SUBSIM Radio Room Forums



SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997

Go Back   SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > General > Sub & Naval Discussions: World Naval News, Books, & Films
Forget password? Reset here

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-28-10, 03:06 PM   #1
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default Grandfather's Memoirs – RCNVR, 1940-1945 (HMCS Drumheller,Sudbury,Haida,Huron)

This is a repost and expansion that grew out of discussions in the Silent Hunter III forum thread "Historical Hunting Techniques". As there seems to be some interest, I will post excerpts here from my grandfather's memoirs.

He served in the RCN/VR (Royal Canadian Navy/Volunteer Reserve) from 1940 to 1945, aboard the Flower-class corvettes Drumheller and Sudbury, and the Tribal-class destroyers Haida and Huron (all HMCS). He saw convoy duty in the Atlantic, and served repeatedly on the Murmansk Run from Scapa Flow. He saw combat with Elbing and Narvik-class destroyers in the channel, and combat in the Bay of Biscay. There is more to his story than available here right now – he has talked to me about some of the more horrible things he experienced, but did not feel like writing about them in great detail. As a result, with his permission, I may include my own paraphrasings of some of those more unpleasant stories.

Additionally, as this is an excerpt from his memoir, it only deals briefly with his naval history (he was an accomplished golf pro and the first pediatric doctor in our city, as well, and he seems to be much happier writing about these things).

I'll begin with the story of how he came to join the navy, and his first draft. Some of the dates presented may be slightly out of order, but this can be corrected, as his personal service records are with him (but not with me). Names of all but the commanders of ships / other most prominent sailors (i.e. Harry G. DeWolf, commander of Haida, who was the most decorated commonwealth sailor of the war) have been edited.

Also: if you have questions, I will take them down and ask my grandfather on the weekend when I am home from university. He'll answer to the best of his ability, but keep in mind, as he himself so frequently states: as one man in the midst of a very, very big war, he only had a small piece of the picture at any one time!

_____________________________________________
Part I: In and out of the Army, Radar Education at UWO, and HMCS Drumheller

In the early months of 1938, a few of my friends and I found ourselves bored, and decided to join the army. My mother was not pleased. We joined the Canadian Fusiliers Reserve Regiment at London, Ontario in April of 1938 -- I was only seventeen at the time, and obviously did not present a birth certificate.

My only notable action in the army came when the Thames River flooded, putting London West under water, and I was stationed on Wharncliffe Road to assist in water-stopping. My other big moment came when King George V and Queen Elizabeth visited London, and the regiment lined up on Dundas Street. We stood at attention in front of the armouries in the blistering heat, wearing winter uniforms -- a couple of soldiers fainted.

The Second World War began in September of 1939, and it became obvious that the Fusiliers wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. We transferred instead to the Royal Canadian Army Corps. In September 1940, we still had not been called into active duty, and some of the fellows at Breezie's had heard that the navy was looking for men with at least a Grade 13 education to go to the University of Western Ontario for advanced radio science training. Earl *****, George **** and myself all transferred to the navy. So finally, I got to attend university -- I suppose I owe that much to Adolf Hitler.

Our course was supposed to last six months or more, but the situation in the North Atlantic was shaping up poorly for the allies, so we were rushed through and shipped out to the Stadacona Barracks in Halifax to commission the HMCS Drumheller. I had met Bunny ********* at Western, and was very happy when I discovered that we were both Drumheller draftees. To this day, he is still one of my best friends.

Drumheller, like all newly commissioned corvettes, had a very green crew. Most of us had never seen an ocean. The navy attempted to put sailors with actual experience on each new ship, but these were unfortunately few in number. We on the Drumheller were lucky to be given a few really good ones.

George Griffith had been a captain in the Royal Navy, and while in the service, he had visited Canada. He liked it so much that, on retiring, he purchased an apple orchard here. When Canada, desperate for experienced seamen, asked him, George joined our navy and was posted to Drumheller. We also got two RCN regular forcers with experience -- Leading Seamen Elwood ****** and Able Seamen Stan ****. All of the officers were RCNVR. Elwood and Stan would be my teachers, as well as being responsible for me getting an early able seaman rating and subsequently having Captain Griffith recommend that I go ashore to pass the oral, written and skill-testing leading seaman tests. When I passed the tests for leading seaman, my friend Ray ********* claimed that he had searched the records and that I was the youngest leading seaman in the Canadian navy.

Ray had been a member of the Drumheller's commissioning crew too, but now worked ashore in Naval Command. On our first convoy to Iceland, he had become horribly seasick on the first day at sea and did not recover at all during the course of the journey. When we got alongside Reykjavik, I went down to the mess deck and told Ray that he could get up; we had arrived. He said 'please don't kid me, I can still feel the ocean rolling'. Ray had to be carried ashore, hospitalized, and given IV fluids. He was returned to Halifax two weeks later and hospitalized yet again after his return voyage, eventually being assigned to permanent shore duty. Seasickness was common, but Ray's was certainly the most severe case that I ever saw. Some were stricken, while others were not. For whatever reason, neither Bunny nor I were ever affected.

