HMCS Ville de Québec

There have been 2 vessels named Ville de Québec in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Ville de Québec (1st of name) (K242) / Flower-class corvette

Commissioned on 24 May 1942 at Québec City, Quebec, she arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 12. Late in July, she was assigned to Western Local Escort Force and used almost exclusively as an escort to convoys between Boston, Massachusetts and Halifax. In September, she participated in Operation TORCH (invasion of North Africa), employed on United Kingdom-Mediterranean convoys. On January 13, 1943, she sank the submarine U-224 west of Algiers. She returned to Canada in April to join Quebec Force, escorting Quebec-Sydney and Quebec-Labrador convoys. In September, she returned to Halifax and joined Western Local Escort Force. In 1944, she began an extensive refit and on her return transferred to Plymouth Command, United Kingdom. She served with that group for the balance of the war, returning to Canada late in May 1945 to be paid off on July 6 at Sorel, Quebec. Sold for mercantile use in 1946, she was variously named Despina (1946), Dorothea Paxos (1947), Tanya (1948), and Medex (in Lloyd’s Register until 1952).

HMCS Ville de Québec (2nd of name) (332) / Halifax-class frigate

The first of three of her class built by Marine Industries Ltd. Davies of Lauzon, Quebec, and designated a French Language Unit, HMCS Ville de Québec was floated up on May 16, 1991. She served in Haïti on the United Nations embargo in April 1993, and was only officially commissioned at Québec City on July 14, 1994. In February 1995, she left Halifax, where she is stationed, to take part in an international exercise off Norway. In July, she left for the Adriatic to enforce the arms embargo against the former Yugoslavia. In 1998, she assisted at the scene of the Swissair jet disaster. In 1999, she joined the Standing Naval Force Atlantic fleet of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for a 3-month tour. On August 30, 2001, she bore the ashes of the late Vice-Admiral H.G. DeWolf up the harbour of Halifax for committal in Bedford Basin; that date marked the same date in August 1943 when this officer commissioned the Tribal Class destroyer HMCS Haida. In 2008, HMCS Ville de Québec represented Canada in the NATO’s Standing Naval Reaction Force Maritime Group One and participated in Operation ALTAIR as part of Task Force Arabian Sea and in July, she visited her namesake city for 400th anniversary. HMCS Ville de Québec continues to operations and exercises in support of Canada’s domestic and international policies.

Motto: “Don de Dieu Feray Valoir” (I will be Worthy)

Battle honours

• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942
• Atlantic 1942-1944
• Mediterranean 1943
• English Channel 1944-1945