1000 Men, 1000 Stories : The Arts of War: From "The Crow's Nest" (5)

Amid Cartoons, Poetry, Art... More News from Normandy!

"Canadian troops swarm down the gangways of LCI(L)s of the Royal Canadian

Navy...": Photo by RCN Photogr. Lieut. G. A. Milne (more follow below)

Introduction:

Scores of photographs by Lt. Gilbert A. Milne can be found online and several serve as iconic reminders of Canada's role during D-Day Normandy on June 6 1944. His photographs covering the span of a few years can be found in his book entitled H. M. C. S. ('One photographer's impressions of the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II') in which Scott Young, the father of singer-song writer Neil Young, receives a writing credit. Used copies of the book can be found online at AbeBooks.com for a reasonable price and I encourage interested readers to add that book to their "Should Really Have It" list ; )

More information can be found as well in the items presented here concerning Canadian "Commandos of the R.C.N.", their tough training in Scotland (likely the same as endured by early Canadian members of RCNVR and Combined Operations in 1942, including my father and close mates), and readiness for the job at hand re D-Day Normandy, France.

The following items are as found in the May, June and July issues of "The Crow's Nest". The full issues and many more can be found here at CFB Esquimalt Naval Military Museum.

We find the name of an RCN photographer in the caption below, so for those interested, therein lies another avenue of research:

Also on the front page of this issue of "The Crow's Nest" we find a good article concerning RCN Commandos; their training in RN bases in Scotland (first, at an RN Commando training base; second, at a Combined Training Centre re landing crafts); and a statement that may require some clarification, i.e., "they are Commandos, the first Canadians to take the Royal Navy's Commando course as a group."

First, the informative article:

Second, some clarification, re "the first Canadians to take the Royal Navy's Commando course as a group."

The first drafts of sailors (including the Effingham Division from Halifax) who volunteered for Combined Ops in late 1941, not only trained aboard landing crafts at HMS Quebec, No. 1 Combined Operations Training Camp on Loch Fyne at Inveraray Scotland in mid-1942, and, according to The Beachhead Commandos, by A. Cecil Hampshire, took part in RN Commando training (likely at a training camp on Loch Long) as well.

When my father returned to Canada in 1943, after two years service overseas, he met new commando recruits in Halifax and writes the following:

"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."

"We met a lot of sailors, who were shortly to go through what we went through already, (emphasis mine - Editor) and they called themselves commandos. 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." ("Dad, Well Done", page 6)

As well, more information about RCN (Beach) Commandos can be found in the caption of the photo below, by another RCN Photogr., R. Arless (which was initially presented in The Arts of War: From "The Crow's Nest" (4)

RCN Photographers include Lt. R. Arless, Lt. J. Ryan and Lt. G. Milne

For those looking for more information re the role of Canadians in Combined Ops, please read the navy memoirs of Peter Alfred Neuman on this site (see memoirs re Combined Operations, side margin), and look for the aforementioned The Beachhead Commandos by A. C. Hampshire, e.g., @ AbeBooks.com.

And, while you're at it, don't forget those Victory Bonds!

More about Canadian Navy Commandos follows within the tidy, informative captions attached to excellent photographs by Gilbert Milne:

Such a fine pencil drawing by PO L. Brooks!

"The Crow's Nest" received and displayed fine RCN photographs related to D-Day Normandy, and some of them can certainly be called iconic. Again, the photographer is G. Milne and can be found in his book entitled H.M.C.S.

It is worth saying here that the above photograph is significant for a variety of reasons.

The Canadian sailors do get to, at the very least, see their King; the name Lt.-Cdr. Eric Boak looks familiar so I may have an opportunity to, at the very least, add a bit more information to this post at a later date; the photographer William H. Pugsley went on to write - to my knowledge - two very informative books about his WWII experiences and many of his experiences and photographs cross paths with, and inform readers about, Canadians in Combined Operations.

For example, below is a photo by Pugsley that is shared in the previous post, and it reveals some information about 'Combined Ops training' at HMCS Givenchy III in 1943 - 1945, in which my father was involved.