I was in the RCAF stationed at #4 SFTS Saskatoon when "D" Day occurred. While my memory is good, my recall is terrible. I have no special recollection of that day. It may well have been that I was actually at an R1 field 4 miles west of Vanscoy and 11 miles north of DeLisle (birthplace of the Bentley Brothers, then famous NHL hockey stars) Saskatchewan. From a small deck of the roof of the "H" hut both towns were clearly visible. That is the flattest part of Saskatchewan. I can attest there were no "prairie" schooners in sight. So my memory of "D" Day, and the other three invasions involving the crossing of the English channel is from what I have read. Newspaper accounts and history books, and a tapestry.
"D" day 1944 had 4000 warships. 11,000 war planes, 1,000 air transports, and lord only knows how many thousand surface craft gliders and balloons. These were the approximations given to the House of Commons by Winston Churchill on June 10th 1944.
Only an approximation but sufficient to give a statistical mental and visual comparison with the great fleet of William the Conqueror (Magno Navigo in Latin??) Crossing the channel all night and next day September 27th and 28th 1066. "700 SHIPS LESS 4" took part in the invasion crossing of the English Channel in A.D. 1066, ferrying William the Conqueror’s troops over from Normandy to fight the Battle of Hastings, which occurred 16 days after the landing of the fleet, and take Britain away from the last of the Saxon Kings.
That must have been quite a fete of logistics. Knights, mail clad, riding down to the fleet and going on board those flimsy craft. Williams flagship the Moira is depicted in a contemporary tapestry with less than a dozen knights and their shields. It was like the old phrase, "Two is company three is a crowd". According to that tapestry some of those craft could hold only four people, and ten horses with their bridled heads gnawing the gunwale is the largest number to be seen in any of the transport. The tapestry only shows eleven of the 696 single masted rounders used in the invasion. It gives a picture of the fleet with flowing sails and periscope -like figureheads peering above the waves until they beach themselves at Pevensey and the horses were hoisted overboard, the stripped masts being used as derricks and the emptied hulls then hauled up high above the tide mark. No bothersome keels to worry about. Maybe the knights jumped their horses over the bulwarks. Who knows?
The total force may have been 10,000 soldiers, but some authorities place it as high as 60,000 men. Horses were the tanks of the day, but it is doubtful if many of the 10,000 soldiers had horses. Six hundred and Eighty Six vessels, works out to less than 15 men plus equipment and horses per vessel. As I look at a photograph of the tapestry, the vessels appear much smaller. They show no oars, but at that time, oars would have been the main source of power. (Dave Newell and I sailed into the harbour at Catrone in Italy where we were told the last naval battle using oared craft was fought, in the 1500s)
The vessels of the day had to be small a they were built in the forests and hauled to the beaches for landing, and had to be landed on beaches and hauled above the high tide mark on the other side, as there was no wharfage or piers available. (When were they invented?)
I can find no record of the vessels used by the Romans in their invasion of Britain 2000 years ago, nor of the vessels used by King Henry V in his crossing the Channel.
It is thus difficult to compare the Bow and Arrow armament and wind power transport of 9 centuries ago when the last invader slew the last of the Saxon Kings, with the 4000 large ships, the "ducks" (amphibious truck) and "LCIs" (landing craft - Infantry) and the thousands of other small vessels employed in the transport of the Allied force on June 6th 1944 on its way to destroy what ever it was we destroyed.
By the way the tapestry is the Bayeaux Tapestry is an unique historical document. It is 20" wide and 170 feet long. It was long in the Cathedral of Bayeaux where Williams half brother was the Bishop. The tapestry is attributed to the Duchess Matilda, William the Conqueror’s wife and her needlewomen.
Bayeaux is only six miles inland from the sea, and is older than France itself. It was captured by the Allies on Wednesday June 8th, two days after the Normandy invasion.
YACHTSMEN AT WAR
Some think of yachtsmen as softies and sissies.
Bottle Cruisers, very wealthy, "luxurious" is the word.
But when Canada needed submarine patrols in 1940, and could not buy them from the United States because of their neutrality laws,. The United states could still sell to soft sissie individuals (yachtsmen) if they had cash or credit. So Ottawa sent for yachtsmen
Twelve yachtsmen had their own vessels requestioned by the Government. The twelve then went to the U.S. and bought twelve cruisers. Big fast "pleasure yachts" they’d never dream of owning (except in a nightmare), fit to cross the Atlantic ocean.
Ottawa had the twelve fast cruisers ready for subs by spring, where they had none before. And the twelve yachtsmen had their old yachts back with letters of thanks.
That same spring the British Navy was told "France has Quit", you’ve got to get our army out of there somehow or 300,000 Tommies will die in German Prison Camps.
The Silent service kept quiet, but sent for the yachtsmen, Softies, Sissies, bottle cruisers, very wealthy, luxurious, who had laid their toys by to go fire watching, plane spotting, sandbag filling, airwardening, and those others who went blockbusting in Italy, or to fight at sea or die in the desert.
The Navy said to those left: "Bring those soldiers home" and the miracle of Dunkirk happened. Wrought by motor boats, canoes, ketches, barge yachts, cabin cruisers, pleasure boats, shuttling back and forth across the English Channel till the whole army was saved.
And the yachtsmen went back to their fire watching, plane spotting, sandbag filling, airwardening, that is those that had not been machine gunned in the Channel. Being of course softies, sissies, bottle battlers, very wealthy, luxurious.
But their deed got into the papers, and helped get American support. The North American Yacht Racing Union began the recognition by remitting the fees of all British Yachtsmen for the duration of the war.
Eventually American neutrality crumbled into a Wendell Wilkie after Pearl Harbour, and Americans got into the war.
In 1942 it was recorded that the Oshawa Yacht Club had 56 of their 156 members in the fighting forces
Queen City Yacht Club had 42 of its 100 members at war.
Shellbacks with a mailing list of 200, were down to 30 or 40 at the noon hour meeting, the rest were away war.
The RCYC had 324 members on active service, out of a total membership at the time of 1980. That membership broke down, like everybody else’s income, after normal tax, graduated tax, gas tax, radio tax, boat license tax had been deducted to 898 resident members.
The National Yacht club had 305 members, 67 on Active service.
Frenchman’s Bay Yacht Club with their wee boats had 15 of 40 members on active service.
Ashbridges Bay had 25 of its 70 members on active service.
The yachtsmen’s prayer of 1942 was:
Take away our gasoline, (as you have)
Priority away our antifouling paint,
our varnish, hardware, cordage,
Binoculars, monkey wrenches,
But leave us still
The winds of Heaven,
The waves of the Lakes,
To use if we can use them.
