Duty onboard the HMCS Kootenay

Heroes Remember

Duty onboard the HMCS Kootenay

Transcript

When the war ended, then I was on the Kootenay then what we did, we just went back and forth full speed, 30 knots cause she was a river class destroyer. And we picked up people in England, from either one of the ports, took them right across to Canada, we were just a passenger boat. I just loved that. Thirty knots each way, nothing to worry about, no war problems, nothing. What we did is we disbursed the convoy, said you’re on your own now. The submarines all surfaced and gave their positions and the convoy was disbanded and all the ships proceeded independent to where they were going and if you were given a group of submarines to escort into a port you did that, if not you did whatever you were told to do. Some of them were told just to return to port. In our case we took submarines, we took six of them into, I think it was six, I’m not sure of the number now into St. John’s, Newfoundland. I remember talking to some of the German crews afterwards. They could talk better English than I could. You know the war was over, there’s no sense bearing animosity and, I wasn’t actually falling in love with them but I was glad to see them and let them know that I wished them well and they wished us well. They went their way, we went our way. But we didn’t, anytime we picked up fellows during the war we didn’t treat them that well, they were prisoners of war and they were treated like that. We didn’t mistreat them, but we didn’t baby them either.

Description

Mr. Nordlund speaks about his enjoyment onboard the HMCS Kootenay, a passenger boat used to pick up people and escort submarines back to port.

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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