Canada:
Tribal class destroyer HMCS Athabaskan (G07) in 1943
On 29 April 1944 at about 0300 hours
Athabaskan was patrolling with her sister Tribal-class destroyer
Haida in support of a British minelaying operation off the coast of France near the mouth of the Morlaix River. She received the first of a series of
Admiralty orders to intercept German warships near Ile de Bas (sometimes
Île de Batz) as spotted by coastal radar in southern England. During the subsequent engagement with German naval vessels,
Athabaskan was torpedoed and sank. 128 men were lost, 44 were rescued by
Haida and 83 were taken prisoner by three German minesweepers sortied from the coast after the departure of
Haida.
As might be expected with a night-time naval battle, various sources and even eyewitnesses provide widely differing accounts of the events surrounding the sinking of
Athabaskan. Some survivors recount that the ship was initially struck by shore-battery gunfire, and then by a torpedo. At least one survivor tells of a second torpedo hit fifteen minutes after the first, but the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy attributes the second major explosion to the fires touching off the ammunition magazine.
Athabaskan was apparently
torpedoed by the
German torpedo boat T24.
Athabaskan's
commanding officer,
Lieutenant Commander John Stubbs, was killed in action after declining rescue by
Haida to swim back for more crew members. In 2004, the Royal Canadian Navy provided a brass plaque to be laid on the wreck to commemorate the loss. The expedition found more information about the sinking but did not clarify the actual cause. The wreck is in a shattered condition spread over the sea bed.
