Arthur Stenning (Primary Source)

Transcript

I can recall the day that the war started in September of ’39. Now I was born in 1927, so I’d be 12 years of age I guess – I’d be 11 because I wouldn’t be 12 yet. But anyway my father told me to get on my bike and get down to the Reporter Newspaper and get a paper, so that’s what I did. And so I was well aware of the fact there was a war because my father was a World War One guy and he wanted to be a World War Two fellow as soon as he could. So we read the paper and listened to the radio and of course a town like Galt [Ontario] which is a small town, about 16,000 people at that time and the Highland Light Infantry was based in Galt. They had their own armouries there and all that sort of thing. It was a great unit for people to belong to and so at the first opportunity of them mobilizing, the old man joined the army. So we knew about the war not only from worrying where he was – I guess we worried more about him than anything, but as it turned out he just made it as far as Quebec and then they found out how old he was, so they took him off the draft and sent him back to London. Then brother Bill of course, he was 16 when he joined up and he was overseas within two months, just kaboom, he was gone. And we knew about war from him because his letters came maybe about twice a month I guess and he was there for five years. Brother Jack and my other brother tried to join up but he was a 4F [not eligible for service] character so he couldn’t get in. And then my turn come up you see. So I thought well I better get going and away I went. I guess that really is why – what spurred me to join the services in the rotation I did was the fact it was my turn. Come May of 1944 – I had enlisted in the navy in April and they called me up in May and I came down here to London and proceeded to take my basic training here, then was shipped down to [HMCS] Cornwallis to take my advanced training. So that got me into the service. The first ship that I had was the Arnprior, HMCS Arnprior which was a Castle-class Corvette, one of the new ones put out and it only hit the water in I think it was June of 1944. And I was assigned to it I think it was in January of 1945. So the duty of the ship itself was for – I think we were part of a group of C1, I think it was, and we ran convoys from our base in Londonderry in Northern Ireland over to St. John’s, Newfoundland. So we would pick the convoys up somewhere in the North Sea or thereabouts and run them across. The local escorts, as they called them, of the English ships would bring the ships out and we – a rendezvous point was arranged and that was where we’d pick them up. We would then have the care of the convoy from there on. The duty of the Corvettes that shepherded the ships – I guess that’s as good a word as any – was simply not to attack U-boats or to make sure that we attacked every one that come up but more to drive them under water because when they’re under water they’re not blind or helpless or anything but they can’t shoot, they can’t aim their torpedoes as well and it just makes it difficult for them. So our job is to make sure that those ships, the submarines stayed underwater. Now one time I remember in the daytime I saw a submarine. It was reported, we closed to action stations and the submarine was going down – let me see, two rows of ships over. Well you couldn’t fire at him because if you fired at him you’d probably hit one of our own ships there you know. So we just sat to wait, sit and wait, watching him make his way down that row of ships. He didn’t – nothing happened as a result of that because I think somehow or other – maybe there was a plane that put him under. I’ve forgotten just that now. But anyway he just simply went down but there was nothing you could do about it. You just had to watch it. The social services that were offered by various organizations were just wonderful. They were just great people. The Salvation Army in particular was the one that I liked the best because their tea was good. What was simply offered was a room or a place where you could go and there’d be lots of writing paper and pencils or pens, whatever it was and envelopes and you could do whatever writing you wanted in a quiet place and that was worth a lot of money because aboard ship you didn’t have much of a chance to have a quiet place. So I think of all the places, the Salvation Army and the Legion were the two tops so far as I was concerned.