Ceremony pays tribute to an Ordinary Seaman

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This article was published 03/05/2004 (8057 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ONE sister remembers the brother she lost with the sinking of HMCS Valleyfield, the other sister never met him.

But yesterday, during a commemoration of the Second World War’s Battle of the Atlantic, they and hundreds of Winnipeggers honoured and remembered Ordinary Seaman Ronald Phillips and 16 other Manitobans lost when HMCS Valleyfield sank after being torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat on May 6, 1944.

“It was very difficult to come, but it’s good to know what happened,” said Marg Joyal, Phillips’ sister.

“I’m the baby of the family so all of my knowledge about him comes from my sister and family. I’m so glad the Chippawa is doing this.

“It’s history and you need to pass it on.”

Joyal’s sister, Joan Byers, said both the commemorative ceremony at HMCS Chippawa, the local Naval Reserve Unit, followed by the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph on Memorial Boulevard, were touching.

“It has brought back a lot of memories,” the visibly moved woman said.

“A lot of people today just don’t understand the sacrifice made by people like my brother.”

For the third year, the annual commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic was dedicated to a ship lost by the Canadian Navy, this year being the sinking of HMCS Valleyfield.

A total of 125 officers and crew died either from the explosion or in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic when the vessel broke into two sections and sunk seconds later.

Besides the Valleyfield, the six-year battle to keep the supply lines open to Britain from North America also claimed 31 Canadian Navy ships, as well as another 70 Merchant Ships.

The names of each of the navy ships were read out during the service, each commemorated with the tolling of a bell.

More than 4,300 sailors, airmen and Merchant Mariners lost their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic.

During the service at HMCS Chippawa, prayers and speeches were made, as well as a video shown in which two survivors of the ship were interviewed in Ontario.

Padre Glen Krentz, of the HMCS Chippawa, said for many of the sailors who enlisted and served in the Royal Canadian Navy, it was their first time away from home.

“It was done, not just for family and friends, but for total strangers,” Krentz said.

“They were young and this was before e-mail and inexpensive phone calls.”

Gisele Toupin, regional director general of Veterans Affairs, said the Battle of the Atlantic was unlike any other battle during the Second World War.

“It wasn’t a battle of days, weeks or months — it lasted for five years,” Toupin said.

“And it was on the unpredictable North Atlantic.”

Commander Kelly Greenwood, of the city’s namesake, HMCS Winnipeg, said Canadian sailors around the world would take a few minutes to remember their predecessors and the sacrifices they made.

“The convoy routes are marked by their graves,” Greenwood said. “But through their sacrifice the U-boat was defeated.

“Like Canada’s army at Vimy Ridge in the First World War, Canada’s navy came of age in the Second World War. The respect Canada’s navy has today starts with the Battle of the Atlantic.”

Later, under clear blue skies, almost 100 family members of the Manitobans who perished with HMCS Valleyfield took part in the wreath-laying ceremony.

The ceremony took place following a march down Portage Avenue to the Cenotaph on Memorial Boulevard by members of HMCS Chippawa’s ship’s company, Manitoba’s Naval Cadet Corps, and the province’s Naval Veteran’s Associations.

Eight-year-old Kaylee Ford and Ryan King, 11, laid a bouquet of flowers at the Cenotaph in honour of their great-great uncle Able Seaman James Dawes, who was 23 when he died on HMCS Valleyfield.

“It felt good, but I was scared,” Ford said.

“It was exciting — I know what he did because I read a book,” King said.

Navy officials said several more family members joined yesterday’s service after learning about it by reading an account of the sinking in Friday’s Free Press.

Charlie Strachan, whose 20-year-old brother Edward was lost on the Valleyfield, said he had a lump in his throat through the entire ceremony.

“I’m still trying to get control of myself,” he said.

“If Eddie were here, he would have probably said it’s too much of a fuss for us, but I know my dad would have really been impressed by this.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca