HALIFAX – The Halifax waterfront holds special memories for Roland Marshall, he joining the Navy here, to fight in World War II, at the age of 16.
“I was keen to do my tiny bit to defeat Hitler,” the 88-year-old retired Navy Commander said Monday.
“I really started my war against Hitler in 1939, in the sense that I was very interested in what was happening, and was in the cadets.”
A hulking reminder of the Navy’s Battle of the Atlantic remains on the Halifax waterfront – HMCS Sackville, Canada’s oldest fighting warship.
Sackville fought off German submarines, while escorting dozens of supply convoys across the Atlantic Ocean.
“It was a crucial ship to try and hold the German submarines at bay,” said Marshall, who served on another of the escort ships.
Calling HMCS Sackville a crucial symbol for the Canadian identity, a group of veterans wants to place the ship in a permanent memorial – a splashy, $200-million complex to be called Battle of the Atlantic Place.
Similar to the Titanic story told at a museum in Belfast, the memorial would use modern techniques to explain the battle.
“I don’t think it should be looked at as simply war history,” says Ted Kelly, a retired Navy Captain who is spearheading a fund-raising drive.
“We’re talking about the accomplishment of Canadians.”
Among a dwindling number of remaining veterans from the Battle of the Atlantic, 93-year-old Doug Himmelman says a permanent memorial would be a treasure.
“All the old merchant seamen and Navy people that went to war will all be dead, but this will probably help to carry the story,” he said.
A story Kelly says remains under-exposed.
“We have to tell our stories and we haven’t done a very good job of that. We’ve allowed ourselves to be overwhelmed by the huge cultural machines which operate from our neighbours to the south. And consequently, Canadians tend to know more about American accomplishments than they do of their own,” said Kelly.
But making it happen means shaking big bucks loose, from somewhere.
They group is targeting the federal government for more than 130-million dollars, about two-thirds of the cost.
Another of the fund-raising veterans, George Borgal, says they’d like to have the memorial completed in 2 years.
“Around the opportunity of 2017 being the 150th anniversary of our confederation. To have the government support is crucial,” he said.
Otherwise, HMCS Sackville would remain a seasonal, floating museum, one piece of a larger narrative.
“Without the story, it just becomes an artifact,” Kelly said. “The story is what’s critical.”
The full cost to tell that story remains unclear.
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