LAC Duncan Joseph McDonald—Accidentally Killed April 19, 1944

 Duncan Joseph McDonald was born in Mulgrave, Guysborough County, on June 14, 1918, the youngest of Osborn and Catherine Ann (Ryan) McDonald’s four sons. Duncan’s grandfather, Roderick McDonald, was born at Strait of Canso around 1844, the son of Donald and Nancy McDonald. On January 6, 1867, Roderick married Margaret Strahan, daughter of Berry and Margaret Strahan, in Port Mulgrave.

LAC Duncan Joseph McDonald's headstone, St. Lawrence Cemetery, Mulgrave, NS

By 1891, the McDonald household included 45-year-old Roderick, a railroad section man, his 44-year-old wife Margaret, and five children—Duncan, age 18; Lizzie, age 17; John, age 14; “Ausbury” [later Osborn], age 10;  and Daniel, age four. Also residing in the home was Roderick’s widowed mother Nancy, age 88. A decade later, 19-year-old “Ausberry” [DOB August  31, 1881] was still living in Mulgrave with his parents and brothers Duncan, John and Dan.

On August 15, 1904, “Osberry” McDonald married Catherine “Kate” Ryan in St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church, Mulgrave. At the time of the 1911 census, 29-year-old “Oscar” [sic—Osborn], railroad “trackman,” was listed as head of a Mulgrave household that included his wife Kate A., age 25, and three children—Stella Louise (DOB December 1904); Beatrice (DOB November 1906); and John R. (DOB January 1909).

Over the ensuing decade, six more children joined the McDonald household—Annie (c. 1911); Daniel (c. 1913); Osborn Jr. (c. 1915); Hilda (DOB April 28, 1917, died in infancy); Duncan Joseph (DOB June 14, 1918); and Hilda Mary (c. 1919). At the time of the 1921 census, Osborn and Catherine’s Mulgrave home included Beatrice, age 14; Stella, age 6; John, age 12; Annie, age 10; Daniel, age eight; Osborn Jr., age six; Duncan, age three; and Hilda, age 18 months.

Before year’s end, tragedy struck the family when 38-year-old Osborn died on July 8, 1921, following a six-month battle with acute pulmonary tuberculosis. Pregnant at the time of her husband’s passing, Kate gave birth to a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, on November 14, 1921. Sadly, her youngest child died of pneumonia on August 8, 1924.

Duncan Joseph McDonald, Osborn and Kate’s youngest son, attended Loggie School, Mulgrave, from 1924 to 1930. He then moved on to McNair High School, Mulgrave, where he completed Grades 7 to 10. Upon leaving school in 1933, he worked as a labourer for Cook Construction, Mulgrave (1933-34) and as a “checker” with Standard Paving Co. (1934-36). For the remainder of the decade, Duncan held a variety of “odd jobs” before securing a position as a “brakeman” with Canadian National Railways, Stellarton.

On December 11, 1941, Duncan applied for admission to the Royal Canadian Air Force. To enhance his chance of acceptance, he enrolled in a WETP [War Emergency Training Program] course in Saint John, NB, from January to June 1942. Following its completion, Duncan enlisted with the RCAF at Moncton, NB, on June 22, 1942, commencing service with the rank of Aircraftman Class 2 (AC2).

On July 19, Duncan was transferred to No. 5 Military District, Lachine QC, where he commenced training at No. 1 Wireless School, Montreal. Three months later, he qualified as a “Wireless Operator/Gunner, Group C,” and was promoted to the rank of Aircraftman Class 1 (AC1). On October 11, 1942—the day after his promotion—Duncan was assigned to RCAF Station, Sydney, NS.

As a major source of coal and steel, the industrial Cape Breton area played a significant role in Canada’s war effort. Its harbour also provided shelter for vessels crossing the North Atlantic as part of Allied merchant convoys. While Canadian infantry and artillery units focused on defending the harbour and numerous strategic locations in the area, the RCAF’s role extended well beyond the island.

In addition to patrolling the harbour entrance and protecting convoys entering and leaving Canadian coastal waters, the RCAF conducted coastal reconnaissance operations from two separate bases—a seaplane base for 11 Delta aircraft in North Sydney and an airfield near Reserve, east of Sydney. While land for an airport had been acquired prior to the formal declaration of war, actual construction did not commence until the second year of the conflict.

