Notes on World War 2

The following is a brief description of some of the historical events and major battles of World War II. As in the Great War, Sarnia and Lambton’s sons participated in all of these major battles, and many would lose their lives while fighting in them.

• Approximately twenty years after the end of World War I, the storm clouds of war were brewing again. In March of 1939, veteran organizations across Canada were asking ex-soldier personnel to voluntarily register in the Federal Veteran’s Survey, in order to get full data on war veterans in case the country needed them. The Sarnia branch of the Royal Canadian Legion asked all local veterans to enroll at the Soldier’s Service Club. Registering in the survey did not constitute enlistment; the men and women were just indicating their experience and willingness to serve Canada in some capacity should the need arise. In a portion of the manifesto issued by the Veteran’s Organizations, they stated, “Today, world conditions are confused and disturbing. Our own will for peace does not, unfortunately, guarantee peace to us. The events of tomorrow are wholly unpredictable. We would be unfaithful to ourselves, to the memory of our comrades, and to our country if we remained indifferent in the face of that uncertainty.”

• In mid-May 1939, less than four months before the start of World War II, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) embarked on a month long, cross-country tour by train of Canada and part of the United States. Their two princess daughters; thirteen-year old Elizabeth, who would later succeed her father becoming Queen Elizabeth II, and eight-year old daughter Margaret Rose remained in England during the tour. The Royal tour marked the first time a reigning monarch visited Canada. Canada’s Prime Minister MacKenzie King travelled with the royal visitors for their entire tour. The royal couple visited every Canadian province and Newfoundland, and the tour was an enormous success, attracting huge enthusiastic crowds everywhere they went. Early in the tour, on May 21, 1939, King George officially unveiled the National War Memorial in Confederation Square, Ottawa (also known as The Response), a symbol of the sacrifices made by Canada’s sons and daughters in the Great War.

• On a warm morning on June 7, 1939 the Royal train with King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister MacKenzie King, as part of their 36 stops in Ontario, stopped in London, Ontario. With the planned exodus of local citizens to see the Royal couple in London, Sarnia’s Mayor Norman Perry had decreed June 7th to be a civic holiday in Sarnia, and many offices and businesses closed for the day. While in London, the Royal procession passed more than 200,000 people through the downtown streets of London, including an estimated 60,000 school children cheering and waving flags. Thousands of Sarnia and Lambton County residents, including 3,600 school children, travelled to the city by automobile, bus and special trains to witness the historic occasion. Sarnia was officially recognized in that Mayor Norman Perry and his wife were presented to the Royal Majesties at a reception, along with other prominent citizens. Also taking part in the event were local militia, members of the Royal Canadian Legion, city constables, three Sarnia bands and members of the 26th Lambton Battery. In Europe, it was apparent that war was looming. Less than three months after the Royal visit in London, war was declared.

• With the situation in Europe growing more tense, Sarnia was already preparing for the possibility of war. In late August of 1939, Mayor Norman Perry, local authorities and industry representatives had plans to place armed guards on the St. Clair Tunnel, the Canadian approach of the Blue Water bridge, the Sarnia Waterworks, the hydro sub-station, Imperial Oil Refinery, Mueller Limited, Dominion Salt Company, Holmes Foundry, the wireless station at Point Edward, the Lambton Garrison armory, the grain elevator and other industrial plants. Unarmed guards were already at these locations, on 24-hour duty, on lookout for saboteurs and spies. One week after the start of the war, many of these guards were then armed.  Immigration officers were increasing their screening of persons entering the country from the United States. The militia was prepared for mobilization, including the reorganized Lambton Regiment made up of three Sarnia military units: the 26th Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery; the 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers; and the 1st Field Park Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. In Watford, there was the 48th Howitzer Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery. In the event of war, efforts would be made to immediately bring all of these units to war strength. By May of 1940, the Sarnia Legion was recruiting volunteers from this registry to form a Sarnia platoon of the Veterans’ Home Guard, a uniformed and armed unit of men responsible for combating any “Fifth Column” or other subversive elements in Sarnia, Forest, Watford, Thedford, Petrolia, Moore Township and Point Edward. By June of 1940, close to 100 men had volunteered for the Home Guard platoon, and another 300 men had signed up for active duty in the Veterans’ Auxillary Home Defence Force.

• The first Sarnians to go to war went two days before the outbreak of war. On August 29, 1939, five artillerymen from the 26th Field Battery, R.C.A. (Non-Permanent Active Militia) enlisted for active service to man coastal batteries in Eastern Canada. Bombardiers B. Baker and W. Torpe and Gunners J. Bennett, H. Tinkham and L. Abbott were the first men to leave Sarnia for service in World War II.^N

• The Second World War began on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Also on September 3, two days out of port, the passenger ship SS Athenia, which had left Glasgow, was heading for Montreal with 1,418 passengers and crew aboard. At approximately 7:30 p.m. that evening, German U-boat U-30, which had been tracking the Athenia for about three hours, surfaced and without warning, fired two torpedoes directly at the Athenia, and later a third. The first of the torpedoes struck the Athenia squarely and exploded, ripping open the bulkhead between the engine room and the boiler room (the second torpedo misfired). Though the Athenia remained afloat after being torpedoed, she would eventually sink beneath the waves approximately 14 hours later. A total of 117 were killed (19 crew and 98 passengers) in the unprovoked attack. A young Canadian girl was among the casualties, one of the first Canadians to die as a result of enemy action. Ten-year old Margaret Janet Hayworth, of Hamilton, Ontario suffered head injuries from the flying debris and would die several days later at sea aboard a rescue vessel in her mother Georgina’s arms. Waiting at the pier for his wife Georgina to disembark from the rescue ship was her husband John Hayworth. Mrs. Hayworth met him, and sobbed, “Dear God, John, she’s gone.” A few weeks after the sinking, flags across Canada flew at half-mast in Margaret Hayworth’s honour. A public funeral was held for her in Hamilton where over one thousand mourners attended. The British and Canadian governments used the sinking of the Athenia as a propaganda tool to rally support for war. On Sunday, September 10, 1939, King George VI announced that, by a decision of the Canadian Parliament, Canada was at war with Germany.

• The sinking of the SS Athenia had a local connection. News of the Athenia sinking was met with great anxiety for Dawson Clark of Petrolia, as he awaited news about his wife Mary Blair Clark and their eight-year old daughter Catherine who were passengers aboard the ill-fated ship sailing from Glasgow. Also anxious for news was Mary Clark’s sister, Mrs. Peter Barclay of Sarnia. Mary Blair Clark and her daughter Catherine were sailing home from a trip to her Scottish homeland, travelling third-class right next to the engine room. On September 6th, three days after the attack, husband Dawson Clark and his two children in Petrolia, would receive a cablegram informing him that his wife and daughter were rescued and now safe in Scotland. Following is Mary Clark’s account of her harrowing experience on that fateful day:

My little girl had been seasick. I was in the cabin with her and had just told her to be good, as I was going to the ship’s church that night. This was at approximately 7:30 o’clock, ship’s time. I was dressing for church when the awful noise of the explosion came. You can imagine my feelings as the lights went out and I groped in the darkness for my daughter. Then, to my horror, I felt water around my legs.

 

Praying to God I clasped Catherine and ran from the cabin. I placed her on my back, pulled her arms around my neck and her legs around my body. Before I had gone more than a few yards along the corridor, the water was up to my waist and before I could reach where the stairway was supposed to be it was up to my neck. I had to swim with Catherine on my back to where the stairs were to find they had been torn away by the explosion. It was impossible to

walk. How I managed to get onto the upper deck, I shall never know. Perhaps if it had been only for my own life I was frightened, I would have been overcome, but I was battling for my daughter’s life. Wreckage was under our feet and over our heads.

 

On deck we found that lifeboats were already being filled and lowered away. The only trouble was with foreign passengers, who pushed their way into the lifeboats even ahead of the women and children. Only after one of the sailors grabbed a hatchet and threatened violence were the foreigners held back. The rule of the sea is children first,

then women, male passengers and last of all, members of the crew and the officers. Children were being taken out of their mother’s arms and placed in lifeboats. The lifeboat I was in was the last to leave. There were 80 of us cramped

into a boat which normally would hold 50 persons. The only reason I can give for our escape was that we were quartered on the starboard side while the torpedo hit the port side. Many on the port side were either killed by the concussion or drowned as the water rushed in.

 

We were torpedoed at 7:30 o’clock, Sunday evening, September 3, and drifted on the ocean in our lifeboat from 8 o’clock that night until 9 or 10 o’clock Monday morning when two British destroyers, Electra and Escourt reached us…. Drifting all night in the open lifeboat under ordinary conditions would have been terrible enough, but to be burdened with the fear that we might again be fire upon added to our distress. Indeed we did hear one more torpedo, but whether it was directed at the lifeboats we could not tell. Later in the evening it started to rain to add to our discomfort.

 

After being picked up by the Electra, we were taken to Greenock and later to Glasgow.… One pathetic incident which stands out clearly in my mind is that of a mother who was looking for her 10-months-old daughter. When the two destroyers met at Glasgow, she was anxiously scanning the passengers on the other boat and when she saw two 16-year-old girls holding up her daughter, she cried, “Thank God, my baby!”….

When Mary Clarke climbed the railings of the remnants of the stairs in the dark and flooding ship during her escape, her legs were heavily lacerated as a result of rubbing against the twisted debris in the ship’s hallways. When she and her daughter got on board the last lifeboat, they spotted an abandoned five-year old girl who was crying out for her mother. Mary Clarke helped to guide the young girl by the hand into the lifeboat, comforting the five-year old and her own daughter Catherine. They would spend all night in a crowded lifeboat during a dark and rainy night, and were rescued the next morning and brought back to Scotland. Aside from the damage to her legs, Mary Clarke also developed a bronchial infection as a result of her trials at sea. The five-year old girl who had been separated from her mother, and who would be re-united with her again, was Jacqueline Hayworth, the younger sister of ten-year old Margaret Hayworth, daughter of Georgina Hayworth.

Another Sarnia connection to the sinking of the Athenia: a few weeks after the sinking, (Sarnia) Collegiate Institute and Technical received a letter from Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers, informing the school that a shipment of text books destined for the Collegiate had gone down with the ship.

• Canada was unprepared for war. The regular army of 4500 men, augmented by 51,000 partly-trained reservists, possessed virtually no modern equipment. The air force had fewer than 20 modern combat aircraft and the navy had only six destroyers, the smallest class of ocean-going warships. Though war was declared on September 10th, 1939, in September alone, over 58,000 Canadian men and women volunteered to serve.^D As in the Great War, the Germans would come to both admire and fear Canadian soldiers for their resilience, tenacity, and courage.^3Y

• For one local Sarnia family, there was both joy and sadness when the war began. John Koziol, the proprietor of New Service Shoe Repair on Christina Street, had arrived from his native Poland in 1928, leaving behind his family. On August 29, 1939, John’s wife Nellie and their two sons, Fred, aged 18 and John aged 12, arrived in Sarnia from Poland. Three days later, Germany invaded Poland. The newly arrived Koziol’s, who did not speak English, were glad to be reunited as a family in the safe haven of Sarnia, Canada, but were concerned about the family they had left behind. John’s home town in Poland, where his brothers and sisters were residing, had been bombed by the Nazi’s.

• One of the myths about the Second World War was that most Canadians enlisted to escape unemployment; in fact, eight out of ten who enlisted in the first three years of the war left jobs or occupations to sign up. The remainder included students, those who just finished school and those not yet ready to seek full employment.^2B

• The qualifications posted in Sarnia for enlistment were: the individual had to be a British subject, between the ages of 18 and 45, of good character, and reported physically fit by a medical board.

• Following is a portion of a report from the September 11, 1939 Sarnia Observer, one day after Canada declared war on Germany:

War Declaration Speeds Up Recruiting

Applicants Rush To Join The Colors

Canada’s declaration of war upon Germany today had the result of swamping the local recruiting depot with applicants for enlistment. Following a lull  on Friday and Saturday, when Canada’s position did not appear clear to

the man in the street, the events of the weekend completely changed the situation at recruiting headquarters today.

Interview officers of all three units were kept busy and the medical board was working at top speed. Swelling the

ranks of local men anxious to join up were a large number of the 48th Howitzer Battery of Watford which is not under mobilization orders. There were also many from Chatham and Kent County arriving by bus, car or by hitch-hiking on trucks to sign up…

If American citizens are accepted as they may be shortly, there will be no dearth of applicants from Michigan anxious to join Canadian units. Recruiting officers said today there has been a steady stream of inquiries from Americans anxious to join. None of them, however, wants to serve in a unit which will not be sent overseas. “We want to fight Hitler and we want to get to it as soon as we can,” most of them are reported as saying. The air force is mentioned in most inquiries. “We expect that the battery will be at its full strength of 168 men by the end of this week,” Major W.E. Harris, O.C., of the 26th Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery said.

• In early September 1939, the military staffs at the armory on Christina Street and the recruiting station on Front Street were working at top speed enlisting men for service in the Canadian Active Service Force. Recruits were coming in from Inwood, Alvinston, Petrolia, Port Lambton, Wyoming, Forest, Camlachie, Walpole Island, Brigden and other surrounding communities such as Wallaceburg and a good many from Windsor. In one case, a young Irish orphan enlisted in Sarnia who had lost both his mother and father in the Great War when he was just a baby. He was jobless and his only relative was an aunt in Ireland, for whom he had no address. At his enlistment, he made his will out to his former orphans home. Military recruiters reported that the men who were enlisting were anxious for active service overseas, and did not care for any “home guard” assignments.

• Among those turned down locally early in the enlistment process were a large number American men from Michigan; several Czecho-Slovakian men who had been in Canada for years but were never naturalized as a Canadian; a sturdy, young Polish-Canadian lad who had been accepted, but then rejected after his father came in and disclosed his true age of fifteen-years old; two husky-looking Native men who were described by the proud recruiting officer as “splendid types of manhood”, but were rejected when physical examiners discovered that both volunteers were nearly blind; and several fathers and sons applied together, but in most cases, only the sons were accepted.

• The following is a portion of a report from the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer, September 1939, describing the scene at the recruiting depot on North Front Street:

… Crowds of young men have been standing in front of the recruiting office ever since it opened. They chat with sergeants and privates stationed in front to answer questions. Then often retire to stand on the curbstone for hours in indecision. Unobtrusively then they slip into the depot and in practically no time, are in the army.

 

 Inside the recruiting office door are the recruiting officers for the various companies. The volunteer talks to them and states what branch of the army he would like to join and describes his qualifications. If he seems to fit the requirements here, he is sent upstairs to the medical board where he has to pass three separate doctors who examine him for different things.

 

If he passes the medical examination, and he has to be good to do so, he is passed along a long line of desks behind which are clerks who take down and record a great deal of information about the recruit. Then he is sworn in and told to go on parade the following morning at the armories where he is issued a uniform. He is signed up for the duration of the war….

• World War II has been referred to as a “young man’s war”. Approximately 700,000 Canadians under the age of 21 served in uniform during the Second World War. Sometimes boys as young as 13 would lie about their age or use falsified written consent letters from a parent, in an attempt to enlist in the military. The underage volunteers who looked old enough were often accepted while many of those who were rejected ended up serving in the Merchant Navy. The youngest Canadian soldier killed during the Second World War was sixteen-year old Private Gerard Dore, from Quebec, a member of the Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal, R.C.I.C., who was killed in the Battle of Normandy.^D Sarnia’s fallen soldiers numbers reflect the claim that the Second World War was a “young man’s war”. Of the 184 World War II Sarnia fallen soldiers included in this project, 59 of them were between the ages of 18 and 21, representing close to one third of Sarnia’s World War II fallen.

• Recruits in Sarnia took part in physical training, military drills, marching and weapons training at the armory and collegiate campus. In mid-September of 1939, one of the issues military officials had to deal with was the shortage of clothing and shoes. Major McIntyre of the 11th Field Company stated, “It would be a good time for some kind angel to organize a drive for funds so that we could buy enough boots to carry on with for the present. We have two cobblers in the unit who can repair any old shoes and they need not be high shoes either. We can take oxfords, just as long as we can get the men into sturdy enough footwear for drill purposes.” Men were being excused from marching exercises, because of the condition of their shoes. Within days, local citizens, downtown merchants and the Red Cross Society contributed more than enough shoes for the troops. By the end of September 1939, all three units of the Lambton Garrison, the 26th Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery; the 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers; and the 1st Field Park Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, had their ranks filled to full strength. In late September, the recruits moved to a camp encompassing all of Bright’s Grove and Lake Cabin Cottages for a six-week intensive training period, where Major Harris stated, “We are going to make these men into soldiers.”

• Recruiting did not stop with the three Lambton Garrison units. Sarnians were also recruited into the Royal Canadian Regiment, the 48th Highlanders, the Essex Scottish, the First Hussars, the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, the Perth Regiment, the Elgin Regiment and the Kent Regiment to name a few.

• In late September 1939, all German nationals in Lambton County over 16 years of age were obliged to report for registration at the R.C.M.P. office on Queen Street or the office detachment in Port Lambton. The chiefs of police in Petrolia, Forest and Watford were authorized to receive registrations there. German nationals, and those born in territories which were under sovereignty or control of the German Reich on September 3, 1939, were required to report weekly to their place of registration for the duration of the war, and they were issued permit cards, which they were required to carry with them, subject to arrest. In June of 1940, the order to register at the nearest R.C.M.P. headquarters had been expanded to include, “all aliens of German or Italian origin and all persons of German and Italian origin naturalized since September 1, 1929.” Also in June of 1940, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ordered that all persons living in Canada who were not naturalized Canadians or of British birth, must surrender all their firearms or be prosecuted under the Defence of Canada Regulations.

• The paranoia of sabotage locally was a legitimate concern. During World War I, in December 1917, a group of German conspirators in the United States were convicted in Detroit federal court on charges of having conspired to dynamite the St. Clair River tunnel, among other charges. The scheme involved sending a load of dynamite with a time fuse attached into the tunnel on a small platform attached to roller skates, which would ride the rails from the Port Huron side. Fortunately, the conspirators were arrested before they had the opportunity to carry out their plan. During World War II, in June of 1940, an attempt of sabotage was made on a freight train as it travelled through the tunnel from Port Huron to Sarnia. Holes had been drilled through the floor beneath one of the freight cars containing four valuable airplane motors, and strips of blankets saturated with flammable linseed oil had been shoved into the car under the motors, and ignited. As the freight train arrived in Sarnia, officials noticed that one of the crates on a car was afire. The flames were extinguished by railway employees and the Sarnia Fire Department. Only four hours earlier, a special train of eight cars loaded with extremely explosive demolition bombs had passed through the tunnel.

