special features - remembrance day 2014
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i20141105161341757.pdfTRANSCRIPT
During Remembrance Week, the Vancouver Island Military Museum will be commemorating World War I with a new exhibit dedicated to those who served during the “Great War” The Museum will also be unveiling a Veterans Wall of Honour to recognize Canadian and British Commonwealth veterans who served in WWI, WWII, Korea, Afghanistan and on Peacekeeping Missions. The Museum will be open on Remembrance Day, November 11th, after the ceremony at the downtown cenotaph, admission on that day will be by donation only.
Tuesday November 11thCome See, Come Learn, Come Experience History.
Remembering
“The Great War”
November 11, 2014
Tom WoodThe Beach at Courseulles sur mer
CWM 19710261-4843Beaverbrook Collection of War Art
© Canadian War Museum
B2 Nanaimo News Bulletin Thursday, November 6, 2014 www.nanaimobulletin.com
On November 11th,take time to honour and remember
those who have sacrifi ced so much for all of us.
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On November 11th,take time to honour and remember
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www.nanaimobulletin.com REMEMBRANCE DAY Thursday, November 6, 2014 Nanaimo News Bulletin B3
By Chris BushThe News BulleTiN
A t the outbreak of the First World War, Canada had a standing army of just over
3,100 men. The country was completely
unprepared to enter a world conflict, but as a member of the British Commonwealth when Eng-land declared war on Germany in August 1914, Canada was automat-ically at war, too.
What Canada did have control over was its level of commitment. With overwhelming support that crossed the country and political ideologies, Canadians jumped into the fight with booth feet, send-ing 32,000 men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to England for training.
The men would receive their baptism of fire in 1915 at Ypres when they faced the first use of poison gas on the battlefield, but held their ground against a Ger-man advance.
More men and women from across Canada and Newfoundland (Newfoundlanders were initially excluded from the force) would fol-low throughout the war, including many from Nanaimo.
At the start of the war, the Van-couver Island coal strike, which started in 1912, was fizzling out. When the strike ended in 1914, some of the strikers who were blacklisted from future employ-ment left to seek work in Alberta.
Military service offered another alternative. Even the 1,000 militia sent to pacify the most militant of
the striking miners had also been redeployed for service in the war.
Miners formed ranks in what became known as the Bantam Bat-talion units made up men 5-foot-4 or shorter.
About 2,000 men from across the province, many from mining towns and fishing villages on the Island, were recruited into the battalions, including the 143rd Bat-talion of the B.C. Bantams, formed in December 1915, and trained in Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park.
The battalions were created as standard infantry units, but many
of the men with mining experience in the 143rd served as tunnellers in the trenches in Europe.
For a nation of just 7.5 million, what would become the birth of Canada’s national army was a mas-sive commitment.
The First World War would eventually kill 67,000 Canadians in combat and injure 172,000 out of a total of 630,000 volunteers and conscripts who distinguished themselves in battles at Ypres, Vimy Ridge, the Somme and Beau-mont-Hamel and Passchendaele.
ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION branches are getting ready to entertain guests following Remembrance Day ceremonies with events and activities at each branch.
BRANCh 10 (hAREwOOD) is planning an afternoon of food and music. The afternoon’s activities include lunch and beverages, followed with musi-
cal entertainment by Frank hanna, from 1-5 p.m., and Big Daddy, 6-10 p.m. For more information, please call 250-753-4442.
BRANCh 256 (MOUNT BENSON) starts the day with breakfast served in the hall and lounge 7:30-9 a.m. followed by a Remembrance Day ser-vice at the hall for veterans unable to participate in the ceremony at the cenotaph downtown.
A beef on a bun lunch courtesy save-On-Foods will be served at the hall from noon to 1 p.m. From noon to 5 p.m., a DJ will play music in the lounge.
A light dinner will be served at the branch 4:30-5:30 p.m. A dance, with music by the band Doubleplay, will be hosted in the branch hall 5:50-9:30 p.m. For more information, please call 250-754-8128.
