Express spent most of the first year of World War II laying minefields in British, Dutch and German waters. She participated in the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in May–June 1940, but resumed minelaying afterwards. The ship was one of five British destroyers that inadvertently entered a German minefield off the Dutch coast a few months later, leading to the sinking of two destroyers and Express having her bow blown off, incapacitating her for over a year of repairs. Two months after returning to duty, Express escorted the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse (Force Z) to Singapore in late 1941, in an unsuccessful attempt to deter Japanese aggression against British possessions in the Far East. She escorted the capital ships in an attempt to intercept landings in British Malaya in December and rescued their survivors after they were sunk by Japanese bombers. Express was then assigned convoy escort duties in and around Singapore and the Dutch East Indies under the control of American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) as the Japanese advanced. She escaped from the East Indies and rejoined the main body of the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. The ship played a minor role in Battle of Madagascar as she screened an aircraft carrier during the late stages of the campaign in 1942. Express, the eighth ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy,[6] was ordered 1 November 1932, from Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend under the 1931 Naval Programme, for use as a destroyer that could quickly be converted for use as a minelayer when required. She was laid down 24 March 1932, and launched on 29 May 1934. The ship was commissioned on 2 November 1934, at a total cost of £247,279, excluding government-furnished equipment like the armament.[7] On the night of 9/10 May, Express, Esk and Intrepid laid another minefield in the Heligoland Bight and were diverted on their return voyage to escort Princess Victoria as she mined Dutch waters off Egmond the following night after the Germans invaded the Netherlands on 10 May. This began an intensive series of minelaying sorties in Dutch waters during the rest of the month that saw three German minesweepers sunk on 26 July. The minelaying, however, was interrupted at the end of the month by the need to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk.[18] On 29 May, Express towed the disabled destroyer Jaguar clear of a wreck in Dunkirk harbour and transferred many of her evacuees aboard before she could repair her engines later that day.[19] The following day, Rear-Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker, commanding the ships involved in the evacuation, briefly hoisted his flag aboard her. She was lightly damaged by bomb splinters on 31 May, but continued to ferry soldiers back to England.[20] The ship and the destroyer Shikari were the last ships to leave Dunkirk with troops on 4 June when the evacuation ended. She brought out 3,419 troops over the course of the operation.[21] The conversion was completed on 2 June; the following day, Express was loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned with the name Gatineau. On 15 June, the ship was given to Canada where she was assigned to Escort Group C3 and assigned to the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoy duties in the North Atlantic. While protecting Convoy HX 280, she helped to sink the German submarine U-744 on 6 March 1944. Two months later, Gatineau was transferred to the 11th Escort Group, based at Derry, to prepare for the invasion of France (Operation Overlord) by patrolling British waters. She sailed to Halifax in July to begin a lengthy refit that lasted from 3 August to 16 February 1945. The ship spent March working up at the Anti-Submarine Training School at Tobermory before beginning anti-submarine patrols in British waters until the end of the war in May. Gatineau returned to Canada in June and was refitted in Halifax 11–19 July before she was transferred to the West Coast. The ship was paid off into reserve at Esquimalt on 10 January 1946 and struck from the Navy List on 1 April 1947. Gatineau was then sold to Capital Iron & Steel Metals of Victoria, British Columbia;[34] her hulk was used to form a breakwater at Royston, British Columbia (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}49°39′14.26″N 124°56′53.74″W / 49.6539611°N 124.9482611°W / 49.6539611; -124.9482611) in 1948. She remained visible for many years, but little remained of her hull by 2004.[35] Admiralty Historical Section (2000). The Evacuation from Dunkirk: Operation Dynamo 26 May–4 June 1940. Naval Staff Histories. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5120-6. Winser, John de D. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-91-6.