World War 2: Connecting w a Veteran (6)

A day or two after connecting with Lloyd Evans by phone he emailed the first of two sets of black and white photographs mentioned in an earlier post. I imagined Lloyd and his son had worked together on a computer and scanner at Lloyd's house - near 401 highway, two hours east of my house in London - and hoped they got along okay.

I thought, they've never laid eyes on me, so this is a great kindness. Lloyd is connected to my father by similar stints in the RCNVR and time in Combined Ops but they might only have crossed paths briefly here or there, e.g., over a sip of rum inside a protective cave in Sicily, July, 1943. Men on the barges were oft-times on long shifts, anywhere from 12 - 96 hours, so learning the names of some of the men in flotilla crews had likely been a difficult task.

And what are the odds that two young Navy boys - who were not supposed to be carrying cameras during WW2 - appear in one another's photos? Slim, I say. Very slim. But still I hoped.

I looked at the first photo:

["Someone in Lloyd's crew picked up a pet in Freetown, Africa"]

Both Lloyd and my father tell stories about monkeys in their memoirs. I mentioned E. P. Murphy and his monkey to Lloyd during the phone call we shared but he didn't jump at the name. 'Different men on different ships' came to mind as I looked at the scene from May or June, 1943. Lloyd had told me he'd gone around Africa like my father, on their way to the invasion of Sicily, but there had been a lot of ships, a lot of flotilla crews. A complete record likely doesn't exist of the ships and crews and where they stopped along the way, but if there is one the above photo is a part of it.

["Lloyd wears an officer's cap at a later date.
East coast, Canada"]

Two other photos followed of officers, Lloyd included, and I'll need to get to work to see if they appear in other pictures and books I have. By 'work' I also mean 'road trip', to visit Lloyd and have a helpful chat when possible.

The last photo in the set almost knocked me off my chair.

["Chuck Rose, Al Kirby (?), and Don Westbrook.
My father's buddies!"]

I surmised the following:

Time - 1942 or 1943

Location - Training on barges off the southern coast of England, 1942. Or, relaxing after some delivery work was done off the northern coast of Africa, 1942 or south-eastern Sicily, 1943

Who - Three members of Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and Combined Operations, from Chippewa, Woodstock and Hamilton respectively

Assignment - Deliver tank mesh to the beaches (so tanks could drive out of the water and onto the sand). Pose w machine guns, take pot shots!

This is without a doubt a great, authentic, rare photograph of a Combined Ops crew! If a Canadian museum ever opens a wing dedicated to the contribution of RCNVR and Combined Operations to World War II, this photo should be up on the wall. "Men of the Barges. You need it and we deliver!"

Chuck, Al and Don are mentioned several times in my father's Navy memoirs, and Chuck and Don (and their families) visited at my family's home on many occasions after the war. Friends in war are friends forever, my father later said. To see the fellows aboard a landing craft is a very rare sight indeed, especially in such a situation, i.e., up close, relaxed, guns in hand.

I was a bit disappointed my father wasn't part of the crew but another batch of photos has been mentioned. So I'll write back to Lloyd and wait to see what happens next.

Photos courtesy of Lloyd Evans

More Connecting w a Veteran (5)