French corvette Aconit
Aconit in 1942 paint
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| History | |
|---|---|
  France
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| Namesake: | Aconitum |
| Laid down: | 25 March 1940 |
| Launched: | 31 March 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 19 July 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 April 1947 |
| Reinstated: | 30 April 1947 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: J1095 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Returned to the Royal Navy 30 April 1947; sold July 1947. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Flower-class corvette |
| Displacement: | 950 tonnes |
| Length: | 62.7 metres (206 ft) |
| Beam: | 10.9 metres (36 ft) |
| Draught: | 2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Range: |
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| Complement: | 70 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Type 271 surface radar |
| Armament: |
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Aconit (formerly HMS Aconite) was one of the nine Flower-class corvettes lent by the Royal Navy to the Free French Naval Forces. During World War II, she escorted 116 convoys, spending 728 days at sea. She was awarded the Croix de la Libération and the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945, and was cited by the British Admiralty. Following the war she was used as whaling ship for three different companies from 1947 to 1964.
Aconite was built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd at Troon in Scotland, and was commissioned on 19 July 1941, under Lieutenant de vaisseau Levasseur. She was attached to the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL) on 23 July 1941, and assigned to the Clyde escort group on 17 August 1941, joining the Newfoundland Forces.
Aconit took a very active part in the Battle of the Atlantic for two years, protecting convoys sailing from Newfoundland to the U.K. via Iceland. She also took part to the operations in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon between 10 and 27 December 1941.
In 1942 Aconit, with three other FNFL corvettes, was assigned to Escort Group B-3 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force and served with this group for the rest of the campaign.
On 10 and 11 March 1943, Aconit, one of eight warships escorting a large convoy HX228, destroyed two German submarines, U-444 (Oberleutnant zur See Albert Langfeld) and U-432 (Kapitänleutnant Hermann Eckhardt).
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