Quickfacts
Forces grew as war raged
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
A mannequin with period equipment in a mockup of a machine gun emplacement from the beginning of the First world war, which started 100 years ago, is one of the main displays in the Vancouver Island Military Museum.
Miners from across Vancouver Island
recruited for tunnelling and trench digging
B4 Nanaimo News Bulletin Thursday, November 6, 2014 REMEMBRANCE DAY www.nanaimobulletin.com
By Karl yuThe News BulleTiN
While Capt. Joseph Verling Edward Carpenter began as an artillery officer in the British army, his military contributions contin-ued after he emigrated to Canada in 1886.
Originally hailing from Ireland, he spent time in Alberta before joining the Strathcona Horse regiment in 1900 and served 18 months in the Boer War. He earned the Queen’s Medal in August 1900 and after briefly returning to Edmonton to train soldiers, transferred to the Canadian Mounted Rifles and returned to South Africa, where he served until the end of the war.
Carpenter moved to Nanaimo in 1912, formed the Nanaimo Inde-pendent Company militia and com-manded it for a year and a half.
According to Brian McFadden, vice-president of the Vancouver Island Military Museum, Canada had a small army totalling about 3,000, and militias were respon-sible for defence of their areas, which was cost effective for the government.
Carpenter’s company used Nanai-mo’s Bastion in its cap badge, but
with the outset of the First World War, his and other militias were absorbed into the Canadian army.
“They lost their identity, they also lost the badge because they were incorporated into what was called the Seventh Battalion. This happened to almost all of the mili-tia units,” McFadden said.
Carpenter was a sapper, or a military engineer, and had a thank-less job, which included tunnelling, working in the dark and placing explosives.
“If you were a [sapper] that was probably one of the most dangerous jobs that you could have because you were tunnelling underneath the German trenches placing hundreds of boxes of explo-sives before an attack ... before the infantry attacked, they would blow up the trenches from below.
“Unfortunately, the Germans had the same idea and ofttimes, they found each other tunnelling towards each other at the same time. There were many cave-ins and premature explosions to try and blow up each other’s tunnel,” said McFadden.
The military museum vice-pres-ident believes Carpenter didn’t see any more military action after returning from his First World War duty.
“He probably had enough excite-ment – twice in the Boer War and once in the First World War. So he came back to Nanaimo and that’s really all we know about Capt. Car-penter,” said McFadden.
He died in January 1943.Carpenter will be featured in an
exhibit at the military museum commemorating the 100th anniver-sary of the start of the First World War. It opens Remembrance Day.
BRANCH 257 (LANTZVILLE) Members will parade at 10:30 a.m. from the hall to a full service at the new cenotaph in huddlestone Park. After service activities include hot dogs for
children at Costin hall. The legion will have musical entertainment in the lounge by keyboardist Graham Gates. The sweet Adelines will sing in the branch’s upstairs hall at 2:30 p.m. and then move to the lounge for a second performance at 3 p.m.
when howie James takes the stage in the upstairs hall. The Veterans ladies Auxiliary will host a roast beef dinner at the branch at 4 p.m. The dinner is free to veterans, $5 for non-legion members. For more info, please call 250-390-2841.
Quickfacts
IjosEpH CARpENTER then served as ‘sapper’ during First world war.
Boer War veteran led Nanaimo militia
KARL YU/The News BULLeTiN
Brian McFadden, vice-president of the Vancouver Island Military Museum, shows a uniform display of Capt. joseph Verling Edward Carpenter, a veteran of the Boer War and First World War.
Remember those who fought for our country and gave their lives for all of us.
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Let us all remember and pay tribute to the sacrifices made by veterans and their
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www.nanaimobulletin.com REMEMBRANCE DAY Thursday, November 6, 2014 Nanaimo News Bulletin B5
By Chris BushThe News BulleTiN
Harvey Heweston, a retired geological engineer, says you can still stick a pin in his arm
and he might not feel it. He’s referring to nerve damage
from an injury he suffered helping out on his family’s farm in Alberta while on leave after completing flight school with the Royal Cana-dian Air Force.
