Tjerk Hiddes joined the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla and worked up with the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow before deployment to the Eastern Fleet. She escorted convoys towards Egypt and Kenya and took part in the occupation of Madagascar. Her later duties included convoys between Sydney and Fremantle, work with Australian forces and support for the US Seventh Fleet. These combined operations drew scarce fleet destroyers across national command structures to meet competing demands. She transferred to the Eastern Fleet in January 1944. During a later 1944 rendezvous, tentatively dated to March, she refueled from USS Saratoga while the American carrier mentored Allied fleet units preparing for Pacific service. Clarke had been told that the refuelling was photographed, but had not found the pictures.
Chapter · 55:00-58:35
HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes in an integrated Allied fleet
The Dutch N-class destroyer Tjerk Hiddes moved through Home Fleet, Indian Ocean, Australian, and Eastern Fleet assignments as a scarce Allied fleet escort.