Re: West Novas, England

[Ian Edwards <iedwards@home.com>]

The text of your message refers to Jan 6/42 but your heading shows 1943.
I presume you do mean 1942. Therefore, referring to 1942:
The answer is contained on page 62 of the unit history, "West Novas"
"On Jan 6th the West Novas suffered a tragic mishap during a training 
exercise on the River Adur, when an assault boat capsized in mid-stream
and six men of "B" Company were drowned. Some of them were good swimmers
but in the cold water and weighted down with weapons and equipment they
had no chance to save themselves. Ptes.
Frank Smith and O.S. Foster of "B" Company, who made heroic efforts to
save the lives of 
their comrades, were later presented with certificates of the Royal
Humane Society, and awared the British Empire Medal."
The next paragraph mentions the funeral. "The funeral was conducted at
Brookwood Cemeteryon the 10th, with padres Addie and Butts in charge of
the rites. "B" Company supplied the burial and firing parties and Lt.
Col. Ernest and all the officers  of "B" Company were in attendance.
Since coming to England the Regiment had buried several of its men, most
of them victims of traffic accidents in the black-out, but the loss of
six in a simple training exercise came as a shock."
BTW, the unit history was published in 1947 and reissued again in 1986
so should still be available from the West Novas and some booksellers
specializing in Cdn Mil Hist.. Author, Thomas H. Raddell.
You might find more information from the current unit's museum, as they
likely have a copy of the unit War Diary, and someone, somewhere, must
have a copy of the citations from the Royal Humane Society. National
Archives, Ottawa, wll have a copy of the WD and appended to it will
likely be some copies of correspondence, etc. re the accident.
You can either look it up yourself in Ottawa or pay someone to do it for
you (perhaps a half hour's work to call for the WD and back again
another day for about an hour to copy the docs, however NAC may not
allow one to copy pages of the WD, I can't recall for sure). Not a
difficult task if one happens to be in the Ottawa area.
Hope this helps.
Ian Edwards
Sherwood Park, AB.
> Derek Shanks wrote:
> 
> List:
> 
> I have just joined this mailing group today, and have a question that
> has been burning...... I am hoping that someone might be able to
> assist. I have been researching the history of the West Novas from
> 39-47.... and came across a rather odd incident while reviewing the
> casualty lists. The West Novas were based in Aldershot from 1939 until
> June 1943 when embarking on the Operation Husky campaign, however
> there were an unusually high amount of casualties listed on January
> 6th 1942 while stationed in Aldershot. If someone might be able to
> tell me what might have occurred that day I will indebted to you. I
> have been searching for answers about this issue and have not come up
> with anything.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Derek Shanks
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Researching the Shanks family of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
> 
> Researcher of the West Nova Scotia Regiment
> Operation Husky, WW2 July 10th 1943 to
> September 8th 1943.
> 
> Sgt. Harold Joseph Shanks (grandfather)
> April 4th 1912 - September 8th 1943
--------------------------------------------------------
NOTE:  To remove yourself from this list, send a message
to majordomo@cipherlogic.on.ca from the account you wish
to remove, with the line "unsubscribe army" in the
message body.