Prior to the airport’s operational debut in February 1941, RCAF personnel transitioned to the Bristol Fairchild Bolingbroke. A maritime patrol aircraft and trainer manufactured by Fairchild Canada, the design was based on the Bristol Blenheim Mk IV bomber. Nicknamed the “Bolly,” the plane was equipped with engines designed to increase its range. Its nose was extended to create more space for the bombardier and the cockpit’s upper left surface was expanded to provide greater visibility during takeoff and landing. In acknowledgment of the circumstances in which the aircraft would operate, anti-icing boots and a dinghy were standard accessories.

No. 119 (Bombing & Reconnaissance) Squadron, Hamilton, ON, the unit based in Sydney, was on call for any emergencies that occurred in nearby waters. The most common incidents involved sightings of German U-boats. On March 23, 1942, for example, the merchant vessel SS Bayou Chico made radio contact with RCAF Sydney and reported its suspicions that a German U-boat was following in its wake. The base immediately dispatched three Bolingbroke aircraft to its location.

Upon reaching the vessel, the aircraft spotted German U-boat 754 and dropped two depth charges as the submarine executed a rapid dive. While no debris was spotted, there was no sign of the enemy vessel as the aircraft escorted the SS Bayou Chico for an hour. Unbeknownst to the pilots. the U-boat escaped without damage and safely travelled to its base in France. U-754 later returned to the east coast only to be targeted and sunk off the coast of Yarmouth, NS.

Anti-submarine warfare remained RCAF Sydney’s primary focus during the early and middle war years. While there were numerous sightings along Canada’s Atlantic coast, there were only approximately a dozen confirmed sinkings. The statistics, however, do not reveal the effectiveness of the patrols. German U-boat logs accessed following the war clearly describe their captains’ considerable fear of operating in or near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The RCAF strategy forced U-boats to remain submerged while passing through the area or avoid the convoy corridors altogether, thus significantly reducing Allied losses.

After 16 months’ service in the Sydney area, Duncan was transferred to 121 Composite Squadron, Dartmouth, NS, on February 15, 1944. The squadron operated out of an airfield located in Eastern Passage. Established by the United States Navy as an anti-submarine patrol base in August 1918, the facility was transferred to the Canadian government after the First World War. In October 1923, the location officially became RCAF Station Dartmouth.

During the inter-war years, the station’s aircraft conducted photographic surveys of the Maritimes. In November 1934, the facility became the headquarters of No. 5 (Flying Boat) Squadron, which conducted patrols along Canada’s eastern coastline. Three years later, Dartmouth was one of four locations selected for construction of a land aerodrome. On April 1, 1938, the facility once again became RCAF Station Dartmouth, hosting No. 5 Squadron and No. 4 Repair Depot.

During the Second World War, RCAF Station Dartmouth was the base for bomber reconnaissance aircraft that played a crucial role during the Battle of the Atlantic. It was also home to 121 (Composite) Squadron, RCAF. Formed on January 10, 1942, the unit conducted communication and rescue operations along the Atlantic coast. Its aircraft also participated in “target towing” exercises in co-operation with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).
 
Target towing involved an aircraft “towing” an unmanned drone or large “fabric drogue”—an open-ended conical or funnel-shaped cloth structure—attached to a lengthy metal cable. The drogue was stored aboard the plane prior to take-off. Once the aircraft was over the training area, a crew member used a winch powered by a small wind turbine located on the outside of the aircraft to release it. A clutch mechanism allowed the operator to “engage” the winch and deploy the target at a distance of several thousand meters behind the plane. Once the exercise was completed, the drogue was usually jettisoned at a location convenient for retrieval and the cable retracted into the plane.

The exercise involved a considerable amount of risk. Inexperienced gunners—aerial and naval—fired live ammunition at the target during training, creating the possibility of an errant shell striking the aircraft. The drogue also created considerable drag. If a twin-engine aircraft like the Bolingbroke experienced failure in one engine, the drag could be sufficient to reduce airspeed below its “stall speed”—the minimum forward thrust required for an aircraft’s wings to produce lift and remain airborne.

