Books re Combined Operations: The Far Distant Ships (1)

The Far Distant Ships, by Joseph Schull, Published in 1950

Many Stories Related to Canadian Sailors in Combined Ops

Canadian Landing Crafts. Photo - Canada's War At Sea, 1944

Introduction:

The Far Distant Ships by Joseph Schull was published by 'Authority of the Minister of National Defence' in Ottawa (the King's Printer), 1950, the year after I was born and 5 years after my father was discharged from the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and ended his volunteer service to the Combined Operations organization (U.K.).

Wood or lino cut from  The Far Distant Ships. No artist credit given

I will be sharing selected passages from the book because it is 'an official account of Canadian Naval Operations in the Second World War' and includes some informative, significant and musty stories/details concerning the approximately 1,000 Canadian sailors, including my father, who had been part of the landing craft crews active in raids and operations well-known to most readers, i.e., the raid at St. Nazaire and Dieppe, and subsequent operations in North Africa (Torch), Sicily (Husky), Italy (Baytown and Avalanche), and France (Neptune).

An Official Title Page

The first excerpts are from Chapter 7 and in part touch on the Dieppe Raid and Operation Torch. There were about 40 - 50 Canadian sailors operating landing crafts during the Dieppe Raid; the rest of the first two drafts to leave Canada for foreign shores, including my father, were not utilized but suffered some of the consequences of battle nonetheless, i.e., the first losses from their tight-knit group of mates, and subsequent 'survivor guilt', for starters. Please click here to read, from navy memoirs, some of my father's recollections re the Dieppe Raid.

Below is a short note from one of my father's officers:

From page 66, St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian

Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, Volume 1

Please click here to read LT Bob McRae's full account of his experiences re the Dieppe Raid in St. Nazaire, Volume 1, @ University of Alberta

My father wrote "survival guilt" (in blue ink) at the bottom of McRae's brief but significant comment and I asked the question "where (exactly) is Lloyd Campbell buried?" I later went on to find out 'exactly' - from Lloyd's Navy records - and created an entry or two (or four!) about my search and discoveries. Please click here to learn more about Canadian Seaman Lloyd George Campbell of London, Ontario.

And now, on to Ch. 7 from The Far Distant Ships:

Paragraph 1 from page 144

Joseph Schull continues:

Even while the threat of invasion still hung heavy over Britain, the earliest moves had begun. They were at first hardly discernible from necessary measures of defence. Light British ships had occasionally shelled the French coast, or attempted to break up the Channel or Biscay convoys which supplied German garrisons. Small British commando parties* had descended by night on German-held ports to take prisoners, gain information and do what damage they could. 

*Combined Operations, book related to "small British commando parties"

Please click here to learn more about the above book

Schull continues:

By the end of 1941 these first efforts had lost some of their sporadic quality. Seamen and soldiers had begun to work out specialized landing techniques together, and were assembling into the nucleus of what would eventually become an amphibious raiding force.

"Specialized landing techniques" are explored in Combined Operations: The Official Story of the Commandos by Hilary St. George Saunders. Please click here for more information about this book.

As one can see, the book by Joseph Schull can itself be supported by some pretty significant books about Combined Operations, some which predate The Far Distant Ships. That being said, Schull's book focusses upon the overall role of the RCN, RCNVR and - as does this blog/website - the (approx.) 1,000 Canadian sailors who volunteered for the Combined Ops organization, were therefore "on loan to the Royal Navy" as some would say and served aboard landing crafts, trained other young recruits in the related skills (e.g., at Canada's only Combined Operations School on Vancouver Island), and ended the war with many first-hand stories to tell. And as Schull's stories unfold so will a few from our Canadian sailors in Combined Ops. (You've therefore been warned! I do tend to 'go on').

The Far Distant Ships, page 144 continues:

This nucleus (of "an amphibious raiding force") was at first entirely British; but it soon began to absorb a few of the first Canadians trained in England. Early in 1942, the Canadian contribution was substantially increased. Fifty officers and three hundred ratings who had volunteered for "specially hazardous duty" sailed from Halifax in January.* They were shepherded to the United Kingdom by the versatile K. S. Maclachlan who, as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, had held the position of Deputy Minister for the Naval Service. Now "dipped" at his own urgent request to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in the navy, Maclachlan was to have the work of ironing out administrative problems for his charges and was to serve on British combined operations staffs in several theatres.

*"Fifty officers and three hundred ratings" raises some confusion. I know that Doug Harrison (my father) was in the first draft of approx. 50 sailors, the Effingham Division, that "almost to the man" volunteered for Combined Operations (after hearing about "hazardous duties overseas, small craft, with nine days leave thrown in**" - with Christmas coming - while at HMCS Stadacona in Halifax). As well, I know that Lloyd Evans of Ottawa, along with most of his division, approx. 50 - 60 sailors, volunteered for the second draft. Together these two drafts sailed to Scotland aboard the SS Volendam in January, 1942, after the first ship they boarded ran aground while not far away from Halifax Harbour.

Volendam - Dutch Steam passenger ship

Photo - U-Boat/Allies/Merchants

One of LC Maclachlan's first administrative problems may have been to organize not only the arrangements related to finding a ship going to the UK with room for 100 sailors and all their gear but arrangements re what to do with 100 boisterous sailors who were stuck in Halifax for awhile. Lloyd Evans mentions getting a bit more leave. My Dad does not.

**"nine days leave thrown in" would have been quite the enticement back in the day, especially as Christmas drew near. Nine days would get an Ontario sailor home in three, well fed for three, then back to Halifax in three. Not a bad deal, especially if the sailors had girlfriends waiting at the station.

Please click here to read three accounts from young, Canadian sailors (Doug Harrison, Lloyd Evans, Al Kirby) who recalled the difficulties associated with getting from Halifax to Scotland. And is it possible that 2 or 3 or 4 other divisions of approx. 50 - 60 sailors also volunteered for Combined Operations around the same time as Doug Harrison, Lloyd Evans and Al Kirby, all from Ontario? Of course, it's possible, and I just haven't read any accounts of it yet.

In another book, The Watery Maze: The Story of Combined Operations by Bernard Fergusson, copyright 1961, we also about those early entries from Canada into Combined Operations, i.e., "of 50 officers and 300 ratings." Click here to read a few more details from The Watery Maze.

Will details emerge eventually concerning when, where, and how many Canadian sailors volunteered for hazardous duties with, at least to most of the volunteers, a hitherto before unknown organization? 

Oh, it's possible, but not very darn likely.

What is likely is that more details from The Far Distant Ships by Joseph Schull will follow, related to Canadian sailors in Combined Operations.

Please click here to view more about a Canadian who volunteered for Combined Operations and was involved in Allied landings on foreign shores. Photographs from the Lloyd Evans' Collection

Unattributed Photographs GH

Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (27)

August 5: Significant Strides Forward for Allied Forces in Sicily

As Well, Significant Stage in the Service of Canadian Navy -

Operations of 80th and 81st LCM Flotillas Ceased on the Beaches 

LCMs (landing craft, mechanised) of the 80 and 81st Canadian Flotillas are in

a convoy from Sicily, heading to Malta (background). Joe Spencer (RCNVR/

Combined Ops) is coxswain in the 2nd closet LCM. Photo, taken on or near

August 5, 1943, is used with the kind permission of Joe Spencer's family. 

Introduction:

I have been very fortunate to have access to excellent resources: Memoirs of WWII veterans who volunteered for service in RCNVR and Combined Operations during WWII; and stories written by several such sailors, enough to fill several volumes of books; and scores of rare, original photographs, newspaper interviews, related to the approx. 1,000 Canadians in Combined Operations; and access to microfilm and about two hundred pounds of other good books that relate to my chosen topic of interest for this blog.

One excellent, heavy(!), and musty book arrived in my mailbox recently, by the owner of a little free library (my own creation, from my own workshop, i.e., a former garage under the room in which I am currently sitting) that rests upon a sturdy support pole a mere quarter-mile from my front porch (and said mailbox). 

