A day in the life of Eddy Dubois

Everyone who went to war is a hero in my book…

Eddy was one of them, just as his brother Larry who died on December 18, 1944.

This is Eddy on the left on his way to Bermuda.

This is the original picture before I made some minor modifications.

Eddy had written this caption…

Me on way to Bermuda from Elizabeth City, North Carolina in a Catalina flying boat in the bubble at rear

Eddy died on December 24, 2010 and rejoigned his brother Larry.

He shared a lot of pictures he had about his war time service in the Ferry Command.

I never got around to ask him permission to share these pictures with my readers but I know he would have given it.

These pictures are precious mementos. Click on each to zoom in.

Eddy was stationed in Bermuda in 1942 and 1943.

Darrell’s Island Bermuda our base

 

Eddy had this caption…

Darrell’s Island

This was our base.
Flying over I took a picture of it and the Pan AM, BOAC BASE, from the Coronado flying boat which was piloted by Wing Commander Mo Ware, OBE. DFC. on a test flight. Only 1 PBM at anchor and one on the ramp. We were flying in CORONADO JX470 (which was a 4 motor flying boat, our first one) (Received on Apr. 4th, 1943). This was a training and test flight. They were new to us. They had to have 40 hours test flight and inspections done in Bermuda and it was used for local training for a while as well. It departed for Halifax (Dartmouth) on April 16th, 1943) and from there to Gander Lake, Iceland and Scotland or Gibraltar. These were used for transport of goods and passenger were unarmed.

Eddy had this picture also…

 

PBM Mariner

Eddy had this to say about this picture…

One of many that was ferried to Prestwick Scotland during 1943.

He also added this…

One like this sank off this island, one airman drowned (failed to inflate life jacket). I rescued him too late.

I will post more of Eddy’s pictures next week since these kind of pictures are very rare.

There are only a few like this one that can be could found on the Internet…

Photograph from Wing Commander Mo Ware, Commanding Officer of RAF forces in Bermuda during the War

To learn more about Bermuda during the war, click here…

Another bottle in the sea… for George Phillip Ament

This comment was added…

My father was George Phillip Ament and he made the Murmansk run three times. However his Navy records were apparently lost in the fires when Germany bombed England. It’s sad that he was never recognized for his contribution in such perilous times. He was a signalman on various ships.

Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, son of a veteran

If you have any info, contact me by writing a comment below…

Here are some links for additional information on the Murmansk Run:

http://www.vrcurassow.com/2dvrc/maps/murmansk.html

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=feature/murmansk/history

1st Canadian Parachute Battalion in Holland

Click here…

A new Website that pays homage to the men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.

I just got this message from the author…

Hello Pierre,

I did see your story about the Rousseau brothers on the Internet.
Maybe you are interested in my website about the Battalion in the Netherlands.

http://www.1stcanpara-in-holland.nl

Best regards,

Jeroen

Lest We Forget

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Update 9 March 2022

Emails from a relative

Hi there,

I wanted to thank you for the great page you have so kindly dedicated to my great uncles Philippe and Maurice Rousseau.

I grew up hearing their valiant stories which always remain with me.

Regarding the picture in which you originally believed to be Philippe (with his 2 sisters) was actually a soldier in Philippe’s division called Moffat (I have never seen the name spelled and I do not know much about him)

After Philippe was killed and the fighting died down, the rest of the platoon was captured including Mr. Moffat. He came by the family residence to tell the story of Philippe.

Interesting tidbit, Moffat and the rest of the platoon were moved to a prison camp in the mountains where they remained for quite some time. One of the German guards was looking for a skiing buddy and Moffat was his man. He spent a portion of his internment skiing. The German officer did say that if he tried to escape, he would be shot. Nevertheless, Mr. Moffat was able to tell our family of the heroism of Philippe.

The story I had been told was that Philippe’s battalion had been dropped at the wrong place. All of the soldiers were frightened as they eventually figured they were behind enemy lines. Philippe insisted on leading the platoon. That is when a German ambush killed him. 

 

With regards to Maurice, I have heard various accounts of what had happened. His mission was to meet up with a Maquis agent also named Rousseau who would have been a distant relative. They never had the chance to meet as the Maquis agent had already been killed by the time Maurice arrived.

The story about the priest showing the room to the German soldiers, I had been told that Maurice was hiding behind the door that the priest had just opened. He had his knife in hand. The Germans had checked several rooms and had asked about the one that Maurice would be in. The priest insisted on showing the Germans the room in question. Due to the instance of the priest, the Germans only took a peek inside the room instead of the more thorough verifications that had been done in other rooms.

In any event, I heard that Maurice died while providing cover to other allied soldiers. Another story I heard was that he did not die  but was wounded and captured. He would have been likely tortured for info and would have been executed as part of Hitler’s “Commando order”. However, I do not know if this is true, just what I have heard and read.

