Training for Combined Operations - Sites and Stories, WW2

The First Dark Night - Training in Irvine Scotland, 1942

By Doug Harrison, RCNVR and Combined Operations, 1941 - 1945

American troops on board a landing craft going in to

land at Oran, November 1942. Photo - Wikipedia

EXERCISE SCHUYT 1 -

MAROONED ON A SUBMERGED SAND BAR

It was so damn dark. “Keep closed up!” I can still hear Andy Wedd’s voice to this day. (I am glad I saw him shortly before his death.)

At the night exercise the time of arrival was midnight. The crew was Koyl, Art Bailey, Stoker Lank (and his pail - Stoker Willard Lank was always chewing kelp) and myself with a full complement of English soldiers. Believe me, these fellows were sick soldiers. Bailey and I lashed ourselves down as best we could and emptied the helmets as the soldiers handed them up. Destination or landing, I don’t remember. Troon? I can remember two perimeter lights vaguely in the distance.

We were perhaps headed south and it was rough (the following or all of this is true). Our craft ran aground on a sand bar. Koyl ordered everybody - Bailey and I and himself - overboard to look or tread for deeper water. First we tried rocking the craft in conjunction with the motors. No luck. Wandering in sea boots, underwear, duffel coats, I fell into deeper water (which wasn’t too cold fortunately) and hollered, “Over here, sir!”

So we worked our asses off to free the ALC and we were successful. The soldiers helped to rock the craft. Koyl’s fuming, “We are going to be late!” And he is flotilla commander. Bailey and Koyl were able to get aboard. I wasn’t and they drove off and left me out in the water.

I was scared, But I felt I knew Mr. Koyl. I discarded all my clothing but uniform pants and underwear, found a sandbar and waited it out. They made their landing eventually but.... How is he going to find me (this is unbelievable)? I thrashed my arms, swam on my back for short stints to maintain circulation and after an eternity I saw an Aldis lamp blinking.

Motors were cut, then revved up, then cut. Koyl had a fair idea perhaps but I don’t know how he knew where to locate me. Eventually our voices came reasonably close together. I was caught in the light of the Aldis lamp and picked up after one and a half or two hours waiting. My hands were all wrinkled. I felt all in.

When we returned to Irvine Koyl, Bailey and I hurried to a local pub (now known as the Harbour Light). We were given hot porridge, rum and our clothes were taken to be dried and we were wrapped in blankets. All of this help came from ladies. It was late afternoon before we left the pub - Royal Sovereign or King George? I was a very lucky fellow. In the darkness Koyl and Bailey took awhile before they missed me. I didn’t really know what went amiss but the fact that the landing had to be made on time was uppermost in Koyl’s* mind.

Editor's Notes - Here is the full caption that appears under the above old photo attached to Doug Harrison's story as found in St. Nazaire to Singapore, Vol. 1, page 46: The Public House, the King’s Arms, where the Skinner family revived Doug Harrison and the rest of Jack Koyl’s boat crew. They used hot drinks, hot porridge and hot blankets. [Pub’s name has been changed, perhaps in honour of the occasion to “The Harbour Lights”]

I believe the photo and caption above were added to my father's story by David Lewis in the 1990s - to help clarify the name of the Scottish pub - as St. Nazaire to Singapore, Volume 1 was prepared for printing. I have learned the men met at the home of Clayton Marks in London, Ontario - and likely exchanged stories and information - and I have added this note to further clarify the situation: I visited Irvine, Scotland in October, 2014 and visited both the long-standing Harbour Lights (formerly known as the Victoria Hotel) and King's Arms Hotel. The Harbour Lights was formerly owned by John and Mary Burns and the King's Arms Hotel, owned in 2014 by the Scott family, was formerly owned by the Skinners, a family both mentioned by David Lewis and my father (in another story) as the ones who helped out the tired ALC crew. So, of all the names tossed about, the King's Arms Hotel is definitely the best fit, and its name was never changed "in honour of the occasion."

My father was guessing at the name when he says, "It was late afternoon before we left the pub - Royal Sovereign or King George?" and both were good guesses. It is also fair to say that the Canadians in Combined Ops, staying at Camp Auchengate just two miles south of Irvine, also visited Harbour Lights or the Victoria Hotel on a number of occasions, as it is conveniently situated near Irvine harbour's mouth. I am looking forward to another pint with the friendly members of the Scott family, and remembering - with glass raised - that once, wet and worn, my father fell into the King's Arms and was warmed by the Skinners.

*Koyl was very likely in a great hurry because a great crowd of dignitaries (including King George, Winston Churchill and Lord Louis Mountbatten) were watching the action - likely prior to the Dieppe Raid or invasion of North Africa, 1942.

In St. Nazaire to Singapore, Volume 1, page 42 I read the following: The Schuyts were the biggest exercises thus far manned by Combined Operations. In conception and organization they were planting the seed that matured on D-Day. The exercise troops were loaded from the mainland and great excitement was present since the beaches would be attended by dignitaries including King George VI, Winston Churchill and our new chief, Lord Louis Mountbatten. They had assembled to witness The Shape of Things to Come. Doug Harrison's account begins in the middle of the first dark night. We planned to surprise the enemy and of course there were some surprises for us too.

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