The book, The Far Distant Ships by Joseph Schull, 515 pages including index, published in 1950, 5 years after the end of WWII, smells musty, dusty and wise, because that's how some history books smell after 76 years sitting (and maturing) upon quiet library shelves, or inside another man's desk. It also reeks of rare history in my opinion, with several precious, densely-worded pages about the men - including my father, Gordon Douglas "Doug" or "Dougie" Harrison - that I closely follow, not just by reading their memoirs or interviews, etc., or viewing their many photographs, but by walking upon the shores upon which they trained or along the beaches where they were strafed by German planes or (a few days later) eventually found accommodation in cattle caves for 3 weeks ("under 70 or 80 feet of limestone" says my father) while unloading all material of war on the east coast of Sicily - near the town of Fontane Bianche. 

Aerial Photo (U.S. Air Force) found online as well as in LIFE magazine, 1943

My son Paul (right) and I enjoyed 100-year-old beer (still great when cold!)

while in Fontane Biancha. We are about 1 km away from the cattle caves (aka

'The Savoy'). Doug (aka Dogo and, fittingly, Cactus) and about 100 mates served

in 'the Med' during the invasion of Sicily, then Italy, July 10 - October, 1943.

Our visit was 80 years later; we both attempted to enter the caves but failed.

Photo GH, Sept. 2023

Within a few hours of the Montreal Gazette hitting front porches in Montreal and surrounding areas in Canada on August 5, 1943, Canadians in Combined Ops in the 80th and 81st Flotillas of Landing Craft were preparing to drop their ramps for the last time on Sicilian shores and head south toward Malta, for a well-deserved rest, time to relax and then repair landing crafts for the upcoming invasion of Italy.

About that time Joseph Schull writes:

The demands of the armies proved higher and the demolitions in Sicilian harbours more inconvenient than had been expected, and landing craft had therefore to be kept longer on the ferry service. This meant a great deal of discomfort for the Canadians, as for all the landing craft Flotillas. The beaches of semi-tropical Sicily in late July and early August were far from being health resorts. Almost every man suffered at one time or another from a variety of disorders which included dysentery, septic scratches, jaundice, sandfly and malarial fever.

The small, amphibious craft were not equipped for life on the beaches. Moreover, their men were now everybody's children and no one's. Their parent landing ships had long since departed. They ferried cargo ashore from every ship that came, but their home was the hot beach, and there their companies had to make what living arrangements they could.

Some found accommodation of a sort in an old, disused Army camp and many more had to take shelter in a very dirty and uncomfortable cattle cave. Their food consisted of rations acquired from the Army, occasional largesse scrounged from the better-hearted merchant ships, and what they could acquire from an impoverished countryside. The cave-dwelling members of the Flotilla had improvised a stove of petrol tins in order to apply some heat to their unsavoury victuals; and one evening the stove blew up. Flames licked back into the cave, igniting another can of petrol and consuming most of the kit bags, hammocks and clothing of the men. About half the personnel of the 80th Flotilla had to get along for the next three months on borrowed gear.

On August 5th operations ceased on the Sicilian beaches, and the two Flotillas returned to Malta. After a month of hard work under exceedingly difficult conditions the men were looking forward to a fourteen-day leave which had been promised them, always subject to "exigencies of the service". The news which greeted them on arrival in Malta was, first, that civilian dockworkers were on strike, and secondly, that their craft must be put in condition at once for a landing on the Italian mainland. Twenty-four cranky LCM's, which had been overworked consistently for a month to land 40,959 men, 8,937 vehicles and 40,181 tons of stores, must at once be retuned to concert pitch by the equally over-worked men who had operated them. Complaints were loud, eloquent, sustained and unavailing, but once this routine gesture was over with the Canadians manifested, as always, a peculiar zest for anything mechanical. At the end of two weeks, during which all the fit men of both Flotillas worked day and night, they announced to amazed dockyard authorities at Malta that their craft were ready to sail again.

From The Far Distant Ships, pages 211 - 212

After this longest of introductions (Editor wanted to share some relevant and very 'musty history' about the Canadians in Combined Operations) readers will now be introduced to several more News Clippings from the Montreal Gazette, August 5, 1943, accompanied by a few more words from the blog's editor for context and links to other relevant sources.

Questions or comments can be addressed to Gord H. at gordh7700@gmail.com 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (while Canadian sailors packed up their hammocks after transporting reinforcements and all materials of war to Sicilian beaches for four weeks), Canadian soldiers made gains farther north:

We will soon be hearing and reading more about the contribution made by 'Canadian Tribal Warships', to be launched (reportedly) in September, 1943. Though some of the smallest of Canadian vessels did well in Sicily (see below: "there were several flotillas of Canadian landing craft used there"), we will soon be introduced to the "fastest and most powerful warships of their kind in the world."

Again, related to the Tribal class destroyers, I will share a sentence or paragraph (or two) from The Far Distant Ships by Joseph Schull, beginning here with the following from page 187:

An even larger expansion (of "Canadian naval operations") got under way in December of 1942, when the first (HMCS Iroquois) of the powerful Tribal class destroyers built for Canada in Britain emerged from the shipyards." (More details to follow.)

Back to the News Clippings: Soon, British, Canadian and American troops will be competing to be the first to enter and win control of Messina in north-east Sicily, the stepping stone to the toe of the boot of Italy:

Details and photo credit at Assoknowledge

Ross Munro, Canadian Press. Photo Credit - Library and

Archives Canada [LAC/PA-136201] Legion Magazine

The following article could fit under the heading of "How American Industrial Production Helped to Win the War":

Details and Photo Credit at grunge

Readers of the Montreal Gazette can always count on the War News Digest for a brief summary of what's happening on various war fronts, e.g., at Bryansk, north Italy, on the Etna Line, etc.:

Below is another lengthy report by Ross Munro. "Have Remington, Will Travel" may have been his early motto!

Click here to view more information about

Brig. John 'Jock' Campbell (Photo Credit)

Click here to view more information about the Quebec Vingt-Deux

Photo Credit - Library Archives Canada, Ottawa

Q: "Was a lighted dance floor ever mistaken for a bombing range?"

A: "Once, when an RCAF plane was at 5,000 feet" (see below):

A7332 - HMS ZULU leading the destroyer escort into Grand Harbour.

Please click here to view a variety of photos re Malta, WWII

A9630 - All that is left of the 200 ton Floating crane in the dockyard after 

direct hit from a bomb. In the background can be seen the supply vessel

PLUMLEAF with a heavy list after being hit. Photo - Russell, J E (Lt) IWM

Please click here to view more photographs from Malta, WWII

Really, you're sunk if you don't notify the draft board about a change of address!

For some reason, perhaps related to their charitable natures, a couple of Canadian sailors (one I knew quite closely) tried to distribute a few medical supplies to Sicilians - as well as those mentioned below. My father's story follows this news clip:

And about those Canadian sailors, my father writes in memoirs:

In the navy we just acquired things. A tent was set up on the beach after we acquired some salves, soap and gauze to treat the locals* who had rashes, cuts, etc. The word spread about the 'Canadian Marina Hospital' and one morning a few days after we opened, two very pregnant ladies appeared. The work of mercy ended, and very quickly I might add, amidst our embarrassment. Page 116, "Dad, Well Done"

*This adventure took place in September, 1943, while Canadians in Combined Ops (specifically the 80th Flotilla of LCMs) were stationed in Messina and delivering reinforcements and all materials of war to Reggio di Calabria, perhaps other ports as well.

Lionel Shapiro's accounts are much sought-after by this Editor! (A series of longer reports under a particular byline are upcoming!)

Near the entrance to the Sicilian town of Agira, Canadian soldiers guard

captured German and Italian fighters waiting for transport to a prison camp

in July 1943. Click here - More about Canadian Armed Forces in Sicily

Credit: Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library & Archives Canada

Several more news clippings from The Gazette to follow. Comments or questions can be sent to Editor at gordh7700@gmail.com

An account by another Canadian war correspondent (Scott Young, father of musician Neil Young) follows:

Click here for more information about German Longe-range guns, WWII

Photo Credit - History on the Net

The final collection of News Clippings from the August 5, 1943 issue of the Montreal Gazette follows. More news reports, photographs and related links will soon be shared from microfilm of the August 6 issue (obtained at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada). So stay tuned : )

Anybody still using their double-edge razor? Please be careful out there!

More news clippings from the August issues of the Montreal Gazette will follow in the near future.

Please click here to view Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (26)

Unattributed Photos GH