Duncan’s initial duties at RCAF Dartmouth were somewhat mundane. On March 16, he was posted to the “Devil’s Battery Observation Post,” located at Hartlen Point, Eastern Passage. Erected on Halifax Harbour’s easternmost point, the battery’s personnel kept a watchful eye on the harbour entrance. One week later, Duncan was assigned to the Chebucto Head Battery, located at the easternmost point of Halifax harbour’s southern shoreline. On March 27, he returned to duty at the Eastern Passage aerodrome, having completed brief assignments at both batteries.

At 1200 hours April 19, 1944, Bolingbroke 9180 departed from RCAF Base Dartmouth on a target-towing exercise over Cow Bay, a short distance east of the harbour entrance. Three RCAF airmen were aboard the aircraft—Pilot Officer Harold Alwin Swinden, Toronto, ON, pilot; LAC Duncan Joseph McDonald, Mulgrave, NS, wireless operator; and LAC Joseph Émile Gautreau, Shediac, NB, “general duties.”

After completing the exercise, the crew was returning to base when the “aircraft [was] seen to plunge into the sea” around 1300 hours (1:00 pm). According to a news item published in the Halifax Herald the following day, local residents reported seeing the plane struck the water near Egg Island, southwest of Lawrencetown Beach, around 1:30 pm. One witness stated that “an explosion occurred on the plane while it was still in the air.”

A note in Duncan’s service file reported that he was “missing believed killed 19 April 44 as a result of a flying accident (target towing Navy shoot).” A second news item in the Halifax Herald reported that the bodies of P/O Swinden and LAC Gautreau were “brought to the surface” of Cow Bay on May 13. The wording suggests that the plane’s wreckage had been located and that Navy divers had removed the two deceased crewmen from the sunken aircraft.

The whereabouts of the third “missing” RCAF airman remained a mystery until June 23, when a “body washed up” along the Cow Bay shoreline. Using identification discs and a card in a wallet, RCAF officials identified the body as LAC Duncan Joseph McDonald. Duncan’s remains were transported to Mulgrave, where he was laid to rest in St. Lawrence Parish Cemetery.

At the time of his death, Duncan was survived by seven siblings—brothers John R., Daniel and Osborn, Mulgrave; sisters Mrs. Leo [Stella Louise] Mc Kinnon and Beatrice McDonald, Mulgrave; Mrs. Miles R. [Annie] Ryan, Stellarton; and Mrs. William H. [Hilda Mary] McNeil, Antigonish. Duncan’s mother Catherine passed away in Halifax, NS, in April 1979.

Information on RCAF Station, Sydney, NS, obtained from Paul Ozorak’s self-published book, Abandoned Military Installations of Canada, Volume 3: Atlantic (2001). Special thanks to Major (Retired) Gerry Madigan, Stewiacke, NS, for his assistance in locating background information for Duncan’s story. Gerry has researched long-forgotten aspects of Nova Scotia’s Second World War coastal defences and authored a number of interesting stories that are available online at his Nova Scotia Military History blog.

Gunner Clyde Elmer Myers—Died of Sickness March 17, 1944

 Clyde Elmer Myers was born in Glace Bay, NS, on April 3, 1925, the oldest child of Delbert Spurgeon and Gladys Maud (Horton) Myers. Delbert was born in Half Island Cove in February 1881, the fourth of William George and Hannah (Horton) Myers’ six children.

Gunner Clyde Myers' Headstone, Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough, NS

Two of Delbert’s older siblings departed for the United States. Emma Blanche (DOB December 25, 1874), William and Hannah Myers’ oldest child, married Herbert Roscoe Closson in West Beverly, Massachusetts, on December 14, 1899. The couple had one son, Roscoe Edgar. Blanche spent the rest of her years in the United States, passing away in North Carolina in 1962. Her brother, Howard Charles Myers (DOB May 15, 1879), arrived in Massachusetts in 1902. Howard married and settled in Beverly, where he raised a family of three sons. He passed away there in 1961.

The other four Myers children remained in Half Island Cove. Delbert’s oldest brother, James William, fished with his father from a young age. James never married, passing away in his home community on December 6, 1950, at age 74. Delbert’s two youngest siblings both died in middle age. Albert Isaac, also a bachelor and fisherman, passed away on June 27, 1924, at 41 years of age. Mae Ida, the youngest of the Myers children, also remained single. She died in the Red Cross Hospital, Guysborough, on November 1, 1940, at age 53.

