HMCS Louisburg Redux

I have just received this comment about a post I wrote in 2009…

I WAS A SURVIVOR ON THE LOUISBURG, WAS QUARTER MASTER AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY LOUISBURG MEN ALIVE STILL AS I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM THEM AS I AM NOW 91 GETTING ON A BIT BUT STILL A PROUD SAILOR.

ERNIE PAIN CORNWALL ONTARIO

THANK YOU.

You can contact me and I will contact Ernie Pain.

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ORIGINAL POST

I had received this comment on my blog Souvenirs de guerre…

Someone had written this comment:

My father, who survived the sinking of HMCS Louisbourg in the Mediterrean  in 1943, did not have very happy memories of the contemptuous and injust way Quebec sailors were treated on their ships and even after the war.

My father sustained an injury to his backbone, and his lungs were affected by toxic fumes caused by the fire on board the ship. This French-Canadian who was decorated never received a war veteran pension and we had to live in poverty until we settled in Sept-Îles during the industrial and housing boom of the town.

My father was even sent to the brig in Gibraltar because he defended himself against a Canadian who was constantly insulting him and other francophone crew members!!!

My father died in 1973.

This person never wrote back.

I went on sailing on Google and found a lot of pictures.

Here are a few…

HMCS Louisburg…

This how it was called, HMCS Louisburg and not Louisbourg.

Here is a painting I also caught in a net on the Net…

This is a list of sailors who died.

Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock, Quebec City PQ
Commissioned: 2 Oct 1941
Fate: Torpedoed off Oran 6 Feb 1943
Casualties: 2 officers, 35 ratings, 5 RN

The Casualty Roll

AB	ALDRED	L.	V 22924	RCNVR	ONT,TORONTO
STO 1	ANDERSON	A.F.	V 14692	RCNVR	BC,VANCOUVER
L/SIG	ANDERSON	C.F.	V 8276	RCNVR	ONT,HAMILTON
OS	ANNABLE	G.C.	V 33367	RCNVR	QUE,MONTREAL
AB	BANKS	M.A.	A 4891	RCNR	BC,VANCOUVER
AB	BENJAMIN	S.	V 2320	RCNVR	NB,ST JOHN
AB	BETTESS	E.	V 24438	RCNVR	MAN,WINNIPEG
L/CDR	CAMPBELL	W.F.	O 11898	RCNVR	SASK,SASKATOON
STO 1	COURNOYER	R.	V 4453	RCNVR	QUE,MONTREAL
ERA 4	FORREST	G.A.C.	V 33125	RCNVR	QUE,MONTREAL
ERA 4	GARDEN	R.V.	V 25691	RCNVR	NS,ENFIELD
OS	GAUVIN	J.M.R.	V 35564	RCNVR	QUE,MONTREAL
TEL	GILBERT	W.M.	V 13821	RCNVR	ALTA,CALGARY
AB	GRAVES	C.S.	A 1369	RCNR	NS,NEW GLASGOW
AB	GRIFFIN	E.F.	V 22559	RCNVR	ONT,TORONTO
AB	HALL	J.	V 18600	RCNVR	ONT,BELLEVILLE
AB	LEWIS	W.E.	V 1595	RCNVR	PEI,ALBERTON
STO 1	MacGREGOR	D.	V 19596	RCNVR	ONT,WINDSOR
SIG	MacLEOD	G.I.	V 319	RCNVR	NS,SYDNEY
STO 1	MacPHAIL	S.J.	V 456	RCNVR	NS,PICTOU
CODER	MacPHAIL	J.A.	V 1588	RCNVR	PEI,QUEENS CO
AB	McCLELLAN	J.F.	4612	RCN	SASK,MOOSE JAW
LS	MacDONALD	D.M.	V 6251	RCNVR	ONT,OTTAWA
AB	McDONALD	R.J.	V 11491	RCNVR	SASK,SASKATOON
CERA	McNEILL	D.	V 23718	RCNVR	QUE,VERDUN
CODER	MERRYWEATHER	H.	V 12751	RCNVR	ALTA,EDMONTON
OS	MORIN	J.G.E.V.	V 3985	RCNVR	QUE,LEVIS
O/TEL	NINIAN	T.M.	V 13776	RCNVR	ALTA,CALGARY
SIG	PATERSON	R.L.	V 24617	RCNVR	MAN,WINNIPEG
STO 2	RICE	S.N.	V 31943	RCNVR	ONT,TORONTO
TEL	ROBINSON	E.	V 22987	RCNVR	ONT,TORONTO
PO TEL	SMITH	A.J.	V 9368	RCNVR	MAN,WINNIPEG
L/S	STEVENSON	J.C.R.	V 5282	RCNVR	NS,HALIFAX
AB	TANNER	J.A.	V 22913	RCNVR	ONT,SAULT STE MARIE
AB	VIKSTROM	J.R.	V 33099	RCNVR	QUE,MONTREAL
STO	WATSON	N.R.	V 9654	RCNVR	MAN,WINNIPEG
LT	WILSON	E.	O 78775	RCNR	ONT,OTTAWA

The HMCS Louisbourg was part of the Flower class.

