Canadian Corvettes Help Beat Off Plane and More
Story and photo, as found in The Halifax Herald, January 2, 1942
Young Canadians in Combined Operations likely relished news about how Canadian ships were having success against Axis planes and U-boats, especially since the first draft of raw recruits was preparing to board Dutch liner Volendam in Halifax near the end of January to begin training upon landing craft in southern England and north-west Scotland in the upcoming months. They would have given a 'thumbs up' to Canadian Corvettes.
Canadian Corvettes Help Beat Off Plane, U-boat Assault On Merchantmen
An East Coast Canadian Port, Jan. 2 -
How Canadian corvettes helped beat off aerial and submarine attacks on a large merchant convoy is the latest heroic tale from the North Atlantic's battle zones. This saga of war and men came from 27-year-old Able Seaman Arthur Wilson, who described how the corvette depth-charged an Axis submarine to the surface.
"The sub just buckled up before our eyes and sank, leaving a whack of wreckage and patches of oil," the young seaman related. He then recounted how Canadian sailors threw up an anti-aircraft barrage when a fleet of long-range German bombers swooped down on the convoy off the coast of Ireland.
"The Jerrys came at us like a bunch of hawks - one of them dropped down to the level of our masthead. He raked the ship with machine gun fire. Our third officer, a lad named Clarke from Swansea, got it while he was standing on the bridge. Thirty-two machine bullets riddled him," Seaman Wilson said. "A Yugo-Slavian seaman named Marco got it at the same time. A stray bullet in the heart finished him."
The cook of Wilson's vessel was slightly wounded during the attack.
Swing Into Action
In simple but graphic language, Wilson related how the corvettes swung into action. "They opened up such a fierce barrage that the Jerries didn't even wait to drop all their bombs." No ships were hit although some bombs landed close enough to send sprays against the hulls of several merchantmen.
It was about dusk when the aerial assault came. Crews of the ships were preparing for Christmas celebrations. As soon as the drone of enemy motors were heard, the merchant sailors manned their own small guns.
"We tried to beat our attacker off with a Lewis gun," he said. "He flew so low that the markings and numbers were plainly visible. Our boys on the Lewis gun stuck it out and kept blazing away despite the shower of bullets that whipped around them," narrated Wilson.
When the corvette barrage opened up, the enemy were forced to higher altitudes and accurate bombing was difficult. The attack only lasted a few minutes. "They got such a hot reception that I guess they figured they'd better not come back," said Wilson.
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Norm Mitchinson, one of the Canadians who volunteered for Combined Ops may have read the story:
"Norm Mitchinson of Niagara Falls was credited with two planes shot down during the course of the war, one at Dieppe and one at Sicily. Both were low flying bombers. His weapon was a strip Lewis .303." [From Memoirs re Combined Ops - A Taste of Dieppe]
Another member of Combined Ops also listed his memories related to the raid on Dieppe:
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