Atlantic battle heroes honoured
Published: May 7, 2007
The words of a seaman who endured the horrors of war more than 60 years ago served as a reminder Sunday of those who died in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Based on a seaman’s letter home, the words, polished and read aloud by Colin Vezina, a member of the Royal Canadian Naval Association, expressed the anxiety and fatigue of those who fought at sea in what is considered the longest-running battle of the Second World War.
Presented during a ceremony marking the historic battle, the seaman’s words described what it was like for Canadians who fought in the North Atlantic to keep Allied ships safe from German attacks, detailing the everyday misery of having to wear wet clothing or the small comfort found in listening to the same four Vera Lynn records.
“It was the bitter waiting for something to happen and dreading the moment when it would . . . It was the constant tap of freezing rain on your steel helmet, and that trickle of water as it found its way under your collar and down your backside,” read Vezina, who served in the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve. “It was the flash and roar of the four-inch gun and the deep boom of the depth charges hammering the ship’s bottom.”
Although Vezina knows what it’s like to be at sea, he admits his experience with the navy reserves was different from those of the seamen who fought in the Battle of the Atlantic. But, he said, the seaman’s letter has left him with a sense of what they endured and why they longed for home.
“Those guys are real heroes,” he said.
The ceremony, at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 23, is held annually to remember the sailors, merchant seamen and military personnel who died in the navy battle that many historians consider pivotal to ending the Second World War.
Along with prayers for peace and a roll call of ships and aircraft lost at sea, local dignitaries including Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota and deputy mayor Peter Chirico laid wreaths to commemorate the fallen.
The Battle of the Atlantic lasted for six years from 1939 to 1945, as Allied naval and air forces fought off German submarines, or U-boats. Canada manned two aircraft carriers during the conflict, HMCS Puncher and HMCS Nabob, flying Hellcats and Barracudas.
The majority of the more than 2,000 members of the Royal Canadian Navy killed in the war died in the Atlantic, as well as 900 members of the Royal Canadian Air Force. In addition, the Canadian merchant navy lists more than 1,400 others who were killed during the conflict, including eight women.
The Battle of the Atlantic is always commemorated in May because it was during that month in 1943 the Germans started withdrawing their U-boats from the Atlantic to regroup. The U-boats returned eventually and continued to take a heavy toll on Allied shipping, but the German retreat came to symbolize the turn of the tide in the battle.
The editor of Good News Blog was born and raised in the Netherlands, a country liberated by Canadian and US allied forces. Thank you for my freedom.
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