| HMCS VALLEYFIELD (May 7, 1944)
Canadian 'RiverClass' frigate commissioned in December, 1943 in Quebec City. Accompanied by two other frigates and two corvettes they were escorting a convoy and had just handed the convoy over to another group of escorts. Now on their way back to their home port of St. John's, they were attacked by the U-548. A torpedo from the U-boat struck the Valleyfield on the port side causing a tremendous explosion which broke the ship in two before it sank. One of the other escorts, HMCS Giffard, searched for survivors in the near freezing waters about seventy kilometres south of Cape Race, Newfoundland. A total of 125 crewmen were lost from the Valleyfield, seventeen of them came from Manitoba.
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On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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