The Allies Still Press on Many Fronts. D-Day in the Wind!
More Canadians Return Home. Many Also Leave for the UK.
Some Canadians return to Canada. Others leave; some stay in POW camps
Introduction:
The last issue of The Winnipeg Tribune that I will peruse and share during this series is presented below, not in its entirety of course, but in a few clippings.
Readers interested in collecting more information via a digitized newspaper (free, no subscription fee) can do so by clicking on this link to The Trib as found at the University of Manitoba.
Approx. 950 - 1,000 Canadian sailors in RCNVR served in Combined Operations (chiefly manning landing crafts) during 1942 - 1943 and trained for and participated in several significant operations, i.e., the Dieppe Raid and invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Italy. After returning to Canada in December, 1943, many were selected for or volunteered for service at a Combined Operations School on Vancouver Island.
By February 29, 1944 they had completed about two months of their new routines. We have heard from some of them via memoirs, photographs, news articles and interviews in this series of entries re Editor's research. More information about their time on Vancouver Island will follow. See "Comox. BC" in the A - Z Directory link in the right hand margin. Contact the editor at gordh7700@gmail.com with questions or comments.
The clippings that follow are from February 29, 1944 and the twins that are seen in a photo below are now about 22 years old!
Presenting the two-year-old twins!!
Allied forces press forward on many fronts. A few details from around the globe are shared below:
Men and women serving on various fronts loved getting mail! The quicker the better!
When wounded return, are family members prepared?
Articles like the one below remind me there is a war going on in the Pacific as Canadians in Combined Ops, including my father, are training troops for a D-Day in Western Europe. When my father and mates were encouraged to consider signing up for the war in the Pacific (in the summer of 1945) they refused:
The work of the Red Cross is featured in many full-page or large ads at this time during the war:
We read that "the Russians (are) making great headway in this region...":
POWs will be repatriated sometime in the future. Until then they work and wait:
Did you hear about Bertha, "the beautiful bus driver?"
I recall collecting pop bottles as a young lad. A refund of two cents for small and five cents for large bottles comes to mind:
A couple of sailors, including my father, made the comment that they enjoyed serving "under the White Ensign." Here is a bit of news about the Red Ensign:
Photos below are both from the collection of Joe Spencer (used with his son's permission). Captions accompanied each picture:
"ALC 269 leaving New Haven, August 21 1942. Len Birkenes, C. Sheeler"
(Editor's note - the Dieppe raid had taken place two days earlier)
"ALC 269 returning to Southampton from New Haven. C. Sheeler,
Joe Spencer" (Editor - Joe is partially hidden by the White Ensign)
More support for the Red Cross is encouraged by veterans of Sicily, now returned home:
More information - than one can shake a stick at - can be learned about the Canadian Army in Sicily and Italy and re their early training days in the technique of 'combined operations' - and much, much more - on Canadian Army newsreels.
Newsreels were seen at the movie theatre during WWII and I provide a link to No. 17 (out of 106) (it will link to many more) that reveals landing exercises for Canadian troops at Inveraray, Scotland (at No. 1 Combined Operations Training camp). The troops trained on landing crafts manned in some cases by Canadian Navy crews (including my father and many mates), and I provide three photos from that camp (now a caravan park) taken in 2014:
Movie ad from previous post; Feb. 28, 1944 issue of The Trib
The background scenery in the photos below has not changed much since 1942, but the barracks are gone and have been replaced by holiday caravans. The original drill hall - familiar to the Canadians in Combined Ops, etc., who served there, still stands to this day, near a memorial to all those who participated in Combined Operations.
More information about HMS Jervis Bay can be found at Wikipedia.
Unattributed Photos GH
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