Photographs: Aging Navy Vets Reconnect at Reunions, Parts 1 - 3

Their Years Passed, Their Memories Faded

Canadians in Combined Operations, Ahoy!

Back row, L - R: Joe Watson, Simcoe; Art (Gash) Bailey, London; Art

Bradfield, Simcoe; Jim Miller. Front L - R: Al Kirby, Woodstock;

Doug Harrison, Norwich; Norm Bowen, Constance Bay. 1990s

Introduction:

The 950 - 1,000 members of RNCVR who also volunteered for Combined Operations Command (C.O.C.) beginning in late 1941 stepped into the unknown to a good degree. They only learned what their role was going to be as a member of C.O.C. after arriving in the U.K. (at HMCS Niobe, Jan. 1942) and being sent very soon thereafter by train to H.M.S. Northney on Hayling Island, southern coast of England. 

We spent little time at Niobe but entrained for Havant in southern England, to H.M.S. Northney 1, a barracks (formerly a summer resort) with a large building for eating and then cabins with four bedrooms. This was December, 1941 (departure from Canada) or January, 1942 (arrival in Scotland) and there was no heat at all in the brick cabins. The toilets all froze and split. But we made out. Our eating quarters were heated...

Doug Harrison (left) and Al Kirby on guard duty,

perhaps with “a rifle with no ammunition”

...We were issued brooms for guard duty in some cases at Northney, sometimes a rifle with no ammunition, and they were expecting a German invasion. Rounds were made every night outside by officers to see if we were alert and we would holler like Hell, “Who goes there? Advance and be recognized.” When you hollered loud enough you woke everyone in camp, so sentry duty was not so lonesome for a few minutes.

"Dad, Well Done", Page 11

They trained and trained some more on various types of landing craft at various training camps in England and Scotland. Their first action, unbeknownst to the raw recruits at the time, was the Dieppe Raid, followed a few months later by Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.

When they reached their 70s, small reunions of some of these same sailors took place in various homes throughout Ontario. They would have had many stories to share, some found on this site.

Photo and caption as found in St. Nazaire to Singapore, Volume 1

Photographs taken at the reunions are shared with several other related pics and stories in three entries on this site:

Aging Navy Vets Reconnect at Reunions Part 1

Aging Navy Vets Reconnect at Reunions Part 2

Aging Navy Vets Reconnect at Reunions Part 3

Sailor Statue as found at Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax

To view more photos re Canadians in Combined Ops, please link to Photographs: A Canadian Sailor's Solid Record at 1,000 Men, 1,000 Stories by GH

Unattributed Photos GH