28 Nov 2024 Garand Picture of the Day

[Bob Womack]

Hot chow and a warm dry bunk... Not if you joined the Canadian navy and served on a corvette doing convoy runs in the North Atlantic. Often too rough for the cook to prepare real meals, and the mess decks were awash. "Red lead" was common - canned stewed tomatoes. A hammock, not a berth.

The hammock was actually better for rough seas than a bunk. In rough weather, destroyer escort crew found themselves trying to wedge themselves in their bunks, often failing, and often wearing a set of bruises to prove it. Surfaced submarines suffered the same indignities. This happened in both oceans.

See Little Ship, Big War by Commander Edward P. Stafford.

Bob