River-class frigates reached service late enough to help establish frigate as a common postwar escort designation. Prewar sloops and wartime corvettes preceded them, with American destroyer escorts serving a comparable role to frigates. Canada ordered thirty-odd Rivers in 1942, including Springhill in June. She was laid down in May 1943, launched that September, and commissioned in March 1944. The interval illustrates the two to three years needed to make a new escort operational. Typical outfits included two 4-inch guns, sometimes four, with 12-pounders and 40-mm or 20-mm weapons among the varying lighter armament. Crews adapted their equipment, and individual ships differed from the theoretical standard. Springhill's anti-submarine outfit included Hedgehog and 150 depth charges. These frigates represented the escorts that mass deployment of Type XXI U-boats would have faced if the war had continued.
Chapter · 34:14-36:41
River frigates arrived for the late-war fight
HMCS Springhill shows why the frigate became the enduring escort type and how long construction times pushed advanced escorts into the war's final phase.