When I left the Drumheller, Bunny took over the radar crew. A year previously, we had taken a convoy to Southampton so that we could be fitted with a state-of-the-art radar system. Our original set was a Canadian invention, but rather than being an improvement on the British version (the British being the first off the mark with radar, and constantly improving on their already-impressive systems), it was vastly inferior. The radar antenna was almost identical to the early television antennas -- a long rod with bars protruding from both sides. You still see the odd one of those television antennas today. The set worked perfectly on land (assuming the land was relatively flat), but on the rolling seas, the antenna would be pointing at the sky one second and at the ocean floor the next. The designers apparently knew roughly as much about radar as I did when I graduated so suddenly from Western -- that is to say, very little.
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.

Last edited by BillCar; 01-28-10 at 11:48 PM.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 03:33 PM   #2
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

Part II: 26 Days on HMCS Sudbury, Captain's "D" Draft, and Further Radar Gunnery Training

After Drumheller, I was posted to HMCS Sudbury. This miserable posting was thankfully quite brief. The Sudbury had just come out of refit, and I was drafted in as chief of radar. The captain was Elick McLarnin. He had been a merchant seaman in the Pacific, with a crew of Chinese coolies we were told he abused horribly. He treated us the same way as those poor men.

On one Sunday morning, while we were on workups in the North Atlantic in terrible weather, with waves washing high over the decks, McLarnin called for all crew to muster on the quarterdeck in full rig-of-the-day. I can still picture him as the crew stood there with waves washing up almost to their knees. None of us knew why we were there.

"Our Father who art in Heaven," he began. A seaman behind me shouted "Oh, what in the hell?" Turning around, he glowered at us, standing below bridge. "I'll fix you later," he shouted, before continuing: "hallowed be thy name." He, of course, was up on the pom-pom deck, and perfectly dry. He continued his sermon for over an hour. I, and everyone near me, was given extra watch hours for the rest of that week – a surprisingly light punishment from this particular commander.

Fortunately for me, the Admiralty called for a Captain's D-Draft the following week - an exceptionally rare event. The war was not going as smoothly as one would like, and money was needed for the armed forces. The government desperately needed to raise cash, and the best way they figured to do it was through the sale of Canada Bonds. It was decided that the best way to sell the bonds was to have a figurehead behind which the public could rally, and for this figurehead, they chose a ship. The HMCS Haida was nearing completion at Newcastle, and she was their choice.

Harry G. DeWolf had commanded the destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, but was now the Canadian naval attache in Washington. He was chosen as Haida's captain and, with a Captain's D-Draft, he could handpick his crew. Naturally, the bulk of his selections were permanent force RCN. The only reason I was selected was that naval radar had not really existed before the war, and I happened to have more sea time than any other radar candidates, as well as having received a very good rating from Captain Griffith on Drumheller.

So the Admiralty sent this information to Sudbury, and the signalman came to me and congratulated me. I went down to McLarnin's cabin to get my draft papers. When I got there, I asked him for my transfer, to which he replied that he had just torn it up and thrown it in the rubbish. I left, horribly depressed, and when I was up on deck later, the first lieutenant congratulated me. I told him what had happened, and he simply said "He cannot do that. Get your gear, and get up to Stadacona." I did, and when I looked back, Sudbury was slipping lines and going to join the convoy to Boston. I presume that McLarnin felt that once we were at sea, that was it so far as the idea of me transferring off was concerned.

He probably would have charged me with desertion (and been rather angry with the first lieutenant as well), but instead, when the Sudbury tied up in Boston, the entire crew - officers and men - walked off the ship and refused to return. It must have been a horrible trip. Nothing ever appeared in the navy records, but an officer from the Admiralty came to Boston and McLarnin was declared unfit to command. He was removed from HMCS Sudbury. This was, in fact, a mutiny, but I guess the whole crew was sworn to secrecy. McLarnin was put aboard a supply ship as a navigation officer. For a while, I was afraid that I would be charged with desertion, but nothing ever came of it. I only spent twenty-six days on the Sudbury, and now you know why they were my worst days in the navy.

I arrived at Stadacona without any papers, but as I mentioned earlier, Ray ********** was now working in administration on shore, and he was able to help me out. He told me there was no problem, gave me my leave papers, and told me to see him for the rest. I went to London (Ontario, not England!) for my first leave of the war.

On arriving back at Stadacona barracks, I was given my transfer orders to HMCS Niobe in Greenock, Scotland. My papers stated that I would ship out on the Hecla. This ship had been a cruise ship prewar, based in Australia, and was converted into a troop ship at the beginning of the war. When I boarded her in Halifax, I thought that the Royal Canadian Navy had outdone itself in stupidity. When I went down to breakfast the first morning at sea, I was the only one there. I felt that I must have made a mistake about the time, but the steward told me that I was in fact the only one eating because everyone else was too seasick. So there I was, the only Navy passenger on board a troop ship with five thousand soldiers. I told that story many times over the years until just about sixty years later, in 2002, when I was informed that I was the stupid one for not understanding why the RCN had put me on that ship. I was down by the pool at my condo when another resident by the name of Rosa ******* explained the situation to me.

