War at Sea
http://www.thememoryproject.com/Classroom/Lessons/WarAtSea.aspx
The Royal Canadian Navy turns 100 years old this year. During the Second World War, Canada's Navy and Merchant Navy made a vital contribution, particularly in protecting Allied shipping across the Atlantic. By listening to the accounts of those who were there, greater insight can be gained into this aspect of Canada's history.
The Merchant Navy
Listen to the stories of John Covan and Edison Yeadon, veterans of Canada's Merchant Navy and answer the following questions:
1. What types of cargo did the Merchant Navy deliver?
2. What dangers did the Merchant Navy face?
Navy
Listen to Harold Harden's story and answer the following questions:
1. Why was Harold Harden assigned to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and what was his ship's job?
2. What was the "triangle run"?
3. What type of encounters did Harold Harden's ships have with German ships?
4. How were the experiences of the Merchant Navy and the Navy both similar and different?
Discuss: The veterans of the Merchant Navy were not considered war veterans until 1992. Based on what you have heard on the Stories of the Second World War archive, do you think it was fair not to give these veterans full veteran status? Why do you think it took so long? Students may want to complete some background research from the resources below before debating this question.
Edison Yeadon
It was some time in January that we left Lac Huey for New York and we're sailing along nicely, five knots, one evening just south of Newfoundland, we heard the depth charges going off. And then all of a sudden, a bright flare lit the sky. And it was signal to separate, going our own way. And then the engine crew came running up the ladder and we had been hit by something that rattled along the bottom of the ship. We figured that it was a dead torpedo and we were very lucky.
The next day, the weather turned for worse, which is a blessing for us. The German submarines don't like this weather but we do, to keep them down. The weather was so bad we had to put up a sail to keep her into the wind. We had to go into dry dock in New York. We left New York dry docks to load cargo for India. We loaded all the military equipment, tanks, oil drums, ammunition, trucks and everything to fight a war with. She was an old coal burner. Her name was Djoust, a Norwegian tramp. She was a good old ship and I enjoyed being on her. Just south of the equator the Germans caught up with us. Out of the sky came a seaplane with a hook and cut our aerial to prevent us from sending a signal that we were being attacked. Then the seaplane machine gunned the deck. Bullets flying everywhere. All our aircraft guns were put away. Didn't expect anything in the middle of the south Atlantic. The Raider shelled us from a distance and they gave up shelling as soon as we stopped and went for the life boats, we didn't have a chance, so we abandoned ship.
I ran to my life boat station, climbed into the boat, with John Snowdon at one end and I at the other end. They lowered us down to the water and I saw this water coming in. The crew up on deck asked me if I had the plug in. They didn't realize that the lifeboat was full of bullet holes and the men on deck went looking for another lifeboat. We finally got into the other lifeboat and I took an oar and started rowing. And up came the big ship, the Raider and picked us up. We sailed around on her for a month. Then we were transferred to a supply ship. And we laid in the Indian Ocean for two or three months. Then we were off to Japan. The Japanese made us bow to the commanding officer that took over on the docks. I spent three years in the Japanese prisoner of war camp. Released by the Americans. That's about all I can say for now.
John Covan
I was in high school in Windsor, Ontario. When the war started, they gave us military training, which meant we were paraded around the football field with a wooden rifle on our shoulder. Anyhow, I joined the signal corps, which I didn’t have to march with a wooden rifle. Anyhow, when I got the academic level required, I went down to volunteer for the air force. And they told me to come back in another few months. I found out subsequently that the reason we were told to come back in a few months, because all their training facilities were plugged up, so they couldn’t accept more recruits at the moment.
In the meantime, I heard about the merchant navy, so I made inquiries and decided to join the merchant navy. I joined in 1942, but I had to wait until they dispatched me to the east coast for training. Here again, as bunks first became available at the training facility, they called us up. We were given 12 months training in seamanship, ship handling, how to handle guns. The navy came and gave us instructions on armaments and after 12 months or 12 weeks, I should say, I was dispatched to join my first ship in Vancouver, a Canadian brand new ship, out of the shipyard, the [SS] Green Gables Park. I was on the ship for the next three years.
Well, we were to the South Pacific and we made trips to the UK also, through the Panama Canal. We delivered this cargo to various ports in Australia. Homeward bound, we were sent to the Fiji Islands and we picked up cargo sugar to return to Vancouver. The second officer we had at the time had been torpedoed and he studied the chart and he thought there were Japanese submarines in the area, that area we were in, was likely spot. So he pulled out 10 miles from our planned course, three ships right behind us, American ships, got torpedoed. Two of them made it to port, one didn’t. We were heading north from the Panama Canal, we got caught in a storm and we ended up with about a foot of ice on everything. This was in December or January. We eventually ended up in Halifax where we regrouped with a number of other ships and proceeded to the UK.
