H.M.S.WINDRUSH
Ship No 340
Twin screw “River Class” Frigate.
Laid down 18th Nov 1942
Launched 18th Jun 1943
Commissioned 3rd Nov 1943
End service with the Royal Navy Feb 1944
as La Decouverte flying the French Flag
She served as an escort to the Atlantic convoys, under Canadian Navy before being tansferred to the F.N.F.L. (Free French) in February 1944 and renamed La Découverte.
She took part in the Normandy invasion in support of the Canadian 3rd Battalion on Juno Beach.
See http://www.normandy1944.org.uk/
She served the French Navy until being de-commissioned in the late 1950’s and she was beached just outside Cherbourg where she was used as a training ship, and later as a fire control practise ship, she was only scrapped last year in 2009, such a waste of the only remaining class of her type still around.
River Class Frigate
Beached just outside of Cherbourg, untill 2009.
Designed as an improved Flower Class Corvette the River Class were highly successful Convoy Escorts with long range, heavy depth charge load and good sea keeping. Built in both Canada and Britain they became the mainstay of the Atlantic Escorts in the latter stages of the war.
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