Fortress Saint John - 8th Anti-Aircaft Battery on Fort Howe during WW2

I do feel guilt for having neglected the LOST VALLEY readership, but I have been flattened by my work commitments of late. Still, Remembrance Day is a good time to make amends, so I thought I would assemble a few items relating to one of my favorite topics - the military history of Fort Howe. Going through old files tonight I had the pleasure or reading a few pieces I had not even looked at since I wrote them in the 1970s. One article, written in 1980, was quite interesting to re-discover. It covers the camouflage schemes used to conceal the coastal artillery and anti-aircraft batteries in and around Saint John during WW2. In it I found details concerning the 8th Anti-Aircraft Battery R.C.A., which was dug in at the eastern end of Fort Howe hill, and camouflaged as well as such an exposed and obvious position might be. Most of the photos used with my article, Harold had found on a research trip to Ottawa.

If any reader has further information on the men named below, I would be happy to add it here.

FORTRESS IN THE SHADOWS: Camouflage Deception in Saint John 1940-1944 was published in NEW BRUNSWICK magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1980. Article written by Ronald Jack and the D.N.D. Ottawa photos supplied by Harold Wright. We were students back then, but we knew our stuff.

A souvenir wall pennant made for the 8th Anti-Aircraft Battery canteen in Saint John, N.B. probably at the end of WW2. One example recently sold on Ebay for $15.

Some men from the 8th A.A. Battery pose with a 3.7 inch A.A. gun on Fort Howe hill, 1941.

A partial ID of the names include (L to R) Acting Sgt. Les Cull, Bombardier R. Collins, Bdr. Clifton Lovett, Sgt. Olie Cormier, and two unknowns. [Update: Cathy Cormier informs me that her Father-in-Law Sgt. Oliver Cormier, is holding the casing end of the A.A. round.]

Seven Saint John gunners of the 8th Anti-Aircaft Battery gather in the cookhouse. The names are, (L to R) are Reg Tapley, O. Cormier, O. Oram, A. Whittaker, F. Jones, Joseph McFarlane and Leo Conway. The date was 2 September 1939. Note that Gunner Cormier is wearing a sweatshirt with "8TH A.A. BTY". Most of the men purchased one of the locally printed sweatshirts. [Update: Cathy Cormier informs me that Sgt. Cormier is in fact the soldier wearing braces and holding the butchers knife.]

Brigadier Phillip W. Oland was a WW2 veteran. He died in Rothesay, N.B. on Nov. 29, 1996. Demobilized in August 1945, he returned to Saint John, and in October 1945 was given command of the 8th A.A. Battery. The appointment lasted only one month as Fort Howe battery and other gun positions in and around Saint John were stripped of their weapons and stores.

Nov. 26/11 - Reader Response

I thought I would share the response of Harvey Kennedy, who contacted me by email. Harvey, who joined the RCAF in the jet age, recalled playing the War Heroes game with his chums in the gun pits and shelters on top of Fort Howe hill circa 1946, after the site was abandoned and the guns and military stores removed. He was student at St. Peter's School, behind Fort Howe.

"

In your last blog you mentioned Fort Howe during the war years , in particular the camouflaged bunkers that were built. A half dozen of us kids made good use of them after the war fighting thousands of the enemy and we always came out unscathed.--beats the hell out of the electronic games nowadays.

In the

1940's I was 7-11 years old and had a great time exploring life and events in the old city... we lived on Moore Street and I was one of eight kids in rough times as a lot of people were in those years...War movies as you know were a common past time with kids, as were Westerns, so to my way of putting it...they were the catalyst for the chemistry to spark the imagination. Another thing is we all wanted to be the star from the movie so that was determined and away we went."