Joseph “Joe” Bell was born in Brantford, Ontario on February 18, 1922, the only son of Navy Lieutenant Joe “Griff” Bell and Edith Laura Bell, of 144 Davis Street, Sarnia. Joe received his education at the Brantford and Sarnia public schools and Sarnia Collegiate. Joe was a member of Central United Church as well as a member of Central Century Club where he played softball and basketball. At Sarnia Collegiate, he was an outstanding all-round athlete starring in high school football, WOSSAA basketball and rugby, boxing and wrestling. He was also on the school’s track, shooting and swimming teams, and was a member of the Boy’s Athletic Association at Sarnia Collegiate. In addition, Joe wrote Sarnia Collegiate news for the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer. In October 1940, prior to enlisting, Joe became a banker employed with the Bank of Toronto in the Sarnia and Parkhill branches. The bank granted him a leave of absence for him to enlist.
Prior to joining the navy, Joe had attempted to enlist in the air force. Joe Bell would enlist in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve in May of 1942. Joseph’s father, Joe “Griff” Bell, would follow in his son, joining the navy in August of 1943. Griff Bell had been active in marine affairs for years; for example, at the Sarnia Yacht Club during its early history his main hobby was boat building. He built outboards, motorboats and sailboats. His shop was situated in the building known as the H.M.C.S. Repulse, local Sea Cadet headquarters at the corner of Front and Johnston Streets. Prior to coming to Sarnia, Griff Bell was a member of the Brantford Symphony. In Sarnia, he was a drummer and xylophone soloist with the Lambton Garrison Band and a member of the Devine Street United Church Sunday School orchestra. To join the navy, he was granted leave of absence by the Ontario Hydro Electric Power Commission, where he had been employed for 31 years. Griff Bell would be a lieutenant in the special branch of the Supervising Naval Engineers’ Department, Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, stationed at Deep Brook, Nova Scotia.
Joe Bell, the son of Griff Bell, would enlist with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve on May 4, 1942. After training at Windsor, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec and Halifax, Joe was posted on the Corvette HMCS Morden (K170) on the North Atlantic convoy for a short while. Ironically, the Morden would later be involved in rescue operations involving the ship on which Joe Bell would lose his life. On December 12, 1942 when he was stationed in Newfoundland, Joe suffered second-degree burns while rescuing several people from a disastrous fire that swept the Knights of Columbus Hostel in St. John’s. Ninety-nine lives were lost in the fire, and many more were horribly burned, along with Joe Bell who had to spend some time in hospital recovering from his injuries. The K of C Hostel fire occurred on a Saturday night, and the hostel was crowded, for it was a gathering place for Newfoundland civilians and U.S. servicemen who were based on the island. Wartime blackout regulations meant hostel windows were covered with plywood shutters, thus preventing light from escaping into the inky night. Those shutters would become death traps for the hundreds of people scrambling to get out through the smoke and flames in the auditorium. In the aftermath, it was concluded that the fire had been deliberately set, likely enemy sabotage orchestrated by agents of Nazi Germany, as it was one of a number of suspicious fires in St. John’s that winter.
On December 14, 1942, the Canadian Observer reported that Joe Bell had been a member of the gallant crew of the Corvette HMCS Morden that had recently rescued approximately 200 crew members and passengers of a torpedoed merchant ship. The actual date of attack on the merchant ship was October 22, 1942. On that date, German submarine U-443 torpedoed the Canadian Pacific Steamships cargo and passenger vessel Winnipeg II, en route from Liverpool to St. John, New Brunswick. The Winnipeg II sank and the HMCS Morden rescued everyone on board, from the crew, the men, and the women to the children, including a 7-month old baby. Though the Morden only had living quarters for 60 persons, the crew somehow managed to find space for the 200 survivors before it docked in St. John’s Atlantic port. Though Joe’s parents in Sarnia were pleased to hear the news that their son participated in the rescue, they were not free of worry at the time. They had been reading the dispatches from St. John’s, Newfoundland that described the K. of C. hostel fire that had been destroyed by fire, and that a large number of service men had lost their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Bell in Sarnia anxiously awaited further news about their son Joe, fervently hoping that the West Atlantic port which their son’s ship docked was not in St. John’s. They would later learn that he had survived the disaster.
While recuperating in hospital, Joe Bell played basketball for the Navy and did not go to sea again until April 16, 1943, when he was posted on the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Croix, attaining the rank of Coder. In a letter to his mother not long after that, Joe told of being transferred to a destroyer, but did not name the boat. He also told of his enjoyable visit to Scotland, a country he spoke of in glowing terms, and his expectation of being home on furlough shortly.
The Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Croix (181) operated in the North Atlantic. Aboard the same ship from the Sarnia-Lambton area were Ordinary Telegraphist Robert C. Rigby of Sarnia and Stoker Second class William Norman Roder of Arkona. The St.Croix was one of the “four-stacker” destroyers acquired by Great Britain from the United States Navy in September 1940, in exchange for sites for air and naval bases on British territory in the Atlantic area (she was formerly the U.S.S. McCook). The St. Croix and six other destroyers, transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy at the time, were manned immediately by Canadian crews and performed invaluable service on Atlantic convoy duty. Of note, one of those transferred destroyers was the St. Clair. The HMCS St. Croix had distinguished herself in the early days of the Battle of the Atlantic, patrolling for German submarines, being credited with two U-boat kills and picking up many survivors of German U-boat attacks on Allied ships. The St. Croix was to be the first of the destroyers to be lost.
In mid-September of 1943, the Allies had a plan to merge two convoys (ONS-18 and ON-202), a combined assemblage of 63 merchant ships, in mid-ocean. A newly formed Canadian support group was on its way to reinforce the slower ONS-18 group, located to the south of Iceland. The Canadian escort group included the British frigate Itchen, corvettes Chambly, Morden and Sackville, along with the destroyers St. Francis and St. Croix. As the convoys closed their gap, the escorts were picking up U-boat signals. Undoubtedly, the U-boats were gathering in large numbers and the wolf pack was maneuvering into position for a night attack. They were about to measure the success of their newest “secret weapon”, the Gnat torpedo, an acoustic torpedo that homed in on the propellers of their prey.
On the night of September 20, 1943, the St. Croix had detached herself from the support group to investigate an aircraft sighting. At 9:51 pm, the German U-boat U-305 struck the HMCS St. Croix with two Gnat torpedoes near her propellers. The ship listed immediately and uncontrollably. To Itchen, a few miles away, she sent the cryptic message, “Am leaving the office.” It was the last word from St.Croix. Seconds later, a third electrically directed torpedo, the final blow, hit the stern of the St. Croix. There was a tremendous explosion, flames shot into the air, and within three minutes, the St. Croix was gone.
Two RN ships from the escort force rushed to the area, to see what had taken place and what could be done. The frigate HMS Itchen signaled; “St.Croix torpedoed and blown up. Forecastle still afloat. Survivors in rafts and boats. Torpedoes fired at me. Doing full speed in vicinity. Will not attempt to P.U. survivors until Polyanthus arrives.” But the RN corvette Polyanthus was herself torpedoed by U-952 just after midnight. Itchen then had to become involved in attempting to locate the attacking U-boat. Later, in the foggy daylight of September 21, the Itchen was eventually able to pick up one Polyanthus survivor and 81 St. Croix survivors, but only after they had been in the very cold water for thirteen hours. Most of those lost had perished in the sea after abandoning the ship.
The few hours of rescue came to an ironic and bitter end two days later. On September 23, 1943 at approximately 2:00 am the German U-boat U-666, using a Gnat torpedo, struck the HMS Itchen. The Itchen exploded with an ear-splitting roar and then vanished into the sea. Only three men survived this time: two from the Itchen and one from the St. Croix, Stoker W.A. Fisher of Black Diamond, Alberta. In total, 147 lives were lost from the St.Croix, including twenty-one year-old Joseph Bell.
In late September of 1943, Edith Bell in Sarnia would receive a cable from the Navy informing her that her son, Joe Griffiths Bell, R.C.N., has been reported missing at sea. Father Lieut. J. Griff Bell, who was also in the Navy, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, was away from home in Cornwallis when the news arrived in Sarnia. For parents Griff and Edith Bell, the last thing they knew was that Joe was aboard a destroyer. It was not until October 1, 1943 that the Honourable Angus L. MacDonald, the Minister of National Defence for Naval Services officially announced the sinking of the destroyer St. Croix. No details of the sinking were released, other than the list of names of 147 men who lost their lives, which included Sarnians Coder Joseph Griffiths Bell and Ordinary Telegraphist Robert Charles Rigby (included in this Project), and Stoker Second class William Norman Roder of Arkona.
Joseph’s cause of death was later officially listed as, loss of H.M.C. ship, at sea. The sinking of the St.Croix was the heaviest single loss suffered by the R.C.N. in the war. In early January of 1945, a service was held at a morning service in Central United Church, Sarnia, to honour the memory of Coder Joseph Griffith Bell, lost at sea in September of 1943, and Private Melvin Fisher, killed in action in Italy in December of 1944 (included in this project). Both men were members of the congregation. The Rev. E.W. Jewitt extended the sympathy of all the congregation to the bereaved parents, and voiced the hope for a just and enduring peace.
Twenty-one year old Joseph Griffiths Bell has no known grave. His name is inscribed is on the Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia, Canada, Panel 10. On the Sarnia cenotaph, his name is inscribed as J.C. Bell.
SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, N, P, S, T, U, X, Z, 2A, 2C, 2D