HMCS Haida: Battle Ensign Flying: Canadas Famous Tribal Class Destroyer
by Barry M. Gough
Category: History

This is the story of Canada's greatest destroyer, the aggressive and hard-hitting Haida. She is Canada's most decorated warship, winning honours in the Arctic, English Channel, Normandy, Bay of Biscay, and Korea. Her first commander, the late Harry DeWolf, is Canada's most famous naval hero. Since her decommissioning in 1963, Haida, the last of the feisty Tribals, has been preserved as a national naval memorial.HMCS Haida's story is an account of sharp-end war; of Canada's naval experience in Murmansk convoys and British Home Fleet protection; in English Channel operations, when Canadian and British naval units swept the German naval ensign from the seas; in the destruction of a U-boat, and in the liberation of Trondheim, Normay. Haida was always in on the action. She sank more enemy military tonnage than any other Canadian vessel.Haida's finest days were during the intense naval operations leading up to D-Day. With her sisters Huron and Iroquois and the ill-fated Athabaskan, with British and Polish men of war, she engaged German destroyers, torpedo boats, minesweepers and others and never lost. She vigorously carried the war to the enemy at great risk. Her postwar career including two tours in the Korean theater displays the same brave purpose in her officers and men, trained professionals and dedicated sailors.Barry Gough has written a new chapter in Canadian naval annals, showing that the best equipment brings forth the best results when good fortune and superb seamanship and weapons handling are matched in equal measure Haida's illustrious story.