Christ Church Cathedral — Veterans Service 9 Nov. 2005

By RAdm (Ret) Robert Welland

Editor’s Note: RAdm(Ret) Bob Welland,DSO*,CD, LofM was asked to speak to about 130 members of the Cathedral School ages 7 to 13, during their Remembrance Day Service at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, on 9 November 2005. This is what he said...)

The reason I am standing here is because I didn’t want to offend the admiral who asked me to do this, by refusing.

Because there used to be so many wars, where a lot of people got killed, their passing is remembered every year, around the middle of November by parades and church services. Young people are often made to attend the church services because it is said to be good for them to know about past wars. So now that you believe that you will also believe that the best person to talk about wars is a person who has been in one or more. That’s me. I am called a veteran. A veteran is someone who has not been killed in a war. See!

Wars are always started by old people and fought by young people, the old people always stay at home and the young people are often sent far from home. I can’t see much likelihood of that recipe changing. But if it were reversed, where the oldies had to go off and fight, I wonder how many wars we would have? Right!!

The aftermath of wars persists for a long time, so giving you a few examples gives me the chance to tell you a couple of personal war stories. Most veterans tend to tell war stories!

A pretty lady from Italy visited me a few weeks ago. Her name was Anna. She said her father had been rescued from drowning in the North Atlantic Ocean by me. Anna said she was making a documentary film of the sinking of the liner, the Arandora Star, and the rescue of 900 people, including her father, by the Canadian destroyer St Laurent. The Arandora Star was carrying German and Italian prisoners who were slated to be locked up in Canada. But a German U-boat torpedoed the ship. Something ironic there! Anna had found that I was one of the few people still around to tell about it. It happened in 1940.

I remembered it well. It was one of the greatest rescues of the war. My ship rushed 200 miles to the position of the sinking at full speed. We picked up all those still alive and left as many behind - who were not.

We had over a thousand people on board. Our destroyer was normally crowded with just our crew of 125. It took a day and a half to reach the Scottish harbour, some died on the way. But we saved over 850 and Anna’s father was one of them. There were other Italians amongst those rescued, and they came from a town called Bardia. Anna’s home town is Bardia. She said the townspeople have put a bronze plaque in the town square telling of our destroyer St Laurent making the rescue.

So I told Anna all about the rescue of 65 years ago. How we saved her father. Anna said that I’ll get a copy of her documentary.

I asked her to hurry!

Five years after that most notable rescue, the war continued. I was in another destroyer, the Haida. I had been promoted into being the captain. The crew called me the “Old Man,” as is the custom to call the captain. I was 26. I was quite old compared to the average for my crew; we averaged out at 21. Proof that the young do the fighting as I explained earlier.

Haida was part of the escort of a convoy to Russia, to Murmansk, which is well above the Arctic Circle. We got them there, about 40 ships, successfully. Now it was the task to take a returning convoy, again about 40 ships, from Murmansk to Scotland, about 2000 miles.

Before we sailed we were told that 22 German U-boats were poised to attack with torpedoes, and also aircraft. The escorts’ job, ships like mine, was to fight them off, sink them or shoot them down. A great scenario for a video game! Forty ships, 15 destroyers guarding them against 22 submarines intent on torpedoing every ship. But video games hadn’t been invented then. We had to do the real thing!

It was a calm bright day, the merchant ships plodded along at about 12 miles an hour, we escorts surrounded them, pinging with our sonars to detect the submerged U-boats, searching the air for bombers with our radar. All guns and depth charges ready.

A lookout, a young seaman, yelled at me that he saw a torpedo approaching. I turned the ship to dodge it; we saw two torpedoes run along the ship’s side missing by about 20 feet.

Three years ago, 57 years after that event I received an e-mail from a German gentleman, called Stefan Gudenus. He had accessed Haida’s web site (Haida, the same ship, is now a museum in Hamilton Ontario). He read about the above event. His e-mail told me that his father, Lieutenant Stefan Gudenus was in command of the U-boat, U-427 off Murmansk that day. He had fired the torpedoes. And at the time was greatly disappointed when they missed. He said his father was grateful that I was also an equally bad shot when I depth charged him.

Enough war stories.

Almost everyone deplores wars and the misery they cause. But it is a fact that the borders, the physical borders, of most countries have been decided through wars. One side is defending what they have while the other side is trying to take over the land. The borders of Canada are no exception. So it is a good idea to know about the borders of one’s country, how they got to be that way, and what we ought to do to defend what we have.

So some wars are indeed justified; if you don’t fight for them you’ll lose your country.

Should any of you, girls are now included, have to fight for your country, you will either be killed or become a veteran. Like me.

There is a greater chance of becoming a veteran if you win. So it is a good idea to support our Armed Forces in everything they do.

Canada, right now, has soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. Two of our ships are patrolling the Persian Gulf where there is a near state of war. Those Canadians are far from home, they are young, and they are fighting for us. It’s all to do with keeping our country. Got it!

Carpe diem. Have a nice Armistice Day.

Admiral Bob Welland served in 4 destroyers in WW II, commanding two of them, and another during the Korean War. He was in command of the Canadian sea-going fleet during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. He was awarded the US Legion of Merit. He claims to be the best looking Admiral from Oxbow, Saskatchewan.

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