HMCS Fraser honours warship sunk in 1940 France evacuation

Canada's first River-class destroyer, HMCS Fraser, carries the legacy of a warship that played a crucial role in one of history's most dramatic evacuations before meeting a tragic end.

The original HMCS Fraser — originally HMS Crescent, sold to Canada by the Royal Navy in 1936 — was stationed on Canada's West Coast until Germany attacked Western Europe in May 1940. The ship then relocated to Halifax and was dispatched to the United Kingdom to bolster defences as France teetered on the brink of collapse.

With German forces sweeping across France in June 1940, evacuations of British and Allied troops unfolded along the French coast. On June 21, HMCS Fraser and sister ship HMCS Restigouche were positioned off Saint-Jean-de-Luz, near the Spanish border, providing protection as evacuees were ferried from shore to waiting vessels offshore.

Just after sundown on June 25, as the three ships — Fraser, Restigouche, and British ship HMS Calcutta — maneuvered into new positions during their continuous evacuation operations, disaster struck. Calcutta's bow struck the forward section of Fraser, breaking off the ship's front. The Fraser sank in the Gironde River estuary.

"It's a complex situation," explains Jeff Noakes, Second World War historian with the Canadian War Museum. "People have been literally doing this for days on end without respite or rest because you want to get as many people out as you possibly can."

Forty-seven people from Fraser died, many of them Canadian. Some were rescued from the portion of the ship that briefly remained afloat, while others were pulled from the water. Part of Fraser's bridge ended up on Calcutta's bow, killing five people aboard the British ship.

Fraser became the first Royal Canadian Navy vessel to sink during the Second World War. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, speaking at the keel-laying ceremony for the new HMCS Fraser in Halifax on Friday, framed the legacy simply: "We have always been a destroyer navy, a navy that has small ships capable of doing big things anywhere that Canada needs them to go."

The new destroyer will carry forward that tradition of service and sacrifice.