Rank: Rear Admiral. Medals and Honours: Commander of the Order of Military Merit; Mentioned in Despatches

Interviewer: Horne, Marshall S.

ABSTRACT: Rear-Admiral John Charles Royal Canadian Navy Started at Royal Military College 1935; cadet training in UK with Royal Navy; Geeves store; HMS Arabis ; sea training ship Vindictive and West Indies; chores and duties of cadets; Midshipman on HMS Royal Sovereign in Home Fleet (1938), Munich Crisis; Royal Navy night and gas training, Action station as Midshipman of 15 inch Y Turret, description of Y Turret and ammunition; exercises; HMS Barrick and West Indies station late 1938; exercises and simulating fighting battleships; no prior U-boat ASW training; traveled up East Coast of USA and Canada; located in Maine at declaration of war; searching for German Liner around New York; searching for Deutschland; Halifax: British government controlling merchant fleet; HX 1; fast vs. slow convoys; Jamaican convoy and importance of oil; return to Bermuda; patrol for enemy merchant ships; Nov 1939 joined Northern Patrol; escort vessels around Denmark Straits; still outfitted with tropical gear; captured two German vessels; one boarded while on fire; loading troops for Norway to help Fins fight Russians: joined Home Fleet to face German fleet at Norway; enemy aircraft and anti-craft armaments; searching fjords of Norway; to Portsmouth and promoted to Sub-Lieutenant April 1941; schooling at Portsmouth, detailed to mount naval guns around south coast of England; return for more Sub-Lieutenant's courses: facing German bombardment; capturing French destroyer; return Halifax assigned to HMCS Restigouche; crew with Captain Lay; patrol for German Hipper, Halifax and sail to UK; fuelling consumption problems, joined Clyde Escort Force, escorting outbound convoys; scheduling shore duty; convoy lifestyles, convoy problems and the Convoy Conference: Convoy Commodore and duties; convoy communications; ciphering; problems communicating with merchant vessels: radio silence; intercepting radio communications; Western Approaches Convoy Instructions; escort/merchant relations, rescue ships; goal of tonnage sinking of U-boats; deal with contacts; offensive vs. defensive strategy; support groups: how many escorts assigned, value of corvettes and frigates 1942; changing technology i.e. radar; training for new equipment; Restigouche back to Halifax and crew changes: convoy duty strain and youth: sleep, entertainment, and free time: 1941 story about manoeuvres with MGM film crews stuck onboard and accidentally document Atlantic Charter Conference at Argentia; attends signal school in Quebec for three months; travels to United Kingdom for long signals course; sea sickness; signal school March 1942; Nov 1942 to North Africa; The Mediterranean theatre in HMS Lafprey; anti-aircraft weapons; US Navy AA advantages, entertainment with USN movies; how the Med was different from North Atlantic; fighting aircraft and shore batteries; how vessels would fire against shore targets: left Med Feb 1944; went to USN signals school; different aspects of naval theatres; staffing, training, and technical problems historians raise; Canadian destroyers in context of the entire war; loss of naval vessels outside North Atlantic very high in comparison to RCN commitment.

An interview/narrative of John Charles's experiences during World War II. Rear-Admiral Charles served with the Royal Canadian Navy. Interview took place on March 4, 2005.

Interviewee: Charles, John

In Collection:

• Canadian Military Oral Histories

Contributor

• Charles, John
• Horne, Marshall S.

Subject

• World War (1939-1945)
• Canada. Royal Canadian Navy
• World War (1914-1918)
• Naval history
• Military history

Language

• eng

Date created

• March 4, 2005

Relation

• Part of the Military Oral History Class collection of interviews.
• This interview was conducted at the Rear-Admiral's house out in Sooke. Apologies for the background noises. the recorder was placed on a squeaky table.

Resource type

• Sound

Rights statement

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Extent

• 4 sound recordings (MP3)

Geographic Coverage

• England
• Bermuda Islands

Coordinates

• 32.30444, -64.75167
• 52.16045, -0.70312

Additional physical characteristics

• Two original audio cassettes in Special Collections.

Physical Repository

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Collection

• Canadian Military Oral History Collection

Provider

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Genre

• interviews
• oral histories (literary genre)
• sound recordings
• reminiscences

Archival item identifier

• CJ_472

Fonds title

• Military oral history collection

Fonds identifier

• SC141

Is referenced by

• Special Collections Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/military-oral-history-collection

Date digitized

• December 17, 2012

Technical note

• Digital sound recording in .wav format at 16 bits and 44 kHz. In .mp3 format at 56 kbps and 24 kHz. Digitized by JF, technical and cataloguing metadata provided by JF and JP. Interview migrated to digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2012. Migration metadata by KD and MT.

Rights

• This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.58066/w3q7-vr81

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