On January 29, 1919, Delbert Myers married Gladys Maud Horton, daughter of of Moses C. and Carrie (Nickerson) Horton, in a ceremony held in Roachvale, Guysborough County. At the time of the 1921 census, the couple were living in the Cole Harbour census district, where Delbert worked as a fisherman. Their first child, Dolena Hortense, was born in Queensport on February 5, 1922.

While his attestation papers state that the couple’s only son, Clyde Elmer, was born in Glace Bay, the exact circumstances of his birth are unclear as Delbert and Gladys resided in Queensport for most of their lives. A second daughter, Joyce Muriel, was born there on August 5, 1927. Tragically, Dolena died of complications from chronic nephritis [kidney disease] on September 14, 1929. She was seven and a half years old at the time of her passing.

Clyde left school at age 16 having completed Grade 8, and went to work in the fishery with his father. Events overseas, however, soon impacted his life. Under the terms of the National Resources Mobilization Act (1940), all Canadian men and women 16 years of age and older were required to register with the Canadian government. This provided officials with a comprehensive list of all men of military age. In October 1940, the government “called up” the first group of unmarried individuals ages 21 to 24 for a 30-day training course.

The following year, the training period was expanded to four months, after which trainees could be assigned to military duty in Canada. While a 1942 national plebiscite approved the adoption of compulsory overseas service, the practice did not commence until late 1944, when a serious shortage of infantry reinforcements forced the government to to so.

Young men under the age of 21 years were permitted to voluntarily enlist for training and service in Canada. On January 26, 1944, Clyde Myers enlisted with the Canadian Army at Halifax, NS, He stood six feet and weighed 140 pounds at the time. An assessment in his service file describes Clyde as having “a neat clean pleasing appearance and notes that “he does quite a lot of reading. This recruit has high average ability and should become an efficient soldier…. Will be 19 years of age on April 3, 1944.” The assessor recommended assignment to the Royal Canadian Artillery, where Clyde commenced service with the rank of Gunner.

On February 10, Clyde was assigned to No. 61 Canadian Army (Basic) Training Center, New Glasgow. Nine days later, he “presented himself at the Medical Inspection Room complaining of [a] rather severe sore throat and generalized aches and pains.” Clyde was immediately admitted to New Glasgow Military Hospital, where an initial examination recorded a body temperature of 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit (39.2 degrees Celsius).

Clyde’s chest was clear at the time of admission, resulting in a preliminary diagnosis of influenza, an ailment that was widespread in camp at the time. He was examined daily and no signs of chest complications were observed. On February 29—Clyde’s tenth day in hospital—“a blotchy erythematous rash, coarse in type, appeared on [his] thorax [area of the body between the neck and abdomen], back and limbs.” He was immediately diagnosed with measles and placed in the hospital’s isolation ward.

Medical personnel concluded that “symptoms of the principle respiratory infection previous to the rash were… a forerunner of the dermatological lesion [rash] or possibly even occur[ed] in the incubation period. “Clyde’s case of measles was “of rather greater severity than the usual cases seen at the time.”

On March 3, staff conducted a medical examination of Clyde’s chest, “which had previously been clear [but now] showed definite coarse moist rales [small clicking, bubbling or rattling sounds] at [the] right base [of the right lung]…. The impression of possible bronchial pneumonia was entertained at the time.” Two days later, doctors detected a “definite dullness in [the] right base and right axilla up to the arch of the sixth rib posteriorly.” Breathing sounds were suppressed up to the arch of Clyde’s eighth rib, where “moist rales were audible.”

The new symptoms confirmed a diagnosis of pneumonia of the right lung. Medications were immediately prescribed and Clyde’s condition improved noticeably over the next few days. On March 15, however, staff noticed “a fine erythematous rash [a skin condition caused by a viral infection]… on the chest.” Assuming that it was a reaction to one of Clyde’s medications, doctors immediately discontinued its use. The following day, the rash showed signs of clearing and Clyde’s condition appeared to improve.

On March 17, “the patient was seen on daily rounds [and] seemed to be moderately well.” A chest examination detected “some resonance at right base and right axilla with medium and coarse moist rales, giving the impression of resolving pneumonia. At that time no anxiety was felt about his condition.”

