Forces With History #236--HMCS QUEBEC (Part 6)
Colour Them Relieved
As we saw in Part 4, HMCS UGANDA (as she was still known) “slunk home to the undoubted disgust of the RN and the USN,” in the words of Stephen Geneja, who served on board as an AA Gunner.
Why did UGANDA’s crew vote themselves out of the war, even as they continued to fight the Japanese?
Sailors always grumble, and there was a lot to grumble about:
- The ship was victualled by the Royal Navy, and the Royal Navy’s food and menus were different from those of the RCN.
- The crew had been at sea and away from family and loved ones for a minimum of months but for some, five years; all but the latest arrivals were veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic.
- UGANDA was like a huge steel oven in the warm waters of the South Pacific. The boiler rooms were barely habitable, reaching 130 or even 140 degrees Fahrenheit according to some. Many stokers developed respiratory problems.
- Fresh water was always in short supply.
- No shore leave was possible.
- Would the millions of men returning home from the European war get all the civilian jobs?
- Would wives and sweethearts put up with yet more time away?
On top of all that, the political machinations of the Canadian government rankled. These men were all volunteers already, having signed on for the duration of the war, and not only for the war in Europe. Being asked to kindly volunteer again would have rubbed many of them the wrong way. And what was this about leave if you do or don’t volunteer? (See FWH #235.)
The crew would have had their own personal feelings about the battle risks of staying on to fight the Japanese.
When Royal Navy Admiral Fraser (Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet) agreed that UGANDA could leave for a new crew of volunteers as soon as a replacement for the ship was available, Lt E Makovski was moved to write a poem which was published in the ship’s newspaper:
I think I’ll go home in the summer,
I think I’ll go home in July.
Oh boy! I’ll get fed, and I’ll sleep in a bed
And I’ll need no more love on the sly.
Come, let’s sing of Ottawa’s King,
MacKenzie’s the man we adore---
The human torpedo as good as Bushido,
Uganda is out of the war.
The villain in this was the PM. No need to “ask” the volunteers again in the middle of a campaign. Then again perhaps he received his advice from his usual sources — his crystal ball, his dog and/or his dead mother.
Someone at high levels should have intervened.
This action caused the cruiser to initially be denied refuelling in Pearl Harbor enroute home with tail between legs.