Comox

[Robert Bergeron]

Bruce , Grant and Jes,

Thank you for your posts. Very informative.

I went for a hop for you this morning and took some pictures that you might enjoy of HMCS Quadra as it is called today..

Here they are.. The gate sign, the aerial view from an Aurora, the H Huts Jes alluded to, the old WW2 storeroom and a great view of the Warf with the 2 current RCAF rescue ( yellow ) boats. They are also used for the Sea Training of the aircrew.

The 1 st Special Service Force ( 1 SSF ) was garrisoned in Nanaimo and Courtenay at one time at the beginning of the War in the Pacific. Training was conducted in Courtenay with landing craft for the upcoming operation Cottage in the Aleutians ( Kiska Island ) Alaska against the Japanese. There are remnants and souvenirs of the passage of the Force around here. Sykes- Fairbairn or the V-46 fighting knive and a few artifacts found at the nice museum in Nanaimo are some examples.

I did a paper in Staff College on the Force so I got to read up a lot on them and got to appreciate the extreme circumstances of their employment and heroism in Italy notably and later in France .

Anyway, keep it coming , I would love hearing more from people with local experience.

PS. I don't know if someone noticed but in Bruce's pictures there are very high ranking Naval Flag officers there.... with an Aide de Camp Lieutenant ( N ) following dutifully.