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
Cole Harbour had amongst other things, a 4X4 wheel drive, a 5,400 cwt truck which was used to haul coal, sand, gravel, and rocks from the neighbouring beaches, in better weather, as well as a snowplow in winter. It was also an effective twoing vehicle as it had powerful winches for and aft.
The coal mentioned was for our heating system. The gravel, tons of it, was used to build the road up the hill, as well as the station roads one of which went into our volley-ball court. The rocks, mostly football sized, were used to outline the station's roads.
Moving crushed coal from a stockpile down on the shore to the bunker on the station, was the dirtiest job of all. Using long handled shovels, (we did not have a tractor with a front end loader), we threw coal up over the high wall of the truck's steel box. Coal dust flew all over us.
I somtimes thought that the CO went a little overboard in his zeal for keeping the men busy. There was scarcely a man or a trade, that was not subject to conscription to help on these jobs. I have often wondered about his artistic touch, an aberration of his, especially after he ordered that those rocks lining the station's roads be painted white. On a station that was trying to be inconspicuous and was even equipped with blackout curtains, white washed rock lined roads would have shown up from the air like a sore thumb. We had lots of inspections, but the people they sent were all technical experts who would not see anything that did not have a circuit diagram they could follow, so, they just never noticed the white rocks.
Most of the sand was hauled too, and used in the building of our volley ball court and as well as topping for roads. A lot of sand was required to fill the swampy hole which was made into our volley ball court.
Eventually we had two MT drivers, but they were kept busy elsewhere. This meant that the CO was constantly looking at other station personnel for 4X4 drivers for his little projects. This was how Regular Force, PTI Disciplinarian Rex Hunter and Diesel Fitter Tony Bendig, from Bruno Saskatchewan, became part-time snowplow drivers. Also how Hospital Assistant Alex "Scottie" Moir, of Lindsay Ontario, became water boy. All three drove on open weather expeditions for coal, sand , gravel and rocks and for snow plowing in the winter, and then hauling water was added.
When our cook, Cpl Walter Harvey, of Glace Bay, sampled the water from the village fisherman Wil Munroe's well, in Cole Harbour and had determined that there was an adequate supply, he would no longer cook with water drawn from our adjoining lake. Scottie and miscellaneous volunteers made regular trips with the 4X4 to bring fesh water from Munroe's. We had several of those dairyman's milk cans for this purpose.
In the winter the 4X4 was equipped with the mountings for quickly attaching a "V" plow. A detachable wing plow was also positioned near the MT section for easy mounting. For most road clearing, the "V" plow was sufficient. The wing was added whenever there were drifts of several feet in depth to contend with. The truck and the plows were an absolute necessity if we were to maintain open roads for our ration and transport trucks. Loaded with coal, sand or gravel for extra weight, this truck had great stability and traction on snowpacked winter roads.
The Department of Highways had a plow in Guysborough, the nearest larger town some 35 miles away. We most often continued working on the road until we met up with it coming from the opposite direction. They were not responsible nor interested in clearing any road that far from Guysborough, but they did what they could to help.
Since the hydraulic controls for operating the plow were on the far side of the truck, away from the driver, and the motor housing protruded well up into the center of the cab, a second man was required to handle these controls when plowing was necessary.
Although the 4X4 did have a windshield, it did not have side windows. There were side curtains, but after the first spray of wet snow that hit them they were covered over and unusable. Most often they were not put on. Thereafter, snow thrown up by the plow and caught by the wind, showered in on the driver and his co-pilot, the fellow operating the hydraulic controls for the plow and on a long cold day this could get pretty unpleasant. Volunteers for that job became increasingly difficult to find.
Early in the life of the station in the winter of 1942-43, I performed this fucntion quite often. I think that it appealed to my sense of adventure at the time. Later on after that novelty had worn off and after I became a Sergeant in my own trade I learned that I could draw Temporary Duty pay for my services as co-pilot on this truck. As I was usually short of funds in those days, I got back into snow plowing. I was free to do so on my off duty days and I could usually find someone to cover for me on the other days if my services were required on the plow. Very few others cared for the job, even with pay. If I remember correctly I drew 5 dollars a day for the priviliege of making myself very miserable in the cold.In those days 5 dollars was a lot of money.
I do not think that the Air Force had any idea of how important that 4X4 truck was going to be to us when they supplied it.
Harry Brown was posted to Newfoundland and, as was the custom a farewell celebration was held in the canteen. I was working, so did not attend. I understand that it got to be a late night. The next day was Wednesday, our regular ration run day to the Army Base in Mulgrave, when the truck went there to pick up the coming week's food supplies. The truck normally left at 5 am, but on this day when the MT driver was ready to leave Harry could not be awakened. For one thing no-one could near enough to shake him. You see, Harry had this dog.
Some time prior to his coming to Cole Harbour Harry had been in Orlando Florida. There he saw a Pit Bull that he told a friend in Toronto about. The friend bought it for some outlandish amount of money as breeding stock for his kennels. I seem to remember the figure of $1,200.00 mentioned. Unfortunately, things did not work out well. The dog was belligerent to say the least. The tension created by this animal's presence in the kennels disturbed all the other animals. Kate Brown, Harry's wife, had been left in charge of the kennels while the owner was away and she had nowhere to turn but to Harry who was real handy to the scene of the problem, "In Cole Harbour"? The only solution Harry could come up with at short notice, was to have the dog shipped to him in Cole Harbour while he figured out what to do to make good for talking the owner into buying the dog. Kate shipped the dog. The tension in the kennels dropped in direct proportion to the rise in tension on the station at Cole Harbour. However it no longer produced tension in other dogs, just in people.
By this time, the dog had progressed to the point where it now slept under Harry's bed. It was a hair-triggered animal at the best of times and it would not tolerate any perceived assault upon his master. He growled his warnings and no one would come near. Loud noises also upset the dog, as many things did. So some of the fellows got behind the half-opened door to the washroom and hollered at Harry from there. Of course by this time everyone else in the barracks was awake, a little groggy at first because of the hour, but wide awake when they realized the nature of the problem. All of the occupants of lower bunks had either climbed to uppers or had vacated the barracks altogether. Those already in upper bunks were hoping that the dog would understand that they were not participants.
The next stage involved throwing objects at Harry in an effort to waken him and get his attention. The largest items thrown were boots which had been left behind in the haste of evacuation. That dog was some excited. When even this did not work, and with everyone else in the barracks wide awake and beyond sleeping, and the dog beginning to realize that he had won, and with Harry still sleeping like a babe, the truck left without him.
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Updated: August 27, 2003