November 7, 2008
The Columbia Valley Pioneer • 1
Remembrance Day, November 11thth, 2008
2 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
November 7, 2008
Dick Baker saw stormy seas By Dorothy Isted Special to The Pioneer The story of 85-year-old Dick Baker begins with a prairie boy’s fascination with the navy. His parents farmed near Hardisty, Alberta. His mother Leslie, born in Scotland, had a picture of her brother who was in Royal Navy uniform. While working on the farm and going to school, young Dick studied that picture and longed for a life on the high seas. Life wasn’t easy on the farm, Dick recalls. “For high school I went to Bell’s Hill five miles away and I rode horseback. I’d be the first one there and would bank the coal fire. Banking the fire meant putting the coal in such a way, and the dampers on so it would slowly burn and not go out overnight. Then in the morning I’d shake the fire up and get it going to warm the school up. I got paid $2 a month for that. I gave the money to my mother and she used it for household expenses.” The year he graduated from high school, at the age of 16, Dick wrote to Ottawa and asked to join the navy. It was 1939 but war had not yet been declared. He still has the reply, shown on this page, telling him to wait until he was 17. When he turned 17 in 1940, Dick travelled to the Royal Canadian Navy base Esquimalt near Victoria. He was assigned to the Armed Merchant Cruiser Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship, Prince Robert. Once a coastal ferry, it was being refitted for war duty. German ships had been taking refuge in Mexican and South American ports. It was also known that six
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armed enemy merchant raiders were at large on the ocean, which caused a lot of anxiety. To counter this, there was a small squadron of British light cruisers. The Prince Robert’s refitting was hastened, and she sailed on September 12, 1940, in a very unready state. While patrolling off Manzanillo, Mexico, the crew on the Prince Robert sighted a large ship coming out of the port. The Prince Robert lay unobserved close to land, and waited while the other ship cleared the port. Under cover of darkness, the Prince Robert went full steam ahead until it was in international waters and illuminated the German ship Weser by firing a star shell, ordering her to stop. In the dark, the men of the Weser mistook the Prince Robert for a warship of devastating power and stopped moving. The enemy prepared to scuttle their ship but she was boarded so quickly they had no time to complete their plan. With a small prize crew of four officers and 22 men, the jubilant Canadians sailed the Weser to Esquimalt where she was reconditioned, renamed the Vancouver Island and used for regular service. It was a wartime triumph that really lifted the spirits of Canadians.
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It was the first of many adventures for the young sailor. In 1941, his ship the Robert was attached to the New Zealand Navy as part of a convoy protecting airmen coming to Canada to participate in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Of crossing the equator Dick remembers, “It was damn hot!” Continued on Page 3
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The Columbia Valley Pioneer • 3
November 7, 2008 Continued from Page 2 . . . Later that year the Robert, along with the troop ship Awatea, delivered infantry battalions of 1,975 personnel to Hong Kong. They consisted of the Royal Rifles of Canada from Quebec and the Winnipeg Grenadiers from Manitoba. Dick recalls: “Hong Kong was being bombarded. I can still see them today, lined up on the jetty. We had to leave them.” It was a doomed plan to defend this port against the Japanese. The Canadians were interned in Japanese prisoner of war camps, where they suffered extreme deprivation. (In 1945 the Prince Robert was symbolically chosen to transport the Ca-
nadian survivors back home and its captain was one of the signatories for Canada when Hong Kong surrendered on September 16, 1945.) From Hong Kong, the Robert sailed to Pearl Harbour for supplies. Fortunately, it left port on December 6th, 1941 – the day before the American port was bombed. The Robert received orders to turn around and pick up survivors, which they did, taking them back to Esquimalt. The Japanese then attacked two islands of the Aleutians in the Pacific Northwest. In August 1942 the men sailed for Dutch Harbour in the Aleutians and assisted the U.S. Navy in escort duties for two
months, covering 350 miles of open sea between the islands. Though no enemy forces were encountered, they battled the elements – often encountering gale force winds, erratic currents, uncharted shoals and dense fog. Dick was then transferred to the Atlantic fleet where he served on the corvette HMCS Owen Sound. Conditions aboard ship were debilitating. Constant vigilance was required in the North Atlantic against the sea, the enemy and the cold. After the two-week transatlantic convoy with constant rolling and pitching, the crew was left exhausted. It was during this time that Dick’s hands began to shake uncontrollably.
