Saturday, February 8, 2014

Dad's Navy days: 1944 - Comox, Vancouver Island (30)

"He took me to jail, but the cell was already
packed with sailors and cleaning equipment"
[Pg. 42, "DAD, WELL DONE"]

[Combined Ops badge, photo @ rafbeachunits]

[Doug Harrison w member of Canadian Women's Army Corps;
perhaps in B.C. Click here for more information re CWAC

My father, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and of Combined Operations, experienced many trials and tribulations while overseas during WW2. Back home in Canada and attached to a Combined Ops training base, however, with more time and money on his hands and access to dances, beer, baseball and movies, he was known to be a trial and tribulation to others - but, surely, only on rare occasions.

In his memoirs he writes the following:
     
     We used to go to the Riverside Hotel in Courtenay
     and rent room number 14 because it had a window
     that opened into an alley just about hip high. Then
     we proceeded to drink Riverside dry, go to a dance
     and return to the room and find another dozen sailors
     who had come in the alley window. The room was
     crammed, and when we left on Sunday morning the
     manager’s head turned to and fro, like someone
     watching a ping pong game. He was utterly astounded
     but never called a halt because we were such nice guys. 

["Riverside Hotel, top of hill (on right) w trees out front"]

     I had a fight with an OPP* Constable named Carson.
     I was drunk and he asked me for my I.D. card. I took
     a punch at him, missed him by a pole length and he
     assisted me to the cruiser, he was very kind. He had a
     hammer lock on me so didn’t open the door, he just put
     me through the open back window. You know, that
     shoulder is still sore. He took me to jail, but the cell was
     already packed with sailors and cleaning equipment, i.e.,
     mops, brooms, etc. They lit the equipment on fire and
     smoke forced us all out. He didn’t like me because our
     team used to beat his team at ball. Big sissy. Poor loser.

["Ball team played often, e.g., in Courtenay and Campbell R."]

["My father and Chuck Rose. Good mates"]

     At Givenchy L/Sea Rose and I took a job washing dishes,
     but we gave everyone to understand that we had to be
     at the beach at 1300 hours (1:00 p.m.). There were 150
     ratings to start but many were shipped out. If we were
     going to be late we grabbed dishes half full and said,
     “you’re done”, because we couldn’t keep the girls waiting. 

["Yup, I'm done!": Water colour from Legion magazine]

If Captain Windeyer ever wondered where his landing crafts were, he wouldn't have far to look. My father, Acting Coxswain by then, was known to pick up girls in the landing craft and take them for a swim or picnic at Tree Island, not far from The Spit.

["Tree Island, a kilometer away from The Spit's beach"]

["Today the same area is known by a new name"]

More adventures to follow.
*I'm surprised the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) patrolled that far west

Photos by GH

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