• From the outset of the Second World War, the Canadian government had procedures for establishing internment camps across the country to house military prisoners of war, merchant seamen, refugees, and other civilian detainees. When Italy declared war against the Allies on June 10th 1940, residents of Italian descent were subject to internment. In 1942, the Japanese in Canada were interned and Jewish refugees from enemy countries faced internment; however, internment camps for civilians and refugees were separate from camps for prisoners of war. With the exception of the Japanese, the majority of refugees and civilians were released before the end of 1943 and no Italian or Japanese military personnel were ever imprisoned in Canada. In contrast, the first German prisoners of war arrived in the early fall of 1939 and prisoners of war continued to arrive from overseas throughout the war. In May of 1945, nearly 35,000 prisoners of war were held in Canada in 26 POW camps, the majority German. The nearest camp to Sarnia was Camp No. 10, in Chatham and Fingal, Ontario. It was a tented camp housing enemy merchant seamen and enemy officers. It was in use periodically from May 1944 to November 1946. Many of the POWs there were employed in farming projects in southwestern Ontario. Other camps in southern Ontario were located in Ingersoll, Kitchener, Toronto, Bowmanville and Gravenhurst.When war ended, approximately 6,000 German POW’s chose to remain in Canada.^{F, 2E, 2N}

• In October 1939, the Sarnia city council pledged to hold soldiers’ jobs for all city employees who enlisted in the Canadian forces. A number of local industries endorsed the plan and agreed to do likewise, including Imperial Oil Limited, Canadian National Railways, Doherty Manufacturing Company, and the John Goodison Thresher Company. The policy stated that permanent employees enlisting for military service would be assured of re-employment upon demobilization from His Majesty’s service. John Goodison stated, “It is one of the least things that is within our power, and we shall be only too pleased to extend such a little service to those who would be serving us and their country in these troubled times.” The entire area was made out-of-bounds to the public.

• Also in October 1939, for one Sarnia man, his time in the service was short. Louis Farkas was born in Karcag, Hungary and had served with a machine gun company in the Hungarian army. At age twenty-seven, he was boarding at 215 Water Street, Sarnia, when he enlisted in the army, a member of the 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, with the rank of Sapper. After he entered the Canadian army, he discovered that his brothers, living in Czecho-Slovakia, had been conscripted into the German forces. While his mother was still living in Karcag, Hungary, his brothers were living in Czecho-Slovakia, when it was seized by the Germans. His brothers were then conscripted into Hitler’s army. Louis Farkas applied for discharge because he did not want to run the risk of looking along a rifle barrel at his brothers in the trenches opposite.

• On May 12th 1940, the grim realities of war were brought home to the people of Sarnia when the three local units of the Canadian Active Service said farewell. More than 5,000 citizens cheered the members of the 26th Field Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery, the 11th Field Company and the 1st Field Park Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers as they marched from the city hall square along Christina Street toward the Athletic Park. Marching along with the well-precisioned, smartly dressed soldiers were four bands, two hundred veterans of the last war, and bringing up the rear of the parade were the blue-uniformed cadets from the Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School. At the Athletic Park, there were speeches, hymns, prayers, the playing of the National Anthem and a final march-past the grandstand. On their return to city hall square, the men of the 26th Field Battery were dismissed for a brief hour and a half to be with their families and friends, before leaving from the Canadian National Depot at the Tunnel Station. There was a surging crowd of close to 2,000 at the train station, with many tearful farewells prior to the departure of the 26th Field Battery. The Engineers had marched off from City Hall Park to the armory parade grounds for dismissal. They had a few extra days before they had to return to barracks in London, where they would move out soon after. Two weeks later, the rousing send-off for the three units mobilized in Sarnia was repeated in Guelph and London. The 26th Field Battery departed Guelph for Petawawa Camp, while the 11th Field Company and the 1st Field Park Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers departed London for Petawawa. Hundreds of citizens from Sarnia made the trip to both cities, joining thousands of others, as the troops marched through the city centers to the train stations. Along with the cheering crowds were many touching scenes as the men bade goodbye to their wives, mothers, sweethearts and friends.

• In June 1940, Prime Minister MacKenzie King introduced the National Resources Mobilization Bill (NRMA). It proposed a national registration of eligible men between the ages of 21 and 45 for conscription for home defence. The bill was introduced in response from English Canada for total mobilization of manpower. The Bill was later amended in August of 1942 to allow conscription for overseas service, but initially was never implemented. Later, campaigns in Italy in 1943 and the Normandy invasion in 1944, combined with a lack of volunteers, resulted in Canada facing a shortage of troops. The National Resources Mobilization Act was amended in November of 1944 allowing the government to send conscripts overseas. In early 1945, 12 908 conscripts were sent overseas. Only 2 463 of these conscripted men reached units on the front lines, and out of these, 69 lost their lives.^2I

• By June 1940, at least fifty families in Sarnia and surrounding district had registered, offering to open their homes for the voluntary care of refugee children expected to arrive from Britain. The local Children’s Aid Society embarked on the task of finding temporary homes for children torn from their own homes by the scourge of war, and ensuring that the children would be properly cared for. Sarnia families offered to provide these children homes, food, clothing, medical attention and other care free of charge. Despite the Ontario Department of Public Welfare stipulating that not more than two children could be placed in any one home, except in special instances, some Sarnia families offered to take care of as many as six children.

• In early July 1940, the first group of children from Great Britain arrived in Ontario. It was expected that 2,000 would be in the first group, who then were officially referred to as “British Child Guests”. The first children to arrive in Sarnia in early July were two brothers and their sister, the children of Major and Mrs. Alfred Tozer of Potters’ Bar, north of London, England. They were Olivia Mary, aged 15, Edward Timothy, aged 12 and John Robert, aged 11.

They were to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Weir of 133 James Street, who upon the children’s arrival were residing at their summer home at Lake Huron beach. Mr. Charles Weir of Sarnia was a veteran of the Great War, and had billeted at the Tozer home while he was serving as a lieutenant with a mobile anti-aircraft unit. Major Alfred Tozer was in France with the British army at the time Charles Weir was boarding there. The two did not meet until after the armistice, but then became great friends. On June 22, 1940, Charles Weir cabled the Tozers and offered to take care of the children during the war. Major Tozer, who was once more in the army, and among those who escaped Dunkerque, was only too glad to place his children in Canada. One week later, the children sailed to Canada. Within five minutes of arriving at the lake in Sarnia, the three Tozer children were playing on the beach and in swimming, along with the two Weir children, Catherine and Jane.

• In early September 1940, six more “British Child Guests” arrived in Sarnia. Five of the children were from Glasgow, Scotland: sisters Isobel (age 8), Jessie (age 10), and Marjorie McIntosh (age 12); and brothers Gordon (age 12) and David Hope (age 14). Eric Yare (age 14) of Kent, England was the other child. The children had first arrived in Toronto where they were under the care of the Children’s Aid Society there. When the six young children arrived in Sarnia at the Tunnel station, about 200 Sarnians were present to greet them. The following is a portion of the Observer report on their arrival:

The children showed signs of fatigue when they first came off the train to be surrounded by young and old eager to get a glimpse of them. One little Scottish lassie flashed a ready smile at the bystanders. And it proved to be an infectious smile, for all three of the comely girls were soon, when free of the crowd and excitement, smiling readily.

 

Someone had provided them with some Canadian pears and they were enjoying them contentedly…. All the children nodded when asked if they were going to go to school here, and some of them even seemed to be looking forward to it.

 

Isobel McIntosh would reside with Mr. and Mrs. Norman Perry of 340 Davis Street; her sisters Jessie and Marjory would stay with Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Ferguson of 430 George Street; Gordon and David Hope would stay with Alex Rose of 359 Cromwell Street, later Mr. and Mrs. C.F. Schnarr of 265 South Brock Street; and Eric Yare would stay with Mr. and Mrs. John Cowan at their lakeshore residence, later 262 North Vidal Street. By December of 1940, four more British Child Guests were residing in Sarnia: Roger Butler (age 12) was with Major and Mrs. Gordon McIntyre at 354 London Road; Isabel Miller (age 10) was with Mr. and Mrs. Laurie at 153 North College Avenue; Barbara Scott (age 6) was with Mr. and Mrs. S.B. Scott, and Joan John (age 14) was with Dr. and Mrs. R.K. Stratford in Corunna.

• Three years later, in July 1943, “British Child Guest” Eric Yare, after being the guest of Mr. and Mrs. John Cowan for that time, would return home to England to join the Royal Air Force. He was eager to contribute his effort to help destroy the Luftwaffe that had driven him from his homeland. He expressed that he had many pleasant memories of Canada and Sarnia, and that the people and scenes made a vivid impression on him. Although England would always be home to him, he hoped to return to Sarnia to visit his many friends here. He said that he was struck by many things on his arrival in Sarnia. He remembered clearly that separately-built wooden houses with verandahs were quite a novelty to him. His chief objection to Canada had been the smallness and dinginess of its railway stations and the difficulty of access to them. He did like the size and speed of the passenger and freight trains. On entering school in Sarnia, he was somewhat surprised by its co-educational character and by the presence of female teachers. He was impressed also by the freer teacher-student relationship and the relative rarity of corporal punishment. He was also somewhat shocked at first by the informal attire of his classmates. He said that he found Canadians friendly, almost embarrassingly so at first. He took part in many sports while in Sarnia, chiefly boxing, but also enjoyed swimming and diving in Lake Huron, which was much more preferable than the North Sea. Cricket was the sport dearest to him, which he successfully attempted to teach to his Sarnia friends, who had proved quite enthusiastic about the sport. For Eric, it seemed that the Canadians’ chief topic of conversation was the weather, finding ample justification for this in its’ extreme unpredictability. “In England” Eric said, “there is no need to talk of the weather. You can be sure that it will rain.”

• In March 1944, another Sarnia “British Child Guest” would return home. After spending more than three years in Sarnia, David Hope, now aged 17 would return to Glasgow, Scotland where he planned to join the R.C.A.F. His younger brother Gordon would remain in Sarnia. David had attended Sarnia Collegiate Institute and was a member of the 7th Sarnia Boy Scouts. He was looking forward to seeing his parents again, Mr. and Mrs. J.N. Hope, and an older brother who was in the British Army. David hoped to return to Canada after the war.

• In July of 1944, four more “British Child Guests” would return home to England after spending four years in Sarnia; Olivia Mary (Bindle) Tozer (who had completed one year at McGill University to her credit), and her younger brothers Edward Timothy and John Robert (who attended Sarnia Collegiate Institute), and Roger Butler (who completed his final year at Sarnia Collegiate). When asked their opinion of Sarnia and Canada comments included: Olivia regretted leaving her friends in Canada but would be glad to see her mother and English friends again; she felt indivduals grew up faster in Canada since they were allowed more liberties, such as girls going to dances at the age of 15 or 16 versus England’s private schools where girls would only get to social functions at age 19. Olivia and Roger felt schools in Canada had less discipline; Roger said when he first arrived in Sarnia he was impressed with wooden houses, since in England, they were either brick or stone. The children had been spending their summers at the lake shore and said they enjoyed this, especially swimming in Lake Huron; Roger came to like watermelon and corn-on-the-cob which they had never seen before; and John Robert became an ardent baseball and hockey fan.

• In October 1940, the Canadian government announced that one of the six “over-age” destroyers acquired from the United States to be used as a war vessel had been named the St. Clair. The honour was greatly appreciated by the residents of Sarnia and other communities along the shores of the St. Clair River. The suggestion to the government that the name St. Clair be considered, when naming additional naval craft, had been submitted by Homer Lockhart, secretary-treasurer of the Sarnia Chamber of Commerce. Adding to local interest was the fact that a Sarnia resident was named chief quartermaster of the destroyer. Lloyd Jennings of 173 Parker Street had given up his position as first mate on a Great Lakes freighter to join the R.C.N.V.R. He underwent a period of training in the Canadian navy at an eastern port before being assigned to the St. Clair. Lloyd had a wife and daughter residing in Sarnia; his brother Charles was a local fireman, and his other brother Harry was in England as a member of the 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers.

• On a mid-February night in 1941, thousands of local and district residents turned out in downtown Sarnia for a mock “blackout and bombing raid” event and parade. It was organized by the committee in charge of the War Savings Certificates campaign, as a way to demonstrate what might happen should the community be attacked, as the English people were enduring with nightly German bombing raids. The Sarnia Observer reported that, “It was an event the like of which had never been seen in Sarnia and the parade was considered the best since the Armistice celebration in 1918.” Sarnia’s downtown was jammed with people when the air raid warning sounded, and within seconds, the fire department raced down Front, Wellington and Christina streets with sirens wailing and bells ringing. At the same time, fireworks, to represent bursting bombs and shells, exploded along the waterfront, and flares were fired from rooftops. The parade included numerous floats, the Lambton Garrison Band, local military units, the Sarnia Volunteer Guards, the Sarnia Township Guard, the Pressey Boys’ Band, the Petrolia White Rose Band, the Imperial Pipe Band, the Salvation Army Band, the Hydro employees wash-board band, several hundred Boy Scouts and the St. John Ambulance Brigade.

• In May 1941, the first Memorial War Crosses began to arrive in Sarnia, with notification that others were to be expected. The memorial crosses were issued by the Canadian Government to the mothers and widows of members of the Canadian navy, army, air force, and Canadian merchant seamen who lost their lives while in service to the country. The crosses were of sterling silver with a wreath of laurel leaves entwined between the arms and maple leaf superimposed. The crosses are suspended from a purple ribbon. On the reverse side was engraved the name and regimental number of the deceased. Accompanying the memorial crosses were engraved cards bearing the inscription, “This memorial cross is forwarded to you by the minister of national defence on behalf of the government of Canada in memory of one who died in the service of his country.” Among those that received the memorial crosses in May 1941 were Mrs. M.G. Harris (mother) and Mrs. J.M. Harris (widow) of RCAF Sergeant-Pilot John M. Harris; Mrs. E.J. Powell (mother) of RCN Ordinary Seaman Stephen B. Powell; and Mrs. H.O. Le Gare (mother) of RCNVR Able Seaman Hector Le Gare.

• In November 1941, the Sarnia Observer published a letter that had been received by the Sarnia Rotary Club. The local Rotary Club had donated an ambulance through the Canadian Red Cross to the British Red Cross Society in June 1940. The letter had been sent from Miss Jean Dixon in England, the driver of the Sarnia Rotary ambulance. Miss Dixon was a member of the F.A.N.Y.’s, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. In her letter, she expressed her deep appreciation for the gift of the ambulance and provided some insight into the life of an ambulance driver during the hectic times of constant German air raids. The hood and cab of the Sarnia ambulance had been damaged, shrapnel marks were left on the body, the windows were broken and an incendiary bomb had struck the vehicle with the result that one of the drivers sustained a burned hand. The following are portions of the letter:

Dear Members,

…. Your ambulance has had many adventures since it left you… It arrived at Liverpool where it was unloaded and was taken to an old and romantic castle the seat of one of the previous dukes, a wonderful place with courtyards, little windows and ancient doorways. It reminded me of Walt Disney’s drawings and fairy stories.

 

At this time I was stationed in London and from there we used to take convoys of six to ten ambulances twice a week to London to have stretchers, blankets, water bottles and other equipment put in before they went out to the commands. It now has a number GGP512 and early one morning we set out from London to the British Red Cross Society headquarters, southern command, where it was cleaned and polished by the girls who were on a fortnight’s course. After a last check-over it was posted to Plymouth where it was to stay for several months. Miss Dixon was then transferred to Plymouth.

Here I met your ambulance again but this time we were not to be parted. The first thing to do was christen him. He always reminded me of a penguin so thinking of Pip and Squeak’s nephew I called him Stanley. I expect you have heard of the terrible blitzes on Plymouth so perhaps you can imagine some of the exciting and terrible things that happened there…

 

How we all came out alive I still cannot understand. On three occasions was the actual building in which we were in hit and the last time we crawled out of the ruins of our billets after a land mine had knocked it to the ground. We had many tense moments. Once an incendiary bomb hit the back of Stanley and I jumped out expecting to find my co-driver hurt but to find her underneath with only a small burn on her hand. Our nights were spent collecting the wounded – the days collecting the dead and cleaning the ambulances. After the last blitz Stanley was the only ambulance left out of the original 10, and five or six very tired F.A.N.Y.’s clankered into the battered Stanley with their salvaged belongings for the journey back to H.Q., leaving the burnt and battered Plymouth a memory they will never forget.

 

In Bath, the first thing I did was to take Stanley to the nearest workshops where he stayed for nearly a week. His bonnet and cab roof were badly damaged and several large shrapnel marks all had to be repaired. The windows had to be ordered so I drove him for some time with a badly cracked windscreen and no side windows. Now he is himself again and I spent some time polishing the new paint and patching the roof with a puncture outfit. The affection which I have for him is really amazing. I never realized it was possible to be so fond of a machine even in his grumpiest of moods. He has never let me down and although I took handfuls of glass from his tires, not one puncture did he have.

We have quite a lot of work here driving about 400 miles a week…

I am sending you some photographs which may interest you. One, as you will see is Stanley before he was sent to the workshops. Before I finish I should like to thank you all again for your kind gift and also for the ambulance and the many other things which you and your countrymen have sent to help us win this war…

• Also in November 1941, Sarnians were taking advantage of the new “airgraph” service started at the post office. It was a means to send correspondence to members of the armed services overseas by air with a minimum of cost and delay. Messages were written on a letter sized form obtained from the post office. The form was then sent immediately to Toronto where it was photographed on miniature film. A small negative was then made, sent overseas, and upon reaching the U.K., developed. A print five inches by four was made, placed in an envelope and then delivered. The cost of sending a message of about 15 lines was 10 cents, and it was delivered in four or five days.

• The Battle of Hong Kong, December 8 – 25, 1941: In late October 1941, a force of almost 2,000 Canadians were sent to the British Colony of Hong Kong with the task of defending the island against Japanese Empire attack. The Canadian battalions comprised of the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers had no battle experience, and it was felt they would have some time their to get more training as there was little chance of an attack. A total of 14,000 made up the defence force, consisting of British, Canadian and Indian regiments and Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. In early December, the Japanese launched a series of attacks almost simultaneously on Pearl Harbour, Northern Malaya, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and Hong Kong. On December 18, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong. The Canadians fought valiantly against overwhelming odds, against troops that far outnumbered them in strength, who were backed with a heavy arsenal of artillery and air support. The Canadians had no significant air or naval defence and had no hope of being relieved or resupplied. On Christmas Day, 1941, after 17 ½ days of fighting, Hong Kong was surrendered. The Battle of Hong Kong was the Canadian Army’s first combat action in the Second World War. Of the 1,975 Canadians who went to Hong Kong, more than 1,050 were either killed or wounded. Of those, 557 were killed in battle or died in POW camps, a casualty rate of more than 50%, one of the highest of any Canadian theatre in the Second World War. ^{D, E, 2N and 3A} One young man from Sarnia, Max Berger, would lose his life in the Battle of Hong Kong. Hong Kong would not be liberated by the Allies until August of 1945.

• The Battle of the Atlantic, September 3, 1939 – May 8, 1945: It was the longest continuous battle of the Second World War and one in which Canada played a central role. It began on the opening day of the war, and ended almost six years later with Germany’s surrender. It was the struggle between the Allied and German forces for control of the Atlantic Ocean. The Allies needed to keep the vital flow of men and supplies going between North America and Europe, while the Germans wanted to cut these supply lines. To do this, German submarines (U-boats, often hunting in “wolfpacks”) and other warships prowled the Atlantic looking to sink Allied ships (travelling in “convoys”, groups of ships crossing with naval escort protection). The war was brought to Canada’s doorstep as U-boats looked to torpedo ships off cities such as Halifax, Sydney and St. John’s, and even into the St. Lawrence River. Canada’s Merchant Navy, along with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic. At least seventeen young men from Sarnia would lose their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic.

