HMCS Loch Achanalt (K424)

HMCS Loch Achanalt
History
United Kingdom
Name:	Loch Achanalt
Ordered:	24 July 1942
Builder:	Henry Robb, Leith
Yard number:	342
Laid down:	14 September 1943
Launched:	23 March 1944
Completed:	11 August 1944
Fate:	loaned to Canada 1944, returned 1945. Sold to New Zealand, March 1948
Canada
Name:	Loch Achanalt
Commissioned:	31 July 1944
Decommissioned:	July 1945
Honours and awards:	English Channel 1945
Fate:	returned to UK 1945
New Zealand
Name:	Pukaki
Acquired:	March 1948
Commissioned:	13 September 1948
Decommissioned:	May 1965
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, October 1965
General characteristics
Class and type:	Loch-class frigate
Displacement:	1,435 tons
Length:	286 ft (87 m) p/p 307.25 ft (93.65 m) o/a
Beam:	38.5 ft (11.7 m)
Draught:	8.75 ft (2.67 m) standard 13.25 ft (4.04 m) full
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines, 5,500 ihp or Parsons single reduction geared turbines, 6,500 shp
Range:	730 tons oil fuel, 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement:	114
Armament:	1 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mark V gun on one single mounting HA MkIII** 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) MkVII guns on 1 quad mount MkVII 4 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on 2 twin mounts MkV (or 2 × 40 mm Bofors A/A on 2 single mounts Mk.III) up to 8 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on single mounts MkIII 2 × Squid triple barreled A/S mortars 1 rail and 2 throwers for depth charges

HMS Loch Achanalt was a Loch-class frigate of the Royal Navy that was loaned to and served with the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. Ordered from Henry Robb, Leith, on 24 July 1942 as a River-class frigate, the order was changed, and ship laid down on 14 September 1943, and launched by Mrs. A.V. Alexander, wife of the First Lord of the Admiralty on 23 March 1944 and completed on 11 August 1944. After the war she was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy and renamed Pukaki.

Loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy, the ship was commissioned on 31 July 1944, and joined the 6th Canadian Escort Group at Derry for convoy defence and anti-submarine operations in the North-Western Approaches. On 16 October Loch Achanalt and Annan engaged and sank the German submarine U-1006 off the Faroe Islands.

In January 1945 the 6th Escort Group was transferred to convoy defence duties in the English Channel based at Portsmouth. From 14 March to 20 April, the group were deployed from Plymouth to the English Channel and South-Western Approaches on convoy defence duties. Later in April they sailed to Halifax for convoy defence duties. Following the German surrender, the Group was disbanded on 23 May 1945. Loch Achanalt was returned to the Royal Navy in July and put into reserve at Sheerness.

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Wikipedia