HMCS Levis

It was built by Morton Engineering and Dry Dock, in Québec. It was commissioned on October 2, 1941.
The Louisbourg was torpedoed off the coast of Oran on February 6, 1943.

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Voyage of a Merchant Sailor

Click here for the story of a sailor on a D.E.M.S. ship.

These pictures are taken from that Website.

D.E.M.S. Redux

This is Jean-Denis Ledoux’s service record.

Now we can see on what kind of ships he served.

This photo of the Defensively- Armed-Merchant Ship S.S. Point Pleasant Park, is taken from The Unknown Navy: Canada’s World War II Merchant Navy by Robert G. Halford. (source)

source

There is not many information on those ships. Click here.

Original post

We see in this picture Louis Ledoux’s brother.

Jean Denis Ledoux is the sailor in the middle of the first row. He is among friends who are also sailors.

This picture would have been taken in 1943, maybe in Montreal in Lafontaine Park. Jean-Denis Ledoux lived in Montréal.

Réjean Ledoux is the one who posted this picture with others on the Veterans’s site. He is Jean-Denis Ledoux’s son. He told me his father was a gunner aboard a merchant ship.

That’s all he knows… for now.

This is another picture of Jean-Denis Ledoux.

Jean Denis Ledoux

With this is mind, I went on the Internet to find more about those armed merchant ship.

This is what I found on the Internet… but I found much much more. But as an introduction, we will start with this.

They called those ships D.E.M.S or Defensively-equipped merchant ships.

This is the link… Click here.

This is a badge worn by sailors who belonged to this service.

Now look at Jean-Denis’ friend… and a close-up of his uniform…

So what… I’ve nothing to hide…

Déjà vu…?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/annemariepurnell/dems.html

AXIS – spies and saboteurs

Great post again…

Pacific Paratrooper

If the Allied powers had their spies lurking around behind the front lines, you can be sure the enemy was doing the same. Once again, you will find that I have certainly missed some of them and I am counting on you out there to fill in the blanks.

Takeo Yoshikawa began his career in intelligence in 1937 and became an expert on the U.S. Navy. He even received a thank you letter from Adolph Hitler after he informed the Germans of a 17 troop transport convoy that left Freetown and was en route to England; many of these ships were destroyed. On Hawaii, under the name Tadashi Morimura, he rented private planes and observed the U.S. installations on the islands. He would then transmit this data to Tokyo in PURPLE code; the U.S. did intercept these messages – but deemed them unimportant. When he heard the code, “East wind…

View original post 1,101 more words

Old 666

From a message sent by Jim L’Esperance.

Had to pass this on.

Jim

 Click here…

Wikipedia info

Old 666, B-17E 41-2666 was a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber which was assigned to the United States’ 43rd Bomb Group in 1943 and was the aircraft piloted by Lt. Col. (then Captain) Jay Zeamer on the mission that would earn him and 2d Lt. Joseph Sarnoski each a Medal of Honor, and every other member of the crew a Distinguished Service Cross.

More here.

Website dedicated to these airmen.

Jay Zeamer’s obituary

Mainland Attacks – East Coast

Another great post

Pacific Paratrooper

The photograph above is the German U-boat U-215, first discovered in July 2004 off of Nova Scotia, Canada’s southern coast. This boat was credited with sinking the USS ‘Alexander Macomb.’ From 1939 until V-E Day, Canada’s Atlantic coast ports were extremely important to the resupply effort for the United Kingdom and later for the combined Allied offensive. There were frequent attacks by the German U-boats on the departing ships, especially after the United States entered the war. The submarines started battling along the east coast and the gulf from early 1942 through to the end of the shipping season of 1944. The American coast was an easy target for the enemy U-boats after Germany declared war on the U.S. Until the blackouts were enforced in May 1942, shipping vessels were silhouetted against such major towns as Atlantic City. This caused 348 ships to be sunk from February to May; with…

View original post 673 more words