1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Video: Prep Work for "FAINT FOOTSTEPS WWII, Pt. 5"

I Think There is a Story in Here Somewhere

The Prep Work is Well Worth the Work

Inveraray, Scotland: Combined Ops training occurred 1 - 2 miles south

of the current town centre (which has not changed much since WWII).

Photo of a photo found in a restaurant on Inveraray's centre-most street

Introduction:

While preparing the video "FAINT FOOTSTEPS World War II" (Part 5) I realized that I assembled a great deal of material (i.e., useful, rare and significant photographs and links related to the script's core message), a goodly portion of which gets discarded at the end of the video-making process. I thought that while the material is still on my computer's desk top I would put it together as a post that reader's could refer to for more information about Canadians in Combined Operations. One or two photographs or links usually lead to more photos and links, which lead to more links and photos, and so on.

Hopefully, a few readers will find the background work as useful as the video itself. If so, it is because they have been willing to put in a bit of work as well. Cheers!

The script for video 5 follows with assorted photographs and links that could not all be used during the production:

Title - FAINT FOOTSTEPS, World War II (5)

Sub-Title - Good Training in Lovely Scotland

H14572. Troops charge ashore from landing craft during combined operations

training in the presence of the King at Inveraray in Scotland, 9 October 1941.

Photo - Capt. W.T. Lockeyear, Imperial War Museum (IWM)

(Readers can link to more photographs taken by Capt. W.T. Lockeyear, attributed to the IWM, and related to training aboard landing crafts at Inveraray).

The charming town of Inveraray, Scotland, sits on the shore of Loch Fyne, a long and lovely stretch of water - longer even than Loch Long - about 90 minutes by car northwest of Glasgow.

Inveraray's centre-most street. Photo GH 2014

Photo - as found on restaurant wall, Inveraray, Main Street. GH 2014

Combined Operations training camp would be near top of the photo.

Loch Fyne possesses many isolated, shallow beaches, and beside them many large camps were built during WWII where sailors and soldiers could practice and master many necessary assault skills outside the range of German bombers.

See #4, HMS Quebec in western Scotland.

Map in Combined Operations by C. Marks

"Loch Fyne possesses many isolated, shallow beaches"

Photos by GH, 2014; 1 - 2 miles south of Inveraray

Plastic plate from Combined Ops museum (now closed), Inveraray

Given to GH by Jim Jepson, Furnace, Scotland

The main goal of the largest establishment, i.e., Combined Operations No. 1 Training Centre (called H.M.S. Quebec, situated near Inveraray), was to train servicemen how to use various craft “for landing assault troops, supplies, ammunition and weaponry onto heavily defended enemy occupied beaches.”

"Various craft "for landing assault troops, supplies, ammunition..."

Photo A12054. LCT (2). Photo Credit - Lt. R.G.G. Coote

As found at Imperial War Museum, UK.

A12056. LCT (2), front view with ramp down.

Lt. R.G.G. Coote, IWM.

A12061. LCM (3). Lt. R.G.G. Coote, IWM.

A12063. LCM (3), front view with ramp down.

Lt. R.G.G. Coote, IWM.

H14597. Troops coming ashore from a landing craft under a smoke screen

during Combined Operations training at Inveraray, Scotland. "Mad Jack"

Churchill can be seen holding a sword. Capt. W.T. Lockeyear, IWM.

H.M.S Quebec is now a caravan or trailer park and I explored the repurposed site in 2014. I learned that “250,000 Allied personnel passed through the centre from 1940 - 44... up to 15,000 were billeted in the area at any one time.”

H.M.S Quebec, now a caravan or trailer park. GH 2014

More about the history of Combined Operations Command

can be found at www.combinedops.com by Geoff Slee

Canadian seamen arrived at H.M.S. Quebec in jam-packed lorries in late March 1942, perhaps puzzled by its name, and very likely learned - in due course - the name was linked to Canadian military history.

