Summer 2019 Fort York News

Fort York News Our new President , Major George Chabrol, receives his gavel from installing officer, Colonel Geordie Elms Newsletter of Fort York Branch 165 Royal Canadian Legion Summer 2019 Th Page 2 Fort York News Summer 2019 Fort York Legion Branch 165 1421 Yonge Street Executive 2019 – 2020 P.O. Box 69009 Toronto, ON M4T 1Y7 President……………………… Maj George Chabrol Branch Websitte 1st Vice President…..……. LCdr Donna Murakami https://fortyorkbranch165.wildapricot.org/ 2nd Vice President………. Gunner Bill Utton Immediate Past President... Col Gil Taylor Fort York Branch Calendar 2019 Secretary……………………… Col Fred McCague Treasurer……………………… Malcolm Hamilton 98th Annual Warriors’ Day Parade Membership Secretary…. Ann Unger Deputy Membership…….. LW Joyce Lloyd Saturday 17 August 2019, 10:30 am Chaplain……………………….. Maj Gillian Federico Canadian National Exhibition Padre Emeritus…………….. Rev. Maj Ebert Hobbs Complete details including online Complete details including online District D, Zone 5 Rep…… LCdr Donna Murakami registration available at www.thewarriorsdayparade.ca Email: wdpa- F.Y. News……………………… Terry Sleightholm [email protected] Join us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter registration available at www.thewarriorsdayparade.ca Email: wdpa- Sergeant-at-Arms………… Malcolm Morrison Public Relations……………. Sgt Peter Moon Newsletter Staff Sunnybrook Liaison………. LCdr Donna Murakami Remembrancer……………. Col Jim Hubel Writer/Publisher…………. Terry Sleightholm Photography………………. Sgt Peter Moon Branch Services Officer….Cdr Ed Sparling Terry Sleightholm RCMI Liaison………………… Susan Cook Writers/Editors…………… Sgt Peter Moon Capt Larry Rose Special Events Chair……... Maj George Chabrol Ann Unger Members-at-Large……….. Capt Greg Bailey Maj Rakesh Bhardwaj Name Tags Kathryn Boyden Cpl Art Burford Lt(N) Paul Costello If you require a name tag, please contact LCdr Kathryn Langley Hope Donna Murakami and she will arrange to have one made for you. The cost is approximately P/O Bill Milne $5.00 . Indicate whether you prefer a magnet Tom Pam or pin closure. Douglas Purdon [email protected] Page 3 Fort York News Summer 2019 Bob Dale, D-Day Hero took off that day that a high level intelligence meeting was convening near Portsmouth. American and Brit- By Terry Sleightholm ish meteorologists continued to report to General Ei- senhower so that a date could be set for the invasion. any of us remember Bob Dale as a bright, kind At the time of Bob’s flight, D-Day was set for June 5th M and modest individual who spent many years if conditions were good; that is, wind direction and volunteering at Sunnybrook’s Veterans Wing. He was visibility for aircraft and naval operations. Pressure also president of Fort York Branch 165 in the year was on the meteorologists and their forecasts. The 2000 and supported its dinner meetings well after his weather had been questionable since June 2nd with president’s year. low cloud coverage, low pressure cells and winds blowing across the Channel. During the flight, Bob But not everyone knows that Bob made a very signifi- recorded the various elements of the weather system. cant contribution to the success of D-Day, 6th June, 1944, as a navigator in a Mosquito, the speedy, long- “We saw the front at its maximum intensity, low cloud range twin engine, wooden bomber. and rain,” Dale recounted years later. “We marked front stems on our chart. … They wanted to know the In May, 1944 F/L Bob Dale had completed two full height of the cloud and the cloud base. So we went tours of operations which usually meant repatriation down and figured we were in solid cloud at 8,000 feet to Canada. He had also earned a DFC, the Distin- or so. Then down to the base at about 500 feet. … The guished Flying Cross. The odds of Bob’s surviving a weather was really bad.” third tour were slim. Air Vice Marshal Bennett called Bob into his office. Bob Dale and his Mosquito “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve told them you’re not available,” he said to Bob, who waited for the other shoe to drop. “You know as well as I do that big things are about to happen,” the Air Vice Marshal explained. Flight Lieutenant Dale admitted to Bennett that he knew something major was up and he wouldn’t want to miss it. The two agreed that the repatriation re- quest would be turned down. After flying across Holland and France for three Although plans for an invasion of Europe by the Allies hours, Bicknell touched down at Ford air station near were top secret, there was a feeling in England that the Channel, rather than wait until they reached Wy- something substantial was going to happen sooner ton. Bob immediately was engaged in a debriefing via than later. a telephone conference call. The