The injury nearly ended his dream of becoming a pilot, but a good surgeon and a lot of determi-nation put Heweston back behind the control yoke. He piloted 33 eight-and-a-half-hour night bomb-ing missions in Avro Lancasters over Germany with Royal Air Force Bomber Command No. 1 group, No. 625 Squadron, stationed at Kel-stern, Lincolnshire, England.
He and his six-man crew survived – two of them were just 18 at tour’s end – but airmen sustained some of the highest casualty rates of all armed services and the Second World War exacted a heavy toll from Heweston’s family.
“In my family and my wife’s fam-ily there were seven boys during the Second World War,” Heweston said. “Six of them became pilots, one an observer (bomb aimer). Five were killed in combat. I sur-vived after a long tour of ops in bomber command and one of my wife’s brothers survived.”
Flight crews needed skill, talent and a lot of luck to survive, so carrying talismans or performing rituals was common. One buddy always parked his bicycle in the exact same spot. Heweston’s mid-upper gunner was big on prayer.
“Everybody had these things,” Heweston said.
One day bomber command posted a bulletin advising there was no evidence to support that urinating on aircraft tires brought good luck – it could be construed as an unpatriotic act – and warned urine’s acidity could cause tires to fail prematurely. Heweston said the dire warning only encour-aged more airmen to take up the practice, but he limited himself to carrying a champagne cork, from a
dinner/dance in Edinburgh, in the breast pocket of his flight jacket.
“My date happened to be a Glas-wegian, from Glasgow,” Heweston said. “Of course I couldn’t under-stand a damn word she said, but she was a cutie, and [a friend] also gave us a bottle of French champagne and we uncorked this. We were dancing. It was a dinner dance. She gave me the cork and said, ‘You keep this. It’s good luck. You’ll be safe.’ I kept that cork. I wouldn’t fly without it. After the war, I kept it and that’s why I was so successful in the oil business.”
One morning Heweston was a first-hand witness to an unusual German air raid.
“Five buzz bombs came right over our God damn squadron and there was a total of nine,” Heweston said. “They had been launched from Heinkel 111 aircraft. Nobody ran for cover. They were so low we thought they hit the
water tower and, of course, they made a hell of a noise. They shot one of the Heinkels down and they said that one of the buzz bombs went off on a Heinkel.”
A salvo of air-launched V1 buzz bombs – essentially rudimentary cruise missiles – was a glimpse at future air warfare. Buzz bombs derived their nickname from the noise made by the pulse-jet motors that propelled them, but one morn-ing after a mission, a member of Heweston’s squadron caught a glimpse of what was likely a Brit-ish Gloster Meteor jet fighter that really shook him up.
“We were all having a beer in the mess and this English pilot came rushing in, eyes as big as pizzas, and he said, ‘This aircraft just stormed past me and up ahead it banked and flew off and it had no propellers,’” Heweston said. “Every one of us yelled, ‘Bullshit!’”
Pilot kept champagne cork for luck
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
Harvey Heweston, 92, who flew 33 missions in Lancaster bombers over Germany during the Second World War, holds an ink-on-paper image of himself in the cock-pit, made by one of the gunners in his crew.
Harvey Heweston flew more than 30 missions over Germany during Second World War
SPECIAL EVENTS NOV. 11TH
AT ALL THREE LEGIONS AFTER THE CEREMONY
T hank You Nanaimo and Lantzville
for Supporting Your Veterans!
Free transportation will be available between Legions for any veteran or legionnaire
BRANCH #10
129 HAREWOOD ROAD250-753-4442
Louge Opens - Noon Refreshments all day - (Till we run out)
– ENTERTAINMENT - FRANK HANNA from 1pm to 5pm
and BIG DADDY BAND from 6pm to 10pmEVERYONE WELCOME.
