HMCS Regina, at Esquimalt, July
1994.
The original HMCS Regina was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy in January 1942. When its outfitting was completed in April 1942, the Revised Flower Class corvette was placed on convoy escort duty, escorting numerous convoys and rescuing survivors from torpedoed ships. In February 1943, she attacked and sank the Italian submarine Avorio. After renovations and refitting from June 1943 to February 1944, HMCS Regina was one of nineteen Canadian corvettes that participated in the invasion of Normandy. On August 8, 1944, HMCS Regina went to the aid of an American merchant ship, the Ezra Weston, which had reportedly struck a mine near the shores of Normandy. While assisting with rescue operations, HMCS Regina was torpedoed by the German submarine U-667 and sank within 30 seconds. Thirty of her crew were killed, and sixty-six were rescued. A second-generation HMCS Regina was commissioned in 1994, a powerful “Halifax Class” Canadian Patrol frigate which is about twice the size and speed of the original; with home port in Esquimalt, British Columbia, HMCS Regina currently serves as a high-readiness unit with the Canadian Navy’s Canadian Pacific Task Group.