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t i Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, November 14,1990 7 Veteran Recalls World War II Memories by Lorna Miller "I don't want to show any disrespect to my fallen comrades, comrades, said Bill Clarke, a World War Two veteran who served with the 502nd Royal Air Force Corps in Europe and Africa. "But, war can be hilarious as well as horrifying." horrifying." Mr. Clarke, who was born in County Down in Northern Ireland, joined the RAF in 1935. He immigrated to Canada Canada in 1953. Once established here, he taught school in the area and also served as commander commander of the St. John Ambulance Ambulance Corps of Oshawa and Newcastle for 14 years. He was a major in the Ontario Ontario regiment and a former commander of the regiment. His early years of the war were spent in training at Brighton. "The Air Force was the service to be in as far as all the young men were concerned," concerned," he said. His training period completed, completed, he flew reconnaissance reconnaissance missions in his two- seater, open cockpit Tiger Moth over the Irish Sea, searching for German U- Boats. "We had no radio, so we carried a wicker basket of carrier pigeons. When the pilot spotted a U-Boat, we took the longitude and latitude latitude of the sighting, wrote it on a piece of paper, attached it to the metal band on the pigeon's leg and released it. The pigeons were supposed to fly back to headquarters at Brighton, but sometimes they flew off in the wrong direction direction so we had to chase them and turn them around. The trouble with this method method was that the pigeons sometimes defecated upon release, hitting the pilot in the face. Several pilots suffered suffered burnt-out eyes from this unfortunate, frequent experience," he said. Mr. Clarke also said that there were two sides to the war in Ireland itself. "When we were downed in Southern Ireland, we were incarcerated in a luxury luxury hotel before being returned returned to base in Northern Ireland." Mr. Clarke was stationed in Liverpool during the 10- day blitz and remembers it as a destructive trauma, which only those who lived through it can describe. After the blitz, he was stationed on a troop ship headed for the coast of Africa. Africa. It was a voyage through and to, hell. He vividly remembers one incident which occurred on a day of treacherously heavy seas. On a sister ship a, caterpillar caterpillar bulldozer broke free of its moorings and careened around the deck with the desperate crew trying unsuccessfully unsuccessfully to re-secure it. As time went on and the waves rolled even higher, it became obvious that the only way to cope with the situation was to maneuver the meandering monolith into a position from which it would slide overboard when the ship listed violently enough to accomplish the task. When the next wave hit, the ship listed sufficiently and the bulldozer sank into the trough, another unsung casualty of war at sea. "I wasn't on that ship, but we were in such close formation that we could see all the action clearly," Mr. Clarke said. They were at sea for six, long weeks.. During this eternity of bad food and worse weather, they realized that their foremost foremost enemy was not the Germans but the sea itself. It was a relief to reach the African port, in spite of the war. Mr. Clarke spent three years fighting in Africa. While there he had the opportunity opportunity to visit his brother who was a commissioned officer officer in the Royal Navy. One day, Mr. Clarke was invited to come on board the ship on which his brother served. Being a noncommissioned noncommissioned officer, Mr. Clark had his reservations about being let on board. However, on the appointed appointed day, he paraded himself boldly along the jetty where the ship was moored, and was surprised when he was smartly saluted past the jetty jetty sentries ana onto the quarterdeck where three duty sentries snapped briskly briskly to attention to the barked order "present arms." After yet another briskly returned salute, he heard the order to "stand aside". ■ It was then that he turned around and came face-to-face with the commander commander of the battle fleet, who was walking quietly behind behind him. Mr. Clarke and his brother brother enjoyed several such visits visits before the inevitable message message came that his brother had been a casualty bn one of the ship's missions. "But," ne said with a tear in his eye, "I was fortunate and grateful to have those few visits with him over the years we were in that area." The enemy had its own internal problems and squabbles, too. Mr. Clarke