Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (28)

The Montreal Gazette, Full of News Clips Again

Two More Months to go in 'the Med' for Canadian Navy

HMS ULSTER MONARCH in coastal waters off Greenock, Scotland.

Photo Credit to Beadell, S. J. (Lt), Royal Navy, IWM (A 21806)

 

HMS ULSTER MONARCH in coastal waters off Greenock, Scotland.

Photo Credit to Beadell, S. J. (Lt), Royal Navy   IWM (A 21805)

Introduction:

According to the headline below, the battle for Sicily "is expected complete in a few days. Canadians in Combined Operations (my father was 1 of approx. 1,000 Canadian sailors (RCNVR) who had volunteered for duties with Combined Ops), i.e., the 400 or so who had served aboard landing crafts (LCMs, Landing Craft, Mechanized) in Sicily for about four full weeks, were already packing up their meagre personal belongings that had survived the Allied invasion (Operation HUSKY, beginning July 10, 1943). Most would travel by LCM to Malta over the next day or two. However, due to a bout of dysentery, my father travelled to that significant island in the Mediterranean by way of the HMS Ulster Monarch, thus the introductory photographs from the Imperial War Museum (IWM).

LCMs are described as 'the workhorse' for D-Day Sicily. Photo IWM

Canadian LCM Flotilla south of Syracusa, Sicily, July 1943

Photo from Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks

At about the time the Montreal Gazette (August 6, 1943) was hitting front porches or being sold on street corners my father writes the following:

At the end of the Sicilian campaign several Canadian sailors and officers became ill. Fatigue brought on by long hours of work and poor nourishment for over a month had now taken its toll and showed up in various ways. Salt water sores, rashes, sunburn, dysentery, things we hadn’t time to bother with before now began to manifest themselves.

Fear was now gone and the inaction caused many to have letdowns. Many had not relaxed for weeks and now that it was over they had difficulty handling it. Mail from home would have helped at a time like this; most of us hadn’t had mail since April and it was now the middle of August. I would have given my right arm for a cool drink of Norwich water and Sweet Caporal cigarettes from the Women’s War league. Parcels and letters were awaiting us in Malta and we were heading that way by landing craft and ship.

If we had a doctor I don’t recall one, but someone, possibly an officer, doled out quinine for malaria, as mosquitoes were really bad. Under the worst possible conditions we tried to keep clean; the only clothes we owned were on our backs and we weren’t to get more until our return to England sometime in October. Khaki shorts and shirts were our uniforms.

After being free from dysentery, I now felt its ravages. Luckily though, I went the 100 miles or so to Malta aboard a real old veteran ship named the Ulster Monarch. Whenever there was a campaign this old stalwart was there*. None of us were basket cases and certainly enjoyed being flaked out in bunks on the Monarch.

I remember the ship’s sick bay assistant (Tiffy) handing me a fistful of pills. I counted them and there were 16. I asked him how many doses they were and he answered, “One. What are you going to wash them down with... the deck hose?”

We all laughed but I wish I hadn’t.

In a few hours, with my orders from the ship’s doctor to report to Hill 10 Hospital, I climbed the cement steps in Valetta Harbour as best I could. ("Dad, Well Done" Page 111)

Landing craft in Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta. 1943

Photo Credit - Times of Malta newspaper

* "this old stalwart was there" i.e., the HMS Ulster Monarch my father mentioned above. The vessel, built in 1929, was used as a troop ship in the early stages of the Allied invasion of Sicily, and even before that. 

Written accounts reveal the following:

Around 1930B/12 (7:30 pm, July 12, 1943), HMS Ulster Monarch commenced to land Commandoes** outside the harbour (Augusta, north of Syracusa). Ten minutes later the destroyers engaged shore targets followed another ten minutes later by HMS Uganda.

At 2020B/12 (8:20 pm, same day), HMS Ulster Monarch reported she had landed around 300 troops. (at uboat.net) 

** the Ulster Monarch has some connections with early Commando units: 

HMS Ulster Monarch, loaded with the men of No. 2 Commando, at Inveraray,

Scotland in June 1941. Two miles south (left), is HMS Quebec, No. 1 Combined

Operations Training Camp. (Canadians trained aboard landing crafts there about

one year later). Photo Credit - Commando Veterans Archive

Did sailors love the ships they sailed upon? In some instances, for certain. The camaraderie, food and drink, adventure, power, safety, rest and relaxation and 'home sweet home' feeling while aboard (at times, e.g., while on leave). Poems have been written about 'life aboard.' If you know of one, let me know please.

Poems re the Canadian Navy, questions and comments about posts/entries here can be sent to me at gordh7700@gmail.com

News clippings from one of three Montreal newspapers follow (from microfilm stored carefully at the University of Western Ontario (UWO, my alma mater): 

Axis forces are being pushed (violently, remorselessly in most cases by Allied Army leaders (Montgomery (Brit.), Simonds (Can.), Patton (U.S.), not listed in order of importance or significance, toward the upper right tip of the war-weary island of Sicily. No matter the Allied strength and confidence, 'they left the back door open' - of the 'upper right tip' - and Axis forces escaped in great numbers to land on the toe of Italy's boot before travelling north to fight again in well constructed defences on mainland of Italy. And did not the toughest of slogs come next?

A timely insert re 'recommended reading':

Seems to me, Lionel Shapiro (who was there at the time), knows a far bit

about Operation HUSKY... and has a good deal of writing experience.

This entry's first news report come to us via Lionel Shapiro. Coincidence? It's gotta be!