• At the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) had only six ocean-going destroyers, five small minesweepers, two training vessels and 3,500 personnel. By the end of the war, Canada had 434 commissioned vessels and 110,000 men and women in uniform (all volunteers). The Royal Canadian Navy had become the third largest navy in the world. The Canadian sacrifices in the triumph of the Battle of the Atlantic were high: approximately 72 Canadian merchant ships were lost, more than 1,600 Merchant Navy personnel lost their lives (one out of every seven Merchant Navy sailors who served was killed or wounded), 24 RCN vessels were sunk, and almost 2,000 RCN members and 752 RCAF members lost their lives during this campaign.^{D, E and 2N}

 

• The Royal Canadian Navy’s fleet included destroyers, cruisers, corvettes, frigates and minesweepers along with the Canadian Merchant Navy vessels. The Navy made major contributions in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Arctic and in European waters. During the course of World War II, approximately 200,000 Canadian men and women would enlist and serve with the RCN and Merchant Navy. Approximately 4,200 Canadian navy personnel would perish in the war.^E

• Mac-Craft Corporation Limited was a boat building plant that was formerly situated in Wallaceburg. In March 1940, it acquired property in Sarnia that had been a distillery ten or twelve years earlier. By February 1941, the new Mac-Craft plant in Sarnia was in operation. On November 27th 1941, the first war vessel built in this city was launched in Sarnia. Work on the vessel had begun in the early summer of 1940. The small war vessel, a submarine chaser, named the Fairmile HMC No. Q062, was launched at the Sarnia Mac-Craft Corporation. Mrs. J.T. Barnes, the wife of Sarnia’s mayor, christened the ship as it slid down the marine railway, by smashing a bottle of champagne on the bow. One week earlier, a large number of invited Sarnians had gathered at the plant to witness the launching. Arrangements had been made for a special ceremony, and the ship was prepared to slide into the water, but at the last minute, because of an unforeseen delay in dredging a channel from the boat works to the harbor, the event had to be postponed. Workmen then had to remove a water main from the boat works to the water’s edge, and pull out rows of spiling from the former site of the Cleveland-Sarnia Saw Mills property. A week later, following the brief christening ceremony, the vessel slid smoothly down the railway until the stern touched water. Suddenly the boat stopped and became stuck in the track. After 15 minutes of pulling on cables and ropes, the vessel glided free into the St. Clair River. There was only a small crowd present at the launching, which came as a surprise to most Sarnians, as there were rumours circulating that the ship would be kept in the plant until the next spring. The launching of the Fairmile brought back memories for local citizens of the last large ship to be constructed and launched in Sarnia. It had been over fifty years prior, that the SS Monarch, which had been built at Dyble ship yards in Sarnia, was launched in September of 1890. The passenger ship Monarch would meet its fate in 1906, wrecked after striking a rock near Isle Royal in Lake Superior.

• A few days later, the last weekend of November 1941, the Fairmile Q062 was officially given her first trial, a run on the St. Clair River with forty-seven persons aboard. The little ship backed away from its dock at the Sarnia elevator slip and turned around gracefully heading down the river to the Imperial Oil Limited dock where she took on a cargo of fuel. Then she went through her two-hour test run down the river, where at times, the ship appeared to be racing automobiles on highway 40. Officials of the Royal Canadian Navy and Department of National Defence gave its performance high praise. The patrol boat, officially described as a submarine chaser, was a credit to the boat builders and contractors of Sarnia who built the sleek, speedy vessel based on designs sent from England. With sandbags sitting in her depth-charge cradles, the deck was finished in the dull gray of the navy, and the interior fittings were of highly varnished reddish wood. A description of the gadgets and fittings within the small, comfortable pilot house was not allowed to be disclosed at that time. The details of the powerful Hall-Scott twin marine motors, such as the size, the revolutions per minute and the speed of the craft, were also a navy secret. The men’s and officer’s quarters were neatly finished with galleys, ward rooms, soft leather covered mattresses, and neat little natural-finished mess tables suitable for two persons. One week after the launch of Q062, a second Fairmile subchaser, HMC Q063 was launched by Mac-Craft Corporation in Sarnia, one month ahead of schedule. At the time, it was believed to be a new record for quick construction in Canada. Both ships were completed within six months. The two Sarnia ships along with a sister ship from Midland would winter in Sarnia until the spring of 1942.

• Both Q062, in April 1942 and Q063, in January 1943, would be loaned to the free French Navy during the war. Both would serve off the south coast of Newfoundland until the end of the war. Mac-Craft Limited of Sarnia completed five more Fairmile subchasers between October 1942 and September 1943, numbers Q101 to Q105. One more Fairmile was completed in November 1943, the Q115. At the end of the war, the Q062 would be re-acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed the HMCS Wolf, while the Q063 would be sold. Fairmile Q105 would years later become the Duc d’Orleans, a charter boat in Sarnia from 1978 until 2005. The Sombra Museum is now the home of a number of artifacts from the Q105, including the original blueprints, compass, parts of the hull and the ships’ original propellers.

• In December 1941, Mrs. Charles C. Clarke of 121 Forsythe Street, Sarnia, received a letter from Major Gordon McIntyre, acknowledging a Christmas gift of chocolates sent to him by the Ladies Field Auxiliary, Sarnia. Major McIntyre was the first commanding officer of a field company of Royal Canadian Engineers formed in Sarnia and mobilized at the start of the war. The following is a portion of that letter:

It thrilled me to think that you ladies still keep me in mind. Although I have commanded two units since and am now at headquarters, I may say without exaggeration that the boys I had from Sarnia were the best bunch of lads that ever came across the Atlantic. I was talking to Col. (A.G.) MacLean who commanded them after I left. He thinks they are the best field company in the Canadian Army overseas. I have heard a lot of good things said about them which always makes me stick out my chest and say that I was one of them once. They are a unit to be proud of and already making a name for themselves. The world will hear more of them. They may be considered ‘crack’ troops and the cream of the Canadian Army. I am very proud to have been associated with them.

• In late December 1941, Sarnia Mayor John Barnes, as chairman of the local Civilian Defence Committee, offered advice to Sarnia citizens, stating that it was urgent that they become acquainted with measures to be taken in the event of an air raid attack. Instructions included: if at home or work during an emergency, stay there, seek cover at once; keep streets clear for movement of emergency vehicles; do not use the telephone; keep on hand a supply of water; be prepared for incendiary bombs by keeping on buckets of sand; and keep on hand a moderate supply of first aid equipment.

• In late May 1942, over three thousand Sarnians came out to welcome two British “Blitz” Boy Scouts who were on a coast-to-coast tour of Canada. Hugh Bright, aged 17 and Roy Davis, aged 18, told of their experiences during air raids in England. Their visit to Sarnia began with a luncheon at the Windsor Hotel, attended by local Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Brownies and their leaders, representatives from local service clubs and civic officials including Mayor J.T. Barnes. It was followed by a parade beginning at City Hall which moved along Christina Street to Victoria Park. At the park, thousands of local citizens gathered to listen to the boys’ experiences. The following is from seventeen year-old Hugh Bright of Scotland:

Canada is fine and dandy. The first thing that struck us when we arrived in Canada was the number of lights. We stayed up at night just looking at them. I remember my first meal I had. I couldn’t believe it. The steak I had would have been a week’s ration in Britain. The scenery in this country is marvelous.

 

The first thing you hear in an air raid is the siren. We have become si used to it that we are out of bed, dressed, and to our post by the time the siren ends. It blows for one minute. ‘Jerry’ first drops incendiary bombs to start fires and mark his target. All the men between 18 and 60 years of age are in the fire guard. Their job is to put out the incendiaries. After the incendiaries fall, the heavy bombs come, after which ‘Jerry’ drops more incendiaries to set on fire what he had destroyed. We, as Boy Scouts, are organized to put out incendiaries, dig out people who are trapped in buildings, and be as useful as we can whenever asked to do a job.

 

Eighteen year-old Roy Davis of Southampton, told the large Sarnia crowd of the food the British were getting at the time:

 

We only get two eggs a month in England now and everyone looks forward to the meal with eggs in it. There is no white bread, it is all brown. The government says brown is best for us. We have two ounces of butter each week to spread on the bread. When the butter is gone, we have two ounces of cheese to put on the bread.

 

In the bombing raids, it isn’t the soldiers who suffer, but rather it is the civilians. In one raid 40,000 incendiary bombs dropped on the residential and business section of Southampton in one half hour. It certainly kept us busy putting them out.

 

The two “Blitz” Boy Scouts had been chosen for the Canada tour from Boy Scouts across Britain who had given noteworthy service during air raids. Roy Davis did outstanding work during all the air raids at Southampton. Hugh Bright had rendered exceptional and courageous service as a stretcher-bearer throughout heavy air raids on the Clyde, Glasgow.

• On the first day of summer, June 21, 1942, Sarnia, along with Point Edward and Port Huron, held their first test “black-out”. The united 15-minute drill was a test of the Civilian Defence and Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) Committees emergency preparedness in the event of enemy air attack. Warning sirens across the area sounded to start the drill, then within seconds, street lights, homes, cars, downtown businesses and industry lights like those at Imperial Oil Limited were extinguished. The only lights visible for miles were those of passing lake freighters, navigation signals on the bridge and ironically, a spotlight that illuminated the war memorial in Victoria Park which had been mistakenly left on. A few minutes later, fire engines, ambulances and utility vehicles were dispatched and racing through the downtown streets of Sarnia and Port Huron in response to simulated emergencies. Afterwards, Mayor John T. Barmes congratulated the citizens of the city for the manner in which they cooperated and stated, “It was a good test and will probably make the people of Sarnia conscious of what they may have to go through if Sarnia is ever raided.” A number of these “black-out” drills would be held in Sarnia during the course of the war, organized by the Civilian Defence Committee.

• In July 1942, Lieutenant Commander C.H. Mott, the commanding officer of a minesweeper, wrote a letter to Sarnia Mayor John T. Barnes expressing his desire to visit with the mayor and some of the city’s leaders. The minesweeper that he was the commander of was the H.M.C.S. Sarnia, named in honour of this city. It was one of more than 300 ships that were named for Canadian communities during the Second World War.

• The H.M.C.S. Sarnia (J309), was a 165 foot, steel-hulled Bangor-class minesweeper, launched in January of 1942, and later commissioned for service at the Toronto Shipbuilding Yards on August 13, 1942. Present for the ceremony were Sarnia Mayor John T. Barnes, Mrs. Barnes and a small group of Sarnia civic officials. Also present were representatives from a number of Sarnia organizations who had provided comforts and gifts for the crew of the HMCS Sarnia not supplied by official naval sources. In a telegram to the Mayor Barnes from the Minister of National Defence for Naval Affairs, he stated, “The interest that the people of Sarnia have shown in the ship and crew is greatly appreciated.” Upon the mayor’s return to Sarnia, city council made plans to donate a crest of the city (to be hung in the commanders cabin) and a large washing machine (for the crew), as the city’s gift to HMCS Sarnia. The HMCS Sarnia was never able to visit the port of its namesake. Not long after being commissioned, the HMCS Sarnia would escort a Quebec-Sydney convoy arriving in Halifax in mid-September 1942, subsequently being assigned to the Newfoundland Force. In February 1944, the commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander R.C. Chenoveth and crew forwarded two photographs of the HMCS Sarnia along with expressions of thanks from the officers and ratings to the city for the interest shown in their welfare. The commander also suggested that certain electrical equipment which would benefit the whole ship’s company might be of more value than personal comforts, owing to the fact that the personnel changed frequently. It was suggested that additional loudspeaker equipment together with record playing attachments be purchased for the ship, along with hot plates and electric irons for use in the various messes. City Clerk Miss M.D. Stewart, chairman of the HMCS Sarnia committee said that her committee would endeavor to secure the required articles. In mid-September 1944, Sub. Lieut. Douglas Whalen and three members of the HMCS Sarnia would arrive in the city for a visit. They were met at the train station by a welcoming committee and taken to city hall and then to a hotel. During their two-day stay, they were given a tour of the city and entertained by local dignitaries. Their sight-seeing tour included Canatara Park, the harbour at Point Edward and the Polymer Corporation plant. Entertainment included a dinner in the Sarnia Golf Club; a civic dance at H.M.C.S. Repulse, headquarters of the local Sea Cadet Corps, that included Ollie Case’s orchestra; a semi-formal reception at city hall; and a supper-party put on by the women staff of city hall at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bazil Williamson, 366 Cameron Street. During their visit, the HMCS Sarnia was in port undergoing a major refit, after participating in minesweeping and short convoys out of Halifax. It would eventually be assigned to the Halifax Local Defence Force until June 1945.

• In mid-April 1945, the HMCS. Sarnia would be involved in a life saving rescue. On the evening of April 15, 1945, with the war drawing to a close, the minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt set out from Halifax on a routine anti-submarine patrol around the harbor approaches. The HMCS Sarnia was also patrolling the area, in another sector. Lurking in those same cold northwest Atlantic waters was German submarine U-190. In the early morning hours of April 16th, U-190 idling in the Halifax harbor fired a single acoustic torpedo that struck the starboard hull of the Esquimalt. The ship sank in four minutes, too fast to send out a distress signal. Twenty-eight men went down with the ship, the remaining forty-three scrambled into Carley floats (life rafts). There was not enough room for all, so some clung desperately to the sides in the frigid waters. The Sarnia had been waiting at a rendezvous point for the Esquimalt, and when it failed to appear, the commander of the Sarnia feared the worst, as a German sub had been spotted in the area just weeks prior. It was nearly four hours after the Esquimalt went down that search action was finally initiated. The survivors were left in the freezing waters for almost six hours. When the Sarnia arrived, men were clinging to the Carley floats, some barely alive, others already dead, floated nearby. The Sarnia performed its rescue duty admirably, with engines at full stop and defenceless, hauling the survivors and dead aboard up scramble nets, while the threat of being attacked loomed. The Sarnia would pick up 27 survivors and 13 corpses. The Sarnia then ran a zigzag course back to the safety of Halifax harbour. In total, twenty-eight men went down with the Esquimalt; the remaining forty-three had scrambled to Carley floats, but sixteen of those sailors died of exposure before the HMCS Sarnia arrived. Only twenty-seven of the Esquimalt’s crew of seventy-one survived the sinking. With the war in Europe ending a mere three weeks later, the HMCS Esquimalt was the last Canadian warship to be lost during the Second World War.

• In October 1945, two months after the war had ended, Sarnia city council would receive a letter from Lieutenant D.F. Mossop, O.C., the commanding officer of the H.M.C.S. Sarnia with news of the fate of the ship. The letter read:

 

Perhaps it would be easier for me to look into the future and let you know just what we expect to happen to the ship. As you no doubt have read in the dailies, many in fact most ships of the Canadian fleet have been declared surplus by the authorities and are to be turned over to the War Assets Corporation for disposal. That I am afraid is the fate of H.M.C.S. “SARNIA” in the very near future. We expect within the next month to have the ship turned over to the War Assets and fully out of commission.

It seems a hard fate for a ship which has accumulated an envious record among not only the Canadian Navy but all Allied Navies for a series of brilliant feats which frustrated the enemy on a number of occasions and brought succor and life on one occasion to some of our own lads. However, ‘c’est la guerre’ and at least it is comforting to realize the “SARNIA” is retiring from service after completing her job in a manner which brought credit to her officers and men and I trust honor to the city whose name she carries and the good people of the city who were so thoughtful

during the ship’s wartime commission.

When the ship is finally through, in approximately a month, I personally expect to be proceeding home for discharge, at which time I hope to be able to spend a day or so in Sarnia and personally relate some of the tales of the “SARNIA’S” feats to you and express our profoundest thanks for all your citizens have done for the crew in the days when every comfort meant so very, very much during the monotonous patrols.

 

• Lieutenant Mossop would visit the city in early November 1945, the guest of honour at a banquet by Mayor Hipple and city council at the Sarnia Golf Club. The dinner was also attended by Bell Telephone employees, Delta Phi Sigma Sorority and the Public School Teachers’ Association, groups that had been active in supplying the crew of the H.M.C.S. Sarnia with comforts during the war. Lieut. Mossop presented to Mayor Hipple as a gift to the city, the name-plate removed from the deck of the vessel, along with the ship’s ensign, the one she had been flying at the time of the Esquimalt rescue. In speaking about some of the ship’s history, Mossop said that the minesweeper Sarnia had cleared more mines from waters of the eastern seaboard than any other ship, Canadian or American. In describing the Sarnia’s role in rescuing the Esquimalt survivors, he said the lives of several of the men had been saved by artificial respiration applied by the minesweeper’s crew. Others had been supported in the water by crewmen of the Sarnia who had jumped over the side to their rescue. In thanking the people of Sarnia for past gifts, Lieut. Mossop said, “I was only on the ship for a few months but she upheld Sarnia traditions to the highest.”

The H.M.C.S. Sarnia was decommissioned October 28, 1945 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Years later, in March 1958, she was transferred to the Turkish Navy to serve as a patrol boat, the Buyukdere, until 1972. Beginning in 1995, fifty years after Sarnia’s dramatic rescue of the Esquimalt survivors, there were a number of H.M.C.S. Sarnia reunions held to honour her impressive war record. Aside from former crew members of the Sarnia, also attending some of the reunions were a number of survivors of the Esquimalt sinking and the Engineering Officer of the German submarine U-190.^{N, X, u}

• Another Lambton County community had the honour of having a Canadian Navy ship named in her honour. The H.M.C.S. Petrolia (K 498) was named in honour of the “Hard Oil Town” in April 1944. The H.M.C.S. Petrolia was one of a dozen Castle-Class corvettes assigned to the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship was built in Belfast, Northern Ireland, launched as the HMS Sherborne Castle in February 1944 and transferred to the RCN and commissioned on June 29, 1944. Hundreds of local residents of Petrolia packed Victoria Hall on the evening of April 26, 1944 for the official adoption ceremony of this latest ship of the Royal Canadian Navy. A model of the corvette was christened on the Hall stage flanked on each side by naval men and Sarnia Sea Cadets. The H.M.C.S. Petrolia was used for Atlantic convoy service for the duration of the war.^{N, P, and X}

• Not all who put their lives on the line to serve Canada during the war did so in a military uniform. A little known organization that did this was the Corps of (Civilian) Canadian Firefighters. During a visit to the United Kingdom in 1941, Prime Minister McKenzie King was asked by Winston Churchill to provide a contingent of firefighters to assist British firefighters in combating the fires caused by persistent air raids. By March 1942, recruitment began for the Corps of Canadian Firefighters. A total of 422 Canadian men volunteered for the Corps, leaving behind their homes and families to answer the call of duty overseas. At least five men from Sarnia-Lambton were part of the Corps, including Sarnians Charles F. Jennings (214 Napier Street), William Boulton (214 Cotterbury Street), Clarence Taylor (Murphy Sideroad), H. Smith (Watford) and A.O. McFarlane (Forest). Charles Jennings and William Boulton were members of the Sarnia Fire Department. Arriving overseas beginning in May 1942, only half of Corps volunteers were professional firefighters; the other half had no experience. After completing a four-week familiarization course, they were posted to fire stations in Southampton, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Bristol. During their time in England, the Corps of Canadian Firefighters responded to all fires both domestic and those caused by the German air raids. They worked often in perilous conditions to effect rescues and battle fires usually started by bombing. There were a total of 11 Canadian casualties, including three deaths, in the Corps of Canadian Firefighters overseas between May 1942 and May 1945.^{D, E and 3A}

• The Dieppe Raid, August 19, 1942: The raid on Dieppe, a small town on the coast of France was the first major Canadian engagement in the war (after Hong Kong), and one of the darkest chapters in Canada’s military history. Code-named Operation Jubilee, it saw more than 6,000 men come ashore at five different points along a 16 kilometre-long stretch of heavily defended coastline. The goals were to destroy radar and other military installations, seize a neighbouring airfield, capture a German divisional headquarters and to take some pressure off the Eastern

Front. It would also serve as a test run for the future invasion of Europe. The raiding force was made up of almost 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British commandos and 50 American Rangers. The main force arrived ashore behind schedule, as daylight was breaking instead of under the cover of darkness, to the already alerted German defences. The well-entrenched enemy troops sitting atop 75 foot-high cliff top positions cut down the fully visible Canadians as they waded into the surf, trying to cross the cobblestone beaches to the protection of the seawall. By mid-morning, it was clear that the raid could not continue, and the retreat began. Through great courage, many men were taken off the beaches under heavy fire, and by late afternoon, the last boat had departed. The remaining Canadians were forced to surrender. Of the 4,963 Canadians that took part in the battle which lasted only nine hours; 2, 460 were wounded, 1,946 were taken as POW’s and 907 lost their lives. ^{D, E and 2N} One young man from Sarnia, Glyn Jones, would lose his life at Dieppe.

