West Van veteran
recounts Allied
fight for freedom

AT AN age when most teenage males
worry about the condition of their skin
and exams, Olav Pedersen was sneaking
his way onto. British and Norwegian
landing craft during a commando raid.

By lan Noble

News Reporter

That was in 1941, when Pedersen was 17
and his native Norway was entering the second
. year of occupation by the Germans.
“During the few hours of the Allied raid.
Pedersen seized the opportunity to flee his
native land, with the intention of helping the
Allies free Norway from the Nazis" grip.

“It became clear that if you wanted to
accomplish anything you better get to
England,” he told the News from his West
Vancouver home.

“It was exciting. Norway was occupied and

‘TAKE TIME TO
REMEMBER

this was a chance to do something.”
His family, which was later scattered by a
Gestapo attack that left his home burned to the

ground, didn’t know what had happened to’

’ Pedersen until family members reunited after
the war.

. When he arrived in England, where the
Norwegian government was in exile, he joined
a Norwegian Naval air squadron under the
command of the Royal Air Force.

Pedersen was shipped to Iceland, where he

trained as part of a squadron used for convoy
duty. Of the 22: planes in the Norwegian
squadron, 20 were lost, along with many of
Pedersen’s good friends.

Pedersen said even though :nost of the air-
- plane personnel; knew they would go down,
their morale remained high and their fear
grounded. ;

“IH that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes,
All their homeland was occupied and they
really wanted to get it back,” said Pedersen,

*- The young Pedersen did anything he could
to help, including guard duty, and practised his

WEST VAN residents Olav Pedersen and Joan Coull contributed during the
Second World War. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the conflict.

Then, “when | was starting to become use-
ful." the remainder of Pedersen’s squadron was
transferred to the Norwegian Air Force and
moved to Scotland.

For the rest of the war, Pedersen was a
flight engincer, looking alter the engines while
sitting in the cockpit of large Sunderlands.

The Sunderland protected convoys and
shipping routes in the Atlantic until victory
came for the Allies.

So what does the 72-year-old Pedersen say

about spending the latter years of his youth far
« from home fighting a war?

“I wouldn't have missed it for all the tea in
China. You were in it rather than sitting: cand

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

Waging war on

the home front

JEAN COULL will be thinking
about all the people who are not here
when ‘she takes part in the
Kemembrance Day parade on
Saturday in West Vancouver,

By Anna Marie D'Angelo

News Reporter

“LT find Remembrance Day very diffi-
cult,” said Coull, who lives in) West
Vancouver with her husband.

“The friends that [ost in their youth ...
The friends who came back who suffer still
because of the abuse and problems they
had when they were in uniform.”

Coull, who was e Canadian Women’s
Army Corps (CWAC) member, said Hong
Kong veterans whom she had gone to
school with before the war were abused
and tortured by their captors.

During the war, Coull packed explo-
sives into shells in a munitions plant in
Ontario und worked in Nova Scotia in
accuracy-training shooting exercises for
artillery gunners.

“f wasn’t a nurse and [| wasn't a truck
driver,’ Coull said of the sicreotypical war
jobs for women during the Second World
War,

She said the munitions plant work was
dangerous. There was no metal allowed in
the plant because it could create friction
and set off the explosives.

“There was no bobby pins. no rings ...
We wore wooden shoes and we had our
hair tied up in a bandanna,” said Coull. ;

Then. as now, she felt she was a
Canadian and should do her share in the
war effort.

“Nobody was afraid. We just lived for
today.” said the grandmother of eight chil-
dren. “in my opinion, for the first time
since the First World War, women became
their own persons. ;

“When the men came back. most
women went back to being housewives, It
was a little too early in the century for
some women to be as independent as they
are today.”

For more Remembrance.Day coverage
see pages 5, 11, 12 and 13 of today’s News.

Canadians to remember

First World War
@ 628,736 Canadians served
B 66.573 died and 138,166
were wounded

@ 2,818 were taken prisoner ’

of war
175 merchant seamen died
by enemy action

Second World War
B 1,031,902 male Canadians

female M516 died and 1.558 were

Canadians served

Bi 44,927 died and 53,145
were wounded |

Bi 8,271 were taken prisoner
of war ,

1,146 merchant seamen
died by enemy action

Korea

"3 26,791 Canadians served

wounded :
@ 33 were taken prisoner of
war 4

Gulf War
@ 3,837 male Canadians and
237 female Canadians served

» Bino Canadian casualties

no Canadians were taken
prisoner

English... doing nothing.”

est area north of Capilano College in search of Lynn
Duggan’s remains and items including a shower curtain miss-
ing from her apartment.

The latest search drew 125 volunteers and involved the use

for

Lynn Duggan’s family
must wait for answer

3 . “der Noy of metal detectors.
THE LOCATION of — murder’ victim = Lynn Meanwhile the North Vancouver RCMP have always had

Duggan’s body remains a mystery tollowing one suspect in the case. He is a former Vancouver City Police
search Sunday in a'steep, treacherous area of the — officer.

North Vancouver RCMP Stall Sgt. Ron Babcock has
dectined to comment on the case after DNA legistation
became law in the summer,

Uncooperative suspects may now be forced to give a DNA
sample to compare with biological evidence Jeft at a murder
. scene, That information may be used as evidence in court dur-

“We cume up empty.” said Mery Duggan, Lynn's — ing a trial.
father. Merv Duggan said that DNA will help in his daughter’ $
Lynn Duggan, 34, was murdered in her North — murder investigation.
1 Vancouver apartment in June 1993. Her skull and jaw He said there is a backlog of DNA cases waiting laborato-
| NEWS photo Paul McGrath bone were found one year later in the Seymour. ry testing.
“THE NORTH Shore Rescue Team’s Gord Ferguson Demonstration Forest. “We are just waiting our turn,” said Duggan.
“ (left) and Tim Jones took part in the Nov. 5 search. The Duggan family has backed four searches of the for-_ “Our family is totally behind the RCMP,” he added.

Seymour Demonstration Forest.

By Anna Marie D'Angelo
News Reporter

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