Modern traffic travels to Inveraray by a modern highway, the horizontal

line across the middle (approx.) of the photo above. "Jam-packed lorries"

took the low (and winding) road. Photos GH

The rain did not dampen my spirits while driving to Inveraray. GH

It was the busiest of camps, as well, and with the Dieppe Raid and invasion of North Africa only months away - unbeknownst to our raw recruits - a cadre of strict instructors wasted no time putting my father Doug Harrison and mates through their paces in small, flat-bottomed vessels that could run or slide up onto a shore in 8 inches of water when empty.

The caravan park is home to a significant memorial to those who served

in Combined Operations. Canadian connection - General James Wolfe

"Dieppe Raid and invasion of North Africa (were) only months away"

WW II 'drill hall' still stands, a few touches from 1940s remain

Brick walls and sturdy wooden doors stand the test of time

“We did much running up onto beaches,” my father Doug Harrison writes in memoirs, “so soldiers could disembark and re-embark, always watching the tide if it was flowing in or going out. You could be easily left high and dry, or broach too (i.e., turn sideways), if you weren’t constantly alert. We took long trips at night in close single formation, like ducks lined up close, because all you could see was the florescent waters churned up by propellors of an Assault Landing Craft up ahead, or Landing Craft Mechanized.”

Photo - Capt. W.T. Lockeyear, Imperial War Museum (IWM)

Troops rushing ashore from a landing craft during combined operations

training by 29th Infantry Brigade Group at Loch Fyne, Argyllshire.

H11185 IWM. Major W. G. Horton, War Office official photographer

Join-up panorama of HMS QUEBEC, showing part of the training

pool reserve and pier. A29894 IWM by Zimmerman, E A (Lt)

Join-up panorama of HMS QUEBEC, showing part of the training

pool reserve and pier. A29895 IWM by Zimmerman, E A (Lt)

(Readers can link to "A Compilation of Photos re Training Camps, Landing Crafts").

The Canadian sailors transported so many different regiments and commando units on the lochs that there were too many to remember. Most of our boys, however, took to the new training and terminology related to different landing craft like the aforementioned ducks to water.

Port, starboard, fore, aft - got it. High, low, flood, ebb, neap tides - check. Kedges, winches, cables, anti-broaching lines - check. Breakfast 0600 - yipes!

"Ramp is down. Soldiers - get out! And take yer dog." "Check. I got it."

H25389. Men of the 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment

wade ashore from landing craft during combined operations training in

Scotland, 17 November 1942. Photo - Capt. W.T. Lockeyear, IWM.

One detail my father noticed seemed troublesome. He says, “ALCs carried three rows of soldiers - two outside rows, (with) a center row completely exposed. LCMs carried soldiers or a truck, Bren gun carrier, mines, gasoline, etc. ALCs were made of 3/16th inch plating, thick enough to stop a bullet. But LCMs wouldn’t.”

"ALCs made of 3/16th inch plating, thick enough to stop a bullet."

Photo H21363. Canadian troops in an assault landing craft (LCA) during a

combined operations exercise, July 1942. Photo Credit - Lts. Tanner

and Lockeyear, War Office Official Photographers, IWM.

(Editor's Note: It looks more like 3/4-inch plating (in above photo) to me, but I wasn't there. What I have learned as well is that my father was assigned to LCMs most often. At least LCMs were not made of plywood. GH)

Though many of the crafts used at H.M.S. Quebec - and later at Dieppe - were made almost solely of plywood, the good training did produce good results.

Canadians could clamber up and down scrambling nets and Jacob’s ladders very proficiently aboard the Ettrick, a liner anchored just offshore downtown Inveraray.

My father writes, “We got so it took about three seconds to drop 30 feet from the hand rails to the water line on the scrambling nets, because we learned to use only our hands”.

Hard work in beautiful surroundings toughened the sailors in memorable ways. The nearby hills caught many eyes and 30 years after the war’s end my father wrote, “I will always remember getting up in the morning to see the sun shining through the mist onto the purple heather. I made an excursion one day and actually rolled in it - to my delight.”

About that first trip to Scotland one could say, so far so good. So far.