She had been a WREN stationed at Admiralty House in London, England during the war. She explained that although Canadian navy ships were travelling across the Atlantic in huge numbers at least weekly, they were traveling through particularly dangerous waters, full of U-boats and minefields. Since I was a Captain's D-Draftee, it was determined to be too risky to send me to travel that route, and so I was sent on a troop ship. I am still not quite convinced that that made a whole lot of sense, but I'll defer to her greater knowledge.

At any rate, I arrived in Liverpool, England, and there was no one there to meet me. Fortunately, there was a British naval base nearby, and when I went there and explained the situation, they agreed to arrange for me to get to Greenock by train. They sensibly did not seem surprised that a Canadian sailor would arrive from overseas and have no idea of how to get where he was supposed to be (I assume they would have been surprised had I been a British sailor). So I got on the train with all of my gear and got to Glasgow, where someone was kind enough to direct me to the Greenock train. Arriving in Greenock, I was met by a jeep, and I was taken to HMCS Niobe. At least they were expecting me.

My service records show that I spent a lot of time at Niobe. In fact, except for the five weeks that I spent there later in the war with injuries, I was there for only two or three days at a time while being transferred to and from various places. This time, I was sent to a very secretive and well-guarded old castle north of Glasgow, which was a radar research station. Here I was to learn the operation of the advanced detection radar and gunnery targeting radar. For someone who really knew little about radar (despite it being my specialty!), it was an amazing experience. I was there for a couple of weeks, during which I was never allowed to leave the place. To this day, I am not sure precisely where it was.

I returned to Niobe for a couple of days, and then I was off to Chatham, England, to attend the advanced gunnery school. This place was not such a big secret, and we were allowed some leave. There is little that I remember about the city. At the barracks, there were excellent teachers who taught us all about the advanced artillery, which could be aimed and fired with extreme accuracy. While I was there, all of my shipmates were British, or attached to the British forces. Most of them were sailors on larger ships than I had ever been on at that point, but they were all friendly and helpful.
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 04:03 PM   #3
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

Part III: Commissioning Canada's Fightingest Ship, and Fighting Aboard Her – HMCS Haida
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Haida_(G63)
http://hmcshaida.ca

So, I took the train to Glasgow first, and then went from there to Newcastle. When all of the pre-commission crew arrived, there were about twenty of us. I do not remember all of them, but I do recall First Lieutenant ******** (a very fine officer), the two Lieutenants ******** (they were brothers -- one a gunnery officer and the other a torpedo officer). Also present were the engine room's officers and crew. None of us, officers included, had much money, and we soon found out that there was no paymaster.

First Lieutenant ******** went to the British naval base and arranged for them to advance us money until we could be paid by a Canadian paymaster. They must have assumed that Canada was not a very affluent country, because we didn't receive more than three pounds a week in pay. We received that amount for about three months, and when we finally started getting paid by the Canadian paymaster, my advance from the RN was not deducted. For about a year I bragged that I had beaten the Royal Navy out of one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Then the axe fell, and the British got their money back.

As an aside, I feel that I need to mention here that the people of Newcastle were very good to us. We always had our beer at a pub just outside the dockyard gates, and if we ran out of money, the bartender would just say "don't worry, matey, I'll just put it on a tab."

When the full crew finally arrived (numbering two hundred and seventy-six: above regular specifications) before the commissioning, all of them were going over the ship and examining every single part of her. She was sleek, beautiful, deadly-looking – state-of-the-art. Since the boilers were not to be fired until after commissioning, our meals were to consist of cold cuts, buttered rolls, fresh fruit, and other delicacies that the British had not seen for four years. While the new crew members were sightseeing, a number of us from the pre-commissioning crew took some generous portions of these rations ashore to our friends in the pub. All hands then fell in on the dockyard, and we found out what kind of a sailor we were going to have as our commander.

I can still see him standing there before us.

"I am Harry G. DeWolf. I do not have any medals, but I am going home with a chestful. You may call me glory bound, and if any of you do not wish to serve with me, you can step ahead, and you will be excused without any penalty."

Some did, and he simply nodded at them to stand off to the side. Harry then went down the line, spoke to some men he knew, and singled out three petty officers. He asked them to step out, and told them that they were relieved of duty. None of the other POs knew why, and I never found out.

We spent a week on workups in the North Sea and, all being well, we went north to Scapa Flow to join the 10th Destroyer Flotilla.

Scapa Flow was a very miserable place in winter (probably not much better in the summer), and we got very little shore time -- a couple of hours in the evening. We spent most of our time at sea.

Convoys to Murmansk only went north in the winter months. The last summer convoy, which went out in July of 1942, lost thirty-four out of forty-one freighters on the way to the Kola inlet. They had been hit by one hundred and thirty bombers, forty-three torpedo bombers, and, supposedly, as many as ten or more U-boats that came out of Norway. After that, convoys only travelled to Russia when the days were short and the weather was miserable. On our first trip, we encountered very little trouble. We picked up some German surveillance planes on our radar, but they never came close enough to be engaged.

