The Athabascan (Part 1 of 5)

Heroes Remember

The Athabascan (Part 1 of 5)

Transcript

They called it "the Unlucky Lady", Haida was called "the Lucky Lady", but she had been hit by glider bombs and I think there were six killed in the glider bomb attack and there were so many things. She had been bombed while she was in Newcastle on Tyne and they changed the names and what should have been the Athabascan became the Iroquois. Interviewer: The Iroquois, right. So you see there was bad luck there. We left 8 o'clock at night and got away and we were supposed to cover a mine laying operation and there were a number of MPB's and mine laying vessels there and we were supposed to do the outer screen. They got in there and well while they were getting closer to land the radar in England had picked up two other boats that were proceeding down the coast and ordered us to alter course and investigate and go full speed for 20 miles, which we did. And when we got down there it is was two T-boats, a T-24 and a T-27 German Elbings. Interviewer: I don't know what a T-boat is. It's a torpedo boat, T for torpedo boat. So, yeah, well anyway we got there we opened fire oh at around 4 o'clock in the morning and we got hits on one and it started to burn and Athabascan was astern of us and the, the one of the stories, so its been told, had fired six torpedos our way, one went down our port side, the captain altered course to, because he was sure that torpedos had been fired and the unfortunate part of it, Athabascan got hit in the stern and, right along side the 4-inch magazine. So there was two explosions, that one with the stern blown off and another one a little bit later and of course she sunk. We pursued the one that was not, or I shouldn't say, we pursued the one that was burning and we continued to fire at her and she went up, her captain took her up and put her on the beach, we still fired at her and then we turned around and came back and before we had left the area where the Athabascan was the captain ordered smoke screen so that it would cover it up.

Description

Mr. Hannam talks about the Athabascan, and his experience with it (part 1 of 5). He talks about the Athabascan itself, and the battle that sank her.

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:: 02:58
Person Interviewed:: Jack Hannam
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Atlantic Ocean
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: HMCS Haida
Rank:: Leading Seaman
Occupation:: Seaman

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03