About 2:00 pm that afternoon, the attending physician happened to be in Clyde’s ward and “suddenly noticed a distinct change in his condition.” He was gasping for breath and his skin was “almost a grey pallor.” His respiratory rate had never risen above 30 since admission, but was now elevated to between 40 and 60 breaths per minute. The physician “immediately recognized [that] the acute respiratory distress required oxygen therapy and he was immediately transferred to Aberdeen Hospital, New Glasgow, by ambulance.”

Military authorities promptly sent a telegram to Delbert and Gladys, informing them that Clyde was seriously ill. After his admission to the Aberdeen Hospital, the attending registered nurse, Ms. Mabelle Grant, placed a phone call to Queensport, in an effort to contact his parents. As the Myers did not have a phone, she left a message with a neighbour, stating that Clyde had been placed on the “Danger List.”

An x-ray taken at admission showed “pneumothorax [an abnormal collection of air in the space between the thin layer of tissue covering the lungs and the chest cavity] of the right thoracic cavity with collapse of the right lung.” Medical personnel immediately administered oxygen therapy “and other stimulant measures,” but “the course was gradually downhill and the patient expired four or five hours after admission.”

Clyde was officially pronounced dead at 9:40 pm March 17, 1944. While no autopsy was conducted, the attending physician concluded that “the collapse of the right lung following the pneumothorax was sudden in character, inasmuch as the respiratory rate was never elevated beyond 30 during his stay in the New Glasgow Military Hospital. The pneumothorax was probably a result of softening of the right visceral pleura [membrane covering the lungs] by the pneumonic process and consequent perforation.”

Gunner Clyde Elmer Myers was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough. A Court of Inquiry, held on June 7, 1944, concluded that he had received appropriate medical care from staff in both hospitals and that nothing further could have been done to save his life. As Clyde’s death occurred while he was in uniform, military authorities approved the provision of a standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone for his grave.

While Clyde’s passing approximately two weeks before his nineteenth birthday was no doubt a shock to his parents, the circumstances of two other deaths in the Myers family suggest a vulnerability to respiratory illness. His brother Albert Lewis’s 1924 passing was the result of “double pneumonia,” while his sister Mae Ida’s 1940 death was due to “lobar pneumonia.”

Clyde’s death was not the last tragedy for the Myers family. On December 18, 1947, his young sister Joyce died at St. Martha’s Hospital, Antigonish, at age 20. Her death certificate identified “cardio-vascular renal [kidney] disease” as the cause, with advanced secondary anemia [failure of the bone marrow to produce sufficient blood cells] as a contributing factor.

Myers Siblings' Headstone, Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough, NS

Gladys Maud Myers passed away at age 69 in Queensport on March 28, 1966, after suffering a heart attack. Her husband Delbert died at home on June 4, 1971, at age 90, the result of a “cerebral thrombosis” (blood clot in the brain). Both were laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough.

Staff Sergeant Frederick Leo "Fred" Hubbard—Died of Wounds March 11, 1944

 Frederick Leo “Fred” Hubbard was born in Canso, Guysborough County, on March 25, 1919. Fred’s father, Daniel Clifton Hubbard, was a native of Charlesville, Shelburne County, the son of Thomas Martin and Lydia (Nickerson) Hubbard. His mother, Cora Anna Hurst, was born in Canso on January 8, 1882, the daughter of Evan MacPherson “Mack” and Maria Grace (Feltmate) Hurst.

Staff Sergeant Frederick Leo Hubbard

Both sides of Cora Hurst’s family trace their roots to Loyalist soldiers who settled in Guysborough County in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War (1776 - 1783). Frederick Feltmate, Maria’s great-great-grandfather, was born in Dutch Fork, Newberry, South Carolina, in 1765. During the American Revolution, Frederick enlisted with the South Carolina Regiment, known as the ‘Royalists.” When the Regiment was disbanded in the spring of 1783, Frederick left St. Augustine, Florida, for Nova Scotia with a group of Royalist soldiers.

On December 24, 1783, approximately 900 men who had served with three Loyalist regiments arrived in Country Harbour, Guysborough County, aboard the vessel Nymph. Frederick Feltmate and some of his South Carolina comrades were part of the group. The new arrivals lacked proper shelter and supplies, and endured a harsh first winter that supposedly claimed 300 lives. The following summer, the men were offered land grants and set about establishing new homes in the virgin wilderness.

