When Fishing Boats go to War: Flower Class Corvettes 

The workhorse of the convoys system!

I was just watching "..When Hotels Go To War" about the French navy, and the algorithm sent me here. 😊✌️🌏☮️

Highly recommend “The Cruel Sea” book (and movie) depicting the use of a Flower class corvette in WWII.

As a Canadian, we're very proud of these ships. We have the last one as a museum ship, the HMCS Sackville. Cool trivia: A Flower-class "likely" sunk a Japanese submarine off the coast of Vancouver in World War II. We know of Fort Stevens being bombarded by a Japanese sub (cool story as well) however, imagine if the Americans then sunk that sub? It would be a much bigger deal. But we bagged one in the warm green pacific waters.

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If anyone has an interest in flower Class corvettes I would suggest reading _The Cruel Sea_ by Nicholas Monsarrat, a great novel informed by the author's actual experience. The book was made into an excellent film in 1953, and is well worth a watch. On the naming of ships in the class, in 1939 a Flower Class ship was under construction in Northern Ireland which had been designated _HMS Pansy:_ however before launch, for some reason, the Royal Navy changed its name to _HMS Heartsease._ This ship was then loaned to the US Navy who, presumably, thought that even _Heartsease_ was not virile enough and renamed it _USN Courage._

apocryphal joke... while it was said that a PBY Catalina could land on a dewy lawn, when it did it, would find a Flower class there, rolling to beat the band.

There is a 1943 movie titled "Corvette K-225" starring Randolph Scott that tells the story of a Canadian corvette. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be available on any outlet. My father served in two RCN corvettes during WW2.

Interesting video. My Dad served on K71 HMS Pimpernel as a P.O. Stoker from first commissioning in Jan 1941 until Sept 1942, primarily on convoy duties backwards and forwards across the Atlantic between Liverpool and Halifax N.S. He didn't talk too much about his time in the war but the early part of the war were dark days indeed for the convoys. Also never knew that this design of boat was used by the Germans too.

My Grandad was the Lieutenant on the HMS Arbutus that sank U76 with depth charges. I have a hand written letter from the captured U76 Navigator Carl Becker wrote to my Grandad stating: "The 4 days I have been on K86 you all have been very kindly to me. I thank you for this nice time. If ever I meet you again I will be very happy." "Carl Becker, Navigator U76" Let me know if you would like a scan of this hand written letter.

Ship classes that fought on both sides? Type VII U Boat (HMS Graph), S Class HMS Seal - that`s off the top of my head, I`m sure there`s more! Nothing but admiration for these little vessels and their crews, what a pity only ONE still survives - God bless Canada, the TOP Commonwealth Nation! Could ANY be left behind the `Bamboo Curtain`? PS the 1/72 Matchbox Flower I built was based on Compass Rose (The Cruel Sea).

The French Flower class Aconite avenged the sinking of the Royal Navy destroyer Harvester in a magnificent fashion. Look into it.

One of the reasons they went with the small escorts and ultimately the flower class, it would use facilities that were currently idle. These could be built in much smaller shipyards that would otherwise have no work wasting capacity. It took some guts to ride these ships.

Several of my dad’s friends had framed pictures of Flower class ships hung in places of honour.

Thanks for the history video! As another person commented, I'm going to re-watch The Cruel Sea, found it online (with some foreign subtitles).

I've watched this channel I think since the beginning, and the quality of videos has improved 1090 %...I too feel you deserve way more subscribers, I like it

There is already a very good video about the flower class corvettes, it's called "The Cruel Sea".

Not much being said about the corvettes built in Canada, as Canada was by far the main user of this kind of ship, far more than the US or New-Zealand or Australia.

While they had limitations, the Flowers gave stellar service and were a good ship right now. Later war ASW ships reflected the evolving needs of the escort classes.

If you want a fantastic record of the Battle of the Atlantic in a flower class corvette read the "Deep Atlantick Stream," by Robert Harling. He served in HMS Tobias. She was sunk & he lost many friends after he had left her after catching pneumonia in Canada. He went on to write a v entertaining account of working with Ian Fleming.

Was a great escort when there were not enough destroyers, plus many went back to fishing after the war 👍

The thing that sparked my particular interest in this class was a huge Revell model kit of the Flower Class (but I couldn’t recall the scale as 1/72 or 1/144)

Such a pity we didn't keep one as a museum ship in the UK

Love the channel . . .

Great video

You should do a story on the French Corvette, flower class, lobella. She was one feisty girl

5:57 My Dad's ship, HMCS Amherst.

Played an infinitely bigger role in the war than every battleship (including the old ones that weren’t obsolete upon launch) on both sides of WWII combined.

Just so you know, the Royal Netherlands navy could better be translated to the Royal Dutch navy, apart form that great vid as always !😊

When fishing boats and FISHERMAN go to war! small ships have always very resourceful crews I speak of experience you can’t compare it to blue navy crews, as the navy don’t like self initiative

Well, a submarine is just a big fish innit

Bathurst Class Minesweepers in Australia?