HMCS Kenora

There has been only one vessel named Kenora in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Kenora (J281 / 191)

The Kenora was a Bangor Class minesweeper. The Bangor Class ships were built in order to replace the old Basset Class minesweepers, as they were larger, faster, had much greater endurance, and burned oil as opposed to coal. Most of the Bangors were named after Canadian towns and cities, the rest after bays. As enemy mines were laid only once in 1943 in Canadian waters, the Bangors were used primarily as escorts to coastal shipping or as local escorts to ocean convoys. Sixteen of them, however, assisted in sweeping the approaches to Normandy before D-Day, and stayed to help clear German and Allied minefields in the Channel for some months afterward.

Commissioned on August 6, 1942 at Port Arthur, now Thunder Bay, Ontario she arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September 7 and proceeded to Pictou, Nova Scotia, for work-ups. She was then assigned to Western Local Escort Force, and in June 1943 became a member of Escort Group W-8. She left Halifax on February 21, 1944, with HMCS Canso, Guysborough and Wasaga, via the Azores for Plymouth, United Kingdom, arriving on March 8. Kenora was assigned to the 14th Minesweeping Flotilla, with which she was present on D-Day, and in October returned to Canada for a refit at Liverpool, Nova Scotia. She proceeded to the United Kingdom again in February 1945, and was assigned to the 31st Flotilla until September 4, when she left Plymouth, United Kingdom, for Canada.

Kenora was paid off at Halifax on October 6, 1945, and placed in reserve at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. She went into strategic reserve at Sorel, Quebec, in 1946, until reacquired by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1952 and moved to Sydney, Nova Scotia. On 29 November 1957, she was transferred to the Turkish Navy as Bandirma. She was removed from service in 1972.

• Builder: Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Port Arthur, Ontario.
• Date commissioned: August 6, 1942
• Date paid off: October 6, 1945
• Displacement: 672 tons
• Dimensions: 54.9 m x 8.7 m x 2.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 83
• Armament: one 3-inch (76 mm) gun, four 20 mm guns (2 single mounts, 1 double mount), depth charges

Battle honours

• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942
• Atlantic 1942-1945
• Normandy 1944