Dad's Navy Days: 1944 - Comox, Vancouver Island (27)

Look all you want. You won't find much written about the Combined Operations training base manned by members of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) during World War 2. But I lead a charmed life.

A year or so ago, while snooping around Mr. P. Lamont's antique store in Wortley Village (a month or two before it became a popular art gallery) I asked about books related to the Canadian Navy. I was directed toward one small lower shelf by Al Webster, and within seconds I found a treasure, i.e., Volume II of a set entitled The Naval Service of Canada. I immediately turned to the Table of Contents and was rewarded one-thousand-fold for my time and money.

["Front cover"]

["Inside front cover"]

["My father trained 'some zombies on cutters', not 'on shore'

but close enough to qualify for this book!"]

["From Table of Contents. West Coast - yaaah!"]

I call the book the 'cherry on top' because I also have my father's recollections about his time at Courtenay and Comox in his own hand-writing. Charmed I am. And together the stories will likely inspire me to travel west again to learn more about the war years, the training base and its occupants, and reconnect with people I met during my first visit to Comox (April, 2012).

Part of one paragraph from the rare, $2 find told me more than I at first imagined:

     All operational bases were abandoned, and the entire
     combined-Operations activities were concentrated at
     Courtenay. Naval training later moved to the nearby
     naval camp at Comox Spit, formerly operated by
     H.M.C.S. "Naden" for musketry and seamanship
     training. This establishment became known as
     "Givenchy III." In February 1944 there were 51
     landing craft on the west coast of which all but 8
     were based on Comox. (pg. 232)

["Father's Navy records connect him to many interesting places"]

While my father was at The Spit he "passed professionally for (his) Leading Seaman rating and Acting Coxswain, classed very good," so he knew a lot about landing craft and how to handle them.

In fact, Dorothy (Dot) Levett (age 91 or 92 when I met her last year in Courtenay), told me that my father used to pick her up, along with some other girls, and take them for rides to Tree Island. When I asked how he did that she said, "On the landing crafts." When I asked where Tree Island is located she pointed out the window. It was almost that close. And when I asked for more details about the boat rides she said enough - "We'd go for picnics, swimming, dancing, and more" - to inspire quite a vivid picture of my father and his mates. (Dorothy later married Chuck Levett, a member of RCNVR known to my father).

Stories going back to February, 1944 (and more) to follow.

Link to Dad's Navy Days: 1944 - Comox, Vancouver Island (26)