They Were Ruthless and They Were Cruel

Heroes Remember

They Were Ruthless and They Were Cruel

Transcript

“About that draft aboard the minesweeper” I said, “the Vegreville.” He said, “Yeah, what about it?” I said, “Where’d she go at?” “Well, they were sweeping mines out of the Belle, Strait of Belle Island, Avalon Peninsula.” And then she said, “Oh, the Vegreville is an escort for the HMC, for the Caribou, the, the vessel that goes from North Sydney to Newfoundland.” “Oh, yeah.” “Yeah, they go twice a week. Someone go in and pick them up. Why don’t you go onboard that ship. You’ll get in there and you go to north Sydney. All you gotta do is get a taxi to go home.” By God, almighty God, I’m going. I signed up hook, line and sinker. Yeah, I get as far as the gates, at South Bar there at Point Edward, and the convoy, they . . . another vessel . . . we take one vessel in, the other vessel be ready to go, just turn around. I even watched the cars on the New Waterford highway, and I used to wave to them goodbye, oh yeah. But for those German mine layers, they wouldn’t come out during the day because there’d be aircraft patrolling for them and there’d be escort of the navy patrol. They’d come out at night. They’d work at night. And they would lay those mines and, Mr. Man, they layed them right in the path of the ships that were coming out of the convoy. And then the next day, we’d have to go out and we’d start, day break in the morning, and we wouldn’t be out there about half an hour, three or four of those ships. There was about ten ships involved, ten mine sweepers, and they’d, they’d have those mines going, sweep the mines and destroy them. And there used to be anywhere from 10 to 12 mines a day. It was no problem at all. But they had, they had a floating mine which was bad. The way the mines work is it’s a mine and then it’s, it’s a weight attached onto the ship. The ship would draw thirty feet of water. Well, they would put that down. Maybe the ship would draw up when it hit. When it would hit 15, it would break them in two. They were smart, very smart people, and them young, young German submarine commanders, they were brilliant. They were ruthless and they were cruel, but they were smart. Like I say, a young German soldier, he’d have to know navigation, he’d have to know seamanship, he’d have to know electrical, he’d have to know engineering, but man, oh, man, he’s smart. In fact, one of those young German submarines came right from Germany, sailed right up the St. Lawrence River, torpedoed seven ships, went back and was given the Iron Cross by doing this, in Kehl, Germany. That’s how smart they were, very smart people. We’d have a minesweeper, minesweeper . . . some of the Americans, they had wooden minesweepers, but our ships were made of steel. And they had what they call a degaussing gear. This gear, they’d put a cable over the back of the ship, and they’d send rays on the, from this ship, and would clear the front of the ship and would sweep the mines away, so that when the mines came to back aft . . . it’s just like fishing with a bobber. There was a big sitting there, and when that went down, they said, “Uh, oh. We got something.” And the cable that was going down through would cut the small cable, and the mine would float to the top and it would be destroyed by gun fire. Yeah, and they were plentiful. They were plentiful. It was a, it was a tedious job, but it was a crazy job. But like I said before, we were too crazy to realize what we were doing, I guess.

Description

Mr. Gray talks about reassignment to HMCS Vegreville, sweeping mines in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and his respect for the abilities of German U-Boat captains.

Earl Gray

Mr. Gray was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, on May 6, 1924. As a child, he lived in poverty, despite the fact that some of his family worked in the local steel mill. Although there was a large naval presence in Sydney early in the war, Mr. Gray enlisted in the army, only to be released as an under aged recruit. Six months later, he successfully enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. He first experienced life at sea aboard the HMCS St.Croix, a destroyer assigned to convoy duty. After four voyages, Mr. Gray joined the minesweeper HMCS Vegreville, whose responsibility it was to sweep mines between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. After joining the 31st Minesweeping Flotilla in Portsmouth, England, HMCS Vegreville took part in the sweep of the English Channel as part of the D-Day assault. After the war ended, Mr. Gray was married within a month of his return home. He still resides in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

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