TISDALE — Donald Lamb, a Second World War naval veteran, was honored at a ceremony in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa on July 1 [1988].
Along with 18 other crew members of the Canadian tribal class destroyer Haida, Lamb received the Murmansk Convoy Medal commemorating the dangerous convoy runs of the Soviet port of Murmansk and Archangel during the dark days of the war.
“Mostly I remember the torpedoes and the constant threat from U-boats and the threat of the German aircraft, JU 88's, corning from the coast of Norway,” Lamb recalls. “On one occasion, two torpedoes ripped by the stern of our ship, missing us by only 20 feet. I also remember the terrific storms that raged in those waters, gale force winds coming down from the Arctic icecap, with snow storms reducing the visibility to zero.”
Soviet Ambassador Alexei Rodionov told the medal recipients, “The Soviet people remember very well the Canadian seamen providing food and war supplies to them in the most dangerous days of our history.”
Lamb was the Chief Engine Room Artifificer on the Haida in 1944-45. The Haida, Canada’s only surviving Second World War destroyer, is now anchored at Ontario Place in Toronto, serving as a museum open to the public and a naval cadet training ship.