• In the first few days after the Dieppe Raid, relatives and friends of Sarnia and Lambton troops overseas waited anxiously for news of their loved ones who were members of the fighting units that had stormed the beaches. Initially, lists of names of wounded soldiers were released that included a number of local men – many of them Sarnia engineers who had transferred to the Commandos just months prior and who had been rated as particularly adept exponents of this type of warfare. A number of local men, once they returned to England, were able to wire home to their parents that they were on the raid and now safe. In the days following the raid, the list of published casualties expanded each day, with more Canadian soldiers listed as killed in action, missing in action, seriously wounded or wounded.

• In the weeks and months following, stories of some of the Sarnia men’s experiences at Dieppe were printed in the Sarnia Canadian Observer. What follows are portions of three of these men’s stories:

> Arthur Hueston, the son of Mr. and Mrs. H.M. Hueston of North Christina Street:

Soldiers recalled the gallant heroism of Lieutenant Arthur Hueston (Essex Scottish Regiment) of Sarnia, Ontario. He and his platoon were on a tank landing craft and as the ramp was lowered at the beach machine-gun fire and shells crashed around them, streams of bullets pouring into the boat. A corporal was hit in the mouth and Hueston crouched to help him. Then some kind of high explosive landed inside the craft, setting the tank on fire. The other tanks clanked ashore and the boat started to drift off the beach. It was 20 yards from land when Hueston and his men jumped into the water and started to swim in. They were all wearing “Mae Wests” but the weight of their arms and ammunition made swimming difficult. Hueston reached the beach which was laced with fire. He didn’t give a thought to his own safety but in the true officer tradition thought only of his men. He threw off his equipment, said a soldier who was there with him, and went back into the water trying to rescue men who were still floundering in the sea. He finally had to give up and it is believed he crossed the beach to the seawall. His parents in Sarnia would receive the news in mid-September 1942 that their son Arthur was reported missing in the Dieppe raid.

 

> Lieutenant William (“Bill”) Alexander Ewener was born in April 1905 in Battersea, London, England. He came to Canada with his parents in 1908. He had played football for the Sarnia Collegiate junior and senior teams, the intermediate Wanderers, the Sarnia Imperials (lineman) and the University of Western Ontario Mustangs (center), before the war. He was an employee of Imperial Oil Limited for five years (in Peru), and returned to commence his studies at the University of Western Ontario for his Bachelor of Arts Degree. He then studied medicine for four years prior to enlisting in April 1940 with the 11th Field Company, later attached to the 7th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Ewener of 494 Wellington Street:

Shortly after Ewener leaped ashore at the head of a group of Royal Hamilton Light Infantry men, the unit that bore the brunt of the assault with the Essex Scottish he was struck in the chest by a machine gun bullet. Despite the insistence of others that he withdraw from the action, Ewener refused to do so. He picked up the equipment of another wounded man and then continued with the attack. Some time later he was seen dressing the wounds of wounded comrades. “He refused to withdraw until the last cat was hung,” one of his comrades told Fred Griffin, noted war correspondent of the Toronto Daily Star.

During William’s recovery in England from the serious chest wounds and shrapnel wounds in the legs that he received, he wrote to his parents in Sarnia. He made no reference to the action, to how he was wounded, nor to the extent of his wounds. He assured his parents that he was well on the way to recovery. In expressing thanks to his Sarnia, London and Toronto friends, he wrote, “The tears were very close to my eyes when the cables started to arrive from so many friends back home. It hardly seemed possible that so many would act spontaneously at such a time… It was certainly a grand way to cheer me up when things looked blackest.” In writing about his recovery in hospital, “The first week we spent here was marvelous despite the pains of our wounds and the sharpness of our tempers as all of us were incensed we had to leave good friends in unfriendly territory. Every one is impatient to get back in harness and help avenge those we left behind.” Lieutenant William Ewener would be awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Dieppe. He was the first Sarnian to win the Military Cross in World War II. The official citation is written as follows: Landing with the first wave of attackers from the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, Ewener suffered chest wounds almost immediately on reaching White Beach. In spite of his wounds he organized his demolition party and attempted to cross the beach and esplanade, although exposed to extremely heavy machine gun fire, in order to reach a road block objective. When more of his men were wounded he carried a 75-pound charge of explosives as far as the Casino. Lieut. Ewener continued to show great determination throughout the entire operation and refused to leave until the last groups were taken from the beach.

There were further reports from some of Ewener’s men that William Ewener calmly dressed the wounds of others on the beach while awaiting evacuation. He was also reported to have carried a wounded sergeant and later a wounded corporal to safety in the face of heavy shell fire. One of those rescued in this fashion was believed to have been Ronnie Taylor of Sarnia. It was not until months later, in October 1942, that William disclosed to his parents how dangerously wounded he was, and that he was near death for some weeks after he returned to England from Dieppe. Modestly he wrote of his exploits which gained him the M.C., “I must have carried on in a sort of semi-conscious daze.” Shortly after he landed on the beach, he was hit in the left chest just above the heart by a heavy machine gun slug or a light anti-tank gun bullet. The lead hit a rib and was deflected toward the breastbone and came out of the right chest. The concussion collapsed the upper part of his left lung. On the barge which returned him to England, he collapsed in the bottom of the boat which was, “two-thirds full of water and blood, and I was yanked to safety.” He would remain in an English hospital from August 1942 until February of 1943. In August 1943, he would be promoted to Acting Captain, attached to the 30th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers.

 

> Lance Corporal John Molyneax (“Red”) Fisher, along with his brother Bill, enlisted at the Sarnia recruiting office on the first morning it was opened on September 4, 1939 with the First Field Park Company. Prior to enlisting, John was employed as a tinsmith by Howard and Mundy for six years. After Dieppe, John wrote to his mother, Mrs. Frank Grant of 151 Proctor Street only days later. What follows is a re-cap of his experience:

He summarized his injuries as a piece of shrapnel in his right foot and possibly a piece of bone chipped off where he was struck by a shell fragment. He never mentioned his exploit of storming and knocking out a German machine gun nest that was cutting swaths in the ranks of the Canadians on the beach at Dieppe. Lance Corporal Fisher’s only concern in the letter were fear that his mother would worry, sorrow at the number of pals he lost that day, a fountain pen he left behind at Dieppe and the sore foot he was nursing. For his actions on that day, Corporal Jack Fisher was awarded the Military Medal. The official citation is written as follows: Immediately upon landing with L.-Sgt George Hickson (Kitchener, Ontario), Fisher was wounded in the foot and ordered out of action, but later took a sapper and tried to get into Dieppe. With high explosive charges he destroyed a machine gun position, killing the personnel. Unable to proceed because of heavy enemy fire he was returning to the machine gun position when he met an infantry officer with a large number of sticky bombs. These were carried forward and placed against a wall of a building in the esplanade. Fisher detonated them all, setting the partly-ruined building on fire. Returning to the Casino he organized the returning Royal Canadian Engineers personally for evacuation, and destroyed the remaining demolition packs in the building. During the whole operation, L.-Cpl. Fisher was an inspiration to all by his display of personal bravery and initiative, although wounded.

Lance Corporal John Fisher received his medal from King George at an investiture ceremony in Buckingham Palace in October 1942. In 1943, he would marry a British woman, Mary Teresa O’Shea, who would arrive in Sarnia in August 1944, one of a number of “war brides”.

>  In mid-January 1943, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer printed the story of the first Sarnia man to return home after participating in the Dieppe raid. The following is a portion of that story on Sapper John (Jack) Stevens:

Two Boats Sink Under Sarnia Boy

Bearing scars of battle sustained in the historic Dieppe raid of August 19, 1942, Sapper John Stevens, 23, modest former drug clerk, is home with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Stevens, 260 Maxwell Street. Sapper Stevens arrived last night and was welcomed as he stepped from the train by his parents, two younger brothers, Jim, 15 and Bill 7… and a small group of relatives and friends.

 

Sapper Stevens was under fire for the full eight hours, a section of his unit of the Royal Canadian Engineers was in

action on the beach. It was not until he had debarked on a tank landing craft that he was struck by mortar fire and machine gun shells from a dive bomber. As the tank carrier sank, a destroyer raced up and rescued the group of Canadians clinging to it. Aboard the destroyer Sapper Stevens was given sedatives, but a short time later a dive bomber scored a direct hit and the destroyer sank. Despite his wounds the Sarnia lad managed to swim until he was again picked up by a submarine chaser. Fifty Canadians, some wounded, were aboard when it tied up at a dock in an English port. The greater part of Sapper Stevens left ankle was shot away and part of the calf of his leg. He was also struck on the right elbow. Despite the nature of his wounds, he is able to walk with the aid of a cane. “We wanted action and we got it,” he said. “The one thought of the boys over there is to get another chance to avenge those who fell.”….

 

“We landed on the beach in front of the tobacco factory at 5:20 in the morning,” Sapper Stevens said. “They knew we were coming. They had massed two divisions of approximately 40,000 to meet us.” The Canadians who comprised at least 80 percent of the raiding party numbered no more than 5,000 to 6,000. The electric light plant was the particular objective of the Stevens party, consisting of 26 men under the command of Lieut. L. Watt, Toronto. Each man was heavily armed and carried explosives on his back. They had been instructed to blow up the plant, but didn’t reach it.

 

A group of the Royal Regiment of Canada (Toronto) was assigned to protect the engineers as they pressed forward to their objective, but the Royals were practically wiped out by the heavily concentrated fire of the German defenders. For some time, Sapper Stevens assisted in the unloading of many Churchill tanks. It was the first time the Churchills had been in action. “We proved we could land ‘em,” he observed…..

The young Sarnian paid tribute to the work of the R.A.F. and the R.C.A.F. “Nazi planes were falling all around us,” he said. “We had mastery of the air.” He also had words of praise for the Royal Navy and the doctors and nurses. “When we returned to Britain we were met by a fully equipped hospital train,” he said.

 

…Sapper Stevens said that men who never swam before, swam when precipitated into the water, after landing or rescuing craft had been sunk… The losses would have been heavier had it not been for the gallantry of the wounded, who lying on the beach fought a rear-guard covering action as the others were evacuated, the soldier said. He declined to mention the part he had played in this phase of the battle. “You can’t beat the spirit of the British people, their morale is high. They couldn’t do enough for us,” he said.

John (Jack) Stevens would return to Sarnia. Years later, his daughter Dee, would marry Thane Hughes, whose father had landed at Juno Beach on D-Day.

• One year after the Dieppe raid, in mid-August of 1943, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer wrote a feature listing some of the men from Sarnia who took part in the Dieppe Raid, at least 36 of them. Many of them were part of the Essex Scottish Regiment, which had many men from Sarnia and district. The Sarnians who took part in the raid included Capt. William A. Ewener (wounded, received Military Cross); John Fisher (won Military Medal); Privates John J. Hawkins, Roy Huggett, Harvey Huggett, Jack Stevens (wounded), Ronnie Taylor (wounded), William Black, John Crockett, and Charles Crockett; Corporal R.D. Taylor; Sappers John J. Stevens, Milton D. Sinasac, and Robert O. Soucie; Sgt. Charles Clark and his two sons, Lance-Sgt. Jack Clark and Corporal Reg Clark; and Bombardier Michel Pruliere. Among the prisoners of war were Lieutenants A.M. Hueston, Neal M. Watson, and Thomas Doherty (did excellent work getting heavy tanks ashore); Corp. Grenville Ward; Gnr. N. Demeray; Pte. L. Date; and Malcom Moloy (Thedford). Reported missing were Corporals Jack Graham and Lyle H. Robertson; Sappers Glyn Jones, C.M. Blondin, Alvin J. Archer, D.A. Dunn, Frank R. Scriver, Russell P. Johns, “Chick” Hewitt, and Albert W.T. Brown; Sgt. C.J. Towler and others.

• In October 1943, as part of a Victory Loan campaign, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer printed a poem written by a young London, Ontario girl, Mona Gould. The youthful author wrote this moving tribute in memory of her older brother, Lt.-Col. Howard McTavish of London, Ontario. He had been killed on active service with the Royal Canadian Engineers in August of 1942 at Dieppe.

 

This was my brother

At Dieppe,

Quietly a hero

Who gave his life

Like a gift,

Withholding nothing

 

His youth…his love…

His enjoyment of being alive…

His future, like a book

With half the pages still uncut

 

This was my brother

at Dieppe

The one who built me a dollhouse

When I was seven,

Complete to the last small picture frame,

Nothing forgotten

 

He was awfully good at fixing things,

At stepping into the breach when he was needed.

 

That’s what he did at Dieppe

He was needed,

And even death must have been a little shamed

At his eagerness!

 

• The Petroleum industry was established in the Sarnia area in 1858. In 1898, Imperial Oil Company moved to Sarnia from Petrolia and built a refinery. A five-year tax break from Sarnia’s town council, crude oil arriving by pipeline from Petrolia and Oil Springs and easy access to shipping made the port of Sarnia an ideal location for Imperial Oil’s relocation. When the Japanese entered World War II, they captured the majority of the Allies’ natural latex and natural rubber supplies from Southeast Asia. Canada and its allies scrambled to create a synthetic rubber plant to fuel war needs, a top priority for the success of the war effort. Sarnia was selected as the site to spearhead development of synthetic petroleum-based rubbers for war materials. Sarnia was chosen because its Imperial Oil refinery could supply some of the chemicals needed, and the rest could arrive by ship to the plant site on the St. Clair River. Polymer Corporation Limited was built at the request of the Government of Canada in February of 1942 as a Crown Corporation, at a cost of $50 million. In an incredible, almost impossible industrial and chemical engineering achievement, production of rubber began just 13 months later in what became Sarnia’s Chemical Valley. Polymer produced 5000 tons of artificial rubber from oil every month. The product was used in everything from the tires of vehicles and warplanes, inflatable boats, piping gaskets, electrical cable insulation, and shock absorbers to airplane parts. Much of it was sold to the U.S. as part of the common war effort. The establishment of Polymer Corporation and Dow Chemical (which produced styrene) to manufacture synthetic rubber during the war was a great success and began Sarnia’s rise as a major petrochemical industry. Over the years ownership of the plant passed from Polymer to Polysar, to Bayer and Lanxess.

• Established in 1929, Electric Auto-Lite Limited in Sarnia made a major contribution to the war effort. Throughout the war, the company manufactured millions of vitally important war products for the motorized sections of the Canadian First Army. Principal products included generators, starting motors, distributors, ignition coils, voltage regulators, spark plugs, battery cables, and miscellaneous items such as dashlamps, filters, aerial bases, fuse blocks and fan extensions. These products were used in military vehicles, self-propelled gun mounts, gun tractors, tanks and heavy-duty trucks. During the war, more than 50 percent of the workers in the Auto-Lite plant were women, each one individually trained to handle high precision jobs.

• In September 1942, Camp Ipperwash opened, the latest and most up-to-date military training centre located between Forest and Thedford. Originally it was planned as the A-29 Advanced Infantry Training Centre, but it would become the home of No. 10 Basic Training Centre, which had been transferred from Kitchener. It was a basic training centre for infantry troops. Approximately 48 buildings were to be erected on the 2,200+-acre site at an expense of $1.2 million, with plans to accommodate 2,000 men for basic training. Structures were to include sleeping quarters, mess halls, a dental clinic, a 150-bed hospital, a nurses’ residence, officers’ buildings, a fire hall, quartermaster stores, a supply depot, a salvage storehouse, an engineers’ workshop, N.C.O.’s quarters, Canadian Women’s Army Corps buildings, lecture halls, a large drill hall, a recreational building, a guard house, a sewage disposal plant, a water pumping and purification plant. The first troops from Listowel and Kitchener moved into the camp over the Thanksgiving Day weekend in mid-October 1942. Work had begun on Camp Ipperwash on April 27, 1942, and in late November of 1942, Camp Ipperwash was formerly opened by the Honourable Colonel J.L. Ralston, Minister of National Defence. One of the comments made by Colonel Ralston to the troops was, “The Canadian Army cannot be the biggest army in the world, but it can be the world’s best, and above all, remember that the citizens of Canada are not only standing behind you, they are standing beside you all the way.”

• Camp Ipperwash had been on a parcel of land comprising the Stoney Point Reserve, controlled by the Chippewas Stoney Point First Nation. In a contentious decision, the Department of National Defence used the War Measures Act to expropriate the land from the Department of Indian Affairs, against the wishes of the Chippewas. They then moved some 15 families who had previously resided in the area further west to the Kettle Point Reserve. The Kettle Point band, which supported itself by fishing, acting as guides, and cutting wood in the winter, swelled to approximately 400 members, making it larger than the Sarnia Reserve. The 1941 expropriation agreement indicated that the property would be returned to the First Nations when it was no longer needed for a military purpose. Although the First Nations rejected the offer, but the government moved forward with the appropriation. It was approximately 15 years after the Ipperwash Crisis of the mid-1990s that the government relented and offered to return the land to the Chippewas of Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation.

• In January 1943, St. Andrew’s Church in Sarnia held a memorial service for three parishioners, all members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who had paid the supreme sacrifice in the previous year: George William Knowles, Donald Cameron MacGregor and Howard Fraser Thompson. The service was arranged at the request of family members with Rev. Dr. J.M. Macgillivray officiating. In his brief address, Dr. Macgillivray’s words expressed the sentiment of many at the time:

These men, as well as others like them, went forth possessed, perhaps, of a spirit of adventure not unnatural in young men. But it was not only the call of adventure that led them to the King’s service in the clouds. There was a deeper motive than that. They had a vision of a new and better world; a world free of tyranny, oppression, injustice and fear. They knew that the only way to secure such a world was by overthrowing forever the forces of evil now threatening mankind; and to that holy task they dedicated their lives. They have entered into the larger life; and to God’s keeping we commend them in the Easter hope of a final resurrection to eternal life.

 

It is my personal conviction that they are not now far away from us, and I read to you as suggestive and appropriate some words written by a French soldier killed in 1915 during the First Great War: ‘I believe the dead live close to the living, invisible but present; and perhaps it is they whom God sends to us in answer to our prayers, so that their spirit, which is His, may continue to guide us and inspire us.’