Back to Scapa with two days to refuel and take on supplies. In the British navy, tradition had it that ships that were to be away at Christmas took on additional supplies of alcoholic beverages to celebrate the holiday. I suppose that the Admiralty were worried that with all of the extra booze there could be trouble between the our sailors and the Russians, so as the anti-submarine barriers were being opened to allow the destroyer escorts out, the order came that all ships were to come alongside the supply ship and give back their Christmas spirits, and they did, one after another, until Haida was the only one left. Haida was ordered to hurry up, as the gates were due to close. DeWolf replied that he was having engine trouble. Then, as the gates were closing at the last minute, DeWolf took Haida through, still with our booze -- typical Harry response to orders that he didn't like.

The first convoy had been easy, but this one was to be a very different affair. It has been written about many times – JW55B, on the periphery of The Battle of North Cape. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Cape)

The Germans had been allowing us easy convoys – maybe in the hopes that they would make us over-confident – and had decided that this time, they would send the Scharnhorst out from Norway. Scharnhorst was the ultimate battlecruiser. Our guns and those of the cruisers were absolutely no match for hers. Our best hope was the River-class destroyers. They had six torpedo launchers, whereas we had only four. DeWolf managed the rear of the convoy, and ordered the Tribals to stay with the convoy, and the Rivers were ordered to launch torpedos in an attempt to slow the Scharnhorst down on those two occasions when she approached. Thankfully, she bumped into another convoy which my good friend Bunny *******, having transferred to HMCS Athabaskan, was part of. The Scharnhorst butted heads for a bit, and the Duke of York eventually caught and sank her. We continued to Kola.

It was a terrible town. The only half-decent building was the Opera House. Three of us decided that we would go ashore and buy a bottle of real Russian vodka. *********, an able seaman, heard we were going and asked if he could join us. He told us that his parents had come from Russia, and that they now farmed in a Russian community. We welcomed him, and away we went. We found a shop that didn't look too bad, and went in. *********, spoke, and only God knows what he said, because the next thing we knew, we were surrounded by uniformed KGB officers. Fortunately, one of them did know a little English, and when we explained that we were only trying to get a bottle of vodka, we were let go. We never did get our vodka. When I was given a book on the Haida for Christmas, 2003, there was a list of personnel who were given decorations. Aside from Harry (who, as he promised, had a ton of medals), only ********* received a major medal. Lord knows what he did. I wish I could have been there for the presentation.

We sailed for Scapa and arrived there on a terrible night with strong winds. We were ordered to tie up alongside the oiler to refuel. I was in charge of the quarterdeck, and our job was to bring a heavy steel cable out of the hold. We had it half out when the ship took an awful lurch and a couple of the seamen lost their grip. The cable started back down the hold. I tried to pull it back, but being significantly lighter than it was (of course), I went down with it. I climbed back up the ladder. I still don't know how I did it, since I did have a broken arm. I guess I was so mad that I just ignored the pain. We got the ship tied up, and one of the other men said "Look at your arm!" It had an extra angle in it. So, I went to the sickbay, and the ship's surgeon said that both my arm and my nose were broken.

I was transferred to the hospital ship HMS Isle of Jersey, anchored in Scapa Flow. On arriving, I was taken to the sickbay and seen by the ship's surgeon. I had X-rays taken of my nose and arm (they missed my fractured vertebrae, which would be found by Dr. George Case at St. Joseph's Hospital in Guelph, Ontario, many years later – I myself was a practicing physician by that time). I was told that I would be operated on the following day.
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 04:15 PM   #4
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

PART IV: Recovery

Yet another British naval tradition cropped up here, this one dictating that sailors being operated on were to be given a breakfast of bacon and eggs the day after the surgery -- a very rare meal in wartime Britain. All of the sailors who were post-op and had had an ether anaesthetic knew that there was no way that anyone could eat anything so soon after an operation, and came to me asking if they could have my eggs. A few days later, I would do the same, and be rewarded for my efforts in soliciting breakfast.

While I was in the post-op ward, I had both nasal passages packed, as well as a temporary cast on my arm. A few days later, I had another X-ray taken. The results showed that I was healing nicely. A larger cast was applied. Some days later, the packing was removed from my nose, and shortly thereafter, I was told that I was fit for travel, so I got on a ferry and landed at Thurso.

Thurso is the northernmost tip of Scotland, and in my opinion, the bleakest spot in the world. It and Kola should have become sister towns. Fortunately, a train eventually arrived, and I went on to Glasgow, Greenock, and HMCS Niobe. Upon arriving at my final destination, I found that all of my gear was waiting for me.

When I checked in at Niobe, I got a real shock. The captain was Lieutenant-Commander *******, a volunteer reservist. He had been the commanding officer of HMCS Prevost in London, Ontario when I joined the navy. He had never been out of London since joining as a sub-lieutenant, and he had never been to sea on active duty. His given name was Eustace, and he was referred to by all sailors and officers as Useless.

On reporting to the CPO of barracks, I was informed that I was to be put in charge of the watch. It was necessary to have a guard at the gate at Niobe to make sure that sailors returning from the Greenock pubs with a new girlfriend didn't manage to get her into the barracks, but here I was being asked to organize a guard staff for the entire barracks. Niobe had been an asylum with very extensive grounds leading up into the moors, and we had sailors on guard duty at intervals all around the periphery. My job eventually boiled down to making rounds at regular times... the only reason I can imagine for this being that I was to prevent the others from falling asleep. No German spy in his right mind would go to the trouble of sneaking into into a camp inhabited by wounded sailors and useless administrators.

