WW II ~ Various Remembrances

[Pelican]

R.C.N. - The Battle of the North Atlantic - St. Johns, Newfoundland

"Dear All,

This short, 30 mins, film is of the officers club created in a warehouse attic in St. John Newfoundland, a key port in the Atlantic Battleground. The club was created in 1942 o give worn out officers from the RCN and RN a haven to which they might escape for a few hours before going back to sea escorting convoys across the Atlantic. This place is almost the central pivot around which much of the Canadian Navy’s history orbits.

Tim"

https://youtu.be/lGaeLtTAADc

[Best viewed by casting to your T.V. if possible.]

[Pelican]

DEFEAT OF JAPAN

Robert Shaw and one of the greatest monologues ever in the history of cinematography...
"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.
Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.
Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces.
You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist.
At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
Anyway, we delivered the bomb."

[Pelican]

HMS Royal Oak: Service of remembrance for sunken Royal Navy ship held at HMS Excellent

A service of remembrance for HMS Royal Oak has been held in Portsmouth to remember those who lost their lives on the ship which was sunk during World War II.

The service of remembrance was held by the HMS Royal Oak Association at St Barbara’s Church in HMS Excellent on Saturday, October 7 to remember those who lost their lives when was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47 on October 14 1939 while anchored in Scotland. Of Royal Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 835 were killed that night or died later of their wounds - many of whom were from the Portsmouth area.

Recently planning permission was granted for an 8ft HMS Royal Oak obelisk at The Hard to which will act as a memorial.

See - https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defen ... nt-4364945 - LFT

[Pelican]

Ministry of Defence

98-year-old Albert Price has encouraged his fellow Normandy veterans to sign up to attend events for the 80th anniversary of D-Day next year.

Find out how veterans can register their interest with the Royal British Legion at - https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/d-day-80

[Pelican]

Battle of the Atlantic ~ Sailor statue

Please see - https://royal-naval-association.co.uk/n ... ic-statue/
Also - https://www.reservesandcadetsni.org.uk/ ... emoration/
Plus - https://signalhfx.ca/the-sailor-statue- ... -disbands/
And - https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/64947

[Pelican]

The Battle of the Atlantic

Anyone interested in the Battle of the Atlantic should read this book, £7.99 as an electronic book you can read on any device, or up to £144.00 for a paperback! Last published in print in 1963 but the revised edition eBook on Amazon has a lot of new material not included in the original and a mass of new photographs. Michael Whitby has just retired as senior historian of the RCN, I had the honour of being the publisher. Jim Rae painted the cover illustrations

50 North: An Atlantic Battleground eBook : Easton, Alan, Whitby, Michael: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Also: Sackville is the last corvette preserved very handsomely in Halifax NS as the RCN Memorial Ship with a very active following, last Month we, or rather the defence Attache from the British High Commission in Ottawa, presented her with a replica tampion for a 6” gun cast from the steel of the old masts of HMSB mounted on an oak plaque, the other going to Haida a few weeks before.

Tim.

[Pelican]

Battle of Atlantic

Exchange of emails and relevant photos attached:

I sent your cutting to Cdr. Bill Gard in Halifax where the statue originated, I think?
Anyway, here is his reply, lovely touch with the boot. Bill is with Saxckville.

Good morning Tim.
A couple of images of our Sailor statue.
The names on the underside of the boot are those who were responsible for the monument.
Bill G.