Frank Arseth Russ 1918 - 1943

Family history

Frank Russ was born on 20 February 1918 in Vananda, a mining settlement on Texado Island in the Strait of Georgia, near Vancouver.

He seems to have had a lonely childhood.

His mother, Bertha Arseth (who was born in Alesund, Norway) died when he was 15 months old. His father Edward was at times a farmer and a lumberjack, but in his younger days a gold miner, who once worked a claim in the Yukon. He probably led a peripatetic life, which would have kept him away from his son. In the 1920 US census, he was at a lumber camp in Clallam, in Washington State, while Frank was over 100 miles away, lodging with a family in Tacoma. In the 1930 US census he was at a road camp in Clallam, while his son was boarding with a family in Forks, just 25 miles away. By 1931, Frank had moved back to his birthplace in Vananda: he was a 12 year-old student lodging with yet another family.

Frank Arseth Russ

Given his upbringing, it is no surprise to find Frank, on 12 January 1936 at the age of 17, enlisting in the Canadian Navy, as a Boy Seaman at HMCS Naden. This was probably a naval training base at Esquimalt, British Columbia. He may have served, as a Telegraphist, at this and other shore-based facilities before joining the destroyer HMCS Assiniboine on 8 June 1940.

He served on HMCS Saguenay from September 1940 to January 1942. The vessel was based in Greenock and escorted convoys across the North Atlantic. But on 1 December 1940, she was torpedoed by the Italian submarine Argo and 21 men were killed. Repairs in Barrow-in-Furness took six months, after which Saguenay resumed her escort duties.

In January 1942 Russ was posted, as a Leading Telegraphist, to HMCS Hyacinthe, the navy’s communications training school in Quebec.

He married Jean Hamilton Rennie in Toronto on 11 July 1942. Jeanette was a salesgirl from Glasgow, who had emigrated to Canada with her sister two years earlier. When her ship, the Duchess of Bedford, sailed from Liverpool, she was waved off by her cousin, Elizabeth Stewart Hamilton.

Frank was stationed at Avalon, St John’s NF (“Newfyjohn”), as a Petty Officer Telegraphist, before joining HMCS St Croix on 26 June 1943, probably in Halifax. The vessel was due to sail from Plymouth to engage in operations against U-Boats in the Bay of Biscay. But it was diverted to escort duty in the North Atlantic.

On 20 September the St Croix was escorting Convoy ON-202 about 600 miles SE of Greenland's Cape Farewell. At 21:51hrs she was hit in the stern by two acoustic torpedoes fired from U305 and disabled. Less than an hour later, the U-boat fired a third torpedo and sank the ship. Next morning, the frigate HMS Itchen picked up 81 survivors from their lifeboats and rafts.

But 66 of the crew were killed.

Frank Arseth Russ was one of them.

Sadly, on 23 September, HMS Itchen was herself sunk and all except one of the rescued men were lost.

The  full story  was related by the sole survivor, William Fisher.

Images

Sources

* Russ family history, censuses etc – familysearch.org

* Frank Arseth Russ service record – forposterityssake.ca/Navy/RCN-OBITS-SECTION-81.htm#RCN008128

* HMCS Saguenay – Wikipedia

* HMCS St Croix sinking – uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/3070.html

* Commonwealth War Graves Commission – cwgc.org

* Find a Grave.com

* Virtual Book of Remembrance – veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/books-remembrance/page/3637

* Fisher, William (1999) "The End of HMCS St Croix" - Canadian Military History: Vol. 8: Iss 3, Article 7. Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol8/iss3/7