• The Battle of Sicily: This was the beginning of the Italian Campaign, code named Operation Husky. The invasion force was the largest armada ever assembled to date and included 150 000 troops, 3 000 ships, 4 000 aircraft and 600 tanks. British, French, American and Canadian allies comprised the invading forces for Canada’s first sustained land operation of the war. It began when the Canadians and their allies landed on the southern tip of Sicily, in the early morning of July 10, 1943. 25 000 men of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade landed on the beaches at Pachino on Sicily that day. The fighting in Sicily would last more than four weeks until August 6, 1943, during which Canadians would battle through approximately two hundred fifty kilometres of difficult mountainous country, over mine-filled roads, against stiffening German resistance, and in exhausting and scorching heat. The Battle of Sicily saw 565 Canadians die, with approximately 1,800 Canadians wounded and taken prisoners of war.^{D, E, 2N, 4A} At least three young men from Sarnia would lose their lives in the Battle of Sicily.

• One reason that the landings on Sicily were successful was the result of an elaborate deception carried out by British Intelligence. In April 1943, the Allies’ plan, known as Operation Mincemeat, involved placing a corpse (a dead tramp) disguised as a British officer to be found by enemy forces adrift in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain. Handcuffed to his wrist was a briefcase containing fake documents which supposedly revealed the Allies’ plans to invade Greece and Sardinia, and not Sicily. German intelligence accepted the authenticity of the documents and diverted much of their defensive effort from Sicily to Greece.

• The Italian Campaign continues: After taking Sicily, the Allies crossed the Strait of Messina and came ashore in mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, the fourth anniversary of Britain’s declaration of war. Although Italy soon surrendered, the occupying Germans fought for every metre of mountainous terrain. Liberating Italy became a painstaking northward crawl up the mainland, over poor roads, through challenging weather ranging from extreme heat to bitter cold and snow, and against a series of well-protected German defences. More than 93,000 Canadian soldiers would take part in this 20-month Italian Campaign. Canadians fought in Sicily and Italy until February 25, 1945, playing a vital role in victories in battles such as Agira, The Moro, Ortona, Anzio, Cassino, The Gustav Line, Liri Valley, Melfa Crossing, Cerrone, Gothic Line, Coriano and Ravenna. In the spring of 1945, Allied commanders decided to move the British and Canadian troops to fight in Northwest Europe. In Operation Penknife, 60,000 Canadians and thousands of vehicles assembled from widely scattered locations and then funneled out of Italy. The speed and deceptions involved in the operation were so successful that the Germans did not realize the Canadians had left until one month later. During the 20-month Italian Campaign, the longest sustained offensive the Allies undertook during the war, nearly 6,000 Canadians would lose their lives from Canada’s 26,000 casualties.^{D, E, 2N and 4A} Many young men from Sarnia took part in the Battle of Sicily and Italian Campaign, and at least sixteen young Sarnians would lose their lives. Many remain there either buried in Commonwealth War Cemeteries or having their names etched on Memorials in Italy such as Agira, Moro River, Cassino, Gradara, Coriano, Ravenna, Cesena and Villanova.

• Sergeant Jesse Euston Harold was one of many Sarnians who would take part in the battle of Sicily. In early September 1943, his father, J. E. Harold of 148 South Front Street, received a letter his son had written from an army hospital base in North Africa. Jesse had two brothers at home, Harley and Ernest, and his father had served in the Boer War and the First World War. Lying flat on his back on a hospital cot, Jesse couldn’t write the letter himself, so he recited his words to Lieut. H.P. Carson, who sat by Jesse’s bed and copied the words Jesse wanted his father in Sarnia to read. The following are excerpts of that letter:

 

Dear Dad,

Just a few lines to let you know I am in hospital, and that everything is alright now…while I was in Sicily, they thought I might lose both my legs…I have been flown to hospital here and now the story has changed…myself and an officer had gone about two miles into the enemy area when they knocked us off our motorcycle with a mortar…while we were standing in the middle of the road, he started to chop us down with a machine gun…Neither one of us stood a chance…The Transport Officer got it with one bullet, clean through the head. I started moving about so he chopped me across the legs and feet, a bullet in the chest, and one in the left shoulder. I made it to the wall at the side of the road before I fell down. When I fell down, I couldn’t move, perhaps just as well, because every time I moved, a sniper on the rooftop went to work. But he wasn’t very good.

Sgt. Harold tells of returning to his comrades. He said he was very still for a few hours, but then he started to drag himself back.

 

I could feel myself a bit weaker, because I was pouring, and could only step up one pace at a time. It took me half a day to drag myself a quarter mile. I didn’t break any speed records. Finally he said he fell into a culvert, and stayed there for two days. I still can’t realize how I managed to get my right boot off, because my foot was just hanging on…two bullets in the same ankle.
He said he had been more afraid of being taken prisoner than anything else and had lost his tommy-gun. His only weapon was a pistol, and as he lay in the culvert for two days, German patrols passed along the road at night. He said he had nearly called out when he heard their voices. After he was picked up, he learned that a patrol from his own base had gone out to try to locate him, but they had travelled on the opposite side of the road from the culvert, because they had been dropping mortar and shells on my particular side…I knew that only too well…one of them dropped within five feet of my hole.

After two days in the culvert, he was picked up. He said in his letter that authorities in Sicily thought he would have to lose his legs, but when he was flown to Africa, doctors determined no amputation was needed. Besides the extent of his leg injuries, Sgt. Harold suffered bullets in the chest and shoulder, but, the mortar didn’t do much harm…broke my nose and a piece went through my cheek..

He finished the letter saying that he would be up and be able to go back to the front in a few months. At the time the letter was written, Jesse Harold’s wife and daughter were residing in Toronto.

• In March 1944, messages of thanks to the city of Sarnia for cigarettes sent overseas at Christmas were received by city officials. One of the letters was from Major J.M. Colling, padre with the Canadian Army unit of the Central Mediterranean Force in Italy and former minister at Devine Street United Church in Sarnia. The following are portions of that letter:

 

The 14,000 cigarettes from the City of Sarnia arrived in this busy Italian town. Please convey to His Worship the Mayor and the council my deep appreciation of these gifts. Cigarettes are welcome at any time, but in this battle zone they are indeed highly prized and appreciated. When I return, I hope to have the privilege of stating verbally what

these gifts mean to troops in an area like this.

As perhaps you know, I have been in this area since November. I have seen a great deal. Death and life are words full of meaning here. I cannot, of course, give any information, but you can gather a good picture of our activities here from the radio and the news dispatches. I am still with the casualty clearing station, where I have been attached for the past two years. We have been very busy lately.

The Canadians have displayed the utmost bravery here. This country is one of the most difficult to wage war in. It requires a good man just to walk from one place to another. To carry on a defensive war, as we are doing, calls for the utmost in stamina and courage. Our Canadian lads have shown their breeding. We meet many British, Indian, New Zealand and American troops. A fine fellowship exists among all the forces here… Each fighting force respects the others here, for we are all together in the common aim to end the European war as soon as possible. Germany appears to be reeling but, in her desperation, she can still strike hard blows…. Great sacrifices are ahead but our victory is certain.

I met two Sarnia lads in our station lately – Privates Waltham and Gray. We had a good chat and talked about the good people of Sarnia. All the lads are longing for the day when we can return. Some, like myself, are going on their fifth year away from home, but all the lads here are proud of the fact that they are here in this sad hour to hasten the victory of free men over the tyrants who would enslave humanity. As you know, we are attached now to the famous 8th Army. It has a glorious record, with still greater victories to come. I hope matters are going well in the city. Give my kind regards to Miss Stewart, Alderman Crompton and the others. With kindest personal regards to you and yours.

Yours gratefully, J.M. Colling

• D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Allied invasion of France, code-named Operation Overlord, began on this date, delayed 24 hours from the original planned invasion date of June 5th due to bad weather on that day. The cross-Channel naval phase of this campaign was code-named Operation Neptune. This massive invasion into “Fortress Europe” involved Canadian, British and American forces crossing the English Channel to an 80-kilometre stretch of the heavily-defended coast in Normandy, France. The Germans had spent years fortifying the French coast, their “Atlantic Wall” with gun emplacements, machine gun nests, pillboxes, razor wire, concrete bunkers, underwater and land mines, anti-tank walls and beach obstacles. The Germans’ first line of defence was supported by Panzer Divisions, made up of hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles, and multiple battalions of infantry troops. D-Day was the greatest seaborne invasion in history. The Allied force comprised approximately 156,000 soldiers, 7,000 ships and landing craft, 50,000 vehicles, 1,500 tanks and 11,000 planes in total. There were five landing zones: Gold Beach (United Kingdom); Sword Beach (United Kingdom and France); Utah and Omaha Beaches (United States); and the middle beach, Juno Beach (Canada). ^{D, E and 2N}

 

• Juno Beach covered an area of approximately eight kilometers and stretched on either side of the small fishing port of Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. The Canadian assault on D-Day was divided into two sectors – “Mike” and “Nan”. The first Canadians to land in Normandy were 516 Canadian Paratroopers who were dropped behind enemy lines by parachute or by glider. Lancaster bombers and Spitfire fighters from the RCAF supported the invasion and the Royal Canadian Navy supplied about 10,000 sailors in 110 Canadian destroyers, frigates, corvettes, landing craft and minesweepers which assisted in covering the invasion, providing anti-submarine escort and bombing shore targets. After crossing a rough and choppy English Channel, approximately 14,000 Canadian soldiers, led by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Armoured Brigade, would storm Juno Beach on D-Day. Around three thousand Canadians were in the first wave at 7:45 in the morning, led by four regiments: the North Shore Regiment; the Queen’s Own Rifles; the Regina Rifles; the Royal Winnipeg Rifles; and a company of the Canadian Scottish and a company of British Royal Marine Commandos. The first wave of Canadians waded ashore and ran through the obstacles and minefields, through the killing zones of German gun positions, and across the beaches as they weathered the curtain of stiff enemy resistance. The first wave took heavy casualties on the beaches. All morning long the battle raged along the precious strip of coast. Ordinary young Canadian boys were remarkable for their bravery and their achievements on June 6th. By the end of the day, they had fought their way into the towns of Bernieres, Courseulles-sur-Mer, Graye-sur-Mer and St. Aubin, and not only had they successfully broken through the

German “Atlantic Wall”, but the Canadians had progressed further inland than any of the Allied forces. The cost to Canadians on that one day was high – 47 were captured, 574 were wounded and 359 lost their lives. ^{D, E, 2N, 3F and 4A}

• One reason for the success of Overlord was the Allies’ elaborate effort to deceive the Germans into thinking that the invasion would take place not at Normandy but at Pas de Calais. Called Operation Fortitude, the Allies misled the German high command into thinking so by using a variety of tactics: strategically placing dummy landing craft, tanks and vehicles made of rubber and wood; creating decoy airfields and decoy lighting; and “leaking” information through diplomatic channels, double agents and wireless traffic. From April 24, the First Canadian Army participated in Operation Quicksilver, which disseminated fictional messages by wireless to create a picture of the army preparing to attack at Pas de Calais. Even after the June 6 landings began, Hitler was so convinced that the landings there were only a diversion, he kept the entire Fifteenth Army of 150,000 men at Calais, where it waited for an attack that never came.^3Y

• In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Canadians across the country awoke to the voice of Prime Minister Mackenzie King in Ottawa on the radio addressing the nation. Following are porions of that D-Day address:

 

At half past three o’clock this morning, the government received official word that the invasion of Western Europe had begun. Word was also received that the Canadian troops were among the Allied forces who landed this morning on the northern coast of France. Canada will be proud to learn that our troops are beingf supported by units of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force The great landing in western Europe is the opening of what we hope and believe will be the decisive phase of the war against Germany. The fighting is certain to be heavy, bitter and costly… No one can say how long this phase of the war may last, but we have every reason for confidence in the final outcome.… Let the hearts of all in Canada today be filled with silent prayer for the success of our own and Allied forces and for the early liberation of the peoples of Europe.

• On D-Day, major city newspapers ran early editions with oversized and dramatic headlines. However specific information on the attack, such as exact location, regiments involved and extent of success could not be released. In Sarnia, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer headline read, “ALLIES GAIN BEACHHEADS: Armies Slash Into Normandy In Auspicious Start To The Assault On Hitler’s Europe.” Families and friends across Sarnia and Lambton County read these details provided in the Observer:

– British, American and Canadian troops landed on the Normandy coast in tremendous strength

– the initial landings ranged from 6:00 to 8:25 a.m. B.S.T. (midnight to 2:25 a.m. E.D.T.)

– Germans broadcasts said they were bringing reinforcements continuously up to the coast where “a battle for life or death is in progress.”

– the German radio began broadcasting a constant stream of invasion flashes almost as soon as the first troops landed

– Allied headquarters kept silent until 3:32 a.m. B.S.T. (9:32 E.D.T.) when the following communiqué was issued: “Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces supported by strong air forces began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.”

– Part of the mammoth assault was all-Canadian. R.C.A.F. fighter pilots flew the first sorties over the beachhead area, returned to base to refuel and continued throughout the day to provide cover for the Canadian assault force. R.C.A.F. Canadian bombers joined the R.A.F. aircraft in the previous nights hammering of the French coast.  Royal Canadian Navy ships carried Canadian troops to the beaches, landing in the first assault waves, and continued to ferry reinforcements in and casualties out.

• The ‘local news’ page of the Sarnia Observer on D-day carried the headline, “LOCALLY – BELLS ANNOUNCE INVASION – CLOSE SCHOOLS: City Hears News Early In Morning.” Included in the Observer that day were some local details:

– People had waited for months for some word that the invasion was on.

– In accordance with a pre-arranged plan, church bells were rung between 7:30 and 8:00 o’clock as a signal that the invasion had started.

– Many people caught the significance, but others called the Canadian Observer to enquire the meaning

– The few people who heard the first announcements over the radio about four o’clock called their friends by telephone

– Hundreds of copies of an extra edition of the Canadian Observer were bought by readers anxious for details. After Eisenhower’s announcement of the landing, as quickly as special news stories were received over the teletype

machines, Observer staff set it in type and by 7:30 o’clock, an extra edition was on the streets.

– Hundreds of Sarnians of all ages gathered in city churches to meditate and to offer prayers for the success of the Allied invasion. Inside the solemn and silent places of worship, many eyes were dimmed with tears as citizens

thought of loved ones now facing the enemy and of those who had already laid down their lives in the cause of freedom. Services were held through the course of the day at Our Lady of Mercy and St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Churches, Canon Davis Memorial Church, St. George’s Church, St. Paul’s United Church, Central United Church and the Point Edward Presbyterian Church.

– Five years prior to D-Day, almost to the day, on June 7, 1939, Sarnia and Lambton residents by the thousands had flocked to London, Ontario to see Their Majesties King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth on their cross-Canada tour. That day, many of the people who traveled to London and members of the local military units which formed part of the guard of honour were now serving in military units of the Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force, and likely some of them were pushing onto the beaches of France.

With limited information being released about D-Day, families in Sarnia couldn’t know if their fathers, sons, relatives and friends were among the thousands of Canadians who took part in the invasion. It would be weeks before the Canadian Press could reveal the names of regiments and some of the details of the D-Day invasion.

• The June 6th, 1944 landings in France marked the opening of the Battle of Normandy. From the D-Day landings through to the encirclement of the German army at Falaise on August 21, 1944, the Battle of Normandy was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War and the scene of some of Canada’s greatest feats of arms. Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen played a critical role in the Allied invasion force that swept into France that summer. Pushing against fierce and ruthless German forces, including the fanatical 12th SS Panzer Division, Canadians encountered tense battles as troops moved forward. Canadians advanced at Carpiquet, Caen, Bourguebus Ridge, St. Andre-sur-Orne, Verrieres Ridge and the Falaise Gap. In the first few days after the landing, between June 7-12, Canadian casualties totalled 2,831 – of whom 1, 017 died. Between June 6 and the end of August 1944, more than 5,300 Canadians were killed during the Battle of Normandy. ^{D, E and 2N} Two principal military cemeteries contain the graves of Canadian soldiers from the Battle of Normandy are buried; Beny-sur-Mer Cemetery–Canadian soldiers killed during the early stages of the battle–and Bretteville-sur-Laize–Canadian soldiers killed in the later stages of the battle. At least eighteen young men from Sarnia would lose their lives during the Battle of Normandy. Ten of Sarnia’s fallen soldiers from the Battle of Normandy are buried in these two cemeteries.

• One of the worst war crimes in Canadian history occurred during the battle of Normandy, following the June 6, D-Day landings. As many as 156 Canadian soldiers, taken prisoner by German forces, were executed by their captors, the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitler Youth) in scattered groups in various pockets of the Normandy countryside. This was Hitler’s order as retribution for the invasion on France. On June 7, dozens of members of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the 27th Canadian Armoured Regiment were taken prisoner around the village of Authie. The Germans took their prisoners to Abbaye d’Ardenne, an ancient stone church, where later that night, eleven of the Canadian prisoners were taken into the Abbaye’s garden and shot in the head. The next morning, seven more Canadian POW’s were taken outside and shot. On June 8, sixty-four Canadians, including several dozen members of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, were taken prisoner near Putot-en-Bessin. The prisoners were marched to the Chateau d’Audrieu where later in the day, forty-five of the Canadians were murdered throughout the day. One of those murdered on June 8, 1944 was John Lychowich. He was originally from Manitoba and had moved to Sarnia to work at Polymer Corporation before enlisting in August of 1943. John Lychowichs’ name is on the Sarnia cenotaph and his story is included in this project. The Canadian prisoner murders and the consequent search for justice is documented in the book Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy by Howard Margolian.^{D, 2N}

• Corporal George Caven, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Caven of 334 Stuart Street, husband of Mrs. Thelma Caven of 266 Ontario Street, Sarnia and father of a two-year old son, Paul, was a member of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, and was scheduled to take part in the assault on D-Day. In late July of 1944, his wife Thelma would receive a number of letters he’d written over the previous two weeks, including one that he wrote to her on June 6, 1944 as he was waiting in a barge which was standing off the coast of France. He had been discharged two days previously from hospital. Following are portions of that letter:

I suppose that when you heard the news this morning of the greatest assault that has ever been made in any war, that you would be worried, and thousands of other people would be the same way… I am writing this from the ship and we are just pulling away from the French coast at Le Havre. I am still in the sick bay of the ship with a touch of pleurisy as the M.O. would not let me make the assault with the boys. He is sending me back to England for a few weeks rest.

 

You have no idea of the tremendous forces we have had and up to now the casualties are very small, and I pray to God they will remain so. Our company had a special job to do and, although some of the boys were dumped out of their craft by a mine, they all reached the beach and carried on with their work…. All our boys were in the best of spirits and were confident that they would succeed in the job each had given him to do.

 

Cpl. Caven enclosed with the letter, a copy of the circular from General Dwight Eisenhower, which was given to each man the night before the invasion. With this, he said, each man was given a carton of cigarettes and a certain amount of French money, so that he could buy anything he might need after landing. The circular from General Eisenhower read:

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

 

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely. But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

 

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

• One well-known Sarnian who took part and survived the D-Day invasion was actor James Doohan, best remembered to a generation of television viewers for his role as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, the chief engineer in the popular television and film series Star Trek. The youngest of four children of an Irish immigrant family, James was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Doohan family moved to Sarnia and resided at 167 ½ Lochiel Street. James Doohan’s father was a veteran of World War I, where he served as a major. James’ brother, William Patrick Doohan attended St. Joseph’s Separate School and Sarnia Collegiate Institute, joining the Lambton Regiment at the age 15 as a signaller. He would go overseas with the 97th Battery in November, 1941 with the rank of captain. He would rise up the ranks to being a major in the Royal Canadian Artillery to lieutenant-colonel, in command of an artillery regiment in the First Canadian Division. He would serve in Tunisia, Italy and Holland. In May of 1945, William Doohan was awarded mention in dispatches in recognition of gallant and distinguished service overseas.

