One of two of the two most powerful ships in the RCN, the cruiser HMCS UGANDA (later QUEBEC), sporting all refurbished or replaced engines, shafts, and boilers, arrived in Halifax from Charleston in late October 1944. There was no rest for her crew, though; within days she sailed for Scapa Flow, on loan to the Royal Navy.
(An interesting sidenote is that the RN seemed to have the ships, and Canada had the sailors. Another example is the fact that two RN carriers, HMS PUNCHER and NABOB, had largely Canadian crews.)
UGANDA’S status as on loan to the Brits determined all that followed: an enviable record as a member of the British Pacific Fleet (BPF), and her humiliation at the hands of the Canadian government. But before all that happened, she had to make her way from the UK to the South Pacific, a memorable cruise for the ship’s company.
While still in UK waters UGANDA refitted, took on stores, and conducted exercises. Her next port of call was Gibraltar, arriving on January 5th, 1945. Sailing from there, she paused for some weeks at Alexandria, much to the delight of her crew, who enjoyed shore visits in an exotic port. More gunfire exercises followed, with the ship and crew passing workups on February 12th and sailing to join the BPF via the Suez Canal on the 14th.
From there the ship proceeded to Aden, Colombo, the Cocos Islands, Fremantle and Sydney, Australia. Finally, she entered the war zone on April 4th, 1945, at Leyte Gulf, the forward base of the British Pacific Fleet.
In April the BPF, including UGANDA, took part in Operation Iceberg, the Battle of Okinawa, with the ships providing shore bombardment and defense against Japanese aircraft. The 2nd phase of Iceberg was set for May. UGANDA had an active role to play there as well, bombarding a Japanese-held island and helping fight off kamikazes. Her last warlike act was the bombardment of Truk on June 15th.
UGANDA departed the British Pacific Fleet on July 27th,1945, having been replaced by a Royal Navy cruiser. After refuelling in Pearl Harbor she arrived at the Esquimalt ammunition jetty, safely back in Canada, much to the relief of her crew—and no doubt the government.
There will be much more to follow about UGANDA’S departure from the Pacific war.
Pure ignorance and naïveté at the PM level re: insisting that the crew be volunteers, thus undermining that crew, that ship, that captain and the RCN — all in the middle of desperate battles against the Japanese. Then again maybe the PM received his advice through his dead mother, his crystal ball or his dog. 🤔😳