time, like a silent river (9)

Remembering a World at War

"(Seventy) years have passed, and time, like a silent river, has carried away the Canada we knew then. The war - and Canada's great military achievements, as well as our astonishing industrial contribution to the war effort - changed the nation forever." From the Epilogue of The Veterans' Years by Barry Broadfoot

On Remembrance Day, six days from now, people from around the world will stop for a few minutes and recall times of great significance and sacrifice. In London, people of all ages, all affected directly and indirectly by the life-changing events and consequences of the World Wars, will meet together, and remember, at the Cenotaph in Victoria Park.

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Today's quote - 

"The Dutch captain lined us all up and assured us we would arrive safely because the Volendam had already taken three torpedoes and lived to sail. This was vert heartening news for those of us who had never been to sea..." [Doug Harrison, O/D or ordinary seaman at the time - December, 1941]

Today's story -

More drills, oppos and a rare navy buzz (1)

While 340,000 English and French troops were being evacuated - to fight another day - from Dunkirk in June, 1940, my father, age 19, was working at the Norwich Co-op. While significant battles were being waged upon the Atlantic and in the North Sea, which included the sinking of the British battle cruiser Hood and German battleship Bismarck in May, 1941, my father, was picking up rudimentary seamanship skills at H.M.C.S. Star in Hamilton. And during October of '41, about a month after the siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) began and two months before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, father, then 21, began more serious training as an officially classed O/D (ordinary seaman) in Halifax.

[Wellington Barracks, on large training grounds,

later known as Stadacona, at aldershot1940.com]

While in Halifax he made a single important decision that would shape the way he participated in the war. Someone was looking for volunteers and, along with just about all his training buddies, father raised his hand. Though he may have put up his hand because he heard magic words to a 21-year-old - "nine days leave" - he never expressed one word of regret in later years.

About his two - three month and significant stay in Halifax father writes, "time passed quickly at Stadacona" (originally known as Wellington Barracks by the British Army), so it didn't seem long to him between the time he arrived, completed hard training, signed himself up for special duties overseas and stepped aboard a Dutch liner bound for Scotland shortly after 'nine days leave' and Christmas. A few of his sentences concerning that moment in time are filled with meaning to me today, more than 70 years later:

     Training was very severe in Halifax. We were now known as

     Effingham Division under the good old White Ensign. Names

     for divisions were taken from old battleships of the Royal

     Navy. We went six weeks before being allowed to go ashore...

     [pg. 6, "DAD, WELL DONE"]

With Admiral Horatio Nelson as one of his heroes, my father would have been keen on the name of his division. But I'm certain he would not have been keen about his inability 'go ashore', since his philosophy as a young sailor surely was - like 99.99 per cent of other sailors - 'all work and no play makes Jack - and Doug - a dull boy'. However, the constant training undoubtedly prepared him in many respects for what lay ahead and turned him into a good team player.

That father saw himself as a member of 'Team Navy' can be seen in part by his occasional use of navy terms or lingo. For example, he trained on dry land at Stadacona and had little opportunity to be aboard a ship of any size at the time, so when he says 'to go ashore' he means to leave the navy grounds. He also writes that during training "nearly everyone had paired off in threes, buddies, or in naval language, 'oppo'." I was puzzled about that term after I first read it but now know it means your opposite number, the fellow you often work beside (or fellows - if, as Dad recalls, you're 'paired off in threes').

["The men of Effingham Division, Stadacona, 1941"] 

In another statement that includes father's use of Navy lingo I also discover how it is he ended up in Combined Operations, a part of the armed forces - perhaps little known about - linked to early, daring raids into Europe (two years before D-Day Normandy). As a member of Combined Ops he was sent to particular training bases in Scotland and eventually helped transport all manner of troops and war supplies upon Navy barges to various war zones in North Africa, Sicily and Italy in 1942 - 43.

More to follow.

Photos by GH

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Please click here to read time, like a silent river (8)