The following article is from RCAF Radar 1941-1945 (Royal Canadian Air Force Personnel on Radar in Canada During World War II) and is used with permission of the author, WW McLachlan
Bob Brooks was posted there on 1st of February 1944 as a radar officer. He recalls his arrival at Tignish from Charlottetown by the old Colonial Railway. It was bitterly cold winter weather, and the rail car was heated by one small coal stove at one end. In Tignish he was billeted in an ice-cold hotel room, suffering from a terrible head-cold. The following morning he was taken by horse and cutter, right across fields and fences, to the sick bay at the station hospital. He finally recovered after several days having discovered, to his regret, Buckleys cough medicine.
W Brennan was the station CO, who had pre-war been employed by the PEI telephone company. He had access to and installed hand cranked phones throughout the station, including the washrooms. On one occasion, an unfortunate mechanic made the mistake of anwering the barrack phone with the greeting 'Its your nickle start talking'. The CO's response was instantaneous and violent.
We had a busy time at Tignish, lots of office work and a very active social life. Dances were frequently held in the area, as the local beauties entertained the boys in 'blue' which they considered their part in the war effort.
Apparently there was little concern about enemy submarines or aircraft activity, and surely PEI should have been aware of some of the enemy sightings in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and the fact that a number of ships had been sunk. I suppose they thought that the war was over, but D day did not happen until June 6th 1944.
Bob was posted to No 3 wireless school in Winnipeg on 27th of April 1944, eventually spending about four months at No. 14 Radar detachment Torbay Newfoundland, leaving when it closed March 3rd 1945. He proceeded to England and then Germany, returning to Canada and was discharged on February 21st 1946.
Bob Gates went to Tignish from Cape Bauld, and obtained a motor-cycle to travel to Charlottetown his home town. He really had lived at Gates's Mill in West Royalty, but I suspect he sowed his wild oats in town. On one trip at night he ran into an unlit hay wagon. He was lucky to survive, but the bike was a right-off, and after a few weeks in hospital was his old self again and some women were glad of it.
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Updated: August 28, 2003