Salty ********, an RN leading seaman, had the gate. He had come off of HMCS Iroquois with a badly injured leg, so he sat, and I walked. He, like me, was suddenly ordered to join Huron. He was still limping a little, and I was ordered to have my cast taken off early. It was a very dull time at Niobe. On nice days, it was pleasant enough walking on the moors, and Salty always had a cup of tea waiting. There was one semi-exciting event during my stay. I rarely left the grounds of Niobe, but one day, I decided to go to Glasgow. Bunny ******* and I had visited it once back when he was still on Drumheller. Now, I am still sure that I reported to the office before leaving, but in any case, I left at twelve o'clock one day, and returned at twelve-thirty the next. I was told that I had not applied for leave, and so I was marked as being twenty-four hours overdue. I appeared before Useless, and my records show that I was docked one good conduct, which Commander Rayner reinstated when Salty and I got to the HMCS Huron.
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.

Last edited by BillCar; 01-28-10 at 11:55 PM.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 04:23 PM   #5
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

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!
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.

Last edited by BillCar; 01-28-10 at 09:03 PM.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 05:37 PM   #6
frau kaleun
Rear Admiral
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Skyri--oh who are we kidding, I'm probably at Lowe's. Again.
Posts: 12,706
Downloads: 168
Uploads: 0


Default

Quote:
To this day, I am not sure precisely where it was.
Hogwarts!

It was the "wizard war," after all.

Seriously, though, this is great stuff.
frau kaleun is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 06:29 PM   #7
Sailor Steve
Eternal Patrol
 
Sailor Steve's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: High in the mountains of Utah
Posts: 50,369
Downloads: 745
Uploads: 249


Default

Great stuff. Yep, that's a pretty fair summation.
__________________
“Never do anything you can't take back.”
—Rocky Russo
Sailor Steve is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 09:02 PM   #8
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

Part VI: Action in the Channel and Biscay, More Murmansk Runs, D-Day, U-Boat Hunting, German Surrender at Trondheim, The End

The biggest job coming into harbour was tying up to a buoy. It took a good ship handler, and Commander Rayner was a good one. He had to slowly approach the buoy, put the engines to stop, and then into reverse. All of this allowed for one split second for the buoy jumper to leap onto the buoy with a very heavy steel cable over his shoulder. One slight misjudgment would lead to tragedy. In my opinion, the buoy jumper was always the bravest sailor aboard any ship, and that is why I still remember the name of our buoy jumper: Reg ******. I was the one who, on signal from the bridge, had to tell him to jump. Once I saw that Reg had secured the cable to the buoy, two deckhands would bring him back up on a bosun's chair, while the rest of the crew would take hold of the cable, and I would yell 'To the bollards, and bring to!' The crew would then run the cable through the bollards, and to the caspan, which was then activated to take up the slack.

As I said earlier, after refit, there were a lot of new crewmen aboard Huron, some of whom were very green. The new lieutenant of the fo'c'sle was one of them, a new transfer from the Royal Navy. After we had tied up one day, another crewman asked me "did you hear what he was yelling at you?" I said that I hadn't, as I was always too busy to listen to him. My crewmate said "he was yelling 'buckle on, and tiddly-boo!'" I could not believe it, but sure enough, others confirmed this story. He must have heard me on previous occasions, but being an officer, never had the nerve to ask what we were actually saying or doing. That was not the end of it, though. The lieutenant actually reported me to Rayner for not obeying his orders, and I appeared on the bridge. I told Rayner the story as it had been told to me. The commander didn't even ask the ratings to confirm what I was telling him; he simply said that there wouldn't be any more trouble. There must have been another mis-step on the lieutenant's part, because he was drafted off the Huron. It certainly would not have been because of his erroneous yelling, but we had no way to find out why he was suddenly gone after that. In any case, we no longer had an officer on the fo'c'sle, and Kilcup was safe.

After the beating we took at the Ile de Batz, we needed a lot of repairs, and I got a few days' leave. My British mateys at the pub told me that I should go to Nottingham, the reason being that there was no air force or army base near there, and all of the young men were away at war. Four of us went, and we wound up visiting the oldest pub in England, "The Trip to Jerusalem." It was indeed incredibly old, and as proof, all of the upper dividers between rooms were so low that we all had to duck our heads going from room to room. Men were apparently much shorter long ago. We enjoyed our time in Nottingham and found everyone to be very amiable.

At around this time, I came to make the acquaintance of a new ordinary seaman by the name of Adelman. He was a very young, very fat boy who had been coddled all his life, an only child whose every wish was granted. He had joined the navy for the sole purpose of putting off his father (all of this I learned from him ten years later, when we actually became friends by chance). Not a bad kid, per se, but not one given to working all that much, either.

Now, at sea, there are few things to occupy the sailors' time. If they stay below decks, the new ones get seasick and the older ones get into arguments. The only solution is to put them to work. They become angry enough with the task at hand (and the person who assigned it to them) that they forget about their seasickness and their quarrels.

