Blowing Up the Enemy
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- Medium: Video
- Owner: Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration: 3:01
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3. Blowing Up the Enemy
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Blowing Up the Enemy
Mr. Huot explains how enemy submarines were located. They used bombs called depth charges to blow them up.
Robert Huot
Mr. Huot enlisted in Québec. His mother was strongly opposed and even went to see the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, Louis Saint-Laurent, to keep her son from enlisting, but without success. He left Lévis by train for Halifax. He was paid $1.20 per day, which was good pay at the time. It was at Halifax during training that he learned English. His military service was on board the HMCS Saint-Laurent. Mr. Huot liked his experience in the Navy during the Second World War; he tells a number of stories that give a good idea of a sailor’s life during the war.
Transcription
Blowing Up the Enemy
The ASDIC is like a . . . It’s a machine that travels under the water, under the boat. It’s like a submarine beam but it goes under the boat, it’s the opposite, it’s under water. You could see the submarine, but you weren’t sure if it was a submarine or a whale or a shark. You didn’t know. That’s when the captain pressed on the button, and everyone . . .cook . . . everyone went to see, everyone. And we ran. Blowing up the located submarineThose of us who handled depth charges, well, we were attached. There was a lieutenant with us. When he told us, “Release two” . . . At the end of the charge, there is a dial: two hundred feet, four hundred feet, five hundred feet. He’d say, “Four hundred feet.” You push, then you pull out the key, and then when the buzzer sounded, you pulled on the capstan. You had to have the key in your hand. Inside it, there are charges that were made like a tobacco thing. Have you ever seen a tobacco [inaudible]? That’s what’s inside and that’s where the explosive is. And that blows up, yessir. Get out of there. At times we sent depth charges and thought the boat about had it. Everything comes up, including the fish. The fish are on their sides, and half an hour later the fish are gone. Yep. That was part of our job. ‘Cause we saw submarines. We saw them, like I see you. But it was knowing where they were. But they didn’t show themselves. We chased them. How to Know if the Submarine was HitOil rose into the air, oil rose on the water. Oil . . . A submarine takes oil to operate. Well, the oil came up and you said to yourself, “Well, we got ‘em.” That’s what we said. But the captain, he didn’t tell us yes and he didn’t tell us no. He made his reports, eh? To the admiralty, eh? There could have been mistakes, it could’ve been a British submarine, it could’ve been a German submarine. You don’t know, you don’t know . . . You don’t see them. They’re faster than us . . . That’s all.
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