The Murmansk Mission

by Hattie Dyck

From: Riley Marshall and his daughter Colleen Pinkney, Truro, January 2009-01-15

  Riley Marshall was one of thousands of teen aged boys who went overseas to serve their country in World War 11. He considers himself one of the lucky ones because, unlike thousands of others, he came home physically unharmed. But, although he doesn’t like to talk about the horrors he witnessed, he does say they left lasting impressions on him and the others who participated.

   The blessing that he came home without injury is really a miracle when you consider that he spent four years in the Royal Canadian Navy on convoy duty between Canada and England, on the Mermansk run between England and Russia, and the Mediterranean run between England and the Mediterranean.

These missions that were carried out in both winter and summer were extremely dangerous throughout the war because they were prime targets for the German U Boats that didn’t want the supplies of men and equipment to reach their destination.

   The Corvettes were small ships which sat low in the water. The main armaments on them were the depth-charge, a single four-inch gun, and machine guns for anti-aircraft protection. The last of the Corvettes, HMCS Sackville, is still docked on the Halifax waterfront. Mr. Marshall recalls that about 90 sailors on board slept in hammocks and many were desperately sea sick at times. For the first three months he was at sea he was sea sick most of the time. On his first trip across the cold and cruel Atlantic Ocean he was sea sick for most of the two weeks it took them to get to England. “”It was eat it and lose it””, he said, but somehow he

got over it and stayed in the Navy.

   Mr. Marshall was a Communications Coder. This job allowed him to detect the submarines and U-Boats so they could drop a depth-charge and force them to surface. He recalls a time when they did just that and as the submarine surfaced they rammed it and sank it. They were off Wales at the time and it was relatively mild weather. He doesn’t believe there were any survivors.

   Even if there were survivors they wouldn’t be taken prisoner because the orders to the ships were not to stop. The reason for this is that would make the Corvette a sitting duck to be a German target. He recalls when the allied ships were hit by German fire and the men were forced into the water they would try to scoop up as many as possible while the boats continued on their course. It was heartbreaking that they couldn’t stop to get them all.

   Mr. Marshall, now 87 years young was on one corvette when one of its own bombs accidentally went up and came back down on them. There were several casualties. With no cold storage for the bodies they were put in body bags and dropped overboard. When asked his thoughts on was, Mr. Marshall responded, “If only world problems could be solved peacefully.”

   Mr. Marshall and three other veterans received a medal for their part in the Murmansk Convoy missions. The medals were presented by Victor Nitken from the Russian Embassy. There were some humorous times on the ship despite its wartime mission. They once brought a parrot aboard from a foreign port which was a source of amusement. But, one morning someone gave the parrot a swig of the morning tot of rum and that did it in.

   One Christmas he was the duty man to carry the turkey from the galley to the mess. It was a particularly windy day and the ship was rolling. As Mr. Marshall approached the mess a huge wave came over the ship and hit the deck. The turkey landed out to sea for the fish to consume that Christmas. That wasn’t humorous at the time but he can now look back and laugh about it.

   How Mr. Marshall got to become a sailor is also humorous. He wanted to join the Air Force and went to Halifax to do so. The recruiters turned him down following an eye examination that showed he was blind in one eye. He was bitterly disappointed and told them so. One recruiter told him h

ow to get around this problem and get into the Navy as they weren’t as particular about eyesight. Also. it was wartime and they wanted all the personnel they could get. The recruiter told him when the Navy did the exam he should just use two different hands to cover the same eye, and they probably wouldn’t notice. This plan worked and he got in.

   A wonderful career awaited Mr. Marshall following the war. When he returned he got an engineering degree at Nova Scotia Technical College and went to work at Stanfield’s Ltd. in Truro. In time he became Vice President of Manufacturing and was there for 35 years. “I really liked the company, the owners and the employees. I hired most of them and got along well with them.” He has been a devoted member of Royal Canadian Legion Branch #26 in Truro and was President the year after the current Legion was built.

   He recalls a brief stint in the horse business when he and his good friend the late Dr. Ben Karrell bought a race horse. Neither told their wives of this purchase and all went well until the horse known as Gratten Hal G won eight straight races in a row . This made headlines in The Chronicle – Herald and their secret was out.

   Mrs. Marshall, a horse fan herself was not too surprised by this news. Another horse story the family is happy about is when Colleen’s mare had twins. She laughs lovingly when thinking about how for years her father would get up extra early in the morning, dress in a really nice suit for work, and yet stop to feed her horses along the way; “That ‘s the kind of a man he was and still is” she says. “And, oh yes, he would never be late for work.”