USS Rinehart (DE-196) - World War II North Atlantic Operations

World War II North Atlantic Operations

Following shakedown off Bermuda and brief service as a school ship out of Norfolk, Virginia, Rinehart commenced her primary work as a convoy escort when she sailed to New York on 8 May 1944 to pick up the New York section of a North Africa-bound convoy. Arriving Bizerte, Tunisia, on 1 June, she steamed for New York nine days later with a return convoy. She made a second voyage from Norfolk to Bizerte and back to New York between 24 July to 7 September.

Rinehart cleared New York on 14 October 1944 for the first of five convoy escort voyages to ports in Great Britain and France. She sailed from New York to Liverpool, England, and back (14 October to 9 November 1944); from Boston, Massachusetts, to Plymouth, England, to New York (2 to 31 December 1944); from New York to Liverpool and back (18 January to 14 February 1945); from Boston to Le Havre, France, and Southampton, England, and back to New York (8 March to 4 April 1945); and from Boston to Gourock, Scotland, and back to New York (24 April to 19 May 1945). During this last voyage, she rescued a man overboard from merchant tanker SS Sea Donon 1 May.