It wasn't the navy way

Heroes Remember

It wasn't the navy way

Transcript

Your basic training really, it's, it's learned reaction. They say you do. You don't ask, you just do so this is your basic training They talk about drill. Now, the navy doesn't drill a lot, but we do drill and it's close order drill. You've got to respond now, no hesitation. So that's it. As far as arms or training with arms you get some hand to hand, which is ridiculous in a sense, but you get it. Small arms, .45 that's it and usually it was a .22 on a .45 frame and you're using an indoor range. I can remember with one fellow, who was, as a civilian was a shooter, a handgun and, and outshot the instructor, but he didn't do it right, so he didn't qualify. He had to start over and do the way they do, that's it. And which he did and he made out alright finally, but I mean, it was unbelievable to watch him shoot. But it was no good, that wasn't the navy way. What surprised me, my basic training, the only gun I ever fired, was a 45. We're not trained to shoot rifles. We have marines that do that. See all, all naval vessels, that is, war vessels or battle vessels, have marines. That's what they're for. They do the, the shooting although, the big guns and stuff, we man ourselves. So, it's, it's interesting. Now my first ship, we had four, three inch guns forward, two three inch aft, and a five inch. We had, what would be a promenade deck on a normal ship, was lined with 20 millimetre guns and 50 caliber machine guns. Forward and aft, we we have what we call 40's, that's pompoms. You load a clip of ammunition and then you fire and they just keep feeding it. The 20 millimetres were called a drum, but you work on all those. I was first loader on a three inch gun for a while, and it's, that's, that's an experience. You have to load that gun at night in the dark. That‘s, you're in a blackout situation and you put your hand on the breech to find out where it is, where it's elevated, to find out what direction. They hand you the shell, you drop your hand on the barrel, shove it in, and the breech closes automatically. You have to slam that thing home. Well, you do that at night and you practice on a dummy. You have a three inch shell with a projectile, with no power. If you slam it in right, breech closes, projectile falls off. If you do something wrong, you've got to fish that thing out of there and start all over again. So that's how they train you, a dummy breech, on the aft part of the ship and you'd go up, two or three o'clock in the morning, depends on when they get ya. So that's how you learn to load, 'cause there's no light to load by. You got to learn to swim and you wonder why. I mean after all you're in the ocean. Well, their explanation is that if you could swim 50 yards, there's an opportunity you can reach a raft or some flotsum. So, you qualify. You swim two lengths of the pool, you've made it. Well, I qualified for, I think about eight different fellows. You just went in, finally you'd give a name, and jumped in and swam your swim. Otherwise, you couldn't get any liberty. So we, this was done a lot. A lot of fellows qualified. And one of the old chiefs used to say, when he first went aboard "Hell, you're never more than eight miles from land." Oh yeah, it's straight down but it's there, you know, big help.

Description

Mr. Stewart discusses different aspects of basic training.

Edward Stewart

Mr. Stewart was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1926. Following his father's footsteps, he attempted to join the navy, but was under age. Drafted at the age of 18, he was selected for naval duty. Mr. Stewart served aboard troop ships during the latter stages of the Second World War, both on deck and in the engine room, and spent considerable time ashore in Germany, France and Denmark. He also sailed on one of the mass-produced Liberty ships. Mr. Stewart eventually moved to Harriston, Ontario, where he worked 38 years for Canada Packers.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 04:11
Person Interviewed:: Edward Stewart
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Battle/Campaign:: North Atlantic
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: Europa
Rank:: Able Seaman
Occupation:: Deck Crew, Engine Room

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It wasn't the navy way

Heroes Remember