[BillCar]

PART V: HMCS Huron, Haida's Closest Sister

Things were still active in the English Channel, and that may be the reason that Salty and I were recalled so early, but regardless of the reasoning, I was happy to get out of Niobe and back aboard ship. I am not going to go into detail about the war in the channel and the Bay of Biscay: the story is better told in the many books that have been written on the subject. In fact, in some cases, I did not have the full picture until I read those books. There are, however, a few events that I never forget.

Every day, we left Plymouth at dusk – we being HMCS Huron, HMCS Haida, HMS Tartar or HMS Ashanti, and the Polish ORP Blyskawica – spending the night on patrol off the French coast and in the Bay of Biscay. Some nights we had a lot of action, and some were simply routine patrols. We always returned to Plymouth at dawn, before we needed to worry about the Luftwaffe finding us. Civilian volunteers would then come aboard to resupply us while we got some sleep. On one night, we caught a small German convoy, escorted by Elbing and Narvik class destroyers. We hit them quickly, and managed to do a lot of damage. As usual, they broke for the coast in order to get help from shore batteries. One of the Elbings headed behind the Ile de Batz, and Commander Rayner headed in after her. The Germans had anticipated this, however, and we were greeted with heavy fire from several sources, coastal and otherwise, sustaining heavy damage. Rayner felt that there was little hope for the situation, and we were told to prepare to abandon ship, but then my favourite ship of all time came in to our aid, and with our combined firepower, we drove them off. The HMS Ashanti towed us out, and we were able to get our engines going slowly so that we could be escorted home. If it had not been for the courage of the Ashanti's skipper, I would have landed in Europe and, at best, become a prisoner of war. In all the years since, I have never had the desire to go to France!

On another particularly bad night, we again engaged Narvik class destroyers. Elbing class destroyers didn't possess particularly impressive firepower, but the Narviks outgunned us. The shelling was very heavy, and suddenly, in the midst of the firefight, Y gun stopped training. I was trying to scream at Salty in Y gun to get his act together, and didn't get a response, which I immediately reported to the bridge. I was told that I should run aft and take a look. When I got there, I found that Y gun had taken a direct hit. Both gunners were dead, as was Salty. He had been in charge of the gun, and his body was wedged underneath it, preventing it from rotating. It was a very bad night.

To be continued... when I feel up to lots more cutting and pasting! Post questions if you have them, I may be able to answer some based on stories he has already told me, failing that, I can try to ask him either this weekend or next!