Frederick received 100 acres of land in the County Harbour area, part of the “Major Wright” grant. He subsequently married and raised a family that included a son, John Frederick Feltmate, born in Country Harbour on December 25, 1791. John married Elizabeth Lydia Deickhoff (1793 - 1869) and settled in Whitehead, where he passed away on October 17, 1873.

John and Elizabeth’s son, Samuel Isaiah Feltmate, was born in Queensport on June 2, 1825, and married Mary Elizabeth Uloth (1833 - 1862). He passed away in Canso on December 15, 1914. Samuel and Mary’s daughter, Maria Grace Feltmate, was born in Whitehead on August 9, 1859.

Fred’s grandfather Mack traced his family roots to Samuel Hurst, born in Middlesborough, Yorkshire, England, on January 17, 1725. On an unknown date, Samuel immigrated to the 13 Colonies. Among his children was a son Samuel Alexander, born in Massachusetts in 1753.

Samuel Alexander served with the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot during the American Revolutionary War. In June 1783, the 60th’s Regiment’s 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded. Three months later, a group of the unit’s former soldiers and their families arrived in Halifax, NS. In July 1784, 76 of the 60th Regiment’s former soldiers departed for Chedabucto Bay, Guysborough County, accompanied by 34 women, 19 children and four servants.

Among the settlers were Private Samuel Alexander Hurst, his wife Elizabeth, two daughters Elizabeth and Sarah, and a son, John William (1781 - 1857). Samuel received a land grant of 300 acres in the Crow Harbour [Queensport] area. He died in Guysborough around 1838.

John William Hurst married Esther Mary Bedford in Guysborough on May 22, 1804. The couple raised a family of 10 children in Half Island Cove. One of John and Esther’s sons, Samuel William, was born on September 14, 1823, and married Diana Smith (1818 - 1901). Evan MacPherson “Mack” Hurst (1854 - 1883), was their eldest child.

On October 15, 1881, Mack Hurst married Maria Grace Feltmate in a ceremony that took place in Cape Canso. The marriage was short-lived, as Mack died in 1883, possibly the result of an accident at sea. Prior to Mack’s death, Maria gave birth to a daughter, Cora Anna, on January 8, 1882. A second child, Mary Elizabeth (1883 - 1957), was born after her father’s passing.

Widowed with two young children, Maria married John Berrigan, son of James and Ann Berrigan, Canso, on November 18, 1885. Over the ensuing years, the couple raised a family of nine children. At the time of the 1891 census, Cora and her sister Mary were residing in Canso with their paternal grandparents, Samuel and Diana Hurst. A decade later, Cora was living in her step-father John Berrigan’s Canso home with her mother Maria. Also in the household were nine Berrigan children—five girls and four boys, ranging in age from five months to 15 years.

On December 23, 1908, 27-year-old Cora Hurst married 33-year-old Daniel Clifton Hubbard in a Methodist ceremony that took place in Canso. The following year, the first of the couple’s children—a daughter, Sadie Florence—was born. As the years passed, eight more children joined the Hubbard family—a second daughter and seven sons.

Frederick Leo “Fred” Hubbard, Clifton and Cora’s sixth child and fourth son, was born in Canso on March 25, 1919. While Fred and his siblings spent their formative years in the community, their father Clifton pursued a livelihood at sea. In the 1880s, he had worked aboard a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Massachusetts and later worked out of the Boston fish pier.

Clifton eventually returned to Nova Scotia and worked out of the Canso area, where he met Cora. At various times, it appears that his livelihood took him back to the United States. At the time of the 1930 US census, for instance, he was residing with a brother-in-law in Winthrop, MA, his occupation listed as “fisherman.”

As the decade passed, several of Fred’s older siblings left Nova Scotia for Massachusetts. William Elias “Bill” was the first, arriving there in the mid-1930s. George Irving followed him in 1938. Fred made the trip to Boston aboard SS Yarmouth in mid-October 1939, and was living in a Roxbury, MA, rooming house at the time of the 1940 US census. Brothers Mack, John and Gordon arrived in the early 1940s.

After moving to Boston, Fred found work as a “storeroom man” in a hotel, quite possibly the “Mariners’ House” operated by his older brother Irving. Fred also enrolled in a local seminary, with plans to become a Methodist minister. Like many young men of his generation, however, the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe soon disrupted his plans.

