WHO TO CALL: Community Editor Andrew McCredie Entertainment Editor Layne Christensen 985-2134 m 8) WV’'s Frank Wade pens WWII memoirs ANADA’S PRAIRIE provinces have always contributed a surpris- ing number of recruits to the Royal Canadian Navy. By John Moore Contributing Writer When West. Vancouver author and Brandon, Manitoba native, Frank Wade joined the Royal Navy training ship HMS Conway in the late-1930s it was the fulfillment of a dream fired by reading sea stories. Like most men of his generation, Wade, who was ‘educated in England, got more than he bargained for: he graduated into - World War Two. _ tronically, being a cadet officer in the “colonial” Royal Canadian Navy :. in 1941 landed him not only in the thick of the fierce Mediterranean “naval war, but in a unique position to know what was going on, a subject on which junior officers are ‘usually as uniformed as enlisted men. Posted to: the battleship. Queen Elisabeth, ‘flagship of the Med fleet, Wade was ‘assigned as cipher clerk to Fleet Admiral Andrew Cunningham him- self. . “There .1° was, -19-years-old, decoding all this stuff from Churchill to Cunningham and encoding mes- sages back ‘from Cunningham to - Churchill, most of which consisted of Motorola 350 with high : capacity battery and rapid charger. ; Vancouver 1820 Burrard Strect 730-3326 118-555 WL12 Avenue 876-0888 702 SW. Marine Or. 325-5100 1199 West Pender St. 662-3931 Cunningham politely —_telling Churchill to stop meddling.’ Wade recalls. “I knew I was. living history in the making.” He began to keep a diary and copies of messages for a book he might write one day, if he survived. Survive he did, though it would take. him almost five decades to finish the book, A Midshipman's War, (Cordillera Press, $29.95). At the time, he kept his inside knowiedge to himself:’ “We were never made to take secrecy oaths or anything like you would today,” ~ Wade says, having spent aimost three decades in the Royal Canadian Navy and witnessed the changes. Knowing more of the whys and -wherefores of grand strategy than his shipmates didn’t always make it easi- er to endure the frustrations of a naval campaign in which, Wade admits, “We took a bloody awful beating most of the time. “The naval strategy was tied to the land war in North Africa especially.” he explains. “We had to protect the long flank of the 8th Army and attack ‘Rommel’s flank where we could, especially by preventing the Germans and Italians from convoying supplies to their troops across the Med.” Britain, which had ruled the waves for several centuries by virtue of a large surface fleet, was getting an expensive lesson in technology-dri- ven wartime economies of scale in the Med, driven home by German U- boats and dive-bombers based in southern Haly and jater in Crete. “We had no air cover, really.” Wade remembers ruefully, “We had a couple of good aircraft carriers, armored ones — better than the American carriers that were built for speed —- but they only carried anti- quated Swordfish and Fairey planes that were no match for the Germans. The good planes, the Spitfires and Hurricanes, were all needed for the RAF in the Battle of Britain.” That same logistical necessity explains Wade's presence in the Med with the Royal Navy: “It’s very little known, but many of the radio and radar Operators with the Royal Navy were Canadians. Anyone in the British services with electronics training was needed at home during the Battle of Britain. Canadians pret- ty much adapted radar for use by the Royal Navy.” Radar was a secret, but slim advantage; at least the fleet knew when the air attacks were coming. And they came and came, sometimes around the clock, Wade recounts in his book. But even the air raids were not as destructive as a brace of torpe- does from Germany's underwater “silent service.” Wade saw the HMS Barham sink in four minutes, at a cost of more than 800 lives, after tak- See Book page 17 IN A Midshipman’s War West Van author Frank Wade recalls. how as a cipher clerk in the Royal Canadian Navy. during WWil he was privy to Churchill's grand strategies. ; BUSINESS Buy this phone for only $129.95.before March 31st, and you'll get the full purchase price of $129.95 back on your first month’s biil. Then you'll pay only $49.95 a month. That's a package that'll keep you in touch with your business, and your business in touch with you. Cantel Business package includes: . © 50 minutes of local calling monthly. e 50 cents a minute local airtime. « Free local weekend calling. This rebate also available on a wide range of Cantel phones. Ask us about Cante! Pager services. Call your Cantel Communications Store today. 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