Canada Remembers Times
Veterans’ Week Special Edition

5-11 November 2022 - Page 4

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An underwater remembrance quest

On 31 March 1951, two Royal Canadian Air Force pilots were on a training mission near Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The skilled aviators, Flight Lieutenant Robert Leaper and Squadron Leader Guy Hackett, found themselves flying their de Havilland Vampire fighter jets through thick fog. Something went wrong and they ended up crashing into the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River at high speed. The remains of Leaper were eventually found. However, Hackett’s body was never recovered.

Fast forward to 2021, when a passionate high school science teacher from the area named Jean-Marc Perreault heard about the story. A member of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary and an avid diver, he was intrigued and pulled together a group of interested students to begin a new search using modern technology. On board his boat “La Petite Calypso,” Captain Perreault and his students embarked on a quest to locate the missing aircraft. The patient team combed through live pictures of the river bottom obtained from sonar scans and submersible cameras, and followed up on promising evidence from under the waves.

Their remembrance quest has not yet found the missing plane, but further searching with more powerful tools is planned. This dedicated crew will continue the hunt, hoping to bring closure to a flight that started more than seven decades ago.

A young life lost, but not forgotten

Can you imagine leaving home at just 14 years old to sail overseas and fight a war in a foreign land? Robert Batey of Sarnia, Ontario, did just that.

Private Batey was one of about 20,000 underage Canadians who served in the First World War. Although recruits were typically supposed to be 18 to enlist, many teenagers lied about their age. Aside from a desire to serve “King and Country,” their reasons for joining were varied—many were seeking adventure, others wanted a paying job, and some were eager to leave a difficult home life. Since birth certificates were not always available in those days, it was easier to sidestep the age requirements. Due to the great need for soldiers to fight, many of these underage recruits were accepted, as long as they met the height and weight requirements.

Like so many of these young people, Batey fought overseas on the Western Front. Sadly, he went missing during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916, just three months after his 15^th birthday. While his final resting place is unknown, his name is one of the more than 11,000 carved onto the stone walls of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. These names are a lasting reminder of the sacrifices made by so many brave Canadians— including a heartbreakingly young teenager from Sarnia.

Did you know?

Do you have an ancestor who is listed on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial? Find a digital image of their inscribed name while learning more about this important war monument by searching “Experience Vimy” in your web browser.

A very special shirt

In December 2021, Matthew Heneghan of British Columbia received a special parcel in the mail that he was not quite expecting. To someone else, the old Edmonton Oilers tee-shirt inside may perhaps have seemed like an article to donate to a secondhand store—but to Heneghan, it meant the world.

The tee-shirt, still covered in desert dust, once belonged to someone very important to him named Colin Wilmot. The two young Canadian Armed Forces members had become fast friends in 2007 while training in Edmonton for a deployment to Afghanistan. Corporal Heneghan was scheduled to travel to the war-torn country to serve as a medic. Suffering from health problems, however, he ended up not going. His comrade, Private Wilmot, took his place. In July 2008, Heneghan received news that no one wants to hear. His buddy had been killed in an improvised explosive device blast in Afghanistan.

Phil Hunter, the medic who replaced Wilmot in Afghanistan, found Wilmot’s beloved Oilers tee-shirt hung on the wall of his old quarters. He held on to it for years, hoping to find a rightful new owner. Then, in 2021, Hunter was drawn to a memoir called A Medic’s Mind written by Heneghan. While listening to the chapter about Wilmot, he thought he might have finally found who should have the hockey shirt. He contacted Heneghan to say he had something special to send. When Heneghan opened the package, in his words, he felt like his old friend had come home for Christmas.

U-boats in the gulf!

The Second World War truly was a global conflict. However, the fighting did not only occur in places far from Canada—sometimes the fighting came right to our country’s doorstep. Beginning in May 1942, German U-boats stealthily entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the East Coast and began attacking Allied shipping. The goal was to disrupt the crucial flow of supplies sailing from North America to Britain that the Allies needed for the war effort. At times, the Germans even sailed far up the St. Lawrence River, sinking some merchant vessels less than 300 kilometers from Quebec City.

The heaviest blow, however, would come off the southwest coast of Newfoundland in the early morning hours of 14 October 1942. The ferry SS Caribou was on its way from Cape Breton to Newfoundland with 237 people on board, many of them civilians. The dark night was lit up when the ferry was hit by a torpedo from a German U-boat. The explosion threw people from their bunks and they rushed to get off the sinking ship. Several lifeboats were damaged or could not be launched, so many were forced to jump into the cold water.

That night, 136 people died, including at least five mothers and ten children. It’s been 80 years since the beginning of the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the sinking of the SS Caribou, but the losses still echo for many Atlantic Canadians.

The Highway of Heroes… and beyond

Remembrance Day on November 11 is a special time for us to stop and honour those who have served and died for our country. However, we also salute these brave Canadians in many other ways and can find signs of remembrance around us all year long.

Many communities have a war monument dedicated to people from the area who served in uniform. Sports arenas and ballfields also sometimes have names that connect to this theme. In fact, the Memorial Cup—our country’s top junior hockey championship—is named in honour of Canadians who died in military service. There are also numerous schools named after famous wartime actions, like the Battle of Vimy Ridge, or individuals who served.

When you go for a drive, you may have a chance to encounter even more remembrance. The original Highway of Heroes is a section of Highway 401 in Eastern Ontario. It was the route which Canadians killed in Afghanistan were taken on after being returned to our country. Other provinces and territories would create their own Highway of Heroes and now there are several of these special routes dedicated to those who have given their all for peace. However, those are not the only Canadian roads that honour our service members. Some communities, for example, have programs that name local streets after people from the area who put their lives on the line for our country. In so many different ways, Canada remembers!

Crossword puzzle

Did you read the newspaper stories carefully? All the answers to the crossword clues are found in the newspaper.

Across

• 1. Last name of war artist who created a painting of Canadians fighting at Hill 355.
• 4. Colour that symbolizes “healing” in the Canada Pride Citation.
• 5. Last name of Quebec high school teacher who captains “La Petite Calypso.”
• 11. Name of battle in which 15-year-old Private Robert Batey died.
• 12. British Columbia hometown of RCAF aviator Doug Sam.
• 13. Belgian city where the Menin Gate is located.
• 16. Name of national peacekeeping monument in Ottawa.
• 17. Last name of Nursing Sister who tried to save her friend’s life in 1942.
• 18. Name of special Canadian army unit created in 1947.

Down

• 2. Region of Europe where Canadian peacekeepers went in the early 1990s.
• 3. Name of ongoing Canadian peacekeeping mission in Cyprus.
• 6. Name of military relief operation launched after the 1998 Great Ice Storm.
• 7. Name of military relief operation launched during the 1997 Red River Floods.
• 8. First World War battle that began on 9 April 1917.
• 9. French town where Canadian soldiers came ashore on 19 August 1942.
• 10. Bosnian city where Canadian peacekeepers helped reopen the airport in 1992.
• 14. Home province of First World War ace William Barker.
• 15. Private Colin Wilmot’s favourite professional hockey team.

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