BRANCH #256
1630 EAST WELLINGTON250-754-8128
Breakfast: 7:30 - 9:00 am Service at the Br. 9:30 amService at 11 am Downtown Nanaimo
Lunch: Served by Save On Foods - 12 to 1pmLight Dinner: 4:30 to 5:30 pm
Music: DJ in the lounge 12 noon til 5pmBand Double Play (Hall) 5:30 - 9:30 pm
Come out & join your fellow Veterans & Comrades.Their will also be shuttle transportation between the
three local Legions.
BRANCH #257
7227 LANTZVILLE 250-390-2841
10:30am - Parade line up on School Rd. at Legion11:00 am - Parade & service at the new cenotaph
12 noon - Soup & Hot Dogs at Costin Hall for kids;Graham Gates on key board in the lounge all day
2:30 pm - Sweet Adelines singing group upstairs hall3:00 pm - Sweet Adelines singing group in the lounge;
Howie James Band upstairs hall until 7:00 pm4:00 pm - Roast Beef Dinner by the L.A.
$5.00 (Veterans Free)Support your legion & help us remember!
B6 Nanaimo News Bulletin Thursday, November 6, 2014 REMEMBRANCE DAY www.nanaimobulletin.com
By Karl yuThe News BulleTiN
The 2014 Remem-brance Day cer-emony in Lantzville
will see the culmination of about two years worth of work by Royal Cana-dian Legion Branch 257.
While previous Nov. 11 ceremonies have been held on the Seaview Cen-tennial legion’s property, this year’s will be held at a new war memorial at Huddlestone Park.
It consists of a ceno-taph and memorial walk-way, with granite markers bearing the names of Armed Forces and first responders.
The branch had a target of $150,000, but thanks to in-kind and financial contributions from the community was well as funding from various lev-els of government, it was able to exceed that, with approximately $165,000 raised, according Jim McEwan, cenotaph com-mittee chairman.
The additional money will afford the legion the ability to add flagpoles, benches and other items appropriate to the ceno-taph area.
McEwan said the com-munity support was very good and individuals were extremely generous.
“In one particular case, there was a private dona-tion from a Lantzville res-ident of $10,000, which we appreciated very much and he wishes not to be recognized at this time, but it was certainly a welcome addition,”
said McEwan.With a price tag of
$300 apiece, the stone markers were sold in the fundraising effort. About 83 have been purchased thus far and there is room for another 25 on the remembrance path-way.
“It may take another year or so, but they’re still trickling in at a fairly
regular pace ... we’ve got 15 more to put in before [this Nov. 11] at the cer-emony,” McEwan said.
Given the tragic deaths of a pair of Canadian Armed Forces members – Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and Patrice Vincent, a warrant officer – in October on home soil, this Remembrance Day will be more of a solemn occasion than usual, said McEwan.
“A lot of the public there I’m sure will recog-nize the events of [Octo-ber]. It won’t be gone by Nov. 11,” explained McE-wan. “I’m sure a lot of the public will remember that there were two very valuable soldiers that have been lost during their duty.”
For more information about purchasing a stone marker, please call McE-wan at 250-751-2775.
Lantzville legion holds memorial at Huddlestone Park location
KARL YU/The News BULLeTiN
Jim McEwan, Lantzville cenotaph committee chairman, left, and Barry Ostrand, second vice-president of the Lantzville Royal Canadian Legion, lay a wreath in honour of Patrice Vin-cent and Nathan Cirillo, two members of the Armed Forces who were killed in separate attacks in Canada last month. The cenotaph at Huddlestone Park will host the district’s Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11.
a lot of the public will remember that there were two very valuable soldiers that have been lost during their duty.
