Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve
Reg Meeres was born on 2 August 1927. During the Second World War, he tried to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, but they rejected him due to his age. The air force recruiting centre in Victoria was on Douglas Street, and next door was the Navy recruiting centre. He recalled that he, “walked out of one building and in the other.” Reg was accepted by the Navy and trained as a gunner. He first served on a training vessel in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before “they came along one day and said, you’re going overseas.” He embarked on a troop ship, originally a cruiser converted by the Navy. They landed in Liverpool and then shipped him to Glasgow and up the River Thames before transferring him to another ship, “I was on the move a lot” he said. With the new ship, he served in the North Sea, which he considered to be “laced with German subs.” On one occasion, Reg recalls his ship sinking a German sub and running it right over. Although a victory, Reg said he “didn’t feel good about that” considering the loss of life. Reg had an understanding thought that in this situation, “it was them or us.”
Reg later served on the HMCS Ontario. He was an original member of the Minotaur-class light cruiser from its christening and launch from Belfast, Ireland, on 25 May 1945. They traveled to Liverpool, then through the English Channel for a while before sailing down to the Mediterranean. The ship completed working-up exercises near Malta, preparing the ship and its crew for action. The HMCS Ontario joined the British Pacific Fleet via the Suez Canal. Reg became well-traveled, “we just kept on going” he said, to North Africa, Burma, Ceylon, and more. He recalls minesweeping in the Malacca Strait between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, which Reg thought was particularly interesting, “you’d cut the mines loose, then you’d shoot them, blow them up.” As a gunner, Reg had the fun job, “gun training,” he chuckled.
Fortunately, the war against Japan ended before the HMCS Ontario got to the Pacific. The cruiser did however, meet the HMCS Prince Robert in Hong Kong. The two ships helped restore order in the recently liberated colony. Reg was taken off the seas and stationed ashore in Hong Kong. His task was simple: “Try and get as many of the people that were in internment camps from the Japs back to their homes.” The Japanese internment and prisoner of war camps were known for their poor conditions and brutality against prisoners. Reg dealt directly with the recently liberated prisoners who were often malnourished, sick, and fragile from their time interned. The crew of the HMCS Ontario was ultimately successful in repatriating many prisoners of war, including Canadians who had been captured five years earlier during the Fall of Hong Kong. Atypical of naval service, Reg was given a car to use in Hong Kong. He used the vehicle to travel about twenty miles back and forth each day for work.
On the way home from the war, the HMCS Ontario was forced to stop at Pearl Harbour in November 1945. Reg said the ship was, “in bad shape, we lost all our lifeboats and everything in a hurricane… that was a pretty scary thing.” He vividly remembers seeing the devastation of the famous attack on Pearl Harbour that had occurred in 1941. He recalled spotting the sunken USS Arizona, “We came in right beside it.” At the harbour, their ship was repaired as best as possible, and then they headed home. He proudly displays a picture of the HMCS Ontario and crew in the harbour in his room, along with his medals and a portrait of himself in uniform.
After the war, Reg worked for International Harvester as a heavy-duty mechanic. He now lives at Broadmead Care Centre in Victoria, British Columbia.
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