Well I am getting into the final details; one part that has been long delayed is the secondary armament. Corvettes tended to mount whatever was available; about the only common fitting was the World War One 4 Inch gun forward. Although documentation today states a 4 Inch deck gun, 2 X 20mm Oerlikons, Hedgehog and 2 Pound Pom-Pom these were the fittings on later corvettes with extended focsles and the supply of secondary armament had been sorted out in 1944.
Ted Paxton who sailed in HMCS SHEDIAC had identified twin .50 Calibre Machine Guns on the bridge wings and that SHEDIAC had another pair mounted in the aft bandstand (these were later replaced with the 2 Pound Pom-Pom) and when the bridge-wings were extended and given struts the Oerlikons replaced the bridge mounts.
The earliest photos of CHILLIWACK definitely have a paired mounting of some kind aft (likely twin .50 Calibre Machine Guns) but at some point these were replaced with a Pom-Pom as a photo in 1943 when the 271 Radar was added she has the 2 pounder.
So armed with this information I decided to build four twined .50 Calibre Mounts (Browning Machine Guns) and a Pom-Pom to be safe…
First up was the .50 Cals and I started with some plastic styrene tubing, then some square and rectangular strips and cut them down to scale. I also used some more 1/35 scale tank treads which I was trimming down to make the handles at the rear of the Browning.
The Brownings in their rough form, details to be added still:
With my first run at their mountings (I used the drawings from
Shipcraft Special: Flower Class Corvettes by John Lambert and Les Brown)…it seems the mountings are a little small for bridge wings splinter shield so I will likely build some larger ones, after seeing a photo of HMCS BATTLEFORD with the high mounts I will make some more.
With detailing added, I think I will trim down the ends of the barrels as the Canadian versions I have seen in photos tended to be the short wide nose variant.
So I spoke with several more veterans about RCN corvettes. Don Bellamy sailed in HMCS CHICOUTIMI (besides several other ships) and remembered CHILLIWACK having a Pom-Pom in the aft bandstand in 1942. He described some of the living conditions and confirmed some of the mine sweeping fittings for me. So it looks like I will be building a 2 Pounder after all.
Bill Hutcheson sailed in the Merchant Marine and did several trips near the end of the war, but only once did a corvette come close enough to pass a message and ask about the crew (probably to see if there were any friends or relations in the Canadian merchant). Bill has also made a model of CHILLIWACK (later long fo'c'sle version) which I hear it is quite spectacular and he says that all photos he has of CHILLIWACK have the Pom-Pom aft, but admits they are from after her fo'c'sle extension.
Peter Lynch sailed in HMCS MATANE (if anyone has any pictures of this Frigate he would be keen to see them) and sailed in concert with a few corvettes, he passed on some anecdotes of the second iteration of EG 9.
Cully Lancaster sailed in HMCS MOOSE JAW and he said that she carried two pairs of Lewis Guns in her aft bandstand. Cully was from Moose Jaw and ended up sailing in the corvette named for his home town when the assigned officer failed to make his connection and the corvette sailed with Cully taking his place…one of those “two year” temporary assignments.
Cheers,
CB