weather over the next 24 hours did not look good: Strong southwesterly winds were blowing across the Channel, cloud and Bob and his pilot, P/O Nigel Bicknell, stayed on for a rain lay low along the coast of western Europe. Eisen- third tour because their flying and navigational skills hower confirmed that the invasion would be post- were needed for a crucial operation. On 4 June, the poned. two men were given a briefing in the operations room at RAF Wyton, a station in Huntingdonshire, on the After returning to Wyton, Bob noticed, "They were day’s mission: Fly a 1,000-mile weather-reconnaissance starting to paint black and white stripes on the wings solo op east over the North Sea, then inland over Holland, and fuselages of all the aircraft, " and he knew these south and west across the northern coastal region of zebra stripes were a definite signal. "This was it.” France, south as far as Brest on the Atlantic coast, then back across the English Channel...at top speed. Due to secrecy, Bob and Nigel had no idea as they Page 4 Col Gil Taylor, Mrs. Oliphant, Marion Dick and Dr. Andy Smith, CEO of Sunnybrook, were among the The Canadian navigator’s third tour of operations guests. would cast him and his Mosquito aircraft pilot part- ner, Nigel Bicknell, in one of the most critical air operations of their war. A 1,ooo mile, three-hour flight that put Bob and his pilot into the history books about D-Day. □ From an article in the National Post, June 6, 2015 by author, Ted Barris ____________________________________ Sunnybrook Veterans Chapel In April, a special service was held in the Sunnybrook Veterans Chapel to dedicate the new pipe organ that replaced a somewhat worn-out model. Planned by Col Jim Hubel, Rev. Veronica Roynon and Rev. Mary-Jo MacDonald, several guests attend- ed, as well as the veterans from Sunnybrook. Page 5 Fort York News Summer 2019 Page 6 Fort York News Summer 2019 DARING SECOND WORLD WAR ATTACK base when the British opened the defence screen to RECALLED let in a flotilla of destroyers. By Captain Larry D. Rose Aboard Torpedo 221 Lieutenant Luigi Durand de la Penne and crewman Emilio Bianchi encountered un- isitors arrive in Venice by their thousands to see expected problems. The torpedo’s engine quit and the V historic St. Mark’s Square and the Doge’s Palace pair had to push it manually. Then Bianchi was and watch iconic gondolas bobbing along the Grand forced to surface due to faulty oxygen equipment. De Canal. Ah, the romance of it all. But only a couple of la Penne had to wrangle the Maiale alone for the final cobbled alleyways away from St. Mark’s is a little no- run to his target, the 3,400-ton battleship ticed attraction that tourists might also enjoy. The HMS Valiant. Venice Naval History Museum has four floors jammed with everything nautical: artifacts, maps, paintings, uniforms and models. During a recent visit, while enjoying the many im- pressive displays, something very unusual caught my eye. In the entrance hall was a twenty-two foot manned torpedo, a type used during one of the most audacious and remarkable attacks of the Second World War. The operation severely damaged two British battle- ships, a destroyer and a tanker in Alexandria harbour in December 1941. That success prompted the Allies to organize similar operations and among those in- volved in them were two young Canadians. More about what happened to them later but it was the Ital- Here was an extraordinary duel: a great warship ians who could trumpet the first big success. armed with its mighty 15-inch guns and with a crew of The torpedoes used in the Alexandria attack, like about 1,200 against two men and a torpedo. the one on display in Venice, appeared deceptively De la Penne pushed his Pig under Valiant and left it primitive. They were designed and built before the on the harbour bottom. The two frogmen were sup- Second World War at a shipyard south of Genoa on posed to find their way back to the Scire but instead the Italian west coast. they were captured. Dubbed “Pigs” because they were difficult to steer, They were interrogated by Captain Charles Morgan the weapons carried a two-man crew who rode them but they told him nothing. Fifteen minutes before like a horse. They were also submarines in miniature. detonation, when it was too late to find and de- Each Pig was equipped with ballast tanks and diving activate the explosive, de la Penne informed Morgan planes while it carried 220 kilograms (485 pounds) of of what was about to happen. The two frogmen were explosives. Each had a battery-powered electric mo- returned to a locked compartment just above where tor making it capable of travelling for several hours at the torpedo would detonate.

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