Dick Baker’s ship captured German prisoners, seen here marching ashore in Esquimalt, near Victoria.
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4 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer Continued from Page 3 . . . A ship’s medic reported on his findings: “On March 10, 1944, Owen Sound successfully engaged and sank an enemy submarine in the Bay of Biscay. Prisoners were taken. Baker’s action station was below decks in the Gyro spaces. These spaces below decks were battened and secured during action stations. Communications within the ships of that era were practically non-existent. Therefore, young men under duress and fatigue, not fully comprehending the action above decks and locked below decks, were often dazed for long periods and generally recovered shortly thereafter. Not so with Baker. He reported to Sick Bay regarding his condition. We carried no Doctor as such . . . Over a period Baker acquired the nick-name “SHAKEY.” Members of the ship’s company, I believe, were sincere in attempting to “kid him along” or shake him from dwelling upon his condition.” Of his time on the destroyer, Dick says, “We did our trials on Lake Superior and sailed down the great lakes and the canals to Halifax. We sailed to Newfoundland and picked up four other corvettes.
November 7, 2008 The group was called EG9. We picked up a convoy in Newfoundland. It was a group on what they called the Triangle Run: New York, Halifax and Boston. We ran out of Newfoundland, the convoy of 300 to 400 ships were out of the Triangle Run and we had to keep them together but not too close to each other. I’d be glad to get rid of them! “We’d drop the convoy: some went into France, some into England. And then we ran out of Ireland. We’d be in Ireland for maybe seven days and then we’d pick up another convoy going back. We’d be in Newfoundland for a week, and then out we’d go to pick up another convoy. Finally we went over and we got sight of a German sub, and we tailed it all the way to the Bay of Biscay, just off France. And it’s shallow. We got it and I got hurt. It fired a shot and the damn hatch hit me in the back and hit a nerve. I was off duty, on the ship most of the time, in sick bay for quite a little
while.” The submarine they captured was the U-845. As if Dick’s adventures at sea weren’t strenuous enough, he also participated in the action on D-Day, when Allied forces finally invaded the continent. “They took us off convoy duty and we had to run across to keep the subs out of the channel on D-Day, while all the ships were going across. Then we had to go back to the damn convoy. I never got seasick.” The homesick prairie boy had a chance to spend time with his extended family. During the times he was stationed in Ireland on leave, Dick took the opportunity to sail on a ferry to Scotland and become acquainted with his mother’s family, whom he had never seen. His mom drew him a map of how to find their house once he got to the town of Stranraer. “When I saw my grandmother, the hair and the way she spoke, I just thought it was Mom. She had sisters there, too . . . I was walking up this street and spoke to them and they wondered who I was. One of them really looked like her.” Continued on Page 5
Dick Baker’s ship, the HMCS Prince Robert, captured a German ship off the coast of Mexico.
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The Columbia Valley Pioneer • 5
November 7, 2008
A cocky 19-year-old Dick Baker in his sailor’s uniform, centre, with some friends on shore leave.
