Description
Mr. Howe talks about the sinking of HMCS Athabaskan.
William Howe
Mr. Howe was born in Port Arthur, now Thunder Bay, Ontario, on 26 August 1922. His father was a cabinet minister and was in London during bombing attacks. His father survived being torpedoed on the way to visit him overseas and was also involved in a sea wreck. Mr. Howe did his naval training in England where he also completed lieutenant's training. He served aboard HMCS <em>Turbon, Dorchester, Sackville and Huron</em>. At the end of the war, Mr. Howe was appointed as a Naval Aid to the Governor of Hong Kong and began a career in politics, on his return to England with the support of MacKenzie King.
Transcript
Then we moved to The Channel, and that was another story.
And there was ourselves, Haida, Athabascan, were there. Huron, Haida and Athabascan. Athabascan was sunk in one of the nightly forays.
Haida went with her, we had been in collision with one of the British destroyers, the Ashanti, the night before and we were getting a few repairs in dry dock. Otherwise we would have been with her, yes.
I've talked to their historian about it, he, they were picked up by a German Destroyer which is good. He, the German Destroyer hung, hung around to make sure Haida had gone, then he went and picked them up, and when they got aboard, he said, well, they were treated quite well, in, in the ship anyway and, particularly, they were a little worried because they saw a part of the super-structure down and a couple of sailors under it, dead. So they wondered what, what reprisals might happen, but, the Germans treated them well enough til they got to the camps. I don't remember what happened in the camps.