Brian Mackie

The story of the SS Henry Bacon is the subject of a book and a tale on its own, but is actually part of a much larger story with the Soroya rescue. Hopefully when Matt Drennan publishes his book, the Soroya story will become better known.

A picture of a sailor seated in a studio. He is wearing a white unform with a blue naval shoulder piece. He has short brown hair with a side parting. On his right is a pommel hat with the words "Royal Sovereign", the ship he was then sailing on, in the tropics. His name was Fred Arthur Mascall, he died on HMS Encounter in 1942.

This is Fred Arthur Mascall, 1908-1942, Leading Seaman on HMS Encounter.

My wife's great uncle Fred Arthur Mascall was one of the 8 crew who died. His brother-in-law Frank Druce was also aboard and was taken prisoner. He survived the war but in poor health, dying at the age of only 47, in 1955.

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An RN rating, wearing a Navy hats and boots, carries a young girl, aged about 10, along a cluttered dock in Greenock, Scotland, March 1, 1945. They are walking past oil drums, tractors and moored ships. The girl is smiling. The rating has the look of someone who has completed a hugely worthwhile task.

An RN rating carries a young girl along a cluttered dock in Greenock, Scotland, March 1, 1945. This famous image, and the story behind it, epitomise naval purpose: protect the high seas, safeguard civilians.

This is the story of the Sørøya Island rescue.

#maritimehistory #navalhistory

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Bunk beds lining a corridor on the RMS Queen Mary. The beds are framed in metal with a canvas 'mattress', and stored by being folded up along the edge of the corridor to make space. Every square inch of available space is used, horizontally and vertically. In this view, 4 beds are visible stacked atop each other, with a storage rack just below the ceiling for kit bags.

I believe the QE was a troop ship already by 1942 - carried 5,600 Anzacs from Sydney to Suez in April 1941 - but the ship's carrying capacity needed expanding. So at Esquimalt they added 5-level bunks and other "enhancements" to enable carriage of many more troops (up to 15,000, as per post).

Bought the print version 20 years ago and still refer to it - easily the best reference and comprehensive resource for parish records and maps.

No words left to say.

Epic.

A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 takes out a Russian-Iranian Shahed-136 at a close distance.

The witnesses are extremely happy and supportive 😀

It really was - and one of several just in the Halifax area - add to this HMCS Sackville, the Marine Museum of the Atlantic and the Naval Museum of Halifax. And the Crow's Nest in St John's a short flight away!

The road-side sign for the entrance of 12 Wing Shearwater – a fighter jet wing mounted so it is vertical to the ground. The signs says “Welcome to 12 12 Wing Shearwater” in English and French, and then has the words “WINGS FOR THE FLEET” in capitals. At either end of the wing are the badges of 12 Wing (a seagull flying over water within a gilded round frame topped by a crown) and of the Royal Canadian Air Force (a roundel with a thick dark blue outer rim bordering a white centre with a red maple leaf).

The Shearwater Aviation Museum is located across the water from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and next to 12 Wing Shearwater, the centre of naval aviation in Canada and home of the RCAF’s maritime helicopter community.

Visit if you can - my thanks to @rogerlitwiller.bsky.social for the suggestion!

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The cockpit of the Sea King helicopter – two seats for the pilots, with seemingly hundreds of dials and measures ranged between, in front and above them. The windscreen is clear in front of them and the left and right halves of the roof in front of them are also transparent.

The Sea King’s navigation and sensor operator panels, with two seats for the crew. A large number of dials and switches are visible, as well as a computer screen, keyboard and radar monitor.

Inside the cockpit of the Sea King – a maze of dials, switches and screens. The Sea King had a crew of 4 - 2 pilots, 1 navigator, 1 airborne electronic sensor operator, with capacity for 3 passengers.

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A Sikorsky Sea King helicopter, painted silver with an orange nose and the words ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY at front. The helicopter is wide enough to comfortably manage more than two people seated alongside each other, and long enough to carry a substantial cargo. An RCAF roundel centred with a read maple leaf is visible on the rear fuselage. A substantial rotor mechanism is visible above the fuselage.