Continued from Page 4 Dick was able to visit them every four months or so when he was on leave. After the war ended, Dick decided to remain in the navy. He married Grace in 1949, a girl from Halifax where he was stationed. At the time Grace was the registrar for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and flew all over eastern Canada doing her job. When Canada responded to the United Nations call for intervention in the Korean conflict, Dick sailed there as Chief Electrical Officer on the destroyer Cayuga. On the east coast of Korea the terrain was rugged, which forced the railroads to skirt the shore. Enemy trains were the targets of naval guns. There was a lot of patrolling going on in the Yellow Sea and its many offshore islands. Once on a four-day leave, Dick and three companions took a jeep and went overland to take a look at Seoul. They passed through fields of land mines. They also involved themselves in humanitarian work. They were stationed in the harbour at Sasebo, Japan. Korea was very cold and the people were suffering terribly. The men would take containers of clothing and other items they’d bought in Japan and drop it off at the docks for the poor people in Korea. It was dangerous and the ship was in jeopardy of being damaged but the men felt compelled to do it. After 26 years in the Royal Canadian Navy,
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Dick retired in 1965. He has medals for the Pacific, Atlantic and Korean conflicts. He worked as an electrician for 25 years. One job was at one of the seven Emergency Government Headquarters being built across Canada. This was the time of the Cold War and the Nuclear Threat. The opposition coined the phrase ‘Diefenbunkers’ in jest of the prime minister of the time who felt they were necessary. These facilities were often built in great secrecy at rural locations outside major cities across Canada. Usually they were two-story underground bunkers capable of withstanding a nearhit from a nuclear explosion. There were massive blast doors at the surface, and extensive air filters to prevent radiation infiltration. Food, fuel, fresh water, and other supplies for the facility were kept in storage underground, capable of supporting several dozen people for weeks. In the past decade, there were rumours of a bike gang that wanted to purchase the Penhold bunker. The federal government purchased it back from its private owner and destroyed it at considerable cost. After their three boys, Terry, Randy and Shawn were born, Grace became a full-time homemaker. The family moved around Canada a lot depending on where Dick was stationed. In fact, Terry was christened on a ship when the crew turned the ship’s bell upside down and filled it with water to use as the baptismal font. Continued on Page 6 . . .
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6 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer Continued from Page 5 . . . After the boys grew up, Dick took Grace on many cruises over their years together, sailing to all the places he had been to in his war service. They spent six months in Bermuda once, and Dick said he was bemused to see “six German destroyers there, just cruising around.
November 9, 2007 It was after the war and they were visiting.” Dick and Grace moved to the valley about 18 months ago to be close to sons Shawn and Terry. Shawn is the financial comptroller at Home Hardware, and Terry is the operations manager for the Panorama School of Skiing and Snowboarding. Randy is a stockbroker in Nanaimo.
Dick Baker, standing at the rear on the right, on board his corvette HMCS Owen Sound.
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Dick Baker today, with service medals from several continents.
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Dick’s beloved wife Grace died earlier this year, after 59 years of marriage, and Dick misses her deeply. A lifelong golfer, he still enjoys golfing, and on November 2nd, he played nine holes with son Shawn and friend Peter Sweetman, and hit 45. Not bad for an old sailor.
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The Columbia Valley Pioneer •7
November 7, 2008
Local volunteers distribute 6,000 poppies By Cayla Gabruck Pioneer Staff
Long-time poppy volunteer Edna Godlien.
