(Cross Posted From My Other Blog)

I got an email from my mom today. She forwarded me an article that was in the Toronto's Globe & Mail which was forwarded to her by my grandmother's cousin. Grandma passed away last year but many of her cousins still keep in contact with my mom. This is the article that was sent to me. One of the men mentioned was my grandmother's brother who served in the Canadian Navy. He didn't make it to his 18th birthday.

Died This Day
59 RCN sailors, 1944
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Served aboard HMCS Alberni, commissioned in Esquimalt, B.C., in February of 1941.

The corvette performed rigorous convoy-escort duties back and forth across the Atlantic and in home waters before being sent to Britain to support the invasion of Normandy in June of 1944. The ship was torpedoed southeast of the Isle of Wight by the German submarine U-480 and sank in less than a minute. Fifty-nine of her ship's company, most of whom had just been ''piped to dinner'' and were trapped below decks, lost their lives. Three officers and 28 ratings were rescued by two motor-torpedo boats returning from Normandy. U-480 was later hunted and sunk by the Royal Navy frigates Duckworth and Rowley in February of 1945. Newspaper Article


This is my great uncle Dick who died on the HMS Alberni at the age of 17. He was the youngest child of my great grandparents and I know his death was extremely hard on my family.

My grandmother had another brother who served in Canada's Airforce and was a highly decorated pilot.