“Inaugural service held at new cenotaph
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Rememberingtheir Sacrifices
With thanks to our Veterans, andIn memory of those no longer with us,
By Nicholas PescodThe News BulleTiN
Each year around this time, Bill Brayshaw dedicates his time to organizing and helping sell
poppies in an effort to raise money for Nanaimo’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch 10.
According to Brayshaw, a former president of Branch 10 and interim service officer, the branch is expecting to raise roughly $30,000 this year from poppy sales in the south end of Nanaimo.
However, spending the money that is raised from the poppy funds isn’t as simple as it might appear.
“We have to account for every penny that goes out,” said Bray-shaw.
According to Inga Kruse, execu-tive director for the Royal Cana-dian Legion British Columbia and Yukon command, there are strict guidelines on how each legion can spend its poppy money.
“When you’re run largely by volunteers, and in our com-mand’s case, we’re spread over 150 branches, you have to be very clear with what people are allowed and not allowed to do,” Kruse said.
Last year, legions across Brit-ish Columbia and Yukon raised a combined total of $3.4 million from poppy sales, which according to Kruse is up $100,000 from 2012.
Money generated from the poppy fund can be used to provide assis-tant to veterans and their immedi-ate families.
“If they can’t get a wheelchair … we will purchase it for them,” Bray-shaw said. “Even if people come in
and they have a hardship, we usu-ally use the poppy money to buy food vouchers to give to them.”
Kruse explained that Veterans Affairs Canada, as well as most municipalities, provide funding for the construction of new memorials and monuments.
“We’re not allowed to build a new one with the poppy money because that’s really a community and a Veterans Affairs thing,” Kruse said. “We sometimes fundraise separately from the poppy cam-paign for that. We are allowed to use poppy funds to make sure that it doesn’t fall into disrepair.”
This year the B.C. and Yukon command have distributed 2.3 million poppies. Poppy money col-lected by the legions is also used
to help fund the Veterans Transi-tion Program, a relatively new organization that offers counselling to veterans.
“We have put 500 soldiers through a trauma counselling program that is free for them and not connected with the military,” Kruse said. “So their bosses in the military don’t know they have PTSD. So we treat them and send the back to their careers, without any stigma on their file. In 500 sol-diers, we’ve not had a single post-counselling suicide.”
To donate to the Royal Canadian Legion, visit a branch or visit www.legionbcyukon.ca. People can also donate $5 to the legion by texting ‘POPPY’ to 2022.
Poppy sales provide veterans’ servicesImoney raised goes
directly to soldiers and their families.
NICHOLAS PESCOD/THE NEwS BuLLETIN
royal Canadian Legion Branch 10 past president Bill Brayshaw, left, accepts a $20 donation from legion member Jim Hunter. Brayshaw is expecting Branch 10 to raise $30,000 during this year’s poppy campaign.
www.nanaimobulletin.com rememBranCe day Thursday, November 6, 2014 Nanaimo News Bulletin B7
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B8 Nanaimo News Bulletin Thursday, November 6, 2014 REMEMBRANCE DAY www.nanaimobulletin.com
By Tamara CunninghamThe News BulleTiN
When Brian McFadden came across a Christmas card at the Nanaimo Archives
signed “Black Maria” he knew exactly what kind of treasure he’d found.
“I don’t think the archives knew what they had in that,” said McFadden, vice-president of the Vancouver Island Military Museum, who recognized the card was signed by one of Cana-da’s top fighter pilots under the name of his aircraft.
“[Raymond Collishaw] was in charge of what was called the Black Flight, which was all Cana-dian and they were probably the most prolific fighter planes in the First World War,” he said.
The card is just one of the artifacts showcased in a never-before-seen First World War exhibit at the Vancouver Island Military Museum – a now-perma-nent fixture to commemorate the centennial of the Great War.
The exhibit has been in the works for three months and will be on display next week in time for Remembrance Day. It has artifacts, memorabilia and pho-tographs people have likely not seen before, according to McFad-den, who says they’ve been work-ing with the Nanaimo Archives to create sections on internment, the Nanaimo Independent Com-pany, Collishaw and the home front.