Every year at this time, Edna Godlien of Invermere wears a poppy. She has done ever since she was a little girl. “I had three uncles in the service; one went over and didn’t come back,” she said. “You know it just means that we are showing our patriotism to these people who have fought for our lives and to make it as good as we have it now.” Edna was the poppy chairman of the Invermere Royal Canadian Legion for about ten years. But her dedication did not begin there. She is one of several women who have been volunteering to sell poppies in the Columbia Valley for about 50 years, since the late 1950s. Other stalwart volunteers include Phyllis Lake, Elsie Lake, Madge Young, Helen Andrews and Eileen Tegart. Edna said the poppy campaign is very dear to her, not only because her family served, but also because of her late husband Arthur. A member of the army, he was stationed in France and Belgium. He was also in Holland when the war ended. The Royal Canadian Legion poppy campaign be-
gan on October 31st and will continue until November 11th. Last year the Edgewater Legion branch raised over $3,000 and the Invermere Branch raised $17,000. More than 6,000 poppies were distributed throughout the Columbia Valley. “You know wearing a poppy – it shows we really do care,” Edna said. “It’s not only our veterans from past wars, it’s the veterans that come home now that we still have to look after.” The proceeds from each year’s poppy campaign go towards helping out veterans. This includes assisting needy veterans, ex-service members and their families, purchasing medical appliances, funding medical research and training, providing bursaries to the children and grandchildren of veterans and ex-service members; and funding accommodation, care facilities, meals-on-wheels, transport and related services for veterans, seniors and disabled persons. The poppy emblem was first produced in 1922 by disabled veterans and was sponsored by the Department of Soldiers Civil Re-establishment. In 1966 production was shifted to a private company, but the message remains the same – Lest we Forget. “As long as there is a war, there will be poppies,” Edna said.
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8 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
November 7, 2008
MP Abbott: I thank you, we all thank you
By Jim Abbott Member of Parliament
At the time, people called it The War to End All Wars, and while we now know that certainly wasn’t the case, the First World War also marked the moment when Canada came of age. That moment exacted a terrible price – 66,000 dead – more than 10 percent of the 650,000 servicemen fielded by our country of just eight million. But those fallen soldiers did not die in vain. Their blood paid for our continued existence as a nation, a
price exacted again in the Second World War, in Korea, Afghanistan and many UN peacekeeping missions. This November 11 marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War and while that may seem like ancient history to many of our young people, its significance continues to resonate through our society. It certainly resonates within me. My grandfather, a medic in that war, came back alive having survived the machinegun fire, artillery salvos, unspeakable diseases and hideous conditions in the trenches. But he died three years after the war. The First World War occupies a special place in my family’s heritage and when I visited the Vimy Ridge Monument to Canada’s war dead in France last Remembrance Day I felt a spiritual link with that man
I never knew. Standing at that historic site, where Canadian soldiers accomplished a task no other army in the world had been able to do, I was overcome with a sense of pride at being a Canadian as I honoured the bravery of the soldiers who fought for freedom. The memorial at Vimy stands on top of the hill as Canadian soil. France was so grateful they gave Canada the land in perpetuity for a memorial to the bravery and sacrifice of our soldiers. Vimy isn’t the only place we distinguished ourselves. All over the world Canadians are respected for bravery, intelligence and service. To all veterans, their families, and the families of those who did not return – I thank you, we all thank you.
MLA Macdonald: we will stand together By Norm Macdonald Member of the Legislative Assembly Over the last three years, I have had the privilege of participating in Remembrance Day services throughout the area as MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke. Each Remembrance Day we are able to show our respect for those who have served
Canada and in many cases lost their lives to protect our freedom and prosperity. In a time when Canadians are serving in Afghanistan we acknowledge not only the sacrifice of individual service people but also the burden placed on their family members and their friends. It is heartening to see that year after year the number of people attending Re-
membrance Day services continues to grow. With each new generation of Canadians the act of remembrance continues. On November 11 we will again stand together as a community to honour those who have served and sacrificed that which is most precious to protect our freedom. We will remember.
“Let Peace Be Their Memorial” The Presidents and Members of the
Royal Canadian Legion
Branch #71, Windermere District and Branch #199, Edgewater invite your participatio in their joint services of Remembrance
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at the Cenotaph in Invermere In memory of more than 117,000 Fallen Comrades Those wishing to pick up wreaths to be placed at the Cenotaph please do so at 10:00 a.m. at the Legion.
• WWI 1914 – 1918 • WWII 1939 – 1945 • Korea 1950 – 1953 • Afghanistan • Peacekeepers
The Royal Canadian Legion would like to thank the general public for their generous donations to the Poppy Fund.