1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Books: Artist at War

ARTIST AT WAR by Charles Fraser Comfort

(With a Link to An Artist @ "Hostilities Only")

Plate 28: The Hitler Line (Oil, 40" x 48")

Introduction:

Some of us would say we are fortunate if we live in towns or cities with healthy 'used book' stores. Luckier still if there are 2 or 3 within easy walking distance. Luckiest are those - like myself - who will also find a healthy 'military' or 'world war 2' section sporting new titles and rare items of interest on a regular basis.

A recent purchase was Artist At War by a Canadian artist who described himself in the following manner in the foreword to the first edition:

This is an account of my personal experiences during an episode of that war (i.e., in Italy, WWII). I have undertaken to write these rambling, discontinuous, impressions because I was profoundly stirred by all that I saw and felt during that experience... This is not a history of the campaign, I leave that problem to my colleagues, the historians... The part I played was a minor and inconspicuous one. I was not a combat soldier, although I had been trained as such, but a war artist, assigned the task of producing some visual record of the part played by officers and men of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division during the Italian campaign of 1943-44... Charles Comfort, The Studio Building, Toronto, l91956

The Table of Contents reveals a bit about the ground our artist covered while accompanying Canadian troops in Italy:

In the introduction by W. E. C. Harrison (Lt. Col., Ret'd) we read about the significant episodes or operations that marked the times in which Comfort was very involved. Coincidentally, the role of Canadian sailors who had volunteered for Combined Operations (including my father and his mates) also followed much the same path, and there seem to be, by way of Comfort's book, several connections between the Canadian artist and those Navy boys who serve as the heart of this online archive re 'Canadians in Combined Ops':

Excerpt from Artist At War, page x

One part of "the surge of events" mentioned above is Operation TORCH, the invasion of North Africa beginning November 8, 1942 (about 3 months after the Dieppe raid). Not only was Comfort brought "into the picture" but so were members of RCNVR/Combined Ops who manned landing crafts filled with Allied troops (including Americans in great numbers) and all the material of war on the shores of North Africa.

American troops landing on the beach at Arzeu, near Oran, from a landing craft

assault (LCA 426), some of them are carrying boxes of supplies. Photo Credit -

Royal Navy Photographer Lt. F. A. Hudson, A12649 - Imperial War Museum

"They had taken Sicily" - i.e., Operation HUSKY, beginning on July 10, 1943. While the Canadian Army landed on the southern shore of Sicily, the Canadian Navy (i.e., members of RCNVR/Combined Ops) again manned landing crafts, this time loaded that landed Monty's Eighth Army on the eastern shore. Both Canadian forces could say they were just around the corner from each other (see map below):

Four Canadian Flotillas of Landing Craft are active "around the SE corner"

from Canadian troops. Map is from Combined Operations by C. Marks

For details about the book - email Editor @ gordh7700@gmail.com

Excerpt from page x continues and more connections between Comfort's zone of activity and Canadians in Combined Ops appear:

The invasion of Italy beginning on September 3, 1943 on the 'toe of the boot', i.e., Reggio Di Calabria (see map above, upper right corner) was known as Operation BAYTOWN to members of the Canadian Navy or RCNVR/C.O. And Operation AVALANCHE took place at Salerno, the 'shin of the boot', on September 9th. Both operations are described in good detail in Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks, and lengthy excerpts from Marks' book can be found on this online site.

Click here to view more of Editor's research about Operation BAYTOWN

The importance of Comfort's book for today's audience is underscored in the introduction - for the Second Edition, the book I possess and highly recommend here - provided by Retired Lt. Col. W. E. C. Harrison (no relation as far as I know):

Excerpt from Artist At War, page xv

I believe that the just-mentioned war correspondent Wallace Reyburn wrote for The Montreal Gazette or Montreal Standard during WWII and he is on my short list re 'research, microfilm, at U.W.O - i. e., University of Western Ontario'. He may be the writer mentioned by one of my father's close mates in an account re the landings on 'the toe of the boot' in September, 1943. We shall see what we shall see, and readers here will be the first to know if I hit pay dirt in the near future.

Please find below a few more highlights from Artist At War ... and if you can find it for what I paid at The Attic Bookstore, London ONT - $9.50 - count yourself lucky.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Comfort had me hooked on page 1 of PART 1 (THE APPROACH MARCH. S. S. Volendam) when he writes:

Our ships, in two columns, were beating across a lively chop to a rendezvous with the Gourock convoy somewhere off the north coast of Ireland... Adventures had begun, and with it that quality of lively excitation which surrounds the beginnings of every fresh wartime experience. The ship vibrated with the combustion of high spirits, expressed in laughter, appetites, profane anecdote, and lusty song -

Roll out the barrel,

Let's have a barrel of fun.

Roll out the barrel,

We've got the Hun on the run...

The depressing inactivity of waiting has ended. We are underway, we are moving, moving toward who knows what?

'Who knows what?' My father and about 100 of his RCNVR mates might know, because they crossed the Atlantic from Halifax to Gourock, Scotland, on the S.S. Volendam as well, in early 1942, as the first Canadian members of Combined Operations. It is unlikely that the Canadian sailors and Charles Comfort travelled at the same time (Comfort was attached to the Canadian forces in Italy from 1943 - 44) but their experiences would have had some similarities I am sure. For example, they both travelled in convoys, for safety's sake, and 'high spirits... laughter, appetites, profane anecdotes (etc.),' were in common.

Painting by Charles Comfort, between pages 92 - 93, Artist At War

Chances are better that Charles Comfort crossed paths with Canadian sailors in Combined Operations beginning on September 3, 1943 (e.g., during Operation Baytown, the invasion of Italy at the toe of the boot), when Canadian troops - for the first time - were delivered to shore aboard Canadian flotillas of landing crafts.

On page 3 Comfort mentions another ship that was familiar to some Canadians in Combined Ops:

The blackout had gone on during the evening meal and the spirits of the human cargo had banked down a bit. The gusty darkness of the weather deck was relieved by the flashing lights at the entrance to Belfast Lough and the Mull of Galloway. It was just possible to make out the positions of the nearest vessels. The escort rolled deeply a thousand yards ahead of us, Reine del Pacifico was a barely perceptible silhouette to port.

My father mentions Reina del Pacifico in his memoirs (one of the reasons I got hooked by the book). The excerpt deals with getting ready for the invasion of North Africa (i.e., Operation Torch, beginning Nov. 8, 1942) without starving to death:

My group went through much more training at H.M.S. Quebec (No. 1 Combined Operations training camp) and then we entrained for Liverpool. Prominent pub was The Crown in Wallasey. We left Greenock in October, 1942 with our LCMs aboard a ship called Derwentdale, sister ship to Ennerdale. She was an oil tanker and the food was short and the mess decks where we ate were full of eighteen inch oil pipes. The 80th and 81st flotillas (of Canadian landing crafts), as we are now called, were split between the Derwentdale and Ennerdale in convoy, and little did we know we were bound for North Africa.

I became an A/B Seaman (Able-Bodied) on this trip and passed my exams classed very good. The food aboard was porridge and kippers for break-fast, portioned out with a scale. We would plead for just one more kipper from the English Chief Petty Officer, and when he gave it to us we chucked it all over the side because the kippers were unfit to eat.

We had American soldiers aboard and an Italian in our mess who had been a cook before the war. He drew our daily rations and prepared the meal (dinner) and had it cooked in the ship’s galley. He had the ability to make a little food go a long way and saved us from starvation. Supper I can’t remember, but I know the bread was moldy and if the ship’s crew hadn’t handed us out bread we would have been worse off.

We used to semaphore with flags to the Ennerdale to see how they were eating; they were eating steak. One of the crew cheered us up and said, “Never mind, boys. There will be more food going back. There won’t be as many of us left after the invasion.” Cheerful fellow. However, we returned aboard another ship to England, the Reina Del Pacifico, a passenger liner, and we nicknamed the Derwentdale the H.M.S. Starvation.

American troops climb into assault landing craft from the liner REINA

DEL PACIFICO during Operation 'Torch', the Allied landings in North

Africa, November 1942. Photo Credit: The Imperial War Museum

[I believe my father Doug Harrison, RCNVR, is second from left]

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

Charles Comfort was transported to Algeria, North Africa before joining Canadian forces in Italy in the fall of 1943. He suffered from the heat and gusts of wind when painting, but writes with a comfortable and colourful style about his experiences:

A full training programme was under way. The valley behind us chattered with small arms fire, the reverberating echoes seeming louder than the weapons themselves. East of us the resounding thump of mortar bombs added a bass note, while in the Philippeville direction the pom-pom-pom of Bofors made a noisy background of war-like sound.

Excerpt from Artist At War, page 10

Philippeville, North Africa. Cap de Fer in background. Artist At War

Canadians in Combined Ops would appreciate his later paragraph about finally escaping from all the dust:

Excerpt from Artist At War, page 11

There are many passages in the book that provide details about the many tough elements Canadian troops (and artists in their retinue) had to face in Italy in 1943 - 44, and the samples of Comfort's art work provide significant and informative images.

In several passages Charles Comfort remarks about experiences that were similar to many who experienced the war in the Mediterranean, including my father and mates in RCNVR and Combined Operations. Some of those passages will be provided in another entry; please visit "passages from WW2 books" as found under the "click on Headings" section in the right hand margin of this online archive for more details.

While reading the book I was contacted - coincidentally - by the creator of another WW2 online site re his entry related to another World War II artist, i.e., Eric Ravilious. Those interested in 'artists at war' or the 'arts of war' are encouraged to visit the site; please click here - Eric Ravilious