Historian Roger Litwiller--"White Ensign Flying"

My friend Roger Litwiller has two books out, "White Ensign Flying: Corvette HMCS Trentonian", and "Warships of the Bay of Quinte".

Roger is a historian, and strictly speaking an amateur one, but he does great work and gets things right. "White Ensign Flying" is a terrific read, telling the story of the men who served in HMCS Trentonian, the last corvette sunk in the Second World War.

Here is Roger with his two books; I'm looking forward to the next one. More of his work can be found at his website. He's currently working on a history of WW II shipbuilding in Trenton, Ontario. He says the town turned out 170 vessels of various sizes that saw service all over the Commonwealth, and some of them are still in service today.

71 Years ago, D-Day Forces are Away

June 5th, 1944. The Allied armada is at sea, the gliders and troopcarrying aircraft are standing by. The weather on June 4th was bad enough that Nazi-occupied Europe's German forces are relaxed.
But June 6th is a full moon, and the weather may abate. Dwight Eisenhower makes his fateful decision--the invasion of France is on.
Aboard HMCS Kitchener, Canadian corvette, is Able Seaman Bill Cameron, aged 18.

Bill Cameron is one of hundreds of thousands of men and women involved in the largest amphibious attack in history. They are already at sea or are streaming toward the English ports to embark in the subsequent waves of attackers.

And each of them carries a message from Eisenhower (Bill's copy is reproduced at right).

In part it read:

"I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!"

Here is one of several earlier posts about Bill and Kitchener .