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Sentimental Journey Continued

August 25, 1945

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

No one could tell me where to sign up for a boat that transports horses, and I searched the docks, walking for over a day before I located the correct location. On the 26th, a Mr. Sylvester was just completing signing up a 40-man horse crew for the next horse boat, but by saying that I had grown up with horses and had . . .

Sentimental Journey Continued

Sept. 26, 1945.

Entering Rotterdam Harbor. The Netherlands.

On board The Mexican In the English Channel.

From where the Rhine River enters the English Channel, it is about 20 miles up the river to Rotterdam, Holland. The harbor pilot had to navigate The Mexican carefully, as there were miles of WWII debris (sunken ships, bombed bridges, etc.). prot . . .

Sentimental Journey Continued

September 29, 1945

Rotterdam Harbor, The Netherlands

On Monday, October 1, 1945, Dave Miller and I took a 20-minute train ride to the Netherlands’ capital, The Hague. A phone call from the Canadian Embassy to the British Consulate brought only the routine answer “No.” So we had no other solution, except for Canada’s official letter saying our passport was in ord . . .

Sentimental Journey Consummated

October 3, 1945–April 16, 1946

Manchester, Lancashire, Great Britain

The Batavia II docked at Gravesend, and via London, I took the train to Manchester. Joan and I must have met again as strangers; I don’t recall. The Doe home had a bedroom for me.

Less than four months post-WWII, Manchester was an uninviting city. As an industrial city, a co . . .

The Dieppe Raid

There had been a report in early 1942 that Stalin was attempting to end the war by making peace with Hitler. It is important to grasp the concept that the Allies viewed the loss of the Russian Military as losing the best weapon the Allies had.

The Dieppe Raid was already planned, but in the summer of 1942, with considerable effort and courage, Winston Churchill flew to Moscow to make a p . . .