James Doohan attended Sarnia Collegiate. At age 19 he joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps and when WWII began, he joined the Royal Canadian Artillery, rising up the ranks becoming a Lieutenant in the 13th Field Artillery Regiment. His first combat action was on D-Day. Twenty-four year old James Doohan was in command of 120 men. On the night of June 6, he was shot six times by an overzealous Canadian sentry when returning to his command post. He sustained four wounds in the leg, one in his chest and one through his right middle finger. The shot to the chest likely would have been fatal had it not been for a silver cigarette case in his shirt pocket that deflected the bullet. The lucky case was a gift from his brother. Approximately one week later, parents Mr. and Mrs. W.P. Doohan in Sarnia would receive a telegram informing them that their son, Lieuteneant James Doohan was reported wounded in action. His finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal during his acting career. After recovering from his injuries, he would become a qualified pilot, being posted to 666 (AOP) RCAF Squadron that was stationed at Apeldoorn, Holland. Though he never saw action, James developed a reputation as being one of the craziest pilots in the Canadian Air Force.

• In October 1944, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer featured a story on a Sarnian’s act of bravery during the Battle of Normandy. Private Keith Withers, the son of Mrs. Stella Withers of 409 Lydia Street, was a former Sarnia grid star who played on the Canadian Army rugby football team that defeated the United States Army all-stars at White

City Stadium, London. The story was told by Lance Corporal Willard Smith of Ridgetown, who credited Private Withers and another soldier with risking their lives and saving Smith from certain death. In telling of his rescue, Lt-Cpl. Smith said that after attacking east of Caen, his unit came under heavy attack, with intense shell and mortar fire from German infantry and Tiger tanks on either flank. On this particular night, Lt-Cpl. Smith, Private Withers and a driver (name unknown) were riding in a carrier. According to Lt-Cpl. Smith, “The carrier had to take a bumpy country road that the Germans had charted every inch of the way. They plastered us and all we had was the speed of the carrier, 25 or 30 miles an hour, against their accuracy. An 88 finally came through the carrier, and I was wounded and losing consciousness… The carrier was loaded with munitions and afire, but Withers and the driver, disregarding the danger got me clear and into a hole before the fire reached the grenades and the carrier went up in flames.”  Private Keith Withers would suffer serious burns in the incident and was sent to hospital in England.

• At the start of the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), which had been established on April 1, 1924, had only fifteen squadrons up to strength for mobilization (twelve for home defence and three for overseas service), totaling 230 aircraft. By the early part of 1944, the RCAF had reached its peak strength, equipped with seventy-eight squadrons in service (43 for home service and 35 for overseas), becoming the fourth largest allied air force in the world. Approximately 250,000 Canadian men and women would serve with the RCAF in World War II, many of them with British units. Of this total, approximately 17,000 Canadian airmen would perish in the Second World War.

• One of the RCAF’s most significant contributions during the war was the approximately 50,000 Canadians who served in Bomber Command operations overseas. The men who served in Bomber Command faced some of the most dangerous conditions of anyone fighting in the war. The odds of survival were slim. Usually seven men flew in a typical four-engined bomber like the Halifax or the Lancaster. These men worked together under great pressure on their night sorties. Take-offs were often tense, with a roaring aircraft loaded with tons of bombs and more than 6,000 litres of highly-flammable aviation gasoline racing down the runway. At high altitudes, the aircrew shivered in sub-zero temperatures, their oxygen masks sometimes freezing up. German fighters waited for them in the night skies over Europe and powerful searchlights and flak batteries guarded their targets, turning the skies into a hail of shrapnel. Evading the enemy defenses made for challenging flying that sometimes caused aircraft to go into a spin, while the pilot fought for control. Escape from a damaged plane was difficult and many of the Canadians who survived being shot down over enemy territory would become prisoners of war.^D The risks were so high that almost half of all aircrew never made it to the end of their tour. Of those who were flying Bomber Command at the beginning of the war, only ten percent survived. Nearly 10,000 Canadian airmen perished in the Bomber Command offensive against Germany and occupied Europe, including a number of young men from Sarnia. ^{D, 4B}

• Sarnia contributed more than its share to the Canadian Air Force. Of the 184 Sarnia World War II fallen soldiers included in this project, approximately 90 of them would lose their lives while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force, representing close to 50% of Sarnia’s World War II deaths. They lost their lives participating in many roles; serving with fighters, bomber command, and coastal patrol; protecting allied shipping, anti-shipping, anti-submarine, reconnaissance, and transport carriers; and during training accidents.^{D, E, 2I and 2S}

• During the war, the RCAF comprised three main parts: the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP); Home War Establishment (Western and Eastern Air Commands); and Overseas War Establishment. Each part of the RCAF provided a different service. The BCATP oversaw training airfields and other facilities throughout Canada that supplied the majority of aircrew for overseas operational service. Such facilities included training schools, elementary and service flying training schools, flying instructor’s schools, general reconnaissance schools, air navigation schools, wireless schools, bombing and gunnery schools, flight engineers’ schools, radar schools among others. Home War Establishment was responsible for protecting Canada’s coasts from enemy attack and for protecting allied shipping. Overseas War Establishment involved operational duties in Britain, northwest Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, with squadrons participating in most roles, including fighters, bombing, reconnaissance, anti-submarine and others. RCAF squadrons were also involved in operations in Egypt, Sicily, Italy, Malta, Ceylon, India and Burma.^{E, 2I and 2S}

• Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, one of the new squadrons formed for service under RAF operational control was adopted by the City of Sarnia. The R.C.A.F. No. 414 Squadron was formed in mid-August of 1941 at Croydon, England. Initially it was formed from a detachment of eight officers and 69 airmen provided by No. 400 Squadron and 200 ground crew personnel supplied by the Royal Air Force. Initially it served as an army co-operation role, equipped with Lysander IIIA and Curtis Tomahawk I/II aircraft. Based at numerous airfields in England, the No. 414 squadron initially occupied itself with exercises and training with the Army during the early period of its career, based at numerous airfields in England. In March of 1944, No. 414 Squadron was officially adopted by the City of Sarnia council in honour of Commander Charles “Smokey” Stover of Sarnia, who was the commanding officer of the unit at the time. The decision to adopt the unit resulted from a letter received by Sarnia Mayor W.C. Hipple from Wing Commander R. Irwin, director of public relations at the overseas headquarters of the R.C.A.F. Commander Irwin pointed out that the squadron not only was commanded by a Sarnian but from time to time included other residents of this city.^{N, 2S, 3G and 3H}

• The R.C.A.F. No. 414 “City of Sarnia” Squadron (Sarnia Imperials) was unofficially known as the ‘Black Knight Squadron’. Its badge included a black knight atop a white horse with red trimmings above a cloud. The squadron’s colours were black, red and white and its motto was, “Totis Viribis” (With all our Might). The unit was so beloved in Sarnia that residents not only dispatched occasional parcels of cigarettes, exchanged letters with members of the squadron but also raised $21,000 to buy a new plane for the squadron.^{N, 2S and 3H}

• In early June 1942, the No. 414 Squadron began to re-equip with Mustang Mk I’s. Not long after, the Squadron got its chance to take a more active role in the war. In August of 1942, the 414 Squadron was one of four Army co-operation squadrons detailed to reconnoiter at Dieppe. The 414 Squadron would employ the Mustangs over Dieppe on August 19th of 1942, where the first aerial victory ever claimed by a Mustang pilot was credited to the unit. After Dieppe, the squadron resumed training and exercises and soon flew various operations which included coastal patrol, tactical and photo reconnaissance (“populars”), intelligence and offensive low level ground attacks (“rhubarbs”). They targeted railway locomotives, enemy ships, aircraft on the ground, enemy troops and vehicles on the road. In preparation for D-Day, the 414 pilots flew photographic and tactical reconnaissance along the French coast. On D-Day, it undertook spotting missions for naval gun fire.^{2S, 3G and 3H}

• Charles Herbert “Smokey” Stover, the son of Mrs. Frances Stover of 191 ½ South Mitton Street, was born in Sarnia on September 8, 1915 and grew up in Sombra. He enlisted in London, Ontario in March of 1941, entering flight school in July 1941. He received his wings on November 21, 1941, arriving in England in January 1942. He was posted to Squadron 414 on March 3, 1942 as a Pilot Officer. His first mission was in a Mustang at Dieppe, on August 19, 1942. On that mission he was able to evade a group of attacking German Focke-Wulf 190’s (FW-190’s) by diving to “naught” feet; however, he did not notice a cement telephone pole coming up at him from the ground. “There was a crash,” he said. “The next thing I knew I’d left four feet of wing behind me. I sure wasted no time getting out of that place.” He belly-landed safely back at the base, minus part of one wing and half of his aileron. The Dieppe invasion was a Canadian disaster and included 119 RAF aircraft lost, including two from 414 Squadron. In December 1942, Charles Stover was promoted to Flying Officer and in November of 1943 he was appointed as Squadron Leader of 414 Squadron. In early 1944, Squadron Leader Stover led the R.C.A.F. “City of Sarnia” Mustang squadron on a raid in which four enemy planes were destroyed over the French city of Chartres, southwest of Paris. The enemy planes were downed so quickly that the Nazis did not fire a single shot in reply.

 

• On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the 414 Squadron served as reconnaissance spotters for the navy, directing naval bombardment, with Squadron Leader Charles Stover directing the fire of the 15” guns of the U.S.S. Nevada. “I personally have never seen and have never imagined such a scene of concentrated air action. It was a roof not an umbrella of fighters, intruders and bomber aircraft. It prevailed all the way from Cherbourg to Le Havre, and I imagine the Canadians on the ground, making their record-breaking dash for Caen, will have been as impressed by it as we were in the air.” In the days following D-Day, 414 Squadron pilots went out daily to take aerial photographs of occupied territory and to spot enemy movements from the air, often flying at tree-top level over their target, disregarding flak or other opposition. They also had their share of combat in the air and conducted fighter sweeps with outstanding success.

• In May 1944, Sarnian Charles Stover was one of four members of the R.C.A.F. to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. The DFC citation awarded to him reads, Squadron Leader Stover has been engaged on operations since August 1942. He has completed a large number of flights with outstanding courage and resolution, the first of his sorties being during the Dieppe operation. In August 1943, he led a mission to the Paris area where he destroyed Junkers 88 and damaged enemy locomotives and a tug. During another operation in November 1943, he shared in the destruction of a Junkers 52. Many of the sorties completed by this officer have involved deep penetrations into enemy territory, while others have been on reconnaissance and photographic duties. At all times Squadron Leader Stover has shown outstanding skill and devotion to duty on operations and by so doing has provided a great inspiration to those under him. On June 23, 1944, Charles Stover was wounded when his Mustang was shot up by a group of German FW-190’s east of Caen and he had to bail out, landing 500 feet inside Allied lines and wrenching his back. He would recover at a mobile field hospital in France before being evacuated to England.

• In mid-August 1944, Charles Stover would return to Sarnia on leave. In late August, Charles Stover and his English-born wife received tokens of friendship and esteem at a civic reception in the council chamber at Sarnia city hall. At the ceremony, he revealed that The City of Sarnia squadron which he commanded was one of six R.A.F. and R.C.A.F. reconnaissance formations whose photographs made possible the successful invasion of France. Since January 1944, thousands of pictures of the Normandy coast had been taken by the three Canadian units participating in the prelude to the invasion. In presenting Charles Stover with a gift and welcoming Mrs. Stover to the city, Alderman W.C. Nelson stressed that the reception was a gesture of appreciation to all Sarnians on active service. As Alderman Nelson stated, “Our little gathering is to welcome back to their home city, Squadron Leader Stover, D.F.C., and Mrs. Stover and their family, and to exprerss to Squadron Leader Stover the appreciation of our citizens in the signal honor he has achieved. Our city values deeply, though perhaps silently, the achievement and the sacrifices of every soldier. No words of ours can compensate for the sacrifice and the tragedy of war on the right to live that was theirs. We owe to you and to them all something that perhaps is deeper than can be expressed in words but will I hope, find expression in an unforgettable way in the lives of us all.” Charles Stover, in accepting his gift, remarked that he was proud to have been named leader of the City of Sarnia squadron and added that other members were just as glad to serve in it because of this city’s fame in the world of sport.

Charles Stover would remain in the Air Force until May 1945, and continue to serve post-war in the RCAF Reserve between 1949-1952. He would return to Sarnia and be employed at Shell Oil until his retirement. He was a beloved husband of Edna (nee Dismore) for 60 years and they would have three children together: Ronald, Murray and Gail. He was appointed Honorary Colonel of 414 Squadron in 1993. Charles Stover would pass away in November 2002, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Sombra, Ontario. ^{N, 2S, 3H, 3I and 3J}

• In August 1944 until the end of the war, the 414 Squadron flew Spitfire IXs and Spitfire XIVs and, operating from bases in France and later Germany, continued to support the Allied armies as they advanced towards Germany. The 414, despite not being a fighter squadron, accounted for 29 enemy aircraft destroyed and 11 damaged, 76 locomotives and 13 naval vessels destroyed. Their primary function – reconnaissance – cannot be summed up statistically, but the squadron won repeated tributes from the Army units with which the squadron operated. At the end of the war, the squadron was disbanded at Luneburg, Germany on August 7, 1945. The ‘Sarnia Imperials’ 414 Squadron Second World War battle honours included the Defence of Britain, 1942-43; Fortress Europe, 1942-44; Dieppe, France and Germany, 1944-45; Normandy, 1944; Arnhem, Rhine, and Biscay, 1943. Over the years, the 414 Squadron has been re-activated and disbanded numerous times. In November of 1952, during the Korean War, it was re-activated in Quebec, as a fighter squadron equipped with F-86 Sabres, similar to the one in Germain Park. Today it exists as No. 414 Electronic Warfare Support Squadron based in Ottawa, providing electronic warfare support to the combat training of the Canadian Forces. ^{2S, 3G and 3I}

• In late October 1944, as part of a drive to encourage citizens to purchase Victory Bonds, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer carried a full page advertisement with the headline, “HELP BRING THESE BOYS HOME.” The

advertisement contained the photos and names of, “Some of the Lambton Boys who are in POW camps.” The Sarnia/Lambton POWs included were Pte. Malcolm Moloy (taken prisoner in the Dieppe Raid, August 19, 1942); Sapper Charles M. Blondin (taken prisoner in the Dieppe Raid, August 19, 1942); Flying Officer Gene Atyeo, R.C.A.F. (taken prisoner between August and September, 1944); Cpl. Robert A. Zink (taken prisoner between July and September, 1944); Sapper Alvin James Archer (taken prisoner in the Dieppe Raid, August 19, 1942); Sgt. Robert H. Hammett, R.C.A.F. (taken prisoner about August 1943); Flight Sgt. John D. (Bunt) Murray, R.C.A.F. (shot down over Norway in April 1942); Lance Bombardier Norris A. Demeray (taken prisoner after the Dieppe Raid, August 1942); Lieut. Arthur M. Hueston (taken prisoner following the Dieppe Raid, August 1942); Sapper Jack L. Date (prisoner of war since the Dieppe Raid, August 1942); Lieut. Neal Watson (taken prisoner during the Dieppe Raid, August 1942); Flight Sergeant Joseph J. Barr, R.C.A.F. (taken prisoner between April and May, 1944); Leslie Harris,

Merchant Marine (taken prisoner from Imperial Oil Tanker, March 1941); and Flight Lt. George Wm. Gardiner of Petrolia (taken prisoner between July and August, 1944).

• In mid-February 1945, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer would feature the story of Lieutenant Neal Watson, the first local man captured at Dieppe to return to Sarnia. After four years away from Sarnia, including two and one-half years in a German prison camp, Neal was first greeted by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Watson, 339 ½ North Christina Street at the Brantford train station. When Neal and his parents arrived at the Sarnia train station, they were greeted by family members, a crowd of welcomers, and the skirl of the bagpipes, as played by Pipe-Major James Stewart, an 80-year-old veteran of the Boer War and the First World War. Once home, despite the ever present worry about censorship regulations, Neal Watson spoke of his experiences. He had enlisted in July of 1940 and had gone overseas in February 1941 with the rank of lieutenant with the Essex Scottish Regiment of Windsor. Then in December of 1941 he had started special battle training in England in preparation for the Dieppe raid. Leaving Britain before midnight on August 18, 1942 and assaulting the beach at Dieppe about 5:20 a.m. the next day, Neal Watson was among the first ashore, crossing the barbed wire and reaching the seawall before the Nazi defenders opened devastating fire upon those who followed. After hiding below the seawall and being under fire for eight hours, he was taken prisoner about noon on August 19. Watson would spend most of his imprisonment at Oflag VIIB, an officers’ camp near Munich, Germany. Eventually, Neal would be repatriated in an exchange of Allied and German prisoners of war in Switzerland. Neal Watson also brought good news of other Sarnians who were still prisoners of war in Germany, specifically, Lieut. Arthur M. Hueston and Lieut. Thomas B. Doherty. He described life in the prison camp as “not ideal”; however, the strictly curtailed food rations were adequate and the German doctors were among the few Nazis he had a good word for. Neal added that the Red Cross parcels, the cigarettes from Sarnia, and the gifts from various churches made life easier for him and all the prisoners.

• In late May 1945, Lieut. Arthur Hueston had returned to Sarnia. Hueston was a platoon commander in the Essex Scottish Regiment, who was also taken prisoner at Dieppe in August, 1942. Hueston was released in late April of 1945 when the 47th Tank Battalion of the United States Army overran Moosburg prison camp where he was held. Hueston had been in Oflag VIIB, where most of the Canadian officers from Dieppe were imprisoned, but was moved to Moosburg late in the war. Around 2,000 Allied prisoners were marched from Oflag VIIB to Moosburg after American forces advanced across the Rhine. The following are portions of Lieut. Hueston’s description of his experiences:

 

Our column was scarcely out of the compound when it was strafed by Allied fighter bombers. Twelve soldiers were killed and 39 were wounded… The march was continued under cover of darkness to Moosburg, the distance was 80 miles… Moosburg was a frightful camp with about 110,000 prisoners of all nationalities packed into a small area. Some lived in tents, others in lousy barrack huts with one tap to 250 men. It was almost impossible to wash or shave. Most prisoners lived in their clothes all the time. German rations consisted largely of rotten potatoes, mouldy black bread and turnips fit for cattle. One man could carry on his shoulder the weekly issue for 2,000 prisoners. Minute quantities of margarine and sugar were provided, along with turnip-pulp jam usually so full of maggots even hungry prisoners could not stomach it. In  summer we had one blanket as thin as a hankerchief, in winter, we were promised another but it didn’t arrive until mid-winter. Fuel was always so scarce that we spent most of the day breaking up furniture for the fire. In winter, we were given enough coal to boil five cups of tea per man a day, but in summer, there was no coal. Most of the books we received from Canada ultimately found their way into the smokeless heaters.

The prisoners at Moosburg watched the three-hour battle that liberated their camp until they had to take cover; We watched the whole show until we noticed bullet holes in the tents. Then we decided it was time to get out of the way.