The Canadian Scottish Regiment and Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, which are both celebrating their 100th anniversa-ries, will also be featured.
“They are going to get a piece of history that I would think that very few people know about,” said McFadden of the display. “You can only learn so much from books. If you come here, you get the essence of what it was like. You get a flavour of the artifacts; you can try to imagine how many hands it passed through and ... what’s the story that got this from Flanders to Nanaimo.”
The world broke out in its first
global conflict 100 years ago this year, when Nanaimo was still in the midst of a coal mine strike. But when Britain announced it was going to war, the local com-
munity got behind the effort. Dozens of men volunteered for the militia, there were community celebrations to see the men off to Victoria, Quebec and the war front and the Daughters of the Empire collected money for a Dominion gift for Britain.
More than 100 men would not return.
On Sept. 20, 1914, the city would also see an internment camp set up in the old provincial jail for eastern European prisoners of war. The internees were trans-ferred to Vernon in 1915.
For more information, please visit www.vimms.info/.
Exhibit displays ‘treasures’Artifacts, memorabilia never before seen will
be permanently featured at military museum
TAMARA CUNNINGHAM/THe News BUlleTIN
Vancouver Island Military Museum vice-president Brian McFadden holds up a Dead Man’s Penny given to soldiers’ next of kin by the British government during the First World War. It’s one of the artifacts displayed in a new First World War exhibit.
They are going to get a piece of history that i would think that very few people know about.“
We proudly salute our
Veterans on Remembrance Day for their courage and dedication.
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By Tamara Cunninghamthe News BulletiN
F landers poppies will bloom by the thou-sands in Nanaimo
next spring, thanks to a planting campaign catch-ing on across the Har-bour City.
The City of Nanaimo launched a poppy-planting effort earlier this year, announcing it would sow 67,000 poppies at its cenotaph to commemo-rate those killed in the First World War. It also offered the flowers to residents and has seen more than 60 people call to pick up seeds.
Some of those look-ing to plant seeds have shared their stories with the News Bulletin, like Teresa Driver, who had the poem, In Flanders Fields, memorized by the time she was in Grade 1. Both of her grandfathers served in the first and second world wars, and her father in the Second World War. She thinks it would be beautiful to
have poppies planted everywhere because it makes people think about those who have fought in the wars, she said, add-ing these are men who wanted to protect their country and gave up their lives to do it.
“I think we should remember them forever for all the sacrifices they’ve done.”
Nanaimo’s Elsie Prill, 92, was stuffing bullets from behind a partition at a British munitions factory by the time she was 17. She later married Garner Prill, a Canadian radar technician who served in the Second World War. He
had lost his two broth-ers, Maurice and Berle, air gunners, three weeks apart in 1943 and 1944 during the same war. She now has their medals, which she sent for this year, neatly mounted and resting beside their photos on a living room dresser.
Prill had asked for seeds in remembrance of her husband and his fam-ily, but hasn’t received any yet.
Then there’s John Barr, who served with the Royal Engineers in Berlin during the Cold War in 1958 and whose son has been a regular forces
soldier for more than two decades. One task asked of his son was to receive the aircraft with the bod-ies of young men killed in Afghanistan, so Barr said he knows there’s a lot who did not come back and wanted the pop-pies to grow in his own garden.
“I think it was a good idea,” he said of the city sharing its poppy seeds. “It’s something that should be continued, if the city would keep it going maybe other veter-ans would take that proj-ect up the same as I did this year.”
Gail Pasaluko, the city’s horticulture supervisor, expects with the uptake there will be little seas of red displayed through-out the community next spring when the flowers bloom.
“I think it’s a fabulous project ... the remember-ing of World War One, the vets, the things that peo-ple went through in those times, it’s so important and what’s happening today with our vets and our wars,” she said, add-ing the response is also fabulous. “It’s all about we don’t forget, right?”
www.nanaimobulletin.com REMEMBRANCE DAY Thursday, November 6, 2014 Nanaimo News Bulletin B9
Poppies visible reminder of sacrificeICitY offERiNG
seeds to plant in memory.
