Mission To Waterloo (Quebec)

On Apr 20, elements of 3BAM deployed to the picturesque Eastern Townships city of Waterloo, Qc at the invitation of the mayor and through the good efforts of L/sgt Michel Lapointe, to help celebrate the anniversary of the local sea cadet corps, #291.  In this we were supported by Branch 77 of the Royal Canadian Legion. The longish drive (over an hour) provided me with a perfect opportunity to interject a short lesson on the actual battle of Waterloo (1815) after which the town is named and which was fought about half an hour's drive from the city in which my father was born.  I visited the site myself as a child, but that story will be for another day.

The mission was under the overall command of MWO (ret) Tom Savoie while WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier served as artificer. The GPO for the mission was Lcol (ret) Jaques Borne while the detachment was commanded by Sgt (ret) Marc Castonguay. Also participating in the mission were Lcol, (ret) Yvon Bégin,  Bdr (ret) Jean Rocheleau and Gnr Castonguay, and of course, myself in my usual civilian clothes and fedora hat, which was blown off my head repeatedly by the strong, gusting winds that day. So strong in fact that I was eventually forced to take it off and place it in the truck while I worked, leaving me feeling sort of naked. I don't like not having a hat. I guy without a lid ain't worth talking about.

Upon arrival at the local legion hall which served as our operational base for the event, Gilles Pelletier went to preparing the blank cartridges for shoot, assisted by Marc Castonguay who was helping with this task for the first time and received some instruction in the process. The process, having observed it myself a few times through the camera lens, seems a bit counter-intuitive at times. I usually have to fight back the impulse to stand back a bit. It also takes considerable time to prepare each round, there being several steps in the process. I think a future blog post may be entirely dedicated to this.

In front of the Legion hall sits an M114 155mm howitzer, identical to the one outside the CDN Armoury, though the paint on it seems newer, giving it a better appearance overall. I was surprised by the size of the legion hall itself, which not only features a lounge and separate billiards room, but also a good size dance floor. The gun was donated by 62RAC in Shawinigan, which act was made possible through the efforts of L/sgt Lapointe, who is a member of the local legion post as well as a 3BAM member. Early in his career, Tom Savoie actually served on the M114, before the regiment was converted to the 105mm C1.

The town is also the site of an annual parade of military vehicles, held over a four-day period each summer, and two WWII vintage Willy's jeeps were part of the parade on Saturday. I had the chance to look them over quite closely and found them to be very nicely restored, from my inexpert point of view at any rate. 3BAM will be participating in the festival this summer, as it did last year, though at this point, my participation in this event is at best uncertain.

I digress. The detachment fired a total of three shots, one of which I captured on video and incorporated into the short film shown here which otherwise composed entirely of still images which as a still photographer is what I mostly shoot. As is often the case, one of the local VIP's was invited to serve as a guest gunner and fire a shot, while Bdr Rocheleau and Lcol Bégin fired the other two. One of these days, I'm going to start writing down names, or at least getting someone else to write them down for me sot that I can stop doing such a half-ass job of reporting the story.

Also as usual, everyone did his part and despite the absence of our Sunray, CWO (ret) Gilles Aube, things went very smoothly.  After the parade and salute, we repaired to the legion post to put the gun and tractor back on the flatbed that we'd hired to bring them there and back then enjoyed a round of drinks courtesy of the mayor, and did a bit of pleasant chatting with the local legion members before making the return trip to Montreal. It was a long day, but worth the effort. The presence of 3BAM was genuinely appreciated by the cadet corps, mayor and citizens of Waterloo. We'll be back soon!

Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer

History Detective

The Postcard

Whenever Gilles Aubé asks me to do something, at the end of the job, I end up knowing something I didn't at the beginning of the task. Back when we were shooting to support the Tuques Bleus snowshoe race on Mount Royal, Gilles loaned me a postcard he'd found online and asked me to try to enlarge the image. The image purports to be a Field Battery on St-Helen's Island sometime between 1880 and 1900 or so.

That's a very loose bracket and I'd love to narrow it down somewhat more, but unfortunately neither the photo nor postcard contain enough definitive information. The guns being towed cannot be clearly seen and could be anything from 9-pdr RML's to 12-pdr RBL's. The blude unifrom with pillbox cap was extensively worn in the last quarter of the 19th C and was still being worn as a dress uniform in the 20th C. In fact, it's still authorized for full dress. There is no date anywhere on the postcard, though the publisher is identified on the back as "Valentine & Sons Publishing Co Ltd. This company. This company, was founded in Scotland in 1825 by John Valentine and by 1851, his sone James  started producing portrait photos, and published their first postcards in 1898. They opened offices in Montreal and Toronto in 1903 and 1906 respectively which doesn't mean that's when the photo was shot. The initials JV at the bottom right of the image surely stand for "John or James Valentine," but again, no idea when it was shot. If anyone has any ideas, or information, please pass them on.

More on the Valentine's postcard business can be found here:  http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/pp_v/pp_valentine_james_family.htm


The Windmills Of My Mind

In an earlier post entitled "Circular Trajectory" I wrote at length about my the first time I set foot in the Cotes-des-Neiges Armoury. For decades, I had believed, based on fragmentary memories that this had taken place in 1967. When I digitized some of the negatives my father had shot that day and saw some people in the photos wearing uniforms that weren't introduced until 1968, I was  compelled revise this estimate to 1968 based on the evidence that some of the figures in one of the photos appeared to be wearing the CF green uniform.

Even this date came under challenge from Philippe Lefebvre who's actvities within the cadet movement in those years put him in good standing to challenge my assertions. The truth be told, my memory was very vague, and over the years, I even began to doubt them myself. Had I even been there or were my memories based on seeing photographs my father had shot? Did my father really ask me if I wanted to come see"Boy Scouts" shoot  or had he simply told me that's where he was going? Why did he call them"Boy Scouts" when they were cadets? Did they really shoot their rifles on the riding rink instead of the range? Had I imagined being there?  Were my memories implanted? What if I'm a replicant?

  The exchange with Philippe prompted me to look more closely at the negatives I hadn't digitized, to see if I could find anything in them that would answer these questions.  The very first one I re-examined using my father's vintage Agfa loupe contained all the answers. The firing line in this one, was clearly made up of lads in Boy Scout, not cadet uniforms, proving that they too had participated in the event. And behind the firing line, at a safe distance and as clear as day, stands me, looking around 5-6 years old. I'm even standing pretty much where I remembered standing.  My memories were real, mostly accurate and most importantly, I am NOT a  Replicant! Yay!
                                    
The photo evidence seems pretty clear to me. I turned six in late January of 1968.  The Canadian Forces were officially unified on Feb 1st, 1968. I am dressed here as for the late winter or early spring, and there appears to be snow piled up against the windows on the south side of the Armoury, (in another photo) therefore, these photos were probably shot in March or early April of 1968, before I'd finished kindergarten, before the Beatles broke up, and before men even orbited the moon, let alone land on it.

The relatively few individuals wearing the CF uniform are probably members of the Regular Force and were probably among the first to be issued the uniforms. Of course, if my idiot father had bothered to date his negatives as I date my digital files instead of simply numbering them, this would have been a lot easier to settle. What I find gratifying in all this is that so many decades later, my memories were proven mostly accurate. What I find depressing is how quickly the time has passed since this photo was taken. 


Ubique!


Gary Menten,
Photographer