1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Context for Combined Ops, "Tales of Gallantry"

Friday, February 5, 2016

Context for Combined Ops, "Tales of Gallantry"

Quietly Dressed and Weather-Beaten Men

The photo above and caption below accompany a story from early 1942

"This is what the merchantmen face as they travel the seas with munitions and supplies for Britain. This vessel was sunk by a German raider after it had refused to halt on command, according to the German stories. Fewer and fewer vessels were being lost as the year neared the end and the efficiency of patrols on the Atlantic increased."

Introduction: The first Canadians to volunteer for Combined Operations initially left Halifax, Nova Scotia in December, 1941. Unfortunately, the ship they boarded (Queen of Bermuda) behind the Nova Scotian Hotel ran aground a few hours later at Chebucto Head. The Dutch liner Volendam was soon enlisted and the Canadians set sail for Europe in late January. The seas were not still or safe (see link below re HMS Belmont).

The Halifax Herald carried the following story on January 1, 1942:

Tales of Gallantry Are Countless as Ships Call at Canadian Ports For Munitions

An East Canadian Port, Dec. 31 --

On the streets of this wartime port you see them - in waterfront cafes, in theatres and in uptown restaurants - you see them. Quietly dressed and weather-beaten men they are. Some of them are teen-aged kids, others are older men with graying hair. No medal ribbons, no Nelson scarves, no gold braid, no hat-bands bearing heroic names mark their identities.

Instead there is only the unmistakable stamp of the sea and a little silver button - "M.N." - they're the men of the Merchant Marine. Like their sea-gray ships that ply in and out of this storied seaport, the keen-eyed men of the merchant fleet are here today and gone tomorrow.

Face Death

Many of them - all of them in fact - have faced death in one form or another on the ocean lanes of the Seven Seas. If it wasn't submarines, then that danger might might have come from long-range German bombers or prowling Axis surface bombers. Their story is one of heroism beyond telling. Day after day, in daylight and in darkness, these sailing men of this war are upholding the finest traditions of those who went down to the sea in ships a quarter century ago.

Like the Navy, the Merchant Marine carries on without fanfare. Occasionally - and those occasions are infrequent - the exploits of the merchantmen sometimes come to the public attention. Those stories - epics of high courage in the face of despairing odds - are classics in the chronicles of the bravest of the brave.

Stirring Tale

What tale of fiction can match the brave tale of the steamship Carlton? Where in the annals of sea-lore can be found a more stirring epic of the courage of men? Scarcely more than a year ago the Carlton was attacked by a German U-boat somewhere in the North Atlantic. She was bound for South America with a cargo of British-made goods. For two hours after dawn the Carlton crew fought off the raiders with her small armaments. It was a hopeless fight, but until two torpedoes blasted holes in the hull of the gallant ship, her officers and men kept up the uneven battle.

The captain and 24 officers got away in one boat. Chief George Robinson and 16 others cleared away in the second. Fate of the captain's craft is still unknown. It was in the second boat that the great drama of human endurance unfolded itself. For 18 days they drifted about a lonely Atlantic. One by one - and in twos - the men died. Some went mad from thirst. Some jumped overboard to save the scanty water rations for their surviving mates. When a British war vessel picked up the boat, only four were left alive.

The Carlton is only one in dozens of similar tales of the men of the merchant marine. In five thousand ships at sea every hour of every day, gallant seamen live the sea's noblest traditions.

Churchill Speaks

It was of these ships that Churchill spoke:

"This is Britain's armor, Britain's merchant navy, that fleet which bears through perilous waters, carrying cargoes of foodstuffs, oil and explosives and steel and guns and airplanes - all the materials of war and peace, richer than gold in these days."

It's on these ships that sailing men of the Empire and her Allies fight their uneven battle against the worst that the enemy can do. Deep in stokeholds men slave and sweat before devouring furnaces. A sudden bell whips straining muscles to build up steam and speed. A violent crash, stilled wheels, inpouring seas, exploding boilers - out of that place already beneath the waves lurch a few survivors.

They Happen

High on the bridge, the watch scans seemingly endless waters. Hissing through sea, death rides a torpedo, or it comes arching from a shell that scrapes the deck of all that's living - a sudden roaring of waters betrays a mine striking from below or out of the sun hurtles a missile to shatter a straining hull.

These may happen - they do happen. They have happened in the case of the Carlton, the St. Malo, the Frederick Fales and numerous gallant ships flying the "red duster" of Britain's merchant marine or the flags of her allies.