HMCS KITCHENER (K225)
HMCS KITCHENER
The History of HMCS KITCHENER
Commissioned at Quebec City on June ,28, 1942, Kitchener arrived at Halifax on July 16 and carried out six weeks' workups at Pictou before briefly joining WLEF in September. It may have been during this unusually long workup that she starred in the film Corvette K-225 with Randolph Scott. In October she was assigned to duties in connection with Operation "Torch," and arrived at Londonderry on November 3. For the next four and one-half months she escorted U.K.-Mediterranean convoys, returning to Canada in mid-April, 1943, with convoy ONS.2. In May she joined Western Support Force but in June transferred to EG C-5, MOEF, and during the following four months made three round trips to Londonderry. A major refit, commenced in October at Liverpool, N.S., was completed on January 28, 1944, followed by two weeks' working-up in Bermuda. In mid-April she arrived at Londonderry, where she was assigned to invasion duties with Western Approaches Command, based at Milford Haven. She arrived off the beaches on D-Day escorting a group of landing craft. From August until the end of the war she served with EG 41, Plymouth, returning home late in May, 1945, to be paid off at Sorel July 11. She was broken up at Hamilton in 1949.
HMCS KITCHENER Statistical Data
- Pendant: K225
- Type: Corvette
- Class: Revised FLOWER (1940-41 Program)
- Displacement: 1015 tonnes
- Length: 208.3 ft
- Width: 33.1 ft
- Draught: 11 ft
- Speed: 16 kts
- Compliment: 6 Officers and 79 Crew
- Arms: 1-4" Gun, 1-2 pdr, 2-20mm, Hedgehog
- Builder: Marine Industries Ltd., Sorel, Que.
- Keel Laid: 28-Feb-41
- Date Launched: 18-Nov-41
- Date Commissioned: 28-Jun-42
- Paid off: 11-Jul-45