Old Fashioned Canadian Christmas at Sea (Part 1 of 2)
Heroes Remember
Old Fashioned Canadian Christmas at Sea (Part 1 of 2)
Transcript
We went to Akureyri in Iceland and we usually pooled there until
a convoy came up to us and then we joined them and we had a
battleship escort group far away from us but we were the convoy
escorts. The particular thing that I would like to remark on
most, highlight of the whole thing was that the convoy was
shadowed by a Focke-Wulf and of course they thought that the
convoy was not being escorted with battleships so therefore the
German authorities called out the Scharnhorst and sent us after,
sent them after the convoy. So but we had a whole background of
battleships and two cruisers so we were well backed up in that
sense. So they managed to intervene. During this period of
time, we were still going on with the convoy and we were ordered
to go and make a torpedo run on the Scharnhorst but then the,
Burnett who was the admiral at the time realized that we only
had four torpedos and he wanted a destroyer with eight and that
could go faster than we could. So even though he ordered us we
started off and headed towards it and then he cancelled it. But
not before something obviously happened. It was really funny
because as they altered course, we have depth charge rails at
the stern end, you see, and they had emergency charge and if you
saw a sub you could run at it, trip it and the things would go
off at 50 feet. Well, as we altered course, one, one wiggled
off and fell off and went off at 50 feet and someone screamed
out, "They're shooting at us." Anyway, from there we went into
Kola Bay and of course this was Christmas day this happened and
we went in and into just, just around the corner from Murmansk
in a place called Kola Inlet and we got in there and we had an
old fashioned Canadian Christmas at sea.
Description
Mr. Hannam talks about the Haida being assigned to an escort group, and being a part of the sinking of the Scharnhorst. He also tells a story about having an old fashioned Canadian Christmas on the Murmansk run.
Jack Hannam
Mr. Hannam was born in Vancouver, BC on June 19, 1924. At the age of five, shortly after his father's death, he moved to Victoria. His father survived the sinking of the HMCS Charlottetown in the St. Lawrence River but was tragically run down by a drunk driver. He started with the Merchant Marine at the age of 15 and then went on to the navy when he was 17. He joined the reserves Sept. 9, 1941. He served first on the HMCS Camrose and later on the HMCS Haida in both the North Atlantic and off North Africa.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:16
- Person Interviewed:
- Jack Hannam
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Atlantic Ocean
- Branch:
- Navy
- Rank:
- Leading Seaman
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