On October 16, 1940, Fred registered for the US military draft. At the time, he was employed by the Boston Port & Seaman’s Aid Society, 11 North Square. Fred listed his mother Cora, 37 Chambers St., Boston, as his next of kin. He had completed four years of high school, and claimed to be a citizen of the United States, although no official document can be located to verify this assertion.

Fred’s civilian life ended on March 6, 1941, when he enlisted with the United States Army in Boston. Single with no dependents, he commenced service as a Private but was destined to advance to the rank of Staff Sergeant over the next three years. Fred was assigned to the 182nd Infantry Regiment, a Massachusetts unit with deep historical roots. An active Massachusetts National Guard unit, the 182nd commenced active federal service on January 16, 1941, and departed for Charlestown shortly afterward.

While the United States was officially neutral in the war that had broken out in Europe, its government supported Great Britain by providing munitions on a “cash and carry” basis. The country also implemented a military draft and significantly increased its defence spending as President Franklin D. Roosevelt prepared for possible entry into the war.

Roosevelt’s plans were a response not only to events in Europe, where Germany had forcefully occupied large parts of the continent. A similar phenomenon took place in the Pacific region, where the United States had numerous territorial interests. The country acquired the Philippines from Spain in 1898 and also controlled Midway (1867), the Hawaiian Islands (1898), Wake (1899), Samoa (1899) and the Line Islands (1912).

Throughout the 1930s, Japan sought to expand its sphere of influence in the Pacific region. Initially, it focused on Manchuria but soon expanded its interest to Chinese territory. The result was a full-scale warfare between the two countries that commenced in July 1937. Before year’s end, Japan captured Shanghai and Nanjing, and continued its advance into Chinese territory throughout the rest of the decade. By 1941, the two sides had reached a stalemate. Japan having occupied much of northern, central and coastal China, while the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-Shek controlled the Chinese interior.

After the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe and France’s surrender to German forces, Japan seized control of French Indochina in September 1940. The acquisition severed China’s land connection with the outside world. Later that same month, Japan entered a formal military alliance with Italy and Germany. While the move was politically significant, there was little military coordination between Germany and Japan until the late stages of the war.

Japan’s expansionist plans inevitably resulted in tensions with Western countries already active in the Pacific region. It was particularly interested in the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, Malaya and the Philippines, as these locations contained significant oil and mineral reserves, resources vital to the success of Japan’s imperialist goals. When the governments of Australia, the United States, and Britain joined the Netherlands government in exile in imposing a ban on the sale of oil, iron ore and steel to Japan, the stage was set for an inevitable conflict.

Totally dependent on imports for these vital resources, Japan faced the prospect of economic collapse and a humiliating withdrawal from its recent conquests If it could not secure a dependable source. As a result, in mid-1941, Japanese military authorities commenced planning for war with the Western powers. Recognizing that the battle would be largely fought at sea, the country launched a rapid expansion of its naval resources.

Japan’s major objective during the initial phase of the impending conflict was the seizure of the Dutch West Indies and Malaya, areas that could provide many of the resources denied by the Western embargo. Military strategists also identified the capture of the Philippines, Wake and Guam as key to a Japanese victory. The plan called for a limited war, during which Japan would seize its key objectives and then establish a defensive perimeter to repel Allied counterattacks. Once these initial stages were complete, the Japanese were convinced that they could achieve a negotiated peace.

The key to a Japanese victory required neutralizing the United States Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Such a move would provide Japan with the time required to establish its defensive perimeter in two phases. First, the Japanese planned to occupy major Pacific objectives—the Philippines, British Malaya, Borneo, Burma, Rabaul [a strategic city in Papua New Guinea] and the Dutch West Indies.

The second phase required a second expansion, during which Japan planned to seize control of eastern New Guinea, New Britain, Fiji, Samoa and other strategic locations near Australia. Finally, the country planned to secure Midway and the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific—territories under American control—creating a defensive barrier well beyond its occupied territories.

The success of the entire plan depended not only on an effective attack on American naval forces in Pearl Harbour. The Japanese High Command also believed that a negotiated peace could be achieved after its plan was successfully implemented. After all, this had been the case in its previous wars against China (1894-95) and Russia (1904-05). As events unfolded, however, neither assumption became reality and the Japanese found themselves embroiled in a long-term conflict with the United States and its Western allies.

