Article: Joe Watson, RCNVR and Combined Operations, 1941 - 1945

"A German Plane... Strafed Us With Machine Gun Fire"

[Photo: L/S Joe Watson of Simcoe, Ontario. Circa 1944]

Introduction: This Editor was very surprised and happy to connect with the granddaughter of Joe Watson recently. I was happy to share some WW2 photographs with her, and she quickly sent along the news article about her grandfather, featured below. 

"Thank you!"

The top photograph was likely taken by a Simcoe news reporter in December 1943 or January 1944, a week or so after L/S Watson arrived home from two years of service overseas in Europe and the Mediterranean theatre of war, about which one can read in the article.

The story ends with no information about what the future held for Joe after his duties related to the invasion of Italy ended in late 1943, other than to say he "returned to England and (was) then granted leave."

What I can say about his future role is this: Once back in Canada, Joe volunteered for more service with Combined Operations (C.O.), along with several of his young Canadian mates - veterans of the Dieppe Raid and D-Days in North Africa, Sicily and Italy - and in January 1944 he boarded a train to the West Coast of British Columbia to assist with training regimens for young recruits at HMCS Givenchy III, a C. O. base on The Spit at Comox, Vancouver Island.

(A link to Comox B.C. is provided in right hand margin under "click on HEADINGS.")

To learn those things about Joe Watson I had to look no farther than some of my father's own WW2 photographs and memoirs. Joe and Doug likely met during initial training at HMCS Star in Hamilton in 1941 and were discharged from duties at the same time and place after their responsibilities ended at HMCS Givenchy III in September 1945.

The article about L/S Watson together with a few telling photographs and quotes from Doug's memoirs help tell this very good tale:

Article as published in Simcoe newspaper, circa 1944.

Used with permission of Robin Watson-Barber

Joe Watson, fourth from left in back row, was a member of the Effingham Division in Halifax, and together, "almost to a man", they were the first group of Canadians to volunteer for Combined Operations.

A later picture of Effingham Division in Halifax. Joe Watson is second from right, back row. Doug 'X', is in front row.

Canadians in Combined Ops gather outside brick barracks ("so cold the toilets froze") at their first training camp (HMS Northney) on Hayling Island, circa February, 1942.

L - R: Al Addlington, London; Joe Spencer, Toronto: Chuck Rose, Chippawa;

Doug Harrison, Norwich; Art Bradfield, Simcoe; Don Linder, Kitchener;

Joe Watson, Simcoe; Jack Jacobs. Photo - J. Spencer. With permission.

 Sailors had to quickly become familiar with various landing crafts.

Training took place in S. England and NW Scotland. (IWM).

 The Fab Five on leave in Glasgow. Back, L - R: C. Dale, P. Bowers, Joe Watson.

Front, L - R: Chuck Rose, Joe Spencer. Photo, with permission - J. Spencer

 Joe Watson would have been aboard ALCs and LCMs in North Africa.

Photo taken Nov. 8, 1942 by RN Photographer F.A. Hudson (IWM).

 A Canadian in Comb. Ops., centre, disembarking U.S. troops.

Photo taken Nov. 8, 1942 by F.A. Hudson (IWM).

Joe Watson recalled (in above article) an incident aboard his landing craft while in Sicily, July 1943:

On one occasion a German plane came down real close to our barge and strafed us with machine gun fire but fortunately did not hit any of the crew.

My father recalled - in Navy memoirs - a very similar incident while in Sicily (likely the same one!):

We started unloading supplies with our LCMs about a half mile off the beach and then the worst began - German bombers. We were bombed 36 times in the first 72 hours - at dusk, at night, at dawn and all day long, and they said we had complete command of the air.

We fired at everything. I saw P38s, German and Italian fighters and my first dogfights. Stukas blew up working parties on the beach once when I was only about one hundred feet out. Utter death and carnage. Our American gun crews had nothing but coffee for three or four days and stayed close to their guns all the time. I give them credit....

Once, with our LCM loaded with high octane gas and a Lorrie (truck), we were heading for the beach when we saw machine gun bullets stitching the water right towards us. Fortunately, an LST (landing ship tank) loaded with bofors opened up and scared off the planes, or we were gone if the bullets had hit the gas cans.

I was hiding behind a truck tire, so was Joe Watson of Simcoe. What good would that have done?

Our beach had machine gun nests carved out of the ever-present limestone, with slots cut in them to cover our beaches. A few hand grenades tossed in during the night silenced them forever. (From "DAD, WELL DONE")

Canadians in Combined Operations assist British troops with landings in Sicily.

Photo by Ray Priddle, at The Memory Project.

Joe Watson, right of centre (straightening his collar), with other mates from

Comb. Ops., head toward Halifax aboard Aquitania after two years of service. 

December 1943. Photo - From collection of D. Harrison

Don Linder, Doug Harrison, Joe Watson, Buryl McIntyre, Chuck Rose. 

Dressed up for train ride to West Coast. circa Jan. 1944

 Don Linder, Chuck Rose, Buryl McIntyre, Joe Watson, Don Westbrook.

Stop at Hornepayne on the way to West Coast.

Seven Sailors on board the ferry to Vancouver Island(?). January 1944.

Back, L - R: Art Warrick, E. Chambers, Don 'Westy' Westbrook.

Front: Joe Watson, D. Linder, D. Harrison, unknown sailor.

 Joe is in the middle. Note his nickname below.

"Giuseppe," was likely picked up in Italy.

The Spit (today known as Goose Spit), near Comox, B.C. HMCS Givenchy III

Today - HMCS Quadra. Photo - Comox Library. Taken in the 1930s.

Below is (what I believe to be) the last photograph taken of this group of six Canadians in Combined Operations in uniform, before they were discharged in September, 1945.

Back row: Donald Westbrook, Charlie Rose, Joe Spencer

Front row: Joe Watson, Doug Harrison, Arthur Warrick

In one of the back chapters of my father's memoirs he writes:

A naval photographer took a picture of six of us... because we all joined the same day, went through twenty-three months overseas together and were going to be discharged all on the same day too.

If my father's memoirs are accurate and typical, the six mates may have been back home in Ontario in July or August, discharged in September and back at civilian jobs shortly thereafter.

To them all I say, "Well done. We won't forget you."

Please link to Articles: 1943 Issues of Gangway, Navy News .

Unattributed Photos GH