My Dad Robert Macklem Bob (1922-2014) a WW2 vet passed away in September 2014, just short of his 92nd birthday. As a volunteer he spent 5 years in the Canadian navy, part of his navy time was on convoy escort on the North Atlantic run; mainly Newfoundland to Belfast, Northern Ireland and back aboard the corvette Chilliwack (K131). The Chilliwack escorted 40 convoys between aug 1941 and sept 1944. So that’s 80 Atlantic crossings. Most crossing were uneventful, but not all. Three of the 80 crossings had 10, 11 & 13 ships torpedoed and sunk. The Chilliwack was credited with 2 German u-boat kills in WW2. U 744 was depth charged for 30 hours and finally surfaced, the guns of the Chilliwack were ready and blew torso sized holes into the conning tower killing the U-boat captain. A dramatic photo(attached) ,a boarding party from the Chilliwack is shown alongside the u-boat. The full story and photo only appeared after the war. After the war in Europe was over in May 1945, Dad again volunteered and signed on once more, this time to fight the Japanese in the Pacific (he kept that document). Mercifully that war ended in August 1945 and he finally said goodbye to the Canadian navy. Eight Canadian corvettes were sunk in WW2. So what was it like on a corvette? One description follows. From my reading I think it actually understates . One vet said he never talked about his experiences on corvettes because he would be accused of gross exaggeration. It just couldnt have been that bad. Service in the North Atlantic was typically cold, wet, monotonous and uncomfortable. Every dip of the forecastle into an oncoming wave was followed by a cascade of water into the well deck amidships. Men at action stations were drenched with spray, and water entered living spaces through hatches opened to access ammunition magazines. Interior decks were constantly wet and condensation dripped from the overheads. The head (or sanitary toilet) was drained by a straight pipe to the ocean; and a reverse flow of the icy North Atlantic would cleanse the backside of those using it during rough weather. By 1941 corvettes carried twice as many crewmen as anticipated in the original design. Men slept on lockers or tabletops or in any dark place that offered a little warmth. The inability to store perishable food meant a reliance on preserved food such as corned-beef and powdered potato for all meals. Corvettes were nicknamed the Pekingese of the ocean. They had a reputation of having poor sea-handling characteristics, most often rolling in heavy seas, with complete 80-degree rolls (40 degrees each side of the normal upright position) being fairly common; it was said they would roll on wet grass. Many crewmen suffered severe motion sickness for a few weeks until they acclimatised to shipboard life. Although poor in their sea-handling characteristics, the Corvettes were extremely seaworthy. Dad was a quiet man and a mystery man, he never regaled any of his children with war time stories. Dad never in his lifetime complained about anything, in retrospect it makes sense after serving on corvettes in the North Atlantic. Life is strange; in 1947 Dad married a sweet, beautiful, intelligent, strong, athletic German girl; my Mom- Hilda Wenzel. They were married for 63 years.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:34:37 +0000
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