This action-packed, first-hand account chronicles the mission of Canada's most famous naval warship from her commissioning in 1943 to her return to Halifax for a refit in late 1944. The ship began her career on convoy duty from Britain to Murmansk, and the book includes a vivid description of the battle between the HMS Duke of York and the German Scharnhorst that led to the Scharnhorst's destruction. Haida went on to patrol the French coast in the months leading up to D-Day, and then with her sister ships guarded the Western Approaches on D-Day itself, sinking two German destroyers and crippling two more. Commander William Sclater witnessed these events first-hand, and his description - together with paintings by Grant Macdonald - provides a vivid recounting of the heroic days of the Second World War.

William Sclater's profile page

Not a soldier, but the soldier’s storyteller, not a veteran, but recognized by vets as keeper of the flame, TED BARRIS has published eighteen non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. He has worked as a broadcaster in electronic media in Canada and the US for forty years. He is a full-time journalism professor at Toronto’s Centennial College and the author of the online column the Barris Beat. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 CLA Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year. His latest book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen in the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, is a national bestseller. 

Ted Barris' profile page

Grant Macdonald's profile page