Onward to Iceland

Heroes Remember

Onward to Iceland

One night, we all went aboard ship and we were put on a cruiser, merchant cruiser, to join this convoy. There was a number of air crew on it and we took off. The next morning, we were out to sea with the convoy. Many, many ships, as far as you could see. After a couple of days, I think it was two days later, our ship left the, it’s called the Osonia (sp). It left the convoy and took off for Iceland. It was required somewhere else, so they dumped us off in Iceland. Or this is routine, I don’t know because there was lots of subs in the...out there. Whether they wanted to save the air crew, I don’t know of that either. But all the ships were, you know, they had, they were full of supplies and army personnel and their supplies. We landed in Iceland and we were put up in, near Reykjavik along side a, in a barracks, an old barracks there along side of a stream. And I didn’t have to shave in those days but my buddies had to shave and they’d go down and shave in along side the river, or the stream, in the cold, cold water. It was ice water. I can just still see them sitting on the rock shaving and complaining. You know, they didn’t take that long. But there was also hot springs there and we would go and have a...bathe in the hot springs. We had, something I’ll always remember, to keep us occupied, they’d march us down to a ball field or a big field. It would take about 20 minutes to get there. We’d all march down there, go in there and play ball. In the camp, there was a number of Aussie ground crew, several hundred of them. So they wanted us to teach them to play softball, Canadian style. Well, this all went very well until, if you could just imagine how many rules there are. In one minute, you could do it and the next minute you can’t, see. And finally, the Aussies thought we were putting them on, like, pulling their legs and they just got hostile. They were going to beat us up! And it took a little while to cool everybody down, you know, cause they, the Aussies were a little older. They were ground crew people, probably five or six years older. They were a little more adult type. They thought these young bucks were pulling their leg.

From a convoy bound for Iceland to a soft ball game with Australian servicemen; a great look into the daily routine of soldiers slowly making their way to combat.

James Francis Edwards

Mr. Edwards was born on a farm near Lockwood, Saskatchewan on June 5th 1921. His father, a First World War Veteran, kept horses until the depression forced him to move the family to Battleford where he became an insurance salesman. His mother had been a nurse during the First World War. In June 1940, Mr. Edwards enlisted in the Air Force. He was sent to the Brandon, Manitoba to do his Initial Training, then to Edmonton, Alberta for Flying School. After completing Flying School, Mr. Edwards was sent to overseas. He was assigned to 55 Operational Training Unit in Osworth, England where he flew Hurricanes. From there he was posted to Africa to take part in the Desert Campaign. Among many battles and operations, he took part in the El Alamein Battle (Egypt) and the Tunisian Campaign. In Egypt, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. After a period in Cairo running a gunnery school, he was called back to combat in Italy. There he fought in the Battle of Ortona and Anzio and he was given his own squadron, the RAF 274. He was shot down on his first flight as squadron commander. Surviving, he and his crew were sent back to England to take part in D-Day. He would also fight in Holland and Germany. In total, Mr. Edwards served two tours of duty, flying over 360 missions. He had more than 19 confirmed kills. After the war was over he returned to Canada and continued service with the air force retiring as a wing commander.