Canadian Navy veteran remembers Second World War battles

Hundreds gathered at the HMCS Chippawa on Remembrance Day to pay their respects to those who fought for Canada by sea as part of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Lt.-Cmdr. Robert Watkins was 14 years old in 1939 when the Second World broke out. He remembers the day he decided to join the military.

"I was walking up Portage Avenue and I met a fellow who stopped me. He was in the First World War and he asked me if I was going to join up," said Watkins. I said 'if the war is still going on when I'm old enough, I will!'"

A few days later, Watkins was walking by Winnipeg's naval reserve headquarters when he heard something that piqued his interest.

"I heard this band playing, so I got curious and looked inside, and apparently the sea cadets were parading in there," Watkins said.

"I went inside, and before I knew it I was a sea cadet at age 14, and at 18 I joined the Navy."

Despite being a prairie boy, Watkins took well to Navy life. "We make the best sailors," he said. "We always have fights with the west and the east coasts about that."

Watkins went overseas in 1943 to fight in the war, based out of Glasgow, Scotland. He recalls one cold October night when they had to destroy an enemy submarine.

We were in a group, there were six of us in the group," he said. "At night, the submarine came up on the surface and was following one of our ships.

"We flashed to them that they were being followed by a submarine and we all turned to attack," Watkins said, adding that they sunk the German U-boat, but picked up 24 survivors.

"They were happy to get on board. For them, the war was over," he said.

After the war, Watkins continued to serve as a naval reservist at the Chippawa, devoting his life to a naval career. Eighty years later, he reflects on the impact of war.

"War is stupid," he said. "And for some reason or another, even people today can't get that through their heads.”