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
When we came to Cole Harbour we did expect to be eating fish. What, live on the coast and not eat fish? But, I'll bet we were there for six months before we had our first fish dinner! Don't ask me why! Even then the fish were not supplied through our Army Ration Depot. They were purchase locally with Canteen funds.!
Another thing we expected to have was apples. The fact that the Annapolis valley produced apples was one of the very few things about Nova Scotia that every one of us could remember from our school days. But, here it was, getting later and later into the fall and so sign of any apples!
After a pre-war friend had written to let me know that he was stationed at Kentville in the Annapolis Valley, I used my next 72 hour pass to go there to see him. All decked out in my seldom worn "dress blues" I rode out on the Ration Truck as far as Monastery Junction. I picked up a ride to Antigonish and from there took the train to Waverley just north of Halifax. Not patient enough to wait for a train going my way I hitch-hiked from there to Kentville. As we drove along I could see apples being harvested.
I did see my Army friend. We managed a good evening together and I slept in the barracks he was in. Next day he was back to work and I was on my own. I tried some more hitch-hiking. At one of the first orchards we came upon I saw people picking apples and asked my benefactor to let me out of the car. I spoke to the pickers and met the owner and explained that I would like to get some apples for about thirty-five men on our station. It became quite a visit and it resulted in my being asked to have lunch in the field with them. It reminded me of field lunches on the prairies, except here we had shade and a cool breeze and there were no grasshoppers.
Several hours later I was being driven back to town with three small barrels of apples to be shipped to the station at Cole Harbour. The farmer was not able to sell apples to me. He explained that his total crop was committed to the Marketing Board; a fact that immediately caused me to realize why we were not getting any apples on the station. However, for a modest donation, --he was not anxious to donate the full cost, -- the farmer shipped the barrels as a "gift to the Airmen of Cole Harbour." We shook hands and parted company at the railway station. I got on the same train that was carrying our apples.
The train took me to Bedford where the apples and I successfully transferred to the train headed for Monastery and was back on the station with about ten hours left on my pass. I was able to get some rest before going back on shift.
I sold some of the apples; enough to recover my investment and some of my trip expenses, then donated the rest to the canteen and to the Mess. One of my more successful trips.
Mickey Stevens.
If some of this creates the impression that we were hard done by in the food department this would not be quite correct. While we might not care too much for what had been prepared, we marvelled at the ability of cooks such as Gerry Girard and Andy Thompson and their helpers Dunc Clark, John Voth and Stan Horseman to make it all taste pretty good. Never thought you would ever hear anyone praise the cooks, did you?
When we arrived at #5 Radar Unit at Cole Harbour we all wondered what the food would be like. We were prepared to be critical. After all, if the cook was any good what was he doing out here in this out-of-the-way place and not on some larger station?
Considering that everything had to be brought in by truck from the Army Base at Mulgrave and that there was only so much variety available in wartime anyway, we found that we fared quite well. Of course the menu did not always suit everyone. I do recall a couple of instances when we were less than happy with what we sometimes perceived to be a rather monotonous menu.
Twice the Army sent us hardtack. We learned that our own cook ordered our rations a week in advance. When the truck went in to pick up the previous week's order a new order was placed for the following week's supplies. When we got the hardtack we complained about it. Although Corporal Walter Harvey insisted that he had not ordered it, his word was doubted by some.
The hardtack biscuits were accompanied by canned stewed tomatoes. Theer was discussion about whether the tomatoes were intended to make the hardtack taste better or just to soften them up. I did not care for tomatoes in any form in those days so their exact purpose was of no interest to me. There were a lot of fellows digging into their lockers and kit bags for snacks that evening. Those with cans of pork and beans from Seldon Myers' store down in the village were popular fellows that evening.
However Corporal Harvey did eventually receive the benefit of the doubt when the order was repeated some weeks later. After our first round of objections he would not have taken the chance and order hardtack again.
The second shipment of hardtack was identified on the way back to the station by airmen riding "steerage" on the back of the truck. The way I heard it, the jogging and bouncing of the truck over rough roads had caused the container of hardtack to slip off the pile onto the floor and split open.It was a tragic accident! However, the passengers recovered their dampened spirits by using the biscuits as projectiles all along the route. For some weeks after that the CO's blood pressure rose every time he saw any of those hard to disintegrate hardtack biscuits along the road. But, do you know, we never had hardtack again!
The first airmen at #5 Radar Unit at Cole Harbour carried water needed for washing and the mess kitchen from the lake in pails. That would be Second Cow Lake, affectionately referred to, and really quite incorrectly, as Lake Contamination. By the time the first Radar Operators arrived in September of 1942 cold water was already being piped into the barracks' washrooms. We showered with cold, cold water. Removing coal dust, the results of one of the many Joe Jobs, was a very cold process. On into October we did get the hot water connected.
George Daine recalls carrying water from the lake, so he must have been there before I arrived in early September. George was a Registered Nurse and was on our strength as a Hospital Assistant and in charge of our one bed hospital and its supplies.
The cooks on this station got up early. I think that they were at work by 4:30 AM. One morning very early our head cook, Corporal Walter Harvey, woke George Daine. The mess had no water! Cooks were cooks and therefore could not be expected to know about water systems, or how to find out about them either. So he woke a Registered Nurse.
Well, George did get up and before too long had determined that a tap in the Pump House down by the lake had been shut off. It took more time to discover why. Apparently a Security Guard making his rounds during the night had noticed a pipe leaking. He shut off the nearest tap and the leak stopped. He went on his way. Later, when he went off duty he failed to mention it to anyone. After all Guards were supposed to guard, not solve plumbing problems. Back in th Pump House, with no water to cool it, the pump kept on running. It soon heated up, burned out a bearing and stopped pumping. George, depsite the fact that he was not an engineer, a plumber, a cook or even a Security Guard, managed to repair the damage and restore service.
When the CO, that would be F/L Lt Clare Jones, heard the story in the morning, the Pump House was put OUT OF BOUNDS to all personnel. That is, with the exception of George Daine, Registered Nurse, who was put in charge of that facility.
From that day and on George was known as "Pumper" Daine. Very few people ever remembered or perhaps even knew his correct first name. This one stuck.
BC "Mickey" Stevens
4577 Elk Lake Drive
Victoria, BC V8Z 6L3
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Updated: August 27, 2003