The Sikorsky Sea King, an anti-submarine and rescue helicopter designed for shipboard use, in service with the Royal Canadian Navy from 1963 all the way through to 2018.

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One hall of the Shearwater Aviation museum. The Hawker Hurricane and Fairey Swordfish are visible at rear. Most prominent is an early jet fighter, the Lockheed T33 Silverstar, painted silver with a red nose and tail. The word “NAVY” is in block capitals towards the rear of the fuselage, along with a roundel centred with a red maple leaf. Next to the Silverstar is a propellor-powered North American Havard, also with the words “NAVY” painted on the fuselage. The Havard is painted yellow and was used primarily as a training plane.

The Shearwater Aviation museum has two halls and exhibits naval aircraft from all eras of flying. Visible here in the foreground are a 1950s Lockheed T33 Silverstar, and a North American Havard from the 1940s/50s.

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Map chart equipment, held against a fixed paper map of the Canadian east coast north of Halifax, with multiple pencil lines drawn on the map. The equipment consists of 3 flat bars marked with detailed numerical measures in the manner of a ruler, placed flat against the map, with one bar marked ground speed, one marked air speed and one marked wind speed. All 3 bars stem from a circular 360-degree axis that shows North and allows for the aircraft’s current course to be indicated. The bars then indicate speeds via sliding measures that are placed over each one.

Map chart plotting equipment used by allied aircrews in WW2, used to plot sorties and allow the crew to make calculations regarding sightings and fuel consumption. The East coast of Canada is seen here. Paper, pencil, measures and brainpower required...

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A photograph of a Supermarine Stranraer flying boat overflying a WW2 merchant convoy. The Stranraer is a biplane, with 2 engines mounted towards the centre of the upper wing, two tail fins, and landing floats located at either end of the lower wings. The fuselage is diagonally pointed at the bottom to allow for landing on water. The cockpit is enclosed. The plane had a 1,000 mile range with an 8-hour flight endurance, and a flight cruising speed of 105 mph.

A Supermarine Stranraer flying boat of No. 5 (Bombing-Reconnaissance) Squadron, based at RCAF Dartmouth, overflies a merchant convoy recently departed from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Stranraer served as a coastal defence and anti-submarine plane off both Canadian coasts throughout WW2.

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A model of the bow of a CAM (Catapult-armed Merchant) ship, showing the mechanism of the catapult and Hawker Hurricat fighter plane ready to be launched. The catapult is about 3 times the length of the plane, and is mounted via a vertical metal scaffold. Visible underneath the scaffold is the catapult mechanism that launches the plane with sufficient speed to enable flight. Two ladders, with a total of about 30 steps, allow the pilot to climb first to the platform and then up into the aircraft, from the deck of the ship. The CAM ships remained in service until mid-1943, when they were replaced by Merchant Aircraft Carrier (MAC) ships.

To combat German Fw 200 Condor long-range aircraft attacking and spotting convoys, CAM (Catapult-armed Merchant) ships came into service in 1941. They launched a ‘Hurricat’ (converted Hawker Hurricane) on a one-way mission, with the pilot hopefully being picked up after ditching the aircraft.

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A full-scale Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 replica, mounted on a pedestal. It is a single wing fighter aircraft with a single 3-bladed propellor visible. It is painted in camouflage colours, but the gun port of the four wing-mounted Browning machine guns is painted red. The glass cockpit cover is slid open, and the colours are of the RCAF, with a four-ring roundel coloured yellow, blue, white and red from outside to inside. The tail is painted with a familiar RCAF/RAF inverted French tricolour: red, white and blue parallel vertical line stripes.

A replica Hawker Hurricane Mk 1, one of the original ten Hurricanes from RCAF Number 1 (Fighter) Squadron, that became 401 Squadron in the Battle of Britain, after being transferred from RCAF Dartmouth. The squadron flew 1,694 combat sorties from August 1940 to February 1941.