• The Battle of the Scheldt, the beginning of the Liberation of the Netherlands: The Scheldt estuary was a gateway from the North Sea to the port of Antwerp. Access to this port was essential to supply Allied armies in their drive for victory in Western Europe following D-Day. During the Scheldt Campaign, the Allies, led by the First Canadian Army, pushed into southwestern Netherlands and northern Belguim beginning in October 1, 1944 and fought until November 8th, 1944. The Battle of the Scheldt was among the most difficult and grueling struggles in the war. The German forces, highly trained, well-fortified and heavily entrenched, had flooded the whole area by blowing up the dykes that held back the North Sea. The bitter fighting took place in winter cold, in a flooded and freezing muddy quagmire. The battle for the Scheldt ended in Allied victory, but the cost was high. The Canadians suffered more than 6,300 casualties including more than 800 killed. At least six young men from Sarnia would lose their lives in the Battle of the Scheldt.^{D, E, 4A}

• The Battle of the Rhineland: In February 1945, the First Canadian Army, attacking from the northwest, and the Ninth U.S. Army, attacking form the southwest, launched a great offensive which was designed to drive the Germans eastward back over the Rhine River and bring about final defeat. For the first time, fighting was to take place on German soil and a fierce opposition was expected. The first phase, known as Operation Veritable, began on February 8, 1945. The First Canadian Army, strengthened by the addition of British divisions and other Allied units, moved southeast towards the Reichswald Forest. Destroyed dykes flooded the area and hampered the advance and at times troops floundered through water three feet deep, against an enemy that was able to reinforce its positions. Over the course of a month, through mud, rain, thick forests and enemy counter-attacks, the British and Canadian soldiers slowly advanced forward, breaking the Siegfried Line through the Reichswald Forest. The second phase, Operation Blockbuster, involved clearing the Hochwald Forest fortifications. Resistance continued until March 10, 1945 when the Germans blew up the last bridges and withdrew east across the Rhine, their last major line of defence. During the month of fighting, the First Canadian Army suffered more than 15,000 casualties including more than 5,300 killed. At least six young men from Sarnia would lose their lives in the Battle of the Rhineland. ^{D, E, 2N, 3Z, 4A}

• The Liberation of the Netherlands: In mid-1940, the Netherlands were under German control, which meant years of suffering for the Dutch people, highlighted in the “Hunger Winter” of 1944-45, when fuel shortages, exhausted food supplies and cold temperatures caused thousands of Dutch men, women and children to perish from starvation, cold and disease. Canadian Army Corps who had landed on D-Day and fought battles through France, Belgium, the Scheldt and in Germany were dispatched to the Netherlands along with the Canadian Army Corps who had fought in Italy. On February 7th of 1945, the two Canadian Corps began their push to drive the German troops occupying the northeast back to the sea, and those in the west back into Germany. Canadians joined their British, American, Polish, and Belgian Allies and Dutch resistance in a fierce push through mud, canals, farmland and flooded grounds to drive the Germans out of the Netherlands. Often fighting in house-by-house battles, Canadian and Allied forces recaptured major Dutch cities such as Arnhem, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague. By April of 1945, Canadians were dropping vital relief supplies by air to many on the brink of misery and starvation. This was followed by convoys of trucks delivering tons of food daily. On May 5, 1945, the Netherlands were liberated; two days later was declared V-E Day. Over the nearly eight months of bitter and difficult fighting during the Scheldt Campaign and the Liberation of the Netherlands, more than 7,600 Canadians lost their lives while fighting in Holland. Along with the minimum of twelve other young men from Sarnia who would lose their lives during the Battle of the Scheldt and the Battle of the Rhineland, at least eight other young men from Sarnia would lose their lives in the Liberation of the Netherlands. ^{D, E, 3M, 3Z}

• In May 1945, Mrs. Maynard Elliott of 134 North Russell Street, Sarnia would receive a letter from Miss Betty Schaapma, of Harlingen, Holland. Mrs. Elliott’s husband, Maynard, was a sergeant in the R.C.A.F., and their son was Eldon (Buddy) Elliot, a Private with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, who had been wounded in Belgium in January of 1945. In Miss Betty Schaapma’s letter, she praised Private Eldon Elliott, and expressed the gratitude of the Dutch people for the prominent role which the Canadian forces played in the liberation of their country, including her town of Harlinggen. The following is a portion of that letter:

Our town was liberated from German tyranny the night of April 16-17. How glad and grateful we are; we can’t say it with words. Five years we lived in anguish and fear and at last we can breathe again. Next to God we give thanks to the brave Canadian soldiers. Your countrymen were received with tumultuous cheering and the people opened their doors to them to show how grateful they were. In this way, we made your son’s acquaintance. It was a great pity that he had to move again but we hope that he soon may return, safe and well, to Canada. He is such a neat, calm boy. On a map, he showed us where you are living. I am sending you a clipping from the first newspaper since VE-Day.

The clipping was of a proclamation of “Our Liberators”, printed in both English and Dutch. “We welcome you, our liberators, as bringers of peace and goodwill. May the five years of brutal oppression and humiliation of our people, years of indescribable grief, disappear like a nightmare, out of which we may awake in the clearness of a new day.”

• In early March 1945, the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer printed an unnamed soldier’s letter that had been received by George A.C. Andrew, a former Sarnia mayor and harbourmaster. George Andrew had himself lost two sons in the war: William Charles Andrew (October of 1941) and George Varnum Andrew (December of 1943). The young unnamed soldier from Sarnia was George Andrew’s acquaintance who was in the air force overseas. In the letter, the writer told of the misgivings, fears felt and dread of the process of rehabilitation by many soldiers concerning their return to civilian life. Though written towards the end of World War II, the sentiment expressed in the letter could probably apply to many young soldiers in any war as their service nears an end. The following is a portion of that letter:

It is quite a problem to know what to do when the war is over. I have been in service since September 1939, and the

thought of being a civilian again rather frightens me. As I haven’t a permanent job to go to, I’m afraid I shall be at a loss to know what to do for the first six months at least. One thing is certain-it will be a great deal more difficult to change from soldier to civilian than it was to make the opposite transition. In the service one leads a sheltered existence in manmy ways and it will be a rude awakening for some young fellows, including myself, to have to get out and fight for a living in an entirely different way than that to which we have been accustomed. It will be difficult too, to give up at one fell swoop, rank, prestige and authority attained through conscientious effort and ability, and to exchange it all for a civilian suit, the bottom of the ladder again, and the knowledge that many years of one’s life has been entirely wasted. I didn’t mean to talk about these things but they have been on my mind for some time so I had to talk to someone. Please forgive me.

• In late March 1945, a plaque honouring 14 Jewish members of the armed services from the City of Sarnia was unveiled during the regular Passover rites, in the Ahavas Isaac Synagogue, Davis Street, Sarnia. The plaque was unveiled by FO. Morris Skosov, D.F.C., following a brief service by Rabbi A. Roness. Rabbi Roness paid tribute to these Jewish warriors, and compared the deliverance of the ancient Hebrew peoples from the bondage of Egypt to the deliverance of all people from the scourge of Hitler’s war. Of the fourteen Jewish men on the plaque, seven had enlisted in the Air Force, six in the Army and one with the Navy. Nine of these men had been overseas, and three of them made the supreme sacrifice. The men, all from Sarnia, honoured on the plaque were M. Berger, S. Bernard, R. Heller, I. Haber, M. Kirk, Dr. I. Mann, A. Rosen, G. Shabsove, M. Skosov, Mitchell Smith, Murray Smith, L. Swartz, I.B. Zierler, Isaac Zierler. At the time of the unveiling, 1.5 million Jewish enlisted with the Allied armies, 15 000 of them from Canada. The three men on the plaque who lost their lives while serving were Max Berger, Mitchell Smith and Isaac Buck Zierler (all included in this project).

• In the spring of 1945, on two separate occasions, reports surfaced that the Germans had surrendered. The first, on April 28, was erroneous; the second on the morning of May 7, was merely premature.^2N

• The headline on the May 7, 1945 Sarnia (Canadian) Observer read:

Complete Surrender of Germany to Allies is Reported Unofficially Today Formal Announcement Of Cessation Of Hostlities Is Scheduled For Tomorrow

The front page newspaper story went on to state that a number foreign Associated Press correspondents, along with broadcast statements from German and Danish radio, were reporting that Germany had surrendered. The German broadcast statement was attributed to the German Foreign Minister in which he stated that Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, whom Hitler had appointed as his successor in late April 1945, had ordered “unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops. After almost six years of struggle we have succumbed.” Allied Supreme Headquarters in Paris were not denying the truth of the reports, instead merely saying that no story of German capitulation “is authorized.” Parliamentary correspondents were reporting that telephone conversations were taking place between Winston Churchill in London, Joseph Stalin in Moscow and Harry Truman in Washington who were undoubtedly trying to synchronize simultaneous release of the news.

• On May 7, 1945 in Rheims, France, at 2:41 am local time, Germany signed the Instrument of Surrender document, which brought World War II in Europe to an end. Official confirmation of the German surrender came the following day on May 8th at 9 am EDT. “Victory in Europe Day” or VE Day was celebrated on May 8, 1945. The war was not yet over – the war with Japan was still underway–but the major threat of Nazi Germany had ended.

• In Sarnia, May 8, 1945 VE Day was observed with restraint. Mayor W.C. Hipple gave his permission for a parade which started a tour of downtown streets at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The procession included the Lambton Garrison band– assembled on short notice–marchers, the big ladder truck of the fire department, children and numerous decorated automobiles. Union Jacks, Stars and Stripes and assorted flags of other Allied nations were flown throughout the day from stores, business blocks and many private homes. Paper streamers hung from upstairs windows of hotels and other buildings. During the evening between 3,000 and 4,000 participated in street dancing to the music provided by Ken Williamson’s orchestra. Though some were critical of the belated and unimpressive nature of the city’s observance, Mayor Hipple defended the celebration. “Personally, I am very happy over the restrained way in which the people of Sarnia observed the occasion. I sincerely believe that those who clamored for a more extensive celebration were persons who have not been bereaved in this war or who do not have any relatives still overseas. Those with reasons for sorrow or worry are fully as well satisfied with our quiet observance as I am.” Lieutenant Col. S.G. Stokes, M.C., V.C., officer commanding the 11th Field Company, R.C.E., upheld Mayor

Hipple’s attitude on the celebration. Stokes asserted that Sarnia’s observance of VE-Day was quite in keeping with its standing in the Dominion as regards its’ contributions to the armed forces. He pointed out that Sarnia’s percentage of volunteers for the various services was relatively high compared with that of other cities and he thought this was a sound reason for the restrained celebration. Such restraint reflected credit on their relatives at home. Local citizens were also well aware of the news of the Halifax celebrations that had occurred the previous evening. In that city, the poorly co-ordinated VE-Day celebrations which began on May 7, rapidly declined into a rampage of looting and vandalism that lasted for two days.

• The front page of the May 9, 1945 Sarnia Canadian Observer carried reports on a number of the major events that were occurring at the time. Headlines of the stories on the front page included GOERING AND KESSELRING ARE CAPTURED; Halifax “Peace” Riot To Be Investigated; Joy Reigns In Moscow; Victory Is Celebrated In Most European Capitals; and Final Act Of Surrender Takes Place In Berlin.

• A national day of prayer and thanksgiving for the Allied victory in Europe was observed on Sunday, May 13, 1945 in cities across Canada, including Sarnia. The Sarnia observance included a parade that began at city hall and moved to the cenotaph in Victoria Park for a special memorial service. It was estimated that more than six thousand local citizens assembled in the park or witnessed the parade. The mile-long procession included bands representing the Sarnia Garrison; the Air Cadet band and Sea Cadet band; drummers and buglers of the 11th (reserve) Field Company; R.C.E. marchers of the Canadian Corps and Canadian Legion; members of the city council; scores of veterans of the two World Wars; the 26th (reserve) L.A.A. Battery army unit under the command of Lieut.-Col. S.G. Stokes and Major J. Newton; Sea Cadets and Air Cadets; two Red Cross nursing units; Imperial Oil nurses; and the St. John Ambulance Brigade and its nursing division. Before the paraders reached Victoria Park, the spectators there heard Prime Minister Winston Churchill start his radio broadcast which was amplified to the crowd from London, England. Major F.G. Hardy, chaplain of the 7th Regiment, R.C.A., and rector of St. George’s Anglican Church, conducted the religious segment of the memorial service that included hymns, prayers and a sermon. Parents and relatives of those who died overseas had the honor of placing the first wreaths at the base of the cenotaph. Wreaths were also laid on the cenotaph on behalf of the city, (by Mayor W.C. Hipple), the Canadian Corps, the Canadian Legion and the Legion’s Ladies Auxillary. The ceremony came to an impressive end with the sounding of “The Last Post” and “Reveille” and the playing of “God Save the King.”

• By early July 1945, Sarnia soldiers began returning home. Through the co-operation of the Sarnia Canadian Legion, Branch 62, the Red Cross and civic authorities, soldiers returning from overseas were being royally welcomed at the Canadian National tunnel depot. A loud-speaker for each train bringing veterans to the city, provided martial music before each arrived and then announced the names of those aboard. Jimmy Stewart, a World War I veteran, played the bagpipes as the servicemen stepped off the train. A reception booth set up in the waiting room provided them with information. Each man also received two packages of cigarettes from the Canadian Legion, bearing a sticker with the Legion crest and a message of welcome.

• The Far East and the end of the Pacific War: Canadian Forces were involved in the war in the Far East from its outset, beginning with two infantry battalions charged with defending Hong Kong in early December 1941. The Royal Canadian Air Force was involved in the Far East War from the beginning, with many members, including some from Sarnia, assigned to RAF squadrons, serving in Malaya, Singapore, Java, Burma, India and Ceylon. Canadian sailors and merchant seamen would serve on Canadian and British ships. Canadians were also involved in other special groups in the Far East, such as  a “Sea Reconnaissance Unit” (frogmen spearheading British Army assaults), and a group of Japanese-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians who volunteered working as interpreters with intelligence units or with the secret “Force 136” team (resistance movements and sabotage operations).

After the Victory-in-Europe (VE Day) in May 1945, Canada and the Allied forces prepared to dedicate their efforts and resources in the struggle against Japan. Approximately 80,000 Canadians volunteered to join the Pacific forces and began concentrating at nine stations across Canada in July 1945, along with 60 Royal Canadian Navy ships, manned by 13,500 men. One of the first Canadian forces to make a contribution in the Far East during this period was the Royal Canadian Navy cruiser HMCS Uganda, which participated in Allied operations around Okinawa in the spring of 1945. In August of 1945, the Sarnia Observer featured a story on a local sailor who had been on the ship, likely the only sailor of this city to take part in the Pacific War against the Japanese during this period. Leading Steward Charles Taylor, whose wife Mary and six children resided at 165 South Forsythe Street, Sarnia, had joined the Royal Canadian Navy 15 months prior. He had trained at Quebec, Cornwallis and Charleston, South Carolina where he boarded the Uganda, crossed the Atlantic to England, and then to the Pacific. Charles Taylor would travel over 63,000 miles aboard the Uganda, two thirds of it on active service in the Pacific theatre. The Uganda bombarded Truk, fired 12 tons of explosives on Dublon Island installations and attacked the Japanese navy station at Kobe and Kure.

Through the summer of 1945, preparations continued for the Canadian contribution to the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands planned for the fall of 1945. A complete infantry division and several air squadrons were being readied – a force of more than 24,000. All preparations stopped when the United States bomber Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb (nicknamed “Little Boy”) on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb (nicknamed “Fat Man”) on Nagasaki. This would lead to Japan’s unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945. “Victory over Japan Day” or VJ Day was celebrated on August 15, 1945 (August 15 in Japan, but because of the time zone difference, August 14 in North America). The term has also been used for September 2nd, 1945 when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.^D,E

• Petty Officer George Kimball of the United States Navy was aboard the U.S.S. Missouri and witnessed the signing of the Japanese surrender. George Kimball was from Brigden, having spent his boyhood days at Kimball, Sarnia and the vicinity. His grandmother, father and uncle resided at the Kimball store. Petty Officer Kimball wrote to his father George Senior, to tell his impressions of the event. The following are portions of that letter:

 

It’s hard to believe that it is all over. A short time ago we were at war without much prospect of finishing it very soon. Our boat was chosen for the signing of the surrender terms and from where I was stationed I had a good view. It was a solemn and impressive ceremony and there was no doubt that by the expressions on the faces of the Japanese delegation they sensed the gravity of the occasion. The Japs were a very dejected group of men. There were tears in the eyes of many as they left the ship…The signing of the surrender terms was an awe-inspiring sight and one I will never forget. I was very proud to be a sailor on the mighty Missouri and in on the history making event. Yes, our chests were out, but all was serene. There was no hilarity and it seemed more of a solemn ritual. We are all proud that we have been able to win this war, and we hope it will be the last war that will have to be won. Many have died with this hope. Let us pray that it carries those charged with the forming and preserving of peace to a successful accomplishment of the task.

• After almost six years of war, celebrations of the war’s end began in Sarnia on the evening of Tuesday, August 14, 1945. The following are portions of the reports from the Sarnia Observer:

Official word of the Japanese surrender was heralded in Sarnia by the blowing of factory whistles, the ringing of church bells, and a bedlam of horn blowing and cheering. A spontaneous wave of excitement swept up and down the streets. Within a few minutes after the official announcement was made at seven o’clock, people began to appear in the streets. Many headed for downtown. People shook hands. Paper fluttered from upper storey windows. People ran around throwing confetti and motorists blew their automobile horns. Children got out their whistles, and noise makers. By eight o’clock, Front and Christina streets were jammed. Huge crowds drifted up and down the streets cheering and shouting, singing and laughing…also blowing paper horns. Motor traffic was heavy as hundreds of cars joined in the procession up Christina and down Front. The din was almost unbearable. Members of the Sea Cadet Corps band were to have a practice, but news of victory changed the plan. As soon as the ratings heard the announcement of the war’s end they tuned up their instruments and paraded up Christina Street. They were the first band on the scene and helped start off the spontaneous celebration. It was only a few minutes after seven o’clock that freighters in the river began saluting each other. All up and down the St. Clair, ships’ whistles tooted and members of the crew waved and shouted to those on shore. While Sarnia celebrated the occasion, echoes of the Port Huron celebration kept drifting across the St.Clair River and rockets of various colours frequently brightened the sky. The downtown streets remained crowded until two o’clock after which time the diehard celebrants of iron constitution removed themselves to whatever restaurants were open and there drank coffee and held sing-songs until the early hours of the next morning.

• Official celebrations in the city took place the next day, on August 15, with a parade through downtown. The Sarnia Observer report included these comments:

– Citizens, young and old, thronged the downtown area of the city and lined Christina Street to the gates of the Athletic Park to witness the largest and best parade ever organized in the history of the city.

– Whatever was lacking in the VE-Day celebration was more than made up by the enthusiasm and vim with which people entered into VJ-Day

– Many people said they hadn’t seen as good a celebration in this city since the Old Home Week in 1925.

