Convoys at Sea

Heroes Remember

Convoys at Sea

Transcript

Convoys were anything from 10 to 100 ships. If you had a 100 ship convoy, you’d have 10 columns of 10 ships. In the centre of the front would be the commodore of the convoy. He’s the boss man on the merchant ships. At the rear would be the rescue vessel. Around the convoy, you’d have the escort vessels, and they’d try to do what they call an asdic screen to detect any submarine. In the centre of the, at the front of the escort vessels is the senior officer of the escort group, and the rest were the escort vessels. Hopefully they put a screen around all the convoys. And also to try to avert submarines, you got notice by WT regularly as to where they were supposed to be and you try to do what you call a zig-zag pattern and I remember some of the convoys we went all the way from Iceland in the north to the Azores in the south to avoid submarines.

Description

Mr. Nordlund provides detail as to the configuration of a convoy and its’ purpose at sea.

Hough Nordlund

Mr. Hough Nordlund was born July 17, 1922 in Kamsack, Saskatchewan. After his elementary school years, his family moved to Ponachi, Saskatchewan where he graduated from high school. Then Mr. Nordlund joined the Navy and trained on the HMCS Queen Regina. After initial training he was drafted to the ship, Prince Henry, doing offshore and inshore service around Vancouver Island. His main role aboard these ships was radio operator, receiving messages through morse code. During his service time in the navy, Mr. Nordlund sailed on other ships, the HMCS Kootenay and Alberni. Mr. Nordlund was an active soldier during the D-Day invasion and occupied the role of skipper onboard the landing craft LC3 taking troops to Omaha Beach. Mr. Nordlund finished his service onboard the HMCS Kootenay and had a few runs to the Murmansk before leaving the navy. After discharge Mr. Nordlund served with the militia and worked with the Federal Government in the Fisheries and Oceans Department, retiring with 38 years service.

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