Alec (Bruce

they headed out to sea, they discovered they were one man over on their roster, so George was chosen to be put ashore and was reassigned to the Drumheller. Contact was lost with the Louisbourg after it sailed and the ship was reported missing at sea with all hands lost. It was later discovered that it sank with the loss of 37 men, captain and officers in the Mediterranean. Most of the men were killed by exploding depth charges after being hit. The depth charges were usually activated for use, and when a ship was hit, if someone did not have the chance to de-activate the fuses, when the ship sank to a certain depth, the depth charges would detonate and kill the survivors on the surface.

Ironically for George, the danger was not always lurking at sea with the enemy. While serving on the Drumheller, docked in St. John's Newfoundland, he was returning to his ship in a blackout. He mistook a black shadow for the gang plank while attempting to board the ship, and fell into the water between two ships. It was February, and fortunately a sentry on board heard him and rather than challenging or shooting him, he threw a line and rescued him. George could not swim And would not have survived very long in the frigid harbour waters.

On one occasion the Drumheller was sent to Belle Isle Newfoundland to protect four ships loaded with iron ore. A German submarine crept into the harbour and sank the four ships. Asdic and radar were no help inland, so the submarine escaped. A message was intercepted the next day from the submarine to Germany saying that they had sunk the four ships, but had run out of torpedoes, so they were not able to sink the corvette.

On another occasion the Drumheller had to tow a torpedoed boat into Lisbon, a neutral port. This duty fell to George's ship as she was the only corvette in the convoy. It took all afternoon to get the tow line aboard the torpedoed ship. George served as coxswain, and once outside the harbour he was informed the harbour was mined and it would not be possible to stray even one degree of course for the fear of contacting a mine. Not only did he have the pressure of the mine field, but also 40 foot seas to contend with. After passing into the harbour, George noticed that the stern of the corvette was lowering. They looked back and could not see the ship. She had sunk and was pulling the corvette under stern first. Someone cried to cut the line and one of the men grabbed a fire axe and cut the ship loose. In all probability, the corvette had towed the ship after it sank, through the mine field. It was at night, so in the blackout the crew would not have been able to see whether the ship was still afloat or not. ‘

Another incident saw the Drumheller left behind to look after a bombed tanker. They circled the tanker for ten days, and ran out of food. The first officer and five men boarded the tanker to take what food was left on the crippled ship. The officer ordered that the silver was to be taken with the food and ordered that everything was to be delivered to the officer's wardroom. There was a small rebellion and a rating was so angry that he struck his superior officer over the head witha frozen chicken. The first officer did not charge the sailor, because he himself did follow the rules of proper conduct at sea. Odd things do happen during war.

While serving on the Drumheller, he received a wound in his arm from shrapnel. The Drumheller was on her way from

Londonderry when she was attacked by the Luftwaffe and a bomb dropped close by. After medical treatment, a piece of the shrapnel remained in his arm and resulted in blood poisoning. There was only basic medical aid in the form of sulpha drugs was available aboard ship, so he was offered the choice of staying on board and in all likelihood, he would be buried at sea, or, the alternative of being set off onto a buoy marker and taking his chances that he would be picked up by a passing ship. He chose the latter and because of the danger of stopping at sea, the ship slowed enough only for him to jump off onto the buoy. The only ships that stopped at sea were mail boats. Mail boats were usually like large fishing boats and they delivered mail to the convoys at sea. As luck would have it, the buoy was a target buoy used by ships for target practice, and after a day and one night on the marker, he was taken aboard a passing mail boat in hospitalized in Londonderry Ireland. Unfortunately there was only one orderly to care for 100 patients, so he headed by train for the Canadian Barracks Hospital in Scotland. He convalesced and then returned to Londonderry where he was drafted aboard the Matane.

While serving on the Matane in 1944, the ship was torpedoed by planes and shelled from shore off the coast of France and into the Bay of Biscay. The ship was hit badly and many men were killed and wounded. Fortunately the ship stayed afloat and was towed into Falmouth. The photo to the tight is of George standing where the shell entered the ship. He and the stoker were sent to convalesce at a Lord's estate in England for ten days until their new kits arrived, as they had lost everything on the Matane.

They were then moved to Greenwich, just outside London, to the Canadian Barracks. He returned on Survivor's Leave to New York on the New Amsterdam which was loaded with German Prisoners of War, War Brides and members of the military. The New Amsterdam was too big and dangerous to others to be put in a convoy, so she had to rely on her speed and made the trip in five days. She was heavily armed. Because of the great number of passengers, only one meal a day was possible. It was an uncomfortable voyage, as the ship was completely blacked out at night. One night, a brightly lit ship suddenly appeared out of the darkness and silently sailed past the New Amsterdam. It was extremely unusual and that ship turned out to be a Red cross ship, lit up to avoid being attacked. Towards the end of the war, George served on the H.M.C.S. Fairmile which was classed as a Q-Boat and he was serving in Bermuda when hostilities ceased. He suffered with blood poisoning a second time when he was cut by a nail while building a shooting range to take out to sea. He was awarded the Battle of Atlantic Star, the 1939-45 Service Star, the Volunteer Service Medal and the George VI Service Medal.

Ohe “Bruce Gramily of Red Point Prince Edward Island 1840-1999 26