A Classic Case of Whodunit?
WEDNESDAY November 11, 2015 • www.langleytimes.com COMMUNITY Aldergrove Remembers Harry
11
ARTS & LIFE Artistic Activism
PAGE 18
177
SPORTS Silver Lining for Spartans
23
Lest we forget
The war on the
West Coast
While most eyes were focused on the conflict in Europe during the Second World War, another threat was lurking off the shores of British Columbia M IRAN D A G AT H E R C O L E Tim e s Re po r t e r
Fred van Aggelen lived two miles away from Pauline Johnson School in West Vancouver, so when the air raid sirens went off in the early 1940s, he ran to an appointed parent’s house, close by, instead of going home. “It was like a siren on a police car, it was a funny noise,” the 82-yearold recalled while seated in his quiet living room in Walnut Grove. “I don’t know how to explain it. It would go loud then soft, loud then soft, loud then soft. If it was continuous I guess it wouldn’t be as effective.” Just 10 years old at the time, van Aggelen, along with his elementary school classmates, practised several surprise air raid drills and learned to put on gas masks in case of enemy attack. Though an actual air strike never occurred, the threat posed by Japan off the Vancouver coast was very real during the Second World War. Van Aggelen is only finding out the details now. “There’s so many people who don’t believe that this really happened,” he said, while thumbing through War on our Doorstep, a locally written book by Brendan Coyle, about the Aleutian campaign and war off North America’s West Coast. “A boat would get sunk off the coast here, we never knew about it. But there were gun emplacements
all put up. “There’s gun emplacements in Stanley Park — and they still exist — and Point Grey there’s some, and up the coast there’s still gun emplacements. But nobody knew that they were there, originally.” According to Coyle’s book, the first Japanese submarines began patrols of West Coast waters in December, 1941, from Vancouver Island all the way down to Mexico. Searching for American aircraft carriers that escaped destruction during the Dec. 7 bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the subs began attacking merchant ships and land targets down the coast. On June 20, 1942, Estevan Point on Vancouver Island became Canada’s first casualty. Japanese submarines fired 21 shells at the lighthouse, where a radar/radio station was thought to be. With shells landing at the small village five km away, not one managed to hit the lighthouse. This was the first attack on Canadian soil since the War of 1812. “We were so dedicated to the British that the Japanese didn’t seem to — there just wasn’t interest in it,” van Aggelen said. “Everything was for Great Britain … even our own family, we were more interested in Holland and Europe and my brothers overseas than we were about the Japanese coming over here and sinking a few ships. Continued Page 6
M IR A ND A GAT HE R C OLE Langley Time s
Fred van Aggelen remembers running to an assigned parent’s house near his school in West Vancouver when the air raid sirens went off in the early ’40s. His home was two-miles away and too far to run to if the enemy attacked.
A Treasure Chest of Unique Antiques
DON’T LET YOUR DEBT EAT YOU ALIVE! BOOK A FREE
Annual Christmas Sale Starts November 15th
Turn the tide with a Consumer Proposal. CONSULTATION We can cut your debt by up to 80%. 205 20651 56 Ave, Langley (604) 539-0200 www.sands-trustee.com
Licensed Trustee in Insolvency and Restructuring.
20241 Fraser Hwy. • 604.530.2687 Open Daily 10:00 am - 5:30 pm info@langleyantiques.ca