Convoy to Scotland

Heroes Remember

Convoy to Scotland

We were picked up by boat and they joined the convoy, another convoy, or the same convoy, off, somewhere off, almost to England. And that night, there was a big storm and two of the boats collided and we watched the rescue going on during the night. As the boat was going down, they set up this bridge between the, I forget the name was, between the boats and people were sliding across on the rope. But then finally, we got to Scotland where they were docking. Greenwich, I guess. And we were entering the uh, going through the entrance at night before midnight or about midnight and all the Brit-types they were, on-board were, had been drinking and they were singing cause they were...this is where the submarines would get the boats before they got through the gate, you see. Cause we didn’t know anything was going on at all and the singing didn’t help us. It was just like being at sea everyday. You might see a German air plane come over, a big, long reconnaissance, big, big job, the reconnaissance air craft, but other than that, they’d hear about submarines and you’d see the destroyers going out and dropping the depth charges. But no one ever told you anything about...the navy was silent, you know, and suffer. We did guard duty and things like that on the boat to keep busy but they would never tell us really what was going on. I think it would have been better if they had. When we got to Greenwich, the harbour was full of battleships. You couldn’t count them in there. All camouflaged, they fit right in to the background. Beautiful.

A story about danger, intercultural relationships and finding beauty in all things.

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.