Personnel of the Pioneer Platoon, Support Company, Royal Canadian Reg-

iment, using mules to transport supplies. (LCMs have a somewhat limited

range on land. GH) Photo by Lt. J. Smith, DND, LAC PA-188914

L. Shapiro's article concludes:

A lengthy account follows about the inevitability of Allied success: 

Allied forces are working their way toward Messina, upper right

Click here for more details and maps re Operation HUSKY, 1943

One item in the article below relates to a reasonable question, "at the time" I suppose. Will the Allies immediately follow their success in Sicily with a strike "directly at Germany from the south?" 

Bomb Italy out of the war?

Bomb Germany out of the war?

(as of August 6, 1943?)

Hitler's favourite city is going the same way as the U-Boat War?

Some tragic news from Canada, about 40 miles, a bit south and then east of Montreal (in WW2 an internment camp for German POWs):

Please click here for more details re Farnham Military Camp, Quebec

Things are not looking good for 'Hitler's prestige in Europe.' How can that be!?

News from another military camp, this one in Gravenhurst, Ontario:

The back of a photo from Silvertone Photo Service in Courtenay, B. C., on

Vancouver Island. From the time my father and several Combined Ops mates

served at Canada's only Combined Operations Training School, 1944 - 45.

"We played lots of ball, under a good coach" he writes. More details here.

Canadians in Combined Ops, at HMCS Givenchy III, play ball.

Doug Harrison, left (aka Dad). Chuck Rose, from Chippewa, ONT

News clip from Courtenay newspaper, 1944 or '45. Microfilm from

Courtenay Library. From collection of G. Harrison, Editor

 

And now a word from our sponsors, i.e., the movie theatres in 1943:

Really. Who can name the comedian (he played a bit of violin on the Ed Sullivan shoe on occasion) who made the following outburst often, on his own TV show - "Rochester!! Rochester!!" Same fellow as in above photo! : )

Comments can be sent to me at gordh7700@gmail.com

No prizes will be awarded... yet!

A tip of the hat to the thousands of women volunteers in many significant roles during WWII:

In the 'olden days' people had kerosene lamps and other forms of light that used whale oil as a source of fuel. Good thing Edison invented the electric light:

Still my 'second-favourite' kind of chicken noodle soup:

(My favourite? Slow cooker chicken noodle soup that I make myself... with an antiquated ('olden days type!) porcelain or clay, massive pot and a lovely, easy-to-use heat source (L - M - H) that still works to this day)! 

And now a word from my 'second-favourite' weekly cartoon from the 'olden days':

Don't drop one of these puppies, eh!

So, if you don't want to be involved in making shells, how about dropping bombs?

RCAF Women’s Division: Opening of the Women's Division Canteen at No.

6 Operational Training Unit (Royal Canadian Airforce Schools and Training

Units), Royal Canadian Air Force, Comox, B. C., Canada, November 6. 1944

Photo - Dept. National Defence, Library and Archives Canada PA-144338)

See more about 'Nursing Sisters in Sicily' at Valour Canada

Nursing sisters of No.14 Canadian General Hospital, Royal Canadian Army Med-

ical Corps (RCAMC), who survived the sinking of SS Santa Elena landing at Naples 

Credit: Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-116492

We cannot go too many days searching for relevant news articles from Sicily, WWII, without coming across an excellent account of 'what's going on' by Ross Munro, war correspondent with the Canadian Press:

Allied jeeps on the road to Agira pass by disabled German vehicles.

28 July 1943. Photo from Library and Archives Canada. More details

Peter Stursberg, mentioned above, who "went ashore with the first Canadian assault troops landing on the beaches at Sicily," is seen with Ross Munro and other members of Canadian media in the next photo:

Allied Navy forces took on many roles, besides what I focus on, i.e., Canadians who manned landing crafts from St. Nazaire to Singapore as part of the Canadian Amphibious role:

Believe it or not, my father and several other Canadians sailors in Combined Operations, happened to cross paths with someone else who was almost as well-known as Buzz Beurling. Navy base HMCS Givenchy III (on Goose Spit in Comox, Vancouver Island, B.C.), hosted a sailor and his wife who were on a 'saving bonds tour' in 1944 - 45 in an effort to encourage islanders to support the war financially.

Dad writes: 

Wm. Fischer, a stoker (not of Combined Ops but of R.C.N.V.R.), was stationed there. He had, I believe, an unequalled experience. He was on an Atlantic convoy run, on H.M.C.S. St. Croix, and one night in rough seas the St. Croix was sunk and he was the lone survivor. His life jacket had lights on and later he was picked up by the English ship H.M.S. Itchen. It in turn was torpedoed and Fischer was one of three survivors.

They took him and his wife on saving bond tours, etc., but when he was asked to go to sea again, he said he would go to cells first. With an experience like that I would have too. He was lucky to be alive. ("Dad, Well Done," page 41)

I don't think I will be finding too many more stories written by Scott Young, father of Canadian singer and song-writer Neil Young. Because, I believe that after (or sometime during) his experience in 'the Med' he chose to join the Navy rather than continue to write about it. Now, I could be wrong, but that is my impression after reading a fair number of his stories (some found in this and an earlier series re another Montreal newspaper.

More news clippings from the Montreal Gazette will soon follow.

Please click here to view Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (27)

Please click here to view Books re Combined Operations: The Far Distant Ships (1)

Unattributed Photos GH

Books re Combined Operations: The Far Distant Ships (1)

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:

From page 66, St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian

Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, Volume 1

Please click here to read LT Bob McRae's full account of his experiences re the Dieppe Raid in St. Nazaire, Volume 1, @ University of Alberta

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

Schull continues:

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.

Volendam - Dutch Steam passenger ship

Photo - U-Boat/Allies/Merchants

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