In the early hours of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise air strike on the United States naval base in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Simultaneously, Japanese forces carried out similar attacks on American and British territories across the Pacific region—the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. Wile the Pearl Harbour attack crippled the US Pacific Fleet, it failed to deliver a fatal blow. Nor did the American government seek to negotiate with Japan in its aftermath. Instead, the wave of outrage that spread across the country brought the United States into the war the day after the Pearl Harbour attack.

Despite America’s entry into the war, the Japanese aggressively continued its expansionist plans. During the first six months of 1942, its forces secured Hong Kong, British Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Singapore, the Philippines, Bali and Timor. While the Japanese set about securing the territories they now controlled, Allied forces slowly organized their forces and prepared to respond.

The focus soon shifted to a key naval battle as the Japanese sought to secure supremacy in the Pacific. The first target was the strategically important, American-held island of Midway, northwest of Hawaii. In this instance, however, American forces had successfully intercepted Japanese communications and learned of the planned attack several weeks beforehand.

As the Japanese transport group made its way toward the island, American naval and aerial forces launched an attack on the convoy on June 3 when it was 1,110 kilometres west of Midway. Japanese forces suffered significant losses and were unable to deliver a decisive blow to American forces at sea or on the island. Within 48 hours, Japanese military commanders abandoned the Midway operation.

In the long term, the failure of the Midway attack was a crucial blow to Japan’s plans. However, its advances continued in the South Pacific as it secured most of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands by mid-summer 1942. By that time, however, American forces had already established a significant presence in the area and were about to present their first direct challenge to Japanese expansion.

In the aftermath of the the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Fred Hubbard’s 182nd Infantry Regiment departed for Melbourne, Australia, on January 14, 1942, as part of US Task Force 6814. On March 6, the 182nd’s personnel broke camp and made their way to Melbourne’s docks, where they boarded ships for an unknown destination. Six days later, the Task Force landed in New Caledonia, a French colony 1,200 kilometres east of Brisbane, Australia. The island had been selected as a base for the United States South Pacific Fleet. Approximately 50,000 troops gathered there as American forces prepared for an offensive against Japanese-occupied territory north of Australia.

On May 27, 1942, Task Force 6814 was redesigned the “Americal Division”—a combination of the words “American” and “Caledonia”—and prepared for combat in the Japanese-occupied islands north of Australia.
The first step in the campaign occurred in early August 1942, when US Marines landed on the Solomon islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and launched the first American counterattack on Japanese forces in the Pacific theatre. While Japan responded with furious counter-attacks on its beach-heads, the US managed to establish a foothold on Guadalcanal.

Over the next several months, elements of the Americal Division made their way to Guadalcanal. The 182nd Regiment arrived on the island on November 12, 1942. The inexperienced soldiers now found themselves under regular Japanese aerial bombardment as the two sides jockeyed for control of the strategic island. US military hospital records indicate that Fred received treatment for a “penetrating” wound to his left arm caused by an artillery shell fragment shortly after arriving on the island. He was discharged to duty before year’s end.

It is not clear if Frank rejoined the 182nd in time for its first major assignment. In late December 1942, the unit participated in an assault on Japanese defensive positions atop the “Sea Horse” ridge, one of the island’s prominent geographical features. The persistent American effort to secure Guadalcanal eventually forced Japan to abandon the island in February 1943.

After helping secure Allied possession of Guadalcanal, the 182nd’s Americal Division was travelled to the Fiji Islands for training and defensive duties in early March 1943. Personnel established camp on the island of Viti Levu, where they remained for most of the year. In late December, the Division commenced a move to Bougainville Island.

Located at the northern tip of the Solomon archipelago, Bougainville was largely under the control of Japanese forces when the Americal Division arrived on the island. The 3rd Marine Division had established a beachhead at Cape Torokina, located in the centre of the island’s western coastline, in November 1943. The following month, the Americal’s units relieved the exhausted Marines and undertook the task of holding and expanding the right flank of the beach-head’s perimeter.

While Torokina was located on a coastal plain that extended along the island’s western coastline, a central mountain range containing several active, dormant and inactive volcanoes dominated much of the island’s topography. A dense tropical jungle covered the entire area. As a result, achieving Allied control over Bougainville was a slow and difficult process.

Recognