| Wartime Heritage Home | ||
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Newsletter Articles April 2006 Vol. 2 No. 1 |
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The purpose of the Wartime Heritage
Association is to keep our Canadian wartime heritage alive through various
initiatives and pass on to a younger generation the contributions made by
all our veterans. We are proud to play an important role in honouring
their efforts and achievements and contributing to the stewardship of
their legacy. |
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| 440 Productions - Looking Ahead | ||
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The 2005 Performance Season of Time To Remember brought
tremendous response and encouragement from many in Canada and in England
to continue the program.
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| More On The Story of the Canadians and Dover | ||
| In the 440 stage production of Time To Remember - A
Tribute to the Men and Women of WWII, (2004-2005) the story of the enemy
gun emplacements in Calais, France that shelled Dover, England through
much of the war, was featured. The script also told of the subsequent
capture of these German positions by elements of Canada's land forces that
were tasked with liberating continental Europe from Hitler’s control. Recently, through our ongoing research, we discovered additional details of the communication between the Canadians in France and the Mayor of Dover. The details were published in "Kent at War" by Bob Ogley: At 10:45 on the evening of September 30th, [1944] the mayor of Dover, Alderman Cairns, received this telegram from the commander of the 9th Canadian Infantry Regiment. "To the citizens of Dover. Greetings from the Brigade and may you enjoy your pint of beer and stroll on the [sea] front in peace from now on. We have all of the Jerry’s Big Berthas”. Dover's reply to the Canadian liberators came immediately "Thank you for your message just received and most grateful appreciation of the gallantry and skill of you and your officers and men in capture of Jerry's Big Berthas. We shall not enjoy our beer and stroll on the front to the full until you can join us in it. We wish you God Speed”. The shelling had ended. Within minutes loudspeakers were relaying the good across town. The few flags that were not buried under the rubble began to appear and thanksgiving services were held in churches. The bells of St Mary's had survived the years of shelling. As a special tribute, simple but effective, they pealed out five slow notes and two quick ones. It represented the initials of Britain's front-line town - Dover. This is only one of the many historic connections between Canada and England that should be remembered. |
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| The Reluctant Engineers' Coveted Wings | ||
| Bernard Hyde was almost fourteen years old when World War II began. Born in Sittingbourne, Kent, he thoroughly enjoyed his childhood, especially the chance to enjoy the open spaces in the woods and fields around his village. His childhood came to an abrupt halt, in a sense, with the resounding call to arms throughout Britain. Recently Mr. Hyde recalled his days as a youth, anxiously awaiting the opportunity to serve his country. My father decided that I should not waste my technical schooling and discussed my future with the owner of a light engineering company who agreed to employ me as an apprentice. By now the Battle of Britain was in full swing and like many other residents, time was spent looking towards the skies. It was here that I struck up a friendship that was to last for many years. Peter and I were both reluctant trainee engineers and both had one ambition only, to fly. Peter was dead keen on joining the Fleet Air Arm as a pilot but fate sent him into the RAF where he won those coveted Wings. Peter and I kept our noses to the wheel and settled down biding our time until we were old enough to volunteer for aircrew duties with the RAF. There was a slight problem because the age for joining the Air Training Corps was sixteen and my sixteenth birthday was not until September. When I was asked how old I was I replied, without batting an eyelid, ‘sixteen, sir.’ Of course the new C.O. knew that I had lied but allowed me to sign up just the same. We were in and well on our way to joining the RAF. Most people were certain that the war would be over by Christmas. How wrong could we be? Of course being in the ATC was great fun, making lots of new friends and feeling very important in our dog collar tunics with items of insignia attached. RAF drill and discipline were most important and I enjoyed learning how to wear a uniform and march like a real airman. I became so keen that one of my duties was to instruct new recruits the elements of marching and how and whom to salute. In 1942 Peter and I volunteered for aircrew duties, were sworn in, took the King’s shilling, and clutching our silver badge returned home determined to remember our service numbers without which airmen could not get paid or, for that matter receive uniform or food. Even today if somebody claims to have been in any of the armed forces the question is always asked, ‘and your last three?’ Any hesitation brings a query, were they really an airman or whatever. Every day we would gather and wait for instructions, we were all desperate to receive news of our posting overseas to continue our training. I suppose we were concerned the war would end before we had become operational. How silly, we might have been killed but the thought never occurred to us. Time passed until one day with my other mates our names were called and we left our cosy billets and returned to the camp. Then it all happened, fourteen days embarkation leave, farewell to tearful mother but with a light heart back to Heaton Park. Under tight security (we were) marched into a cinema and given a lecture on how to behave in Canada. In the morning, dressed in full marching order clutching a pack of dubious sandwiches, we boarded buses and were driven to a railway station. The draft of RAF aircrew were soon on board the 'Aquatania' and, after finding our troop deck and dining area, were soon lining up at the shop. For seven days we sailed through the Atlantic, going south and then west and then a bit north, all the time the ship was making zig-zag course. I vividly remember sitting on the deck, back to the cabins looking at the sea, one minute all I could see was the ocean, looking down into the rollers, next I was looking at the sky. What excitement, we had seen this on the cinema screen but here it was for real. Once cleared for mixing with civilization the time came to be posted to our respective training stations. Where the other 220 cadets went I do not know, my group of 30 trainee Air Bombers boarded a proper train and were escorted to RCAF Fingal, No. 4 Bombing and Gunnery School wherever that might have been. But we were not bothered, suffice it say that we were to start our training and become Aircrew! The training was intense and the weather became hotter. In classrooms we stuck to the chairs as we struggled with mastering a vast amount of knowledge, never did we dream that so much was involved in navigating to the target, identifying the target and dropping a bomb. We were taught the art of plotting courses, signaling by Morse code and using a signal lamp, aircraft recognition, meteorology, gunnery on the ground and in the air, which included the art of taking a Browning '303' machine gun to pieces and reassembling it. About a week before graduation day six cadets from the course were summoned to the Chief Ground Instructors for an interview. Ken Hogg, a much older man than myself, went into the office ahead of me and came out with a dejected expression on his face. I was very apprehensive, certain that I had failed the course. Ken did nothing to relieve my fears, he said that all six of us had failed and would be returning home. I was called into the office, saluted and stood to attention in front of several officers. I was amazed and delighted to learn that, not only had I passed the course but that I had been commissioned and on graduation day, following wings presentation was to remove rank badges and eagle shoulder badges and wear a white brassard indicating that I was now an Acting Pilot Officer. By now we were anxious to return home and join an operational squadron and help fight the war. And so my short sojourn in Canada came to an end. It was time to pack, board a train and escorted by a gaggle of Service Police. On arrival we joined the Mauritania and where I found myself one of the privileged class, sharing a cabin with five other new Pilot Officers including Ken Hogg. I became very friendly with Ken and remained so until he died six years ago. He turned out to be a really good friend, so much so that he became my daughter’s Godfather. Bernard Hyde flew as Second Pilot on 271 and 8 Squadrons Transport Command, both in Europe and the Far East. In 1945 he met his future wife Marian, and he currently resides in Kent, UK. | ||
| Fred Good (Telegraphist Air
Gunner - Fleet Air Arm Royal Navy) |
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| Merchant Aircraft Carriers, or MAC ships, played
something of an unsung role in the Battle of the Atlantic. In fact, Fred
Good, a Telegraphist Air Gunner with the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy,
readily admits that not many people are even aware of their existence.
However, the MAC ship provided vital air cover for a convoy and was used
to find and force down any submarine it encountered, and to attack and
destroy any submarine that refused to submerge. No U-Boats were sunk with
the aid of the MAC ships, but a submarine forced to dive and kept under
was made impotent. As a teenager Mr. Good couldn't wait to get involved in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. Thrilled at the prospect of joining his first ship, HMS Royal Arthur, he found himself outside the gates of Butlins Holiday Camp in Skegness, where he was taken under the wings of a group of tough, old, long serving matelots who taught him to heave a line, tie a knot, wring out a swab and do a cross country march at the double. This was induction, and he soon found himself in Canada undergoing flying training. He was trained to be a Telegraphist Air Gunner and eventually received posting to an operational squadron. Instead of joining a Fleet Carrier, however, he was sent to 836, the MAC Ship Squadron. In the two short years MAC ships were in operation they helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic and contributed to the final outcome. MAC ships were introduced at a critical time when Britain was in real trouble. They were barely surviving in any field and as an Island Nation they were on their knees. Since much of the population was devoted to the war effort, manufacturing and export was insufficient. There was no national income and they had no choice but to import food and equipment from North America. Of course, this meant crossing the Atlantic and forming huge convoys of merchant ships. Getting them across without loss to the German U-Boats was a formidable tasks and the Atlantic was a disaster area. Much of the Atlantic sea- board was in German control, which meant their reconnaissance planes could operate unhindered to observe and report on Allied movements. It was a fairly sophisticated method used by the Germans, sending U-Boats into attacking positions using their diesel engines. As the convoy approached they would switch to much slower battery propulsion, submerge and wait for their unsuspecting prey. After the attack, they would then surface, switch back to diesel, increase speed to skirt past the convoy, and get into position ready for the next attack. This also allowed them to air the boat, fix their position, communicate by radio and of course, recharge their batteries. Their preferred hunting ground was out of reach of shore-based aircraft and was known as the Atlantic Gap, approximately 950kms (600 miles) wide. What was needed to close the gap were ship borne aircraft, which would keep the U-boats submerged. They would then be denied the speed to catch up with, or get ahead of convoys, thereby avoiding the first and subsequent attacks. Merchant ships were being destroyed faster than they could be replaced, and the losses of Merchant Navy personnel was totally irreplaceable. On the other hand, the U-boat fleet was growing. The use of Catapult-armed Merchant Ships in an effort to find some way of hitting back had proved to be great value but at great expense, because each time an aircraft was launched it had no way of flying to safety. So the brave pilots, after taking on the enemy, had to take to their parachutes and hope to survive the freezing waters of the Atlantic for long enough to be picked up. Survival time was estimated to be 5 minutes. A solution was desperately needed. The answer offered was to fit a simple flight deck and arrester gear to a suitable Merchant Ship. As an experiment a captured German ship, the M.V. Hanover was converted and became HMS Audacity in June 1941, and so the MAC ship was born. With no hanger, all aircraft maintenance had to be carried out in all kinds of foul weather. The ship had 4 arrester wires and a crash barrier, and tests were so successful that the Admiralty was convinced that this might be the answer they were looking for. In 1942 the Admiralty placed an order for nine existing tankers to be converted plus six new grain ships and four new tankers to be built. The first of these was commissioned in April 1943, a grain ship, the Empire MacAlpine. In all 19 MAC ships came into service between April 1943 and April 1944. Their area of operation was the North Atlantic from Liverpool or Clyde to Halifax or New York and they were manned by a Merchant Navy crew and Skipper with FAA ground staff and aircrew with Defensive Equipment Merchant Shipping personnel manning a 4"stern gun and eight 20mm anti-aircraft cannons. The convoy was arranged to leave a clear space in the centre rear, about 3miles by 1-mile, in which the MAC ship could turn into wind for flying without endangering other ships. U-boat searches were flown off from this position whenever necessary from information obtained from German message decoded by the Enigma machine. Searches were limited to 3 hours in the summer and 2 hours in the winter especially when they were routed North. Handling aircraft on a tilting, swaying deck took enormous physical and mental strength and starting up a 750 hp engine which had been out all night, by means of a hand-wound flywheel inertia starter gave warming exercise to the whole body apart from the hands which were grasping the steel and brass starting handle. And when that episode was over they couldn't go and lay down. MAC Ships contributed greatly to convoy management. One can imagine how scattered a convoy could become after a severely stormy night, with no means of ship to ship contact. These new weapons could round up the stragglers covering a far greater area much more quickly than could an escort vessel such as a corvette or frigate, and this in turn conserved the fuel of the escorts They could also signal the strays by use of the Aldis lamp, giving instructions about course and bearings. The presence of MAC Ships was a great morale boost to the men of the Merchant Navy, and from their first voyage to the end of the European war in May 1945, only two Merchant ships were sunk. The MAC ships didn't win the Battle of the Atlantic single handed but if they had been conceived and introduced earlier it's a wonder how many Merchant Navy seamen's lives would have been spared. Mr. Good's experience may have been unusual in that he didn't take any lives, but certainly as part of the MAC ships, he helped saved many.
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