Members of the Canadian Legion bearing the colours of the Allies headed the parade, with a stream of marching units and decorated floats and vehicles moving from the city hall to Athletic Park. Participants included the Sarnia Garrison Bugle Band; veterans of World War I and World War II; the Sarnia Garrison Band; cadet units; the Sea Cadet Band; groups of new Canadians such as the Chinese community (restaurant and café owners, chefs and laundry proprietors); First Nations in costume; Scouts, Cubs and Brownies; Sarnia and Port Huorn Salvation Army Corps Bands; a group of beautifully-decorated bicycles; fire trucks and floats enterd by among others, Imperial Oil, Polymer Corporation, Mac-Craft, Praill Florist Shop and the Knights of Pythias. At the park, after a reviewing stand and salute by Lt-Col. Eric Harris and Major William Ewener, a short religious service, a welcome given by Mayor W.C. Hipple, a poignant one minute of silence was held in memory of the men who would not return units left for England. Lt-Col. Harris followed with a short speech in which he reminisced on the service and parade held on the same spot in the spring of 1940 before the men of the Sarnia units left for England. Following this was another heartfelt one minute of silence in memory of the men who would not return units left for England. Hymns and the singing of the National Anthem closed the event. The celebrating continued throughout the day and into the night, with the streets just as crowded and noisy as they were the night before. Crowds of people, old and young, gathered beside City Hall to watch the program of entertainment arranged by the Celebration committee that included singers, dancers and artists. Jack Kennedy’s orchestra provided the dance music following the program, when the street was taken up with dancers and the dancing continued until midnight.

• On August 19, 1945, hundreds of Sarnians formed a parade in which they paid tribute to those who died in the two world wars and offered prayers of thanksgiving for the newly-won peace. This date also commemorated the third anniversary of the costly Dieppe Raid of August 19, 1942. The parade moved away from the Sarnia Legion headquarters, proceeded up George Street to Christina Street to the cenotaph at Victoria Park. Taking part in the parade was the Lambton Garrison band; the Sea Cadet band from R.S.S.C. Repulse; members of the Canadian Legion, the Red Cross, and the Canadian Corps; city officials; and a delegation of Port Huron Legion members and other organizations. At the cenotaph, persons who had lost loved ones in both World Wars laid wreaths in their memory. The service consisted of hymns and prayers, conducted by Rev. G.G. Stone of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Point Edward who was assisted by Rabbi A. Roness of the Ahavas Isaac Synagogue. The service concluded with a minute of silence in memory of the fallen, with the “Last Post” and “Reveille” being sounded.

• In late August 1945, the Sarnia Observer interviewed and printed the responses of many of Sarnia’s former fliers, soldiers and sailors on their postwar plans. Service men did not expect any assistance from the government other than the gratuities to which they were entitled. Many of them planned to enter fields of small business, where they could be their own boss; for example, owning service stations, fish and chip shops, bake shops, furniture markets and transport services. Farm boys’ opinions varied; from wanting to return to their parents’ farms to asking their dads to break up the farms so that they could continue on their own. Some had decided not to return to the farms at all – either because they had taken educational courses overseas and now wanted to do something different, or because their injuries of war made them physically unable to do the heavy work of farming. Other servicemen wanted to return to the universities and schools that they left to continue their educational training. Others wished to return to their former places of employment, though for some, they were physically unable to do so. Quite a few of the men interviewed admitted that they were still mentally in what they called “a muddle”.

• In mid-October 1945, twenty-five year old Private George Francis Robinson, a member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, would make a surprise visit to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Robinson, Bluewater, Sarnia. He had spent almost four years in a Japanese prison camp. He told his story to the Sarnia Observer. He had been a member of the garrison at Hong Kong when it fell on Christmas Day, 1941. He wasn’t captured until the following day. He had been with an outpost in the mountains when a British officer broke through the Japanese lines and said they were to surrender. They had plenty of heavy and light machine guns, but ammunition was running short and the water supply was exhausted. They would smash their guns and the Japanese would move in immediately. He described how inside the prison camp, the Japanese guards were always trying to cause trouble; for instance, one guard would offer a prisoner a cigarette. As soon as the prisoner lit up, the guard would give the nod to another guard who would step up and smash the cigarette against the prisoner’s teeth. Food was always short and consisted mainly of steamed rice three times a day with occasional treats of mule or horse meat, tripe or grasshoppers in soy sauce. His starvation diet reduced him from 162 pounds to 107 at the end of the war. While he was in Hong Kong, an epidemic of diphtheria broke out in the camp and killed a number of fellows. George himself got the disease but, fortunately, recovered. In the spring of 1943, he was moved to Nagata, several hundred miles north of Tokyo. The move was made in the stinking hold of a salvaged Chinese steamship into which 305 prisoners were jammed so that there was no room to lie down. At Nagata, he was employed with other prisoners as a stevedore unloading ships. There were no regular hours. If a ship came in, the prisoners worked until they had unloaded her, sometimes laboring from 5 a.m. until midnight. He was inclined to pity the Japanese girls who also worked as stevedores, carrying 200-pound bags. On his return to Sarnia, he planned to spend two weeks with his parents and then return to Winnipeg to enter high school in preparation for a course of diesel engineering. He said, after the blackout in Japan, that the bright lights of Canada are what appealed to him now and, although the food was sumptuous in Canadian restaurants, he frequently could eat only part of a regular portion.

• In late October 1945, the men of the 26th Battery, R.C.A., returned home to Sarnia, five and a half years after leaving the city and having been through England, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Though many did not return and the personnel of the unit had changed again and again over that time, it was still Sarnia’s Battery. When it was mobilized in September of 1939, the unit was composed almost entirely of Sarnia and Lambton County men. On its return, only three original members of the 26th Battery were still with the unit: BSM Peter Oleniuk, 355 South Russell Street; BSM Douglas Urie, Watford; and Sgt. Charles McEwen of Wyoming. Sixteen other Lambton County men returned with the unit, from Sarnia, Petrolia, Forest, Watford, Arkona, Sombra, Alvinston, Courtright and Thedford. The train had been met earlier in the morning in Toronto by Captain James Doohan, an original member of the unit, back in 1939. As the special train pulled into the Cromwell Street station on a sunny Saturday morning, they were greeted by a tremendous ovation from crowd gathered along the Ferry Hill approach. A guard of honour of almost 50 former members of the battery, the Garrison Bugle Band and the bands of the Sea Cadets and Air Cadets met them. The unit marched up the slope to Cromwell Street and, through the cheering crowds which included many relatives and friends, made its way up Christina Street to the city hall where Mayor W.C. Hipple and members of the city council were present to extend the official welcome. Mayor Hipple in his brief word of welcome said, “Sarnia is proud of you, we can only hope you will be able to enjoy some of the comforts for which you have so valiantly fought.” He also paid a tribute to the members of the battery who were left behind, assuring their loved ones of the city’s pride in them and their sympathy for those left to mourn. When the unit broke off for half an hour, the men were immediately surrounded by groups of relatives and friends. The following is an excerpt from the Sarnia Observer eye-witness report of the scene:

“Many affecting scenes were witnessed as wives, mothers, and sweethearts greeted their loved ones. Gunner J.A. Good of Watford was greeted by his wife and three year-old son Bobby who found it hard to understand the new daddy who hugged him so closely. One of the few Sarnia men to return with the unit was Gunner Jack Devereaux, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Devereaux, 518 Confederation Street, who, in addition to his parents, was greeted by his wife and a small son Jimmy whom he had never seen. ‘It’s just great, it’s wonderful’ was all that he could say, in the midst of being hugged almost to death by his relatives.” The square was then cleared for the final fall in and the brief march up Christina Street to the armory for final pay and documentation.

• Two weeks later, army public relations headquarters released a historical sketch of the 26th Field Battery. Formed at Sarnia on September 3, 1939, it was in Guelph until May 25, 1940, when it was amalgamated with the 53rd Battery of Cobourg, to enter the Fourth Field Regiment. It embarked for England on August 22, 1940. The unit supplied two NCOs and ten gunners for the Dieppe raid in 1942, but all were either taken prisoner or killed. The unit arrived in Normandy on July 6, 1944. The battery was among those that saw action in several battles; for the Falaise Gap (at Caen); the campaign to open the port of Antwerp, on Beveland Peninsula; the battle of the Rhine, the liberation of Holland; and the conquest of northwest Germany. The battery casualties was listed as totalling 40 killed in action and 200 wounded.

• Mid-November 1945 also marked the homecoming celebration of the 11th Field Company and the First Field Park Company, two Royal Canadian Engineer units that were mobilized in Sarnia and trained and fought together on the battlefields. Both units commenced their training at Bright’s Grove until December 1939, when they were transferred to Wolseley Barracks in London. Assigned to the Second Canadian Division, both companies proceeded overseas in 1940–the 11th Field Company arriving in England in September and the Field Park Company in December. The Second Canadian Division was concentrated in the Aldershot area in southern England, where they continued training and were tasked with the responsiblity of defence against any possible German invasion. In the summer of 1942, detachments from the 11th and First Field were secretly transported to the Isle of Wight to commence training for the raid on Dieppe. Of the 65 men who went from the 11th Field Company, five were killed, 42 were captured and only 18 returned to England. Of the 24 men who went from the First Field Park Company, four were captured, and 20 returned to England. Following Dieppe, the units were reorganized and began another long period of training. One month after D-Day, the Second Division landed on the coast of Normandy. Then the busy days for the sappers began as the 11th and First Field Companies, combined with other units of the Second Division, pursued the German army along the French coast. The engineers cleared roads from mines and built bridges, often done while under fire. Somehow they kept up with the infantry. They would continue to Antwerp and the Scheldt campaign in Belgium, into northwest Germany and Holland. After VE-Day, the engineers were involved in reconstruction efforts in Germany and Holland.

• In the third week of November 1945, the men of Sarnia’s own 11th Field Company, R.C.E. returned home aboard a special train. As the train pulled slowly into Cromwell Street on a rainy afternoon, over one thousand cheering citizens greeted it. Of the 160 men who arrived, only six were from Sarnia and Lambton County; the rest were from points all across Canada, but that did not matter: Sarnia was welcoming the “Triumphant Eleventh”, its own unit back home. Children from the public schools were dismissed an hour-and-a-half early to enable them to attend, along with many high school students. The soldiers then marched from the station along Christina Street to the City Hall Square, every inch of the route lined with a cheering, admiring throng. After a short welcome by Mayor W.C. Hipple, the soldiers were moved into the market building, where they were handed packets of cigarettes and chocolate bars from Canadian Legion representatives and Sarnia Red Cross members. Each man then cashed their $100 cheque which had been handed them in England before leaving, passes were checked, warrants exchanged to tickets and train connection times were provided. From the market, they were directed to the armories where a banquet was awaiting them. In many cases, families of the men had travelled long distances to be in Sarnia to greet them. The wives, mothers and children were made just as welcome at the banquet. Hours later, the men were transported to the evening train to move on to their next destinations, which was to be followed by 30 days leave before their discharge. The Sarnia Observer headline of the event the next day read, “Tumultuous Accord As Triumphant 11 Field Reach Home”.

• Also during the third week of November 1945, at the Canadian National Railways station in Windsor, thousands and thousands of next-of-kin, loved ones, wives and well-wishing neighbours welcomed home the Essex Scottish Regiment. Many from Sarnia journeyed to Windsor to join in the mass celebration. A number of Sarnia and Lambton County men had enlisted with the unit when it first mobilized in September 1939, and more joined the regiment as replacements. After training at Camp Borden, the Essex Scottish proceeded overseas in July 1940. On August 19, 1942, the Essex Scottish Regiment landed on the machine-gun swept beaches of Dieppe where the unit suffered 98 percent casualties. Local Sarnia soldiers with the Essex Scottish who arrived on the train in Windsor included R.J. Campbell, T.C. Cote, G.R. Goddall, W.L. Guzi, J.P. Harvey, L.I. Lowrie, M.A. MacIntosh, S.D. McClymont, B.C. Tripp, J.F. Woodcock, F.J. Bulman, and L.A. Nahmabin (Sarnia Reserve). Other local arriving soldiers were F. Butler and N.R. Stephenson (Arkona); D.G. Gordon and C.H. Jolly (Petrolia); O.S. Hayes (Point Edward); and J.B. McGill (Corunna). Waiting relatives were overjoyed when the troop train pulled into the station. They broke through the cordon line of city policemen, while many hundreds looked down from the roof tops of buildings on Sandwich Street across from the C.N.R. station. Led by the Essex Scottish pipe band, the regiment marched up Ouellette Street to Windsor armories where documentation and leave passes were issued.

• As with the First World War, many families, including some in Sarnia, would not receive news of the fate of their loved ones until after the war ended. One example, not on the local cenotaph but with a Sarnia connection, is Flight Lieutenant Jack Alvin Thurlow. He was born in April 1918 in St. Catharines, educated in Woodstock and joined the Imperial Oil refinery staff in Sarnia on September 1, 1939. He was an all-round athlete and a star player with the Sarnia Imperial football team. He joined the R.C.A.F. in June, 1941, receiving his wings as pilot officer on June 5, 1942. When Air Commander Billy Bishop, V.C., pinned on Jack Thurlow’s wings, he asked for a box to stand on to reach the chest of the six foot, five inch, 240-pound airman. He played basketball in England and was a member of the Canadian football team that opposed an all-star team from the United States army. He would rise to the rank of flight lieutenant, serving with the R.C.A.F. 199 Squadron (Let Tyrants Tremble), by flying heavy bombers. In March of 1945, his bomber had been reported missing on a flying mission over Europe. Two months after VJ-Day, in October of 1945, his mother in Woodstock would receive the unwelcome news that her son Jack was officially reported killed in action. The letter explained that on March 5, 1945, his bomber was struck by anti-aircraft fire over Thionville, France, and was so badly disabled that Thurlow had ordered the seven members of his crew to abandon the plane. They parachuted to safety but Jack Thurlow remained at the controls. Only fragments of the plane were found. Twenty-six year old Flight Lieutenant Jack Thurlow is memorialized on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England.

• On November 11, 1945, for the first time, Sarnia’s veterans of World War II, along with veterans of the Great War, took part in the Remembrance Day memorial service held at the cenotaph in Victoria Park. Before the service, the veterans, along with members of the Canadian Corps Association, the Canadian Legion, The Lambton Garrison Band and the Sarnia Sea Cadets Band marched from the armory along Christina Street to the cenotaph. Mayor Hipple; representatives of the Canadian Legion and its Ladies Auxilliary; the Canadian Corps; the 26th Battery; the Sarnia Jewish Community; the I.O.D.E. and several private individuals laid wreaths on the cenotaph in memory of Pte. Melvin K. Fisher, Lieut. Ernest Ottaway, Sapper Charles E. Berry, W.O. Leslie Sutherland and Sgt. John C. Clarke. Following the laying of the wreaths, the two minutes of silence, and the playing of the “Last Post” and “Reveille”, the veterans then marched to special services at St. John’s and St. George’s Anglican churches.

• In World War II, many members of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Merchant Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force do not have graves. Lost at sea or in crashes, their bodies were never found or recovered; however, they are remembered with their names inscribed on war memorials. One of these many memorials has the poignant inscription, “To whom the fortunes of war denied a known and honoured grave.”

• Many of Canada’s and Sarnia’s Air Force and Navy fallen are memorialized on one of two War Memorials. The Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England commemorates by name over 20,000 men and women of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth who were lost in the Second World War during operations from bases in the United Kingdom and North and Western Europe. This includes the names of 3,050 Canadian airmen. The other major memorial is the Halifax Memorial in Point Pleasant Park. It commemorates by name over 3,200 Canadian men and women of the Navy, Army, and Merchant Navy who lost their lives at sea. This includes 274 casualties from World War I and 2,847 from World War II.

• The deadliest period of World War I for Sarnia’s sons occurred during the Last Hundred Days offensive, August 8 – November 11, 1918. At least 30 Sarnians would lose their lives during that campaign. In World War II, the deadliest period for Sarnia’s sons occurred during the second half of 1944 and the first half of 1945. In that final twelve months of that war, at least 76 Sarnians would die.

• During World War II, the Royal Canadian Navy was reluctant to disclose information to the public after an attack. The military feared that any information about the location of attack, the identification of ship, the number of men killed, etc., would be helpful to the enemy. So in the interest of national security, family members of lost seaman were given very little information about the loss of their loved one.

• By the end of World War II, nearly 48 000 marriages between Canadian servicemen and European women who met during the war produced approximately 22 000 children. The Canadian army officially discouraged such marriages, but nevertheless accepted the inevitable and assisted the newlyweds. Most of these brides were from Britain, but also from other areas of Europe such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany. Between 1942 and 1948, 43 454 “war brides” and 20 997 children were transported to Canada, first docking in Halifax and passing through Pier 21. Some came to Canada during the war years, crossing the U-boat infested waters of the North Atlantic in troop ships. Most would then board special war-bride trains bound for various points across Canada, including Sarnia. These young women followed their hearts, said goodbye to their families and made their new homes in cities like Sarnia, raising their families and enriching the community. War brides also came to Canada after the First World War. An estimated 54,000 relatives accompanied the returning WWI troops following demobilization. ^{D, 2F, 2N and 3O}

• A British “war bride” who returned to Sarnia was featured in a Canadian (Sarnia) Observer article. Mrs. Mary Teresa Fisher (nee O’Shea), of London, England, wife of Lance Corproal John Molyneax (Red) Fisher, arrived in Sarnia in 1944. She had experienced almost five years of war, and as a registered nurse, had plenty of work to do. She experienced the Battle of Britain, was in the dance hall at the time Lieutenant John “Jack” Wright of Sarnia was killed, experienced the early days of the German bombing blitz and the unmanned V-1and V-2 rocket attacks. In 1942, she met Canadian Army Lance Corproal John Fisher of Sarnia, and they were married in October of 1943 in All Saint’s Church, London, England. One year prior, in October of 1942, Lance Corporal John Fisher had been awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field during the raid on Dieppe. Mrs. Mary Fisher arrived in Sarnia in mid-August of 1944. She described her trip over as very uneventful with calm sea all the way but, “I was seasick the whole time I was on shipboard.” She was one of a party of 200 women and children who arrived in Canada. Those sailing were given one week’s notice and were not allowed either to bid anyone good-bye or to write to their families. They crossed the Atlantic without convoy. Upon arriving in Sarnia, she was impressed by all the lights, since she had not seen a city illuminated at night in almost five years. She was very surprised to see the abundance and variety of fruit and vegetables at the Sarnia market, so she didn’t think the rationing in Canada was anything compared to that in England. She found most things here—for example, trains, stations, and cars—were made on a larger scale. The houses here, however, were smaller than those in England, and not as high, but the grounds around the houses were larger with more grass, but fewer flowers. She stated two things that she will have to get used to, “are sleeping in a bed (my usual sleeping place in London was under the kitchen table), and your Canadian heat waves.”

• At the start of World War II, in September of 1939, more than 58 000 Canadian men and women had volunteered to serve in the Canadian Forces. Canada was the first Commonwealth country to send troops to Britain in 1939. Over the course of the War, approximately 1.1 million Canadians and Newfoundlanders would serve. This included 200 000 in the Royal Canadian Navy and Merchant Navy, and 250 000 in the Royal Canadian Air Force. During 1939-45, more than 40% of the male population between the ages of 18 and 45–and virtually all of them volunteers– enlisted.^{D, E}

• Of the approximate 47 000 fallen Canadians of World War II, the casualties by branch were as follows: Navy 4 200; Air Force 18 000; and Army 25 000.^E Of the World War II names inscribed on the Sarnia cenotaph, almost 50% of them died in service with the Air Force.