TAMARA CUNNINGHAM/THe News BUlleTIN
Nanaimo resident Elise Prill, 92, props up a couple of pictures of her husband’s two brothers – Berle and Maurice Prill – air gunners who died three weeks apart in the Second World War.
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B10 Nanaimo News Bulletin Thursday, November 6, 2014 REMEMBRANCE DAY www.nanaimobulletin.com
By Chris BushThe News BulleTiN
Keen ears tease useful intelli-gence out of general commu-nications traffic, which can
be crucial to winning or losing a battle or even an entire conflict.
Jack Prestley, who came to Nanaimo to play with the Nanaimo Clippers in 1945, had two older brothers at the start of the Second World War. Michael Thomas Pat-rick Prestley was killed in Europe while serving with the Canadian Scottish Black Watch, but his old-est brother, Bernard (Barney) Joseph Prestley, died at age 28, about 10 years after the war, from complications of malaria he con-tracted while working at a secret facility in Darwin, Northern Terri-tory, Australia.
The city’s harbour was attacked by Japan’s naval air units in Febru-ary 1942 and teetered on the south-ern edge of the Japanese Empire, which made Darwin a good spot for No. 1 Canadian Special Wireless Group, a 336-man unit within the Royal Canadian Signal Corps, to listen in on the enemy’s radio com-munications from early 1944 until the end of the war.
The unit operated well into 1946 to help stand down Japanese mili-tary units that held out in isolated South Pacific islands after Japan surrendered in August 1945.
Little public information about the unit was available until the 1990s when secrecy around it started lifting, partly due to
research by Gil Murray, one of the signals operators who worked at the camp and author of The Invis-ible War, The Untold Secret Story of Number One Canadian Special Wire-less Group, published in 2001.
During the war, Jack Prestley and family members knew practically nothing about Barney Prestley’s work in Australia. Letters Barney Prestley sent home were heav-ily blacked out by censors and decades of secrecy following the conflict and his death kept family mostly in the dark until Murray’s book.
“With them intercepting more than one million messages a day, I would think the whole unit was pretty busy,” Jack Prestley said. “There was camp activity … They had ball games and stuff like that and movies, the regular camp thing, but it was pretty tight. I don’t think they moved away from there that much.”
Some of the men would be sent occasionally to New Guinea to set up listening stations. Prestley still has an original copy a leaflet his brother carried, from thousands dropped on South Pacific islands, imploring Japanese troops to sur-render.
Murray’s book also revealed the Vancouver Island connection to the top-secret operation. The training base for the unit’s signal operators was located on the northern tip of the Saanich Peninsula.
“They left from Esquimalt, went to San Francisco and stopped at a camp there. I don’t know whether they went for further training or what the purpose of it was, but then they embarked again on an old ship – and by description it was pretty old – and off they went to Australia, no escort or any-thing,” Prestley said. “So it was kind of, cross your fingers and hope we get there.”
Prestley said a shroud of secrecy still hangs over the operation.
“Even today, there are methods that were used that one country didn’t want the other to know.”
Prestley, 86, wants people to know what the unit and his brother contributed to the war.
“They performed wonderful work and accomplished a lot and I’d just like them to be recognized,” he said.
Wireless unit shrouded in secrecyIjACk pREstlEY wants
others to know story of brother’s war service.
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
jack prestley, of Nanaimo, holds a photo-graph of his older brother Bernard, who served with a secret intelligence gather-ing unit trained on Vancouver Island.
Let us honour the memory of those who served for our country.