I guess two days out of Halifax, joined up with another convoy coming up the coast and we formed one fairly large convoy and headed across. In convoy in the North Atlantic, all the vessels are blacked out after dark. You were always concerned about running into the stern of another ship, especially with flying spray and misty weather. None of the ships were equipped with radar in those days. We used to tow a little buoy behind the, it was like a water ski with a spout on it, that shot water up, oh, maybe two or three feet. And you’d try to keep that in sight. The ship ahead of you towed one and then we towed one to indicate our position for the ship behind us. And this is the only way we had of keeping track of where we were until daylight.
The submarines would either come up from behind the convoy or wait until a lot of the convoy passed and they would keep quiet and then pick the ships off. One particular case, we were regrouping as we approached the coast of Ireland. I believe the ship that replaced us in that column did get torpedoed.
Harold Harden
My name is Harold Harden. I was born in Knowlton, Quebec, which is in the Eastern Townships, born on a farm. From there I was drafted aboard a corvette, HMCS Trail, a short fo’c’sle corvette, and we proceeded to sea, the North Atlantic around Halifax, for training. From there, in 1942, we were assigned to escort ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At that time, they were having a lot of trouble with ships that were being attacked by German submarines.
We were first contacted with the ships that had been attacked or sunk I would say. And there we had quite a few of our convoys who were attacked. We lost quite a few ships there. During that time, we picked up quite a few survivors from these ships that were attacked and sank. From there, our ship was transferred back to the North Atlantic and then we proceeded to continue convoy duty on the triangle run, ships that were convoys that started in, met up in Halifax, proceeded to mid-ocean and there, then we returned to St. John’s, Newfoundland.
From there, after our training, and speaking of a group of Canadians, we were drafted aboard other British cruisers. The ship that I was drafted on was HMCS Kent. They were the admiral of the whole fleet. We had an admiral. He was admiral of the whole fleet, based in Scapa Flow.
There our procedure was to escort transport ships that sail into Russia on the Murmansk run. Also, we were pursuing German convoys that were sailing from Norway, escorted by German warships, and we had a few encounters there. Quite successful at different times and our ship, Kent, was credited with destroying 11 merchant ships through gunfire.
We had one experience with a Norwegian run there where we attacked these German convoys. That was quite the experience there because it was all gunfire, shelling. You see these ships being exploded through gunfire, that was quite an experience. Any time you saw or you were part of a convoy that was attacked by submarines and the explosions that were caused and to see these seamen in the water, trying to rescue them and pick them up, was quite an experience. They were covered with oil and frozen half to death. And luckily, in my experience, we were never, our ship was never attacked that much. It was to my advantage I guess. I just came through without a scratch, so I was quite happy.
The Merchant Navy
Listen to the stories of John Covan and Edison Yeadon, veterans of Canada's Merchant Navy and answer the following questions:
1. What types of cargo did the Merchant Navy deliver?
2. What dangers did the Merchant Navy face?
Navy
Listen to Harold Harden's story and answer the following questions:
1. Why was Harold Harden assigned to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and what was his ship's job?
2. What was the "triangle run"?
3. What type of encounters did Harold Harden's ships have with German ships?
4. How were the experiences of the Merchant Navy and the Navy both similar and different?
The Merchant Navy
Listen to the stories of John Covan and Edison Yeadon, veterans of Canada's Merchant Navy and answer the following questions:
1. What types of cargo did the Merchant Navy deliver?
Sugar, military equipment, tanks, oil drums, ammunition, trucks
2. What dangers did the Merchant Navy face?
- Submarines, torpedoes, weather, storms, wind ice,
- Running into the back of the ship in front of you at night because the lights were turned out at night.
- sinking the ship, drowning, being captured.
Navy
Listen to Harold Harden's story and answer the following questions:
1. Why was Harold Harden assigned to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and what was his ship's job?
Escort ships in the gulf. Ships attacked by German subs. Pick up survivors from ships that had been sunk.
2. What was the "triangle run"?
Halifax, to the mid ocean, and then to St. John’s.
3. What type of encounters did Harold Harden's ships have with German ships?
His ship, the HMCS Kent, was credited with destroying 11 merchant ships.
4. How were the experiences of the Merchant Navy and the Navy both similar and different?
- same hazards (weather, war), - merchant navy was more of a transportation role.
- carried and used weapons - navy had a predatory role, protection role.