told of one mission in which his ship We had' an eerie time at our Hallowe'en assembly, with many monsters and strange characters wandering wandering around. Mr. Duval's Grade 6 class performed a play and some poems. This month's birthday certificates went to Amanda Malley, Bradley Terry, Stef Davey, Tyler McDonald, Adam Odette, Shawna Bord, Brandon Brandon Allen and Jesse James. Happy birthday! Congratulations to everyone everyone who received achievement achievement awards. Awards went to Tom Kenney in Mr. Hor- nyak's class, Deanna For rester in Mrs. Doty's class, Gary Malette in Mrs. Fall's class, Scotty Thompson in Mrs. FlintofFs class and Steven Steven Sadiwnyk in Mr. Duval's Duval's class. Ms. Dion gave an achievement award to her whole class. Mrs. Bennett's Grade 4 classroom, is quite busy. The class has completed Witches activities and they also did a play at Marnwood Place on Oct. 31, Plus they made decorations decorations for the people who live there. The play was called Beamy Brown Eye. For Remembrance Day they will be making posters and writing poems. Mrs. Bennett's Bennett's class is doing a project on animals. They are reading reading individual novels. Plus the class will be visiting Lang Pioneer Village to see about a pioneer Christmas. Mrs. Bennett's class will be seeing Cinderella on November November 8th. The Grade 5/6 class in Room 206 is having an exciting exciting time. They received penpal penpal letters from a Grade 5/6 class in Burnaby, B.C. They will have fun getting to know their new friends and find out what its like to 1 live in British Columbia. Sipio AHiXnn if DURHAM REGION'S LARGEST FUEL OIL COMPANY! Sipio vUiXon FUEL OIL Heating & Air Conditioning Sales & Service i 313 ALBERT ST. OSHAWA 728-5138 723-4663 was commandeered to carry 3,000 prisoners of war to England. ■ The ship was the New Amsterdam, a Dutch liner. It was crewed by the Dutch, administered by the United States and haa an English Colonel in command: Every day thé prisoners were brought on deck to exercise. exercise. Every day, the German and Italian prisoners, who hated each other, fought on the deck. After one particularly trying trying day when the Germans and Italians came to blows, a German officer complained to the Colonel that his men did not want to exercise with the Italians. To which the Colonel replied, "You should have thought of that in 1940." "Tales of war are funny. Some are touching. Most are ' horrifying. It is a tribute to the determination of the human human spirit that we can look back and laugh," he concluded. concluded. Merrill Brown introduced Mr. Clarke and Keith Billett thanked him. In honour of Remembrance Remembrance Day, one minute of Ontario Street Choir Performs for Patients in Hospital silence was observed at the start of the meeting. Guests of Rotary were: Rick Patterson and the Spanish exchange student of the Whitby club, Adela Pu- chalt and President of the Oshawa Club, David Sori- chetti. Ted Mann was given birthday congratulations and Keith Billett and his lovely wife were celebrating an anniversary. Rotarian Jack Lambert presented George Moore with a 13-year attendance pin. Bowmanville Rotary was runner up in overall attendance attendance for the month of October, October, Don Staples led a rousing sing song. Nominations for Vice- President will be received until November 22. Ecological Tip for the week: make your own furniture furniture polish with one tablespoon tablespoon of lemon oil and one cup of mineral oil. President Bill Whyte closed the meeting with the timely reminder: "Lest we forget." That's all from Rotary for this week. SHHH i/'Æk. | ; ,• The choir from Ontario Street Public School per- mem bers from the Royal Canadian Legion also at- formed at Memorial Hospital Bowmanville on Novem- tended the service to discuss what it was like to be in- ber 9 for the continuing care patients who are unable volved in the war. to attend outside Remembrance Day services. Two ' Rotary Club President, Bill Whyte, thanks Bill Clarke who spoke to the club about his memories, good and bad, of World War Two. Mr. Clarke served with the 502nd Royal Air Force Corps stationed in Africa and Europe. Happenings at Central P.S. Christmas Gift ! ". V,'j?. j .. I ' - ! * - . ,. - / ■ F'K"' I---- *4*-- ! . . • n, , , nit, Oil- / , '.V • . ' . ' ' . 1 ' ... .. . «SUÉS» ■ I 1 ', , . . -. . ■; ' > a birch njt.^v > *, , / ) y ' r.#.m * I»-: K , •' ' ' ' - . fv- - • « "Mï ■■ Wk-.k .. $$ kktfSkkkk r : .... , » . - - \ IE* .... • NN - 6850 the Genius 800W FAMILY SIZE A deluxe family size oven makes you a cooking Oenlus. 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