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Photo: Carmen Weld Photo: Carmen Weld Photo: Carmen Weld Photo: Carmen Weld Photo: Carmen Weld Photo: Carmen Weld Photo: Carmen Weld

Each pew of St. Michael church in Kelowna displayed the name of one of 29 Canadian warships that were lost at sea during the Battle of the Atlantic.

May 1 marks the 71st anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic – the longest continuous battle in the Second World War, spanning from 1939 to 1945.

To commemorate that solemn time, and remember lost shipmates, the Kelowna Naval Veterans Association holds a commemoration event each year on the first Sunday of May, joining similar events across the country.

From the singing of O Canada to the prayers, hymns and stories shared, the one-hour-long ceremony gave naval veterans and their families a chance to remember.

“As we reflect on our lives in the navy, we look at the youth of tomorrow and we pray they too, if called upon, be brave, they will be 'Ready, Aye, Ready', to take hold where we left off,” shared veteran and Chaplin Erv Schmidt.

Ready, Aye, Ready is a pledge to face today's "security challenges with pride and professionalism."

Approximately 2,200 Canadians died in the battle to keep the sea lanes to Great Britain open in the face of attacks on merchant vessels by German submarines.

“We remember each ship, and their officers and men, who braved the sea and the enemy.”

Dean Nissa Basbaum of St. Michael and All Angels Cathedral spoke at the event. She said memorial events like these allow us to witness the past and remember.

“Each year, I read the stories and I am reading the same things, the story hasn't changed, it was what it was, but I read it every year because what I read is a witness to something that happened,” said Basbaum.

“We do simply do not understand why we, as human beings, get tangled in these kinds of things. On this day, in this place, every year, we witness it. It doesn’t mean we explain it, it means we continue to tell the story and stand in awe of the people that are part of that story.”

The Kelowna Naval Veterans began holding Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies in 1967 with a large membership of seamates and outdoor ceremonies upon the Fintry Queen.

Now, their numbers have dwindled and they prefer to hold the ceremony inside, but with the help of younger navy veterans and the sea cadets the ceremony is still held each year.

There are currently five members of the Kelowna Naval veterans who served in the Second World War and the Battle of the Atlantic, all now in their 90s.

Ronald Rhine, 90, Dick Fletcher, 90, Joyce Hardcastle, 95, Bill Kieper, 91 and Gordon Aidy, 91.

Rhine served through the entire Second World War, not even 18 years old when his service began.

He says he is still 'very surprised' he survived the war given the death and destruction he witnessed.

“I once saw a tanker hit with a torpedo and it just turned into a torch, the guys didn't have a chance, the guys in the merchant navy,” said Rhine.

As just a teenager, Rhine was often given wounded soldiers hopped up on morphine and told to help them heal.

“They told me to fix em' up, care for them,” said Rhine. “I was now 18, I had no first aid training, I learned a lot about first aid the hard way.”

He said while the annual events are hard, they are important.

“I think a lot of people do not know what the navy did. I think it is a good thing to find out a little bit about it and it is awfully, awfully important to remember those 29 ships that went down, hundreds and thousands of people who lost their lives during those days.”

From its early stages of ten warships and about 3,200 officers, the Royal Canadian Navy would grow to 400 warships and nearly 10,000 personnel in uniform.

By 1945, the RCN was the fourth largest navy in the world.