I was making my rounds on watch while we were on our way to Russia again, and happened across Adelman with his pail and scrub brush, moving at a less-than-stellar rate of speed. I said "Come on, move it, would you, Adelman?", but the next time I came around, he was in the same spot, and copped an attitude with me. It's not like me, and I did apologize to him for it all those years later when we became friends, but I kicked him square in the ass. He was a very heavy boy, but I did manage to move him a couple of inches. I told him that if he had not progressed another foot with his scrubbing by the next time I came by, I would move him that far. He demanded to see the officer of the day to lodge a complaint, and so I took him. Unfortunately for Adelman, the officer was old-school RN. He told Adelman that he would give him some good advice: "get scrubbing, or it's going to be painful for you to sit down."

Following a couple more Murmansk Runs, we returned again to Plymouth, and when the D-Day invasions were being planned, we were tasked with blocking any German ships from coming around the west coast of France to attack the invasion fleet. We had a no-sail triangle set up in the channel, running from Plymouth to Brest, and across to the Ile de Batz. Any ship, aircraft or submarine entering the triangle would be fired upon if they did not have IFF.

IFF was an identification signal transmitted by Allied ships and aircraft. Unfortunately, there were many instances of allied aircraft returning from missions over occupied Europe that had been shot up so badly that their IFF transmitters were not functioning. In these cases, when we could not make a visual identification on the aircraft, we were forced to shoot them down.

On many nights during this period, we saw a lot of ferocious action, much of which has already been written about. Instead, I will relate two instances of friendly fire here.

Bunny *******, they say, is Woodstock's most decorated veteran. We disagree, but I claim that I got him his medal. He was in charge of radar on board HMCS Skeena, a River class destroyer. As she was escorting a convoy from Halifax to Plymouth, she (as well as the rest of the convoy) somehow ended up off-course and in the triangle. For whatever reason, she was not transmitting an IFF signal. We opened fire on her. Skeena sustained very heavy damage. Her bridge was blown off, and her captain, all crew in the bridge, and many below decks were killed. A sister ship outside the triangle broke radio silence (something which was practically never done, for security reasons) in order to let everyone know that Skeena had been hit, and we ceased firing. Everyone felt horrible for days, if not weeks – the area was high-traffic, though, and it was easy for ships out of station to be mistaken for enemy vessels without the IFF signal. IFF was all-important.

Bunny minimizes his role in saving crewmen that day, but it must have been a major one, because he was the only crew member decorated, and was given a medal for bravery.

The other incident that I want to relate is once against the result of poor navigation. A newly-commissioned American light cruiser (the USS Something-or-other) had been sent to join our group in order to learn battle manoeuvers. She was not equipped with IFF, and had been ordered to stay in the rear and not participate, only observe. For whatever reason, she dropped out of station and sailed directly into the triangle. HMS Ashanti called it in first, and she and Huron both opened up. We scored several hits on her. Fortunately for her, she was new and very fast, and when we saw that she was heading for England, we ceased firing. Upon arrival in Plymouth, we were able to see just how accurate our radar gunnery was.

D-Day came on June 6, 1944, and I vividly remember the gliders being towed over head, loaded with Canadian, British and American paratroopers, and all heading for France. I thought then (and still do) that they were the bravest bunch that ever there was. The air force could offer them protection from the Luftwaffe, but they were subjected to heavy anti-aircraft fire on their way behind the enemy lines. The mortality rate was exceptionally high.

With the French coast secured, and the air force in control of the skies, we were no longer needed. We spent some time screening the channel, and got into some more firefights, but eventually, some River class destroyers took over for us in the channel, and we were sent back to Scapa Flow. As we set out, word came that a pack of submarines had left Norway, and heading for the Bay of Biscay. We, Haida, and a few others from the 10th Destroyer Flotilla were ordered to meet them, and we eventually did, with the help of an anti-submarine frigate group.

The results were excellent, with an enemy surrender and prisoners taken. We had, however, used a lot of fuel in the process, and so we headed for the Azores to refuel. The Azores belonged to Portugal, and as such, they were neutral. After refueling, we learned that the U-boats we had been hunting had been there to refuel shortly before we caught them. This same thing happened once when I was on the Drumheller as well -- we refueled in the Azores after some U-boats had done the same (on that occasion, Jimmy ***** traded my only blanket for a bottle of rum, only telling me after the fact). Not long after that, Rayner left us and was replaced by another excellent commander, Groos.

We returned to Scapa and escorted our last Russian convoy in April, 1945. We celebrated VE Day at Scapa, and then took the surrender of the German navy at Trondheim as part of the liberation force for Norway. It was an odd experience: we stood on the dock taking the German surrender while they marched their troops to us through the city, fully armed. We were not carrying any substantial weaponry at all. They desperately needed the guns, though, for had they not been armed, the Norwegians would have seen to it that not one of them made it to the prisoner ships alive. As they walked up the gangplanks to get onto the ships, they simply tossed their guns behind them.

The Pacific war was still going on, and Commander Groos was ordered to form a crew for the Pacific theatre. RCN officers and crew were not given a choice, as they were permanent force. When I was called to see Groos, I told him that I was not going to volunteer, and explained why: when the war in Europe looked like it was winding down, Henri Breault (my brother-in-law, and the man who would go on to lead the development of the childproof medicine cap) went to the University of Western Ontario and put in my application for medical school. He had sent me the forms some time before. Groos was not happy, but he did agree that I had a legitimate reason for not volunteering.

We got to Halifax, and Huron was scheduled for a refit. Volunteers were given leave, and only a skeleton crew remained. I was the buffer. Those RCNVR who were not volunteering for the Pacific theatre were being discharged. I had not been told to go to Stadacona for discharge, and when I went to see Groos, he told me that I had been classified under 'essential personnel', and would have to go to the Pacific. So there I was, a volunteer, but with no leave, no discharge, and ultimately in the same boat as the permanent force members. I tried everything: first the Catholic padre, then the Protestant one. Neither of them were able to help me. Then I met Tommy Dent He was in Halifax on a frigate, and had volunteered to fight in the Pacific. His father was the perennial member of parliament for Oxford County, and the largest farm owner (the Dent cow still stands guard today on Highway 2 entering Woodstock, Ontario).

Tommy did not want to go back to the farm yet. He had joined the navy when I did, had gone to Western for radar, and had almost as much sea time as I did (though not on destroyers). We decided to go and see Commander Groos. He felt that it might be reasonable for Tommy to take my place, and he spoke with the Admiralty. I was subsequently told that the idea was not acceptable. I could not get out. I started considering what other career I might have, if not medicine.

Before it became a real issue, though, the Japanese surrendered. The war was over. I went to Groos, and asked for my discharge. I was shocked when he said no. He said "I am not sending you to Stadacona, I am sending you on leave. You have been treated so badly that you can go on leave, and the navy can keep paying you until you get to university, and take veteran's allowance payments." I will never, ever forget that.

An aside: more than fifty years later, when my grandson talked me into applying for my records and I was dealing with Holly at Veterans' Affairs in Kirkland Lake, Groos' decision would come to a head. After weeks of Holly phoning me steadily, trying to find my records, I told her to forget it. Her answer was "no way, I've sweated over this for more than a week, you cannot back out now." Finally she called and told me she had found all of my files, and that I was registered as being in the navy, but never discharged. I figured that I must be rather rich after all of those years of back pay, but she simply laughed and said "Rich? On navy pay?"

When I finally got my papers, someone had written in a date of discharge -- the date of the Japanese surrender. However, my 2343 papers were not given to me. Holly told me that in order to obtain them, I needed to prove that I was who I claimed to be. I would have to produce my birth certificate (which stated I was born in Walkerville, a town that no longer exists, eighty years ago). I talked to Holly's superior and was able to work out a compromise: I would need to appear before a judge and swear, before witnesses, that I was who I said I was. So on a Tuesday, at the usual post-meeting Men's Club luncheon, I appeared in front of my friend, a judge, held my hand up, and swore to my identity. It seemed silly, but I got my 2343 papers.
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 09:18 PM   #9
frau kaleun
Rear Admiral
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Skyri--oh who are we kidding, I'm probably at Lowe's. Again.
Posts: 12,706
Downloads: 168
Uploads: 0


Default

Quote:
Finally she called and told me she had found all of my files, and that I was registered as being in the navy, but never discharged. I figured that I must be rather rich after all of those years of back pay, but she simply laughed and said "Rich? On navy pay?"

When I finally got my papers, someone had written in a date of discharge -- the date of the Japanese surrender. However, my 2343 papers were not given to me. Holly told me that in order to obtain them, I needed to prove that I was who I claimed to be. I would have to produce my birth certificate (which stated I was born in Walkerville, a town that no longer exists, eighty years ago). I talked to Holly's superior and was able to work out a compromise: I would need to appear before a judge and swear, before witnesses, that I was who I said I was. So on a Tuesday, at the usual post-meeting Men's Club luncheon, I appeared in front of my friend, a judge, held my hand up, and swore to my identity. It seemed silly, but I got my 2343 papers.
Lol. As my ex-Navy physics teacher used to say... "Close enough for government work!"

That is PRICELESS.

Thank you and please thank your grandfather for sharing his experiences with you so you could share them here.
frau kaleun is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-10, 10:47 PM   #10
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

No problem.

As mentioned earlier, if anyone has any questions, I have the potential to see him on weekends, so just let me know in advance and I can get answers (provided it's information he was privy to, that is).
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-29-10, 03:12 AM   #11
sergei
Sea Lord
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: London UK
Posts: 1,788
Downloads: 405
Uploads: 29
Default

This is all very good stuff BillCarr.
Thanks for sharing
sergei is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-29-10, 04:13 AM   #12
Capt. Morgan
Commander
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Just east of the west coast.
Posts: 462
Downloads: 391
Uploads: 0
Default

What a good read !

The Haida is now docked at Hamilton Ontario, and if any of you are ever there, she's well worth a visit (she used to be in Toronto). As a kid I spent I-don't-know-how-many hours exploring and climbing all over that ship, so it was doubly interesting to hear about someone who had served on her. Thanks.
__________________
There are no great men, only great challenges that
ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
-- Admiral William Halsey


Last edited by Capt. Morgan; 01-29-10 at 04:38 AM.
Capt. Morgan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-29-10, 07:34 AM   #13
KL-alfman
Grey Wolf
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Weimar
Posts: 930
Downloads: 86
Uploads: 0
Default

thx again for sharing, BillCar!!
i liked that very much.

Q:
1) would you ask him what he thinks the sentiments seamen of both sides had for each other? was there respect? or hate? or something else?

2) was there a time when the seamen of the Navy feared to lose the Battle of the Atlantic due to the massive sinking of tonnage which the u-boats were responsible for? or was there ever confidence in naval superiority?

3) did he learn to know some of the German seamen of the u-boats? if yes, what was his impression?

thx in advance for transferring these questions!!
__________________
Life, Liberty and Property!
KL-alfman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-29-10, 10:00 AM   #14
BillCar
Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 203
Downloads: 73
Uploads: 0
Default

@ Capt. Morgan: I agree, anyone with an interest in naval history should visit HMCS Haida, the only remaining Tribal class destroyer. Hamilton is only about an hour/hour and a half north of the US border, so anyone from NY state should certainly come visit, at least!

My grandfather has always lived within an hour's drive of her, ever since she was moved to Toronto. We usually celebrate his birthday on board.

KL-Alfman – I can already answer your questions.

1) On his part at least, respect. He has always told me "we never hated the Germans. We viewed them as having a job to do, like us, just on the wrong side of things. We didn't want them to succeed, but we also never thought of the guys serving on the ships as the real problem. We were out to beat Adolf Hitler."

2) Often times, the average seaman in the RCN and RN had only a picture of his own area of operations. My grandfather said – just last week, when he took me out for birthday lunch – that "we'd drive a U-Boat away from a convoy, or sometimes even sink it (or think we had, we'd see oil and debris, which sometimes they could fake, but usually, we would keep listening and if we heard nothing and they didn't come back up after several hours, we'd assume they were sunk). We often thought we were doing great, because we tended to luck out like that. We did have convoys take damage, of course, and we did lose ships, but it always seemed to us like we were succeeding for the most part. The thing was, that we didn't realize just how many of them there were! It was only after the war that I was reading about how many U-Boats were out there, and just how much damage they were doing. The worst fear I ever personally felt from a U-Boat was the time that Haida and Iroquois narrowly avoided being torpedoed on the Murmansk Run. I was on Huron by that point, but I heard the report come in live, and we could see them zigging and zagging on the far side of the convoy. I had a lot of friends on Haida, having served on her immediately before transfer to Huron."

3) I forget which ship it was, but he was on one that picked up survivors from a badly depth-charged U-Boat that managed to surface (this may have been the same incident he relates in the story above, when the task force was tracking the U-Boats to the Azores, and took prisoners). They threw down nets and hauled them up, and those men all wound up in a Canadian prisoner of war camp near Orillia or Timmins (sort of up towards central Ontario). They were given hot cocoa and blankets when they got on board. My grandfather doesn't know what happened to those specific men after the war ended and they were repatriated to Germany, but he does have friends today who were German POWs that came back to Canada because they liked it here (even though they were POWs at the time!). Some of them are Kriegsmarine, and I think he mentioned one or two U-Boat guys over the years. I know one big deal for German Kriegsmarine prisoners in Canada was getting to eat fresh eggs – they didn't get to see that while in the service, so in some ways, being a prisoner must not have been all bad!

Also, for his birthday some years ago, I gave him a DVD copy of the director's cut of Das Boot. He still watches it from time to time, and it always makes him cry.

Another point of interest, by the way, taken from uboat.net's page on Harry G. DeWolf (commander of Haida while my grandfather served aboard her):

2 Jul 1940
At 07.58 hours on 2 July 1940, the unescorted British passenger vessel Arandora Star was torpedoed and damaged by the German submarine U-47 about 125 nautical miles east by north of Malin Head, Co. Donegal and foundered later in position 56º30'N, 10º38'W. The ship had 479 German internees, 734 Italian internees, 86 German prisoners-of-war and 200 military guards on board. The master, 55 crew members, 91 guards and 713 Italians and Germans were lost. 118 crew members, 109 guards and 586 Italians and Germans were picked up by the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Laurent (Cdr. H.G. De Wolf, RCN) and landed at Greenock.

So, it sounds like Commander De Wolf had a slight run-in with one Guenther Prien...
__________________
SH3: 100% Realism, DID, GWX 3.0 + SH3 Commander 3.2 + HITMAN'S BETA GUI FOR GWX 3.0 (in a word: AMAZING) + FM Interiors + SH5 Water + Thomsen's Sound Pack 3.2 + BillCar's Sonar Ping http://tinyurl.com/billcarpingmod

SH4: 100% Realism, DID, RFB / TMO1.9+RSRDC / OM+OMEGU.

Last edited by BillCar; 01-30-10 at 03:48 AM.
BillCar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-29-10, 10:11 AM   #15
KL-alfman
Grey Wolf
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Weimar
Posts: 930
Downloads: 86
Uploads: 0
Default

got goose-bumps all over reading your answers (and some glassy-looking eyes too). I very vividly imagine your Grandfather's fate.
I even have more respect now for all the seamen of these days and their bravery.
__________________
Life, Liberty and Property!
KL-alfman is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:21 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.