1000 Men, 1000 Stories : The Arts of War: From "The Crow's Nest" (2)

An 'Artsy' Shot, Then One of a Landing Craft... I'm Interested Already!

The Crow's Nest artsy photographs are of good quality and resolution.

And, are those real nylons or did she draw the lines herself?

Introduction:

I am not joking about wondering if the woman above drew a line on the back of her leg. When money was tight, some girls went to work with a makeup stick or pencil - to make it look like they were wearing nylons, all the rage at the time!

And how do I know this? Oh, I must have read something about it somewheres!!

Please link here to dozens of informative details - all Navy-related - from The Crow's Nest, News of Canada's Navy, cached at CFB Esquimalt Naval Military Museum, just a short bus ride from downtown Victoria, British Columbia.

In this short series of posts I will share a few of the drawings, cartoons, clever photographs, poems, mottos, etc. that remind us of "the arts of war" from a Canadian point-of-view.

From The Crow's Nest, March 1945:

The Canadian Warship, HMCS Prince Henry (above) had a proud and illustrious career and is mentioned in books that connect with Canadian sailors who served in Combined Operations.

It is also often mentioned in connection with its sister ship HMCS Prince David, a picture of which appears below taken from the same type of landing craft as seen in the first photograph. Were the two ships working in the same area at the same time?

I do not know, so I put out the HELP WANTED sign.

Photo Credit - As found in H.M.C.S. by RCN Photog. Gilbert A. Milne

The caption with the above photo (page 124) reads as follows:

"H.M.C.S. Prince David nosed into a harbour in a small Aegean Island to take part in one of the strangest operations of her career - liberating former enemy soldiers. Hundreds of Italian soldiers were held prisoner here and her duty was to convoy them to the greek mainland as the first step on their return home...."

HELP WANTED: I have googled 'Hermes' in connection with "The Crow's Nest" but have come up with no more information about his or her identity. Thus the 'HELP WANTED' sign!

HMCS Niobe, a well-known transit depot for Canadian sailors, situated about

two miles from Greenock. "In on Monday, out by Tuesday" (or Wednesday).

I notice the words "indoor track and field meet." When I visited

HMCS Stadacona grounds in 2010 I noticed an outdoor track, but early

drafts of sailors (my father's, 1941) ran the streets in shorts and t-shirts.

Photo Credit - Sailor Remember by W. H. Pugsley

While at HMCS Stadacona in the early 1940s, recruits would be housed

in Wellington Barracks, aka Nelson Barracks. Photo - as above.

Photo Credit - Sailor Remember

Photo Credit - From booklet given me at Admiralty House Museum,

Stadacona grounds, during my first motorcycle trip to Halifax

"Officers Quarters" still stand.

Photo - My father's Navy records. Hamilton, to Halifax, to Scotland

From The Crow's Nest, April 1945:

My father and mates met the same "Reception Committee" after returning

to Halifax in Dec. 1943, after two years overseas service (Dieppe - Italy)

About the above cartoon and poem below, a paragraph or two from my father's memoirs provide some details:

I arrived in Halifax (after enlistment in RCNVR and initial training in Hamilton) at the very end of October, 1941 and was officially classed as an O/D - ordinary seaman.

It would be fitting here to say, to wherever camp or ship we went - and we were at many - we were called ‘new entries.’ Even after two years overseas, when we arrived back at Halifax and fell in, the first words we heard were “for the benefit of you new entries.” How humiliating can they get? Then you got the rules (i.e., from the "Reception Committee").

We met a lot of sailors, who were shortly to go through what we went through already, and they called themselves commandos (very likely 'Naval Commandos', the subject of the poem below. Navy Commandos served a different role than Army Commando units but they underwent the same commando training, e.g., in Scotland, as had the combined operations ratings of which my father was a part).

They sure were in for a rude awakening. We were never called commandos, only combined operations ratings, and we were the first from Canada to go overseas.

Can you imagine running outside in temperatures in the low twenties in T-shirts and shorts? We did, morning after morning. O/D Seaman Ward of Niagara Falls was very heavy so he jumped on the street car and then met us at Stadacona’s gate and fell in at the rear. Never ran a step, still no one ever squealed on him.

Training was very severe in Halifax. We were now known as Effingham Division under the good old White Ensign. Names for divisions were taken from old battleships of the Royal Navy.

"Dad Well Done" Page 6

The poem makes clear that the location of certain Naval Commando units was kept secret from time to time. As well, from my father's and other sailor's memoirs and stories we learn that commandos and combined operations ratings (sailors of various ranks) were kept in the dark about the "when and the where" related to upcoming actions, often until the very last minute.

From The Crow's Nest, May 1945:

A few members of Combined Operations recall in memoirs about the ceremony they participated in - with some amount of anxiety attached - when the ship they were on (e.g., from the U.K. on their way around Africa to reach Alexandria, Egypt, before the invasion of Sicily in July 1943) crossed the Equator. Those who survived the tradition (which included a dunking) were often awarded a certificate.

All the sailors survived, of course, as do a few of the certificates!