Operation TC (i)

'TC' (i) was the designation of Allied military convoys (together with a numerical suffix) plying the route from Canada to the UK to deliver Canadian troops across the Atlantic, and as such reciprocals of the 'CT' (i) series (December 1939/December 1941).

The first of the 16 such convoys was TC.1 of 10/17 December 1939 with the 44,786-ton British Aquitania carrying 2,638 troops, 20,123-ton British Duchess of Bedford carrying 1,312 troops, 21,833-ton British Empress of Australia carrying 1,235 troops, 42,348-ton British Empress of Britain carrying 1,303 troops and 22,424-ton British Monarch of Bermuda carrying 961 troops. The importance of these 7,449 troops in attested by the strength of the largely British escort, which at various times included the battleship Resolution, the battle-cruisers Renown and Repulse, the fleet carrier Furious, the light cruiser Emerald, and the destroyers Bedouin, Eskimo, Fearless, Fraser, Hunter, Hyperion, Ilex, Imperial, Kandahar, Kashmir, Khartoum, Kingston, Mashona, Matabele, Ottawa, Somali and Canadian Restigouche and St Laurent.

The last of the convoys was TC.16 of 15/21 December 1941 with the 11,420-ton British Cuba, 13,595-ton British Letitia and 29,253-ton British Pasteur escorted by the British destroyers Havelock, Newport and Sherwood, Free Polish destroyer Błyskawica, US battleship Arkansas, US light cruiser Nashville, and US destroyers Eberle, Ericsson, Hamilton, Ingraham, Livermore and Ludlow.