 

On a side note, both men were against the draft as they thought no-one should be forced to go to war. They were volunteers.

In any event, it is nice to see these young brave men remembered and honored. Me and my family truly appreciate this.

Have a wonderful day.

Best regards,

Daniel

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Hi Pierre,

In any event, I attached a picture of Philippe with my mom and uncle. While there is no year for the picture, this I am told, may have been one of the last times that my mom would have seen her uncle. I have been told that this may have been taken shortly before Philippe’s final departure to Europe.

Last tid-bit;

My mom remembers waking up one morning to find her dad (Philippe’s older brother Jacques) crying. He was holding 2 letters, which would have been from the military. The 1st letter was the news that Philippe had been killed in combat. The 2nd letter stating that Maurice was missing and the worst was feared. My poor grandfather found out that he lost 2 brothers in a single day. It was one of the most striking moments of my mom’s life as my grandfather was not at all prone to publicly emoting.

Among my mom’s things are the silver “Airborne” division wings pin. This was one of my mom’s most precious belongings.

Again, thank you for your work 

Have a fantastic day.

Kindest regards,

Daniel

Adélard (Eddy) Dubois 1922-2010

Eddy was Larry Dubois’ brother.

He found the articles I wrote about his brother. Eddy sent me a lot of pictures of Larry. I posted them on my blog.

Click here for the article.

Eddy sent me a lot of pictures of himself when he was in the service.

When I wrote about Larry, I found out his mother’s maiden name was Sauvé, also my mother’s maiden name. Larry and I were 5th cousins.

Eddy was so happy to find a distant cousin with an interest in aviation and genealogy. Eddy died on December 24, 2010. Eddy and I were going to meet in the future.

He wanted to get well before we meet. We never got the chance.

Eddy is now with his brother Larry talking about the good old times…

Émile Beaudoin

We don’t talk much about Émile Beaudoin on the Internet…

From 1942 to 1945, Canada issued a postage stamp depicting  a Tribal on trials. It is commonly known that the ship depicted on the stamp is HMS Cossack but it is widely believed that it was supposed to represent HMCS Iroquois possibly Atrhabaskan. Laurie Farrington, a naval historian and writer provides this explanation for the stamp.

“It has been suggested the 1942 Canadian one dollar destroyer stamp was a Canadian Tribal Class destroyer, either HMCS Iroquois or Athabaskan. Indeed, one book ­ Unlucky Lady: The Life and Death of HMCS Athabaskan 1940-44  by Len Burrow and Emile Beaudoin published in 1982 ­ includes a photograph of the 1942 $1.00 stamp and describes it as Iroquois at speed. The construction of both Iroquois and Athabaskan began in 1940 in the United Kingdom and Iroquois was the first Canadian Tribal to be commissioned in late 1942. After air raids which damaged Iroquois,  the unscathed Athabaskan was renamed Iroquois so that launching schedules could remain unchanged. It has been suggested that possibly the air raids, the resulting delays in construction and the interchange of names between Canada’s first two Tribals may have precluded using one of them as the model for the stamp. The $1.00 stamp was issued 1 July, 1942, before either Iroquois or Athabaskan was commissioned, so one could not really expect a photograph of either ship was used as the model of the stamp. So which Tribal Class destroyer was used?

Research  at the Canadian Postal Archives, National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, has confirmed that neither Iroquois  (G89) , commissioned in November, 1942, nor Athabaskan ( G07), commissioned in  February 1943, was depicted in the one dollar stamp. HMS Cossack served as the actual model for the one dollar stamp.  According to researchers it had been the intention to use a Canadian Tribal Class destroyer in the new 1942 stamp series which reflected Canada’s share in the war, with special emphasis on our armed forces, munitions, war supplies, ship-building and agriculture. However, a photograph of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cossack was chosen by the  stamp artist. The ship’s number L03 was that of Cossack which had been built in 1938 .

In February 1940 Cossack achieved fame by entering a Norwegian fiord to rescue British seamen (from ships sunk by the Admiral Graf Spee) held prisoner m the supply ship Altmark. In  April she was involved in the second Battle of Narvik and in May the destruction of the Bismarck. Finally, on 11 November 1941 the Cossack was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic with heavy loss of  her crew. Thus when the Canadian $1.00 stamp appeared on 1 July, 1942, the ship which provided the photograph model for the stamp had been sunk eight months earlier. Perhaps naval intelligence had proposed that Cossack should be resurrected in stamp form in 1942 to confuse the enemy”.

Except on this blog Lest We Forget and its French version Souvenirs de guerre…

I just bought Sherry Pringle’s book about the Athabaskan,

Emile Beaudoin’s nephew sent me a message…

I told him he could contact her and also Sébastien Vincent who interviewed Raymond Meloche also a sailor on the Athabaskan.

I am just waiting for permission to go full ahead one-third… on this story.