIS and ZEST and the RCN destroyers  HAIDA and IROQUOIS.

^23. Force Two:  HM Carriers SEARCHER, NAIRANA, QUEEN and PUNCHER (the latter manned by the RCN);
HM Cruisers BELLONA and DIDO; HM Destroyers ONSLOW, SERAPIS, CARYSFORT and ZEALOUS,
HMC Destroyers HAIDA and IROQUOIS.

^24. Operation "Prefix One" and "Prefix Two".

^25.  Weekly Intelligence Report No. 265.

^26. Near Lister Light, south of Stavanger.

^27.  HM Carriers VINDEX and PREMIER, the cruiser BELLONA, the RN destroyers ZEPHYR, ZODIAC, ZEALOUS, ZEST, OFFA, the Norwegian destroyer STORD and the Canadian destroyers HAIDA, HURON and IROQUOIS. In addition, the 7th and 19th  Escort Groups operated independently on anti-submarine  sweeps in the danger area approaching Kola Inlet.

^28. Included in the merchant convoy were sixteen Russian submarine chasers.

^29. And even for a time afterwards, merchant convoys in the  Arctic areas were not discontinued until 28 May 1945.

^30.  0n 1 February 1946.

^31.  U-190 had torpedoed and sunk HMCS ESQUIMALT on 16 April 1945 in the approaches to Halifax harbour.

^32. University Naval Training Division cadets.

^33. When she emerged a year and a half later, IROQUOIS was equipped to take on anything from surface vessels,
coastal batteries and aircraft to submarines.  Having been partially "converted" to an anti-submarine vessel,
she stood half-way between her original status as an offensively armed destroyer and the "destroyer-escort"
type of anti-submarine vessel.

^34. "Do" is the Korean word for "Island".

^35. Commander Task Element 95.12.  UN Forces operated under
  the American Task Force system of organization.

^36.   South Korean guerilla forces.

^37. This was Korean time, actually 26 July Eastern Daylight Time.

^38. (CROWSNEST, September 1953.)

^39. IROQUOIS was the third RCN destroyer to sail round the world in the course of her UN duties, preceded by NOOTKA  in 1952 and HAIDA in 1953.

^40. According to King's Regulations, 1939, the flag to be flown afloat by Generals Commanding Stations is the
  Union Jack having in the centre a crown-surmounted blue shield bearing the Royal Cypher and Garland.  In this
  connection it is pointed out Lieutenant-General H. D. G. Crerar, CB, DSO, GOC First Canadian Army, proceeded to
  France 16 June 1944 in HMCS ALGONQUIN, and the flag worn on this occasion was that of GOC's ashore, i.e. a
  rectangular flag having three horizontal bars, red-black-red with a gold maple leaf in the centre.

^41.  Report of Proceedings, HMCS IROQUOIS, June 1954.

^42. High Speed Launch 208.

^43. Originally a trading-post, Trois-Rivieres was repeatedly attacked by Iroquois Indians,  In 1653, they nearly
succeeded in annihilating its small band of soldiers headed by Governor Du Plessis-Bochard who lost his life
in the fray.  (Short and Doughty:  CANADA AND ITS PROVINCES. Toronto 1914.  Volume XV, page 31.)

P.S. Ted Doyle, a radar operator aboard Iroquois, remembers the sea state while they were escorting the Queen Mary in September 1944. "It was early in Sept '44 that we and another Tribal, British, were escorting the Queen Mary (with Churchill bound for the Quebec conference) out of the Irish Sea  -  a FAST escort  -  28 knots.  It was a very clear day but extremely heavy seas  -  we were forward on the port quarter and could see the other Tribal, on the starboard quarter, completely exposing its bow and stern (screws and rudder) simultaneously on occasion  -  so we were doing the same.  About 1000, I was in the forward messdeck when the ship began to rise  -  up, up, up and up!!!  We grabbed anything to hold onto.  In my case, one of the 6'' stanchions supporting the deck above. When we came down, the messdeck was flooded with water through the vents and the stanchion I was holding (as well as all the others) bent about 6'' out of line.  There was no ''hole'' through the deck but 'A' and 'B' gunshields were wrapped tight around the guns. Water, apparently, washed right over the bridge.  Finally we got permission to reduce speed and the Queen Mary took off like a scared cat. We limped off to Falmouth to have our damage assessed and corrected but the forward messdeck leaked like a sieve for the rest of the War".