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Please plan on attendingREMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICESnearest you on November 11th
DEADLINES FOR THE NEWS BULLETIN & NEWS BULLETIN CLASSIFIEDS FOR TUESDAY, NOV. 11th WILL BE: THURSDAY, NOV. 6th, 11 am
By Tamara CunninghamThe News bulleTiN
I t wasn’t the kind of surprise flight engineer Al Hudson was used
to seeing on a bombing mission: a German fighter pilot flying so close, he could see the number on the side of his measure seat.
“I looked out around and I could see this fighter right beside us, about 40 feet away and that’s not very far when you’re up in the air, I’ll tell ya,” said Hudson, 95, who admits he was ‘awful scared’ to see a Messer-schmitt flying so close to his plane. It would have taken two seconds for the fighter to shoot them down with cannons, he said.
Hudson, who was born in Timmons, Ont., was 21 years old when he sailed for England in 1940 to join the Second World War effort. He would go on 35 bombing mis-sions with his flight crew, monitoring the aircraft system, temperature and engines while they were in the air. He remembers the Berlin raid as one of the worst missions. To this day, he still sees the picture of that fighter
pilot in his sleep. That night had been a
1,000-bomber raid on Ber-lin and he’d volunteered to fill in as flight engineer for a new crew. From the dome of the Lancaster plane, he could see everything – the search lights, the bombs going off below and a German fighter pilot so close that if Hudson was holding a revolver, he said he could have slid his window down and shot him. The German pilot had been staring straight ahead, and Hudson’s own crew had no idea what was going on.
“I says, ‘Christ, are you guys asleep? There’s a fighter right beside us,’” he said. “Poor fellas, I guess they were nervous. First time they saw a fighter and all that.”
By the time the gunners started firing, they had tracers going “all over the damn place. It’s a wonder they didn’t shoot one of our guys down.”
The fighter pilot ended up banking away from the Lancaster and Hud-son said when they got back from the mission he told his skipper the new crew better smarten up. The next day, that
crew was one of the first planes shot down. It was unfortunate, he said, and he felt sorry for talking about them.
Hudson still has his flight book packed away somewhere in his room, and a black and white photo of his crew. With a half smile, he talked about how after a mission they’d get shots of 100-proof rum from the chap-lain, who was in charge of the booze, or the pack of cigarettes he’d smoke each trip. Then there was the ritual of urinating on the back wheel of the plane before it took off. It was good luck, a routine and it never failed.
After a mission to the SKF bearing plant in Schweinfurt, Germany, his was among four or five planes of 112 that hadn’t been shot down. They also survived with some German flak to the end section of the plane when they were caught in a searchlight over Ham-burg.
As for the thought of being shot down, he didn’t worry about it too much.
“With me, it was just [an] ordinary trip, eh. You’re going to get it, you’re going to get it. That was the way I thought. It didn’t bother me so much,” he said.
And every time it did, he’d light up a cigarette.
Veteran easily recalls harrowing flightswww.nanaimobulletin.com REMEMBRANCE DAY Thursday, November 6, 2014 Nanaimo News Bulletin B11
IAl huDsoN was flight engineer for Allies.
TAMARA CUNNINGHAM/THe News BUlleTIN
Nanaimo’s Al hudson, 95, holds a photo of himself (upper right corner) with his flight crew during the second World War.
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A DAY TOREMEMBER
LET’S MAKE NOVEMBER 11
In keeping with a tradition since 2001, all Quality Foods stores close each Remembrance Day to pause and reflect on the importance of the role of our past and present service men and women.
Whether in times of war or peace, we are ever grateful for these brave souls who put themselves in harm’s way for the greater good of all Canadians.
This year, with continuing turmoil worldwide, the need becomes even more apparent to keep November 11 aside for current & future generations’ to remember and appreciate their courage and sacrifices made in the name of freedom.
We believe that when we stand united in acts of remembrance, we can make a world of difference.
All Quality Foods stores will be closed
Tuesday, November 11For the Fallen (excerpt)
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe will remember them.
-Lawrence Binyon
B12 Nanaimo News Bulletin Thursday, November 6, 2014 www.nanaimobulletin.com