A flag, tattered and torn, hangs framed above the desk of Weyburn Mayor Marcel Roy. The story it tells is one from 74 years ago.

 

The flag is from the HMCS Weyburn. A Flower-class corvette, it was built in 1940, and commissioned as part of the Royal Canadian Navy on July 26th, 1941. It went into service, first in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and then was assigned to Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.

The HMCS Weyburn. (photo courtesy Department of National Defence)It was during the mission in the Mediterranean, on February 22nd, 1943, that the Weyburn struck a mine east of Gibraltar, which had been laid by a German submarine weeks earlier. The mine ripped the ship open, buckling the decks. After the explosion, the crew was quick to remove the firing pins from depth charges on board. They were able to remove all but two, which were jammed. The crew did this in the hopes that as the ship sank, the charges wouldn’t explode.

A nearby ship, the HMS Wivern, came to the Weyburn’s aid to get crew off of the ship. Roughly 20 minutes into the rescue operation, the ship sank. As the ship sank, the two depth charges which still had pins exploded. The explosion killed those in the water, and severely injured those on the deck of the Wivern.

Twelve souls were lost with the sinking of the HMCS Weyburn, along with its commander, Lt. Cdr. Thomas Maitland Wake Golby.