Aegean

The Second World War

Date

1943 - 1944

Geographical parameters

All waters of the Aegean Archipelago between 35°-42° N, and 22°-30° E.

Context

Eligible to all “ships and vessels which were engaged with the enemy in the area between 7 September and 28 November 1943, and also during 1944.” An area battle honour formally entitled “Aegean 1943-4” with year dates according to the service of the unit concerned ^{Footnote 1}

Description

His Majesty’s Canadian Ships Prince David, Prince Henry and Prince Robert had started their careers as luxury liners with the Canadian National Railway’s subsidiary company CN Steamships. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the ships were converted to Armed Merchant Cruisers and served as such until 1943 when two of them, Prince David and Prince Henry, were converted to Landing Ships Infantry (Medium) with a capacity for carrying 550 infantry each.

Following service on the coast of Normandy in June 1944, the two ships were dispatched to the Mediterranean to assist in landing troops on the south coast of France in Operation “Dragoon” in August 1944. Following that duty the ships proceeded to Greece where, in mid-October 1944, they embarked the Greek prime minister and government to convey them back to Athens which the German forces were in the process of evacuating. For the remainder of the year the ships were involved in the ferrying of men and supplies from Italy to Greece as well as transporting Greek civilians, caught up in the civil war between the Greek government and communist guerrillas, to safety on the island of Corfu.

Awarded to:

Ships not currently in commission

• HMCS Prince David - 1944 ^{Footnote 2}
• HMCS Prince Henry - 1944 ^{Footnote 3}