Roy Grainger was born in Kingston, Ontario on December 4, 1916, the son of James Francis Grainger and Edith Mary Grainger, of Port Hope, Ontario. When Roy enlisted, he was single, residing at 145 Davis Street, Sarnia and employed as a meat manager at Loblaws Groceteria. Roy joined the Navy, becoming a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, serving aboard the HMCS Athabaskan, attaining the rank of Petty Officer Supply.
The HMCS Athabaskan (G07) was a destroyer of the Tribal class, built in 1940-41 and commissioned by the Royal Canadian Navy in February of 1943. She was plagued by mishaps during her very short service life. She had to be repaired due to weather-induced stress, and was involved in two minor collisions that resulted in repairs required. On August 27th of 1943, she was heavily damaged by a German Henschel glider bomb during an anti-submarine chase in the Bay of Biscay. The HMS Egret was sunk in the same incident.
On April 29, 1944, the HMCS Athabaskan and her sister ship the HMCS Haida, were ordered to intercept a German force steaming towards Morlaix River, off the coast of Brittany in the English Channel. Just before 4:00 pm, the Athabaskan made radar contact with two German Elbing destroyers, T-24 and T-27, and an E-boat. Closing range to 4300 yards, the Athabaskan fired a volley of 4-inch star shells. As both Canadian ships opened fire, they turned their bows directly towards the German destoyers, to present as little silhouette as possible and to avoid torpedos fired at them. Unfortunately, torpedoes from German torpedo boat T-24 hit the Athabaskan. Shortly after, the magazine and a boiler blew up in an explosion that was seen 20 miles away. Fires were raging fiercely above and below decks. Slowly, Athabaskan upended and slid under the surface, steam and escaping air hissing her death knell. Survivors were scattered, some in boats, others clinging to floats and still others supported only by their life jackets, many of them barely alive. Haida had continued the chase, catching and destroying T-27, and then she returned to where the Athabaskan had been.
When Haida arrived, it came across life jacket lights bobbing and blinking in the dark, many of the men barely conscious, located within five miles of the German-held French coast. The Haida dropped all of her boats and floats, scramble-nets were lowered over the side and her own men went down them to drag up dazed and exhausted survivors. Her motor cutter (power launch) also went over the side, manned by a party of three volunteers. With the tide pulling at the destroyer and dawn raising the probabilities for an imminent air attack, the Haida had limited time to rescue survivors. After being stopped for ten minutes, word was passed along that the ship would have to go ahead in five minutes. The warning was repeated at one-minute intervals to the rescue parties labouring along the side and on the quarter-deck. Sixty seconds after the last warning, the order “slow ahead” was given. After fifteen minutes, and after rescuing as many as she could, the Haida was forced to make a run for it. The Athabaskan captain, Lieutenant Commander John Stubbs, in the water with the other survivors, declined rescue by Haida to swim back for more crew members.
A total of fourty-four of the oil-soaked Athabaskan crew were picked up out of the water by HMCS Haida. Eight Athabaskan crew members were able to climb into a lowered Haida motor cutter, and slowly made their way to safety. Three German torpedo boats picked up 83 survivors in the water, who were taken prisoner. A total of 128 of the crew were lost in the sinking of the Athabaskan that April 29 night, among them, the Athabaskan Commander John Stubbs and Petty Officer Supply Roy Grainger of Sarnia. Roy Grainger would later be officially listed as, Missing, presumed dead, when H.M.C.S. ‘Athabaskan’ was torpedoed and sunk by enemy action in the English Channel. Twenty-seven year old Roy Grainger has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia, Canada , Panel 12.
Years later, there was speculation that the Athabaskan may have in fact been lost to a friendly fire incident after being torpedoed by a British motor torpedo boat, or that she had suffered some sort of catastrophic internal explosion in number one boiler room. Due to the poor condition of the wreck and the poor record keeping and incomplete logs of other ships in the area at the time, neither of these theories has yet to be confirmed.
SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, L, P, T, U, X, Z, 2A, 2C, 2D