Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 139 It was great seeing my parents and friends after a long six months. They asked a lot of questions, and I had a lot of stories to tell, but all too soon, we had to say goodbye again as I had to catch the train to Halifax. We were soon assigned to different ships. Now I would be in the real world - no instructor to watch over my every move. I remembered all that I had been taught, not just in the past six months but every day as I was growing up - showing respect for others, knowing right from wrong, and resisting temptations. I went aboard a converted passenger ship, "Prince Henry" which was to sail in two weeks for British Columbia. On the way we stopped at St. Lucia, and Kingston, Jamaica in the Caribbean. The day after we left St. Lucia, a ship was torpedoed at the same dock we had just left. We sailed through the Panama Canal and up to San Francisco. While there we went to Hollywood, visiting some of the stars, and then on to Esquimalt, B.C. After a week we left for Alaska and the Bering Sea. After about three weeks of really rough weather, it was back to Esquimalt again. I had now been in the navy for one year, and being 18 I got a raise in pay to $37 a month. I wasn't used to getting all that money, so I sent $10 a month home. At 18, I had traveled 7000 miles by train, sailed south and through the Panama Canal and up to Alaska, and now I had to leave the west coast by train and report to Halifax. This time I was assigned to a destroyer, "Gatineau" which would be doing convoy duty between "Newfie" and "Deny" (Newfoundland and Londonderry, Ireland) making about 15 trips across the Atlantic. There would be lots of enemy submarine activity here. Later we were sent to the English Channel for 'D Day' landings, escorting landing craft and other ships to France and the landing beaches. Finally, it was back to Halifax for ship repairs and a well earned leave. Before too long, I was assigned to the cruiser "Ontario" which was being built in Belfast, Ireland, so we had to go across the Atlantic on a troop ship loaded with thousands of army, navy and air force personnel. I celebrated my 21st birthday shortly after I went aboard the "Ontario. After a few weeks of trial runs and training we were off to the South Pacific sailing through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, stopping at Ceylon, India - now Sri Lanka and on to Hong Kong. The war had just ended, Japan had surrendered, so we had to do occupational duties, living ashore with the Chinese, looking after "rice lineups", and maintaining law and order among the people. After 3 months of this, it was back to British Columbia again, stopping at Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, Hawaii and then Esquimalt. HMCS Gatineau, June '43-Aug '44 continued ... continued ...
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