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A Fairey Swordfish biplane is shown, with the outer part of its wings hinged alongside the fuselage, in the manner it would have been kept to save space on an aircraft carrier. Visible is an open double cockpit, with the pilot at front and a gunner / bomb aimer / observer to the rear. A fixed machine gun is visible above the rear cockpit. A very sold fixed undercarriage is prominent – the Swordfish were famously one of the easiest planes to land on a moving aircraft carrier, without damage. A WW2 roundel of the RCAF naval service is panted on the fuselage, with a thin yellow outer border ring, thick dark blue outer ring, thin white middle ring and a red centre.

The versatile Fairey Swordfish biplane (aka the “Stringbag”) saw naval service throughout WW2 and was used by the Royal Canadian Navy / Air Force from 1943. The first allied aircraft to carry radar, it was used as a convoy escort, as well as a torpedo and bombing attack aircraft.

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A huge wall map, some forty feet high and sixty feet long, depicting Canada’s east coast and Newfoundland, with the Atlantic Ocean stretching out to the east. This was based in Halifax at the RCAF’s Eastern Air Command base. Multiple convoys, travelling either along the coast or out into / in from the Atlantic, are marked on the map. A WRCN is standing on a tall ladder placing an update on the map. Desks and telegraphy equipment is placed beneath the map. On the map legend, it is evident that a wide range of items are marked: airfields, seaplane bases, radar sites, convoys, naval escorts, Eastern Air Command aircraft and U-boat sightings.

A replica of the RCAF’s Eastern Air Command Operations room map, originally located at RCAF Eastern headquarters in Halifax. 30 radar sites and 22 air stations (of which RCAF Shearwater was the largest) were under command. 80 vessels provided rescue and flying boat anchorage services.

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A painting memorializing the service of aviation in the Royal Canadian Navy through the decades. A scroll with the words “Our History, Our Pride” sits at the top, with eight head and shoulder figures clustered beneath and appearing to float in the sky, wearing uniforms from the last 100 years, both naval and aviation. The front figure is a woman, one of the seven men is black, the rest are white. In the seas beneath are aircraft carriers, naval rescue ships and a naval helicopter, with a jet plane visible on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The RCAF has a Naval Aviation museum in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. Active as an air base since the 1920s, the co-located museum has some breathtaking exhibits. So well worth a visit – here are a few sights that caught my eye…

#navalhistory #maritimehistory #coastalhistory

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My condolences Neil. May they rest together in a winter's peace.

Acting Commander (and Commanding Officer) John Rooke Hunter of HMCS Niobe, a Royal Canadian Navy manning base in Greenock, Scotland, serves Christmas drinks to RCN Ratings and WRCNs, December 25 1944. Commander Hunter is wearing his full uniform, with the three stripes of his position prominent on the cuff of his jacket. The stripes are "wavy", indicating that he was an officer of the RCNVR (Volunteer Reserve). Commander Hunter is holding a large jug of tea (or other drink) and is pouring into the cups and bowls of seated and uniformed RCN Ratings and WRCNs, who are smiling broadly, clearly enjoying the moment of their commanding officer serving them. Commander Hunter appears to be enjoying the moment also, leaning in to the task. Men from further down the row are looking on, also smiling at the scene. In the background, some bunting is hanging between the windows of the large room where the serving is taking place.

Commander John R Hunter serving the crew of manning base HMCS Niobe, Greenock, Scotland, December 25, 1944. The Royal Canadian Navy tradition of the senior officer handing over command to the youngest member of the crew, and the officers serving a festive meal, started in the 1940s. #navalhistory

The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.

Royal Canadian Navy Operations Room, St. John's, Newfoundland, 24 September 1942 (LAC a180609-v6.jpg) #RCN #Photos #History

Happy St Andrew’s Day to Scots, wherever you are in the world!

Marc Milner's book that @axe99.bsky.social refers to is for me the single best book on the WW2 Atlantic war. Most convoys were mixed, few if any were just US. Most escorts by RCN and RN, many countries involved. US added carrier hunter groups in 1943. Admiral King primarily focused on the Pacific.

🌾 The day I stood here, I felt the weight of Ukraine’s grief. The girl’s eyes, far too old for a child, moved me to tears.

Holodomor was a soviet-made genocide, to crush 🇺🇦 for daring to stay free.

I left that place changed.

I stand with Ukraine all the more for it 🕯️

This is a picture of HMCS Saguenay back in St John's
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