The Far Distant Ships, by Joseph Schull, Published in 1950
Many Stories Related to Canadian Sailors in Combined Ops
Canadian Landing Crafts. Photo - Canada's War At Sea, 1944
Introduction:
The Far Distant Ships by Joseph Schull was published by 'Authority of the Minister of National Defence' in Ottawa (the King's Printer), 1950, the year after I was born and 5 years after my father was discharged from the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and ended his volunteer service to the Combined Operations organization (U.K.).
Wood or lino cut from The Far Distant Ships. No artist credit given
I will be sharing selected passages from the book because it is 'an official account of Canadian Naval Operations in the Second World War' and includes some informative, significant and musty stories/details concerning the approximately 1,000 Canadian sailors, including my father, who had been part of the landing craft crews active in raids and operations well-known to most readers, i.e., the raid at St. Nazaire and Dieppe, and subsequent operations in North Africa (Torch), Sicily (Husky), Italy (Baytown and Avalanche), and France (Neptune).
An Official Title Page
The first excerpts are from Chapter 7 and in part touch on the Dieppe Raid and Operation Torch. There were about 40 - 50 Canadian sailors operating landing crafts during the Dieppe Raid; the rest of the first two drafts to leave Canada for foreign shores, including my father, were not utilized but suffered some of the consequences of battle nonetheless, i.e., the first losses from their tight-knit group of mates, and subsequent 'survivor guilt', for starters. Please click here to read, from navy memoirs, some of my father's recollections re the Dieppe Raid.
Below is a short note from one of my father's officers:
Below is a short note from one of my father's officers:
From page 66, St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian
Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, Volume 1
My father wrote "survival guilt" (in blue ink) at the bottom of McRae's brief but significant comment and I asked the question "where (exactly) is Lloyd Campbell buried?" I later went on to find out 'exactly' - from Lloyd's Navy records - and created an entry or two (or four!) about my search and discoveries. Please click here to learn more about Canadian Seaman Lloyd George Campbell of London, Ontario.
And now, on to Ch. 7 from The Far Distant Ships:
Paragraph 1 from page 144
Joseph Schull continues:
Even while the threat of invasion still hung heavy over Britain, the earliest moves had begun. They were at first hardly discernible from necessary measures of defence. Light British ships had occasionally shelled the French coast, or attempted to break up the Channel or Biscay convoys which supplied German garrisons. Small British commando parties* had descended by night on German-held ports to take prisoners, gain information and do what damage they could.
*Combined Operations, book related to "small British commando parties"
Please click here to learn more about the above book
By the end of 1941 these first efforts had lost some of their sporadic quality. Seamen and soldiers had begun to work out specialized landing techniques together, and were assembling into the nucleus of what would eventually become an amphibious raiding force.
"Specialized landing techniques" are explored in Combined Operations: The Official Story of the Commandos by Hilary St. George Saunders. Please click here for more information about this book.
As one can see, the book by Joseph Schull can itself be supported by some pretty significant books about Combined Operations, some which predate The Far Distant Ships. That being said, Schull's book focusses upon the overall role of the RCN, RCNVR and - as does this blog/website - the (approx.) 1,000 Canadian sailors who volunteered for the Combined Ops organization, were therefore "on loan to the Royal Navy" as some would say and served aboard landing crafts, trained other young recruits in the related skills (e.g., at Canada's only Combined Operations School on Vancouver Island), and ended the war with many first-hand stories to tell. And as Schull's stories unfold so will a few from our Canadian sailors in Combined Ops. (You've therefore been warned! I do tend to 'go on').
The Far Distant Ships, page 144 continues:
This nucleus (of "an amphibious raiding force") was at first entirely British; but it soon began to absorb a few of the first Canadians trained in England. Early in 1942, the Canadian contribution was substantially increased. Fifty officers and three hundred ratings who had volunteered for "specially hazardous duty" sailed from Halifax in January.* They were shepherded to the United Kingdom by the versatile K. S. Maclachlan who, as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, had held the position of Deputy Minister for the Naval Service. Now "dipped" at his own urgent request to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in the navy, Maclachlan was to have the work of ironing out administrative problems for his charges and was to serve on British combined operations staffs in several theatres.
*"Fifty officers and three hundred ratings" raises some confusion. I know that Doug Harrison (my father) was in the first draft of approx. 50 sailors, the Effingham Division, that "almost to the man" volunteered for Combined Operations (after hearing about "hazardous duties overseas, small craft, with nine days leave thrown in**" - with Christmas coming - while at HMCS Stadacona in Halifax). As well, I know that Lloyd Evans of Ottawa, along with most of his division, approx. 50 - 60 sailors, volunteered for the second draft. Together these two drafts sailed to Scotland aboard the SS Volendam in January, 1942, after the first ship they boarded ran aground while not far away from Halifax Harbour.
One of LC Maclachlan's first administrative problems may have been to organize not only the arrangements related to finding a ship going to the UK with room for 100 sailors and all their gear but arrangements re what to do with 100 boisterous sailors who were stuck in Halifax for awhile. Lloyd Evans mentions getting a bit more leave. My Dad does not.
**"nine days leave thrown in" would have been quite the enticement back in the day, especially as Christmas drew near. Nine days would get an Ontario sailor home in three, well fed for three, then back to Halifax in three. Not a bad deal, especially if the sailors had girlfriends waiting at the station.
Please click here to read three accounts from young, Canadian sailors (Doug Harrison, Lloyd Evans, Al Kirby) who recalled the difficulties associated with getting from Halifax to Scotland. And is it possible that 2 or 3 or 4 other divisions of approx. 50 - 60 sailors also volunteered for Combined Operations around the same time as Doug Harrison, Lloyd Evans and Al Kirby, all from Ontario? Of course, it's possible, and I just haven't read any accounts of it yet.
In another book, The Watery Maze: The Story of Combined Operations by Bernard Fergusson, copyright 1961, we also about those early entries from Canada into Combined Operations, i.e., "of 50 officers and 300 ratings." Click here to read a few more details from The Watery Maze.
Will details emerge eventually concerning when, where, and how many Canadian sailors volunteered for hazardous duties with, at least to most of the volunteers, a hitherto before unknown organization?
Oh, it's possible, but not very darn likely.
What is likely is that more details from The Far Distant Ships by Joseph Schull will follow, related to Canadian sailors in Combined Operations.
Please click here to view more about a Canadian who volunteered for Combined Operations and was involved in Allied landings on foreign shores. Photographs from the Lloyd Evans' Collection
Unattributed Photographs GH
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