Rustyguts!
This week, some 85 years ago, Canadian maritime artist Donald Mackay’s painting depicts the open sea bridge of the destroyer HMCS Restigouche (H00) escorting a large convoy of troop ships, including the four-funneled 45,000-ton Cunard liner-turned-troopship RMS Aquitania (center left), across a brooding North Atlantic.
Beaverbrook Collection of War Art CWM 19710261-4245
Mackay is likely portraying troop convoy TC 1, which left Halifax with half (some 7,449 soldiers) of the newly formed Scotland-bound 1st Canadian Infantry Division on 10 December 1939. One officer (center) communicates with another ship by signal lamp, while an officer (left) records the message as a lookout stands by. The two large loops (right) are the direction-finding aerial used for navigation. Other navigational equipment is visible, including a gyroscopic compass repeater (center) providing compass directions.
It was Aquitania’s first WWII troop transport operation, carrying 2,638 troops and sailing in company with fellow liners/troopships Empress of Britain (1,303 troops), Empress of Australia (1,235 troops), Duchess of Bedford (1,312 troops), and Monarch of Bermuda (961 troops). The force was escorted by the old Royal Sovereign class battleship HMS Resolution along with the Canadian tin cans HMCS Fraser, Ottawa, Restigouche, and St. Laurent while an over-the-horizon cover force was built around the carrier HMS Furious, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and the light cruiser HMS Emerald. They would be met at 20’E by a dozen RN tin cans of the 6th and 8th Destroyer Flotillas, to help shepherd the Canucks through the wolves.
Between her Great War and WWII service, Aquitania sailed more than 500,000 miles and carried nearly 400,000 Commonwealth soldiers around the globe for the King.
As for Restigouche, completed in 1932 as HMS Comet, the “C” Class destroyer was purchased from Britain and commissioned in the Royal Canadian Navy on 15 June 1938. Like Aquitania, Convoy TC 1 was her first WWII convoy and the little greyhound would ride shotgun on no less than 72 by March 1945 including fully seven of the 14 big TC runs that brought Canada’s five Europe-bound field divisions and their reinforcements to the Continent. She also served off Normandy on D-Day and helped clean out the Bay of Biscay.
Her hard-working hull was often streaked with red iron oxide, and she was nicknamed “Rustyguts” by her crew.
Period Kodachrome of the Canadian destroyer HMCS Restigouche (H00), circa 1944-1945. Canadian Navy Heritage photo CT-284
HMCS Restigouche, River-class destroyer of the RCN during WW2. LAC Kodachrome. MIKAN 4821961
She earned five battle honors and her motto was Rester droit (Steer A Straight Course).
Paid off on 5 October 1945, she was broken up the following year.
A thought: RDF sets were also used to track down U-boats. For some reason, the Kriegsmarine insisted on relatively close control of U-boat operations, which required those subs to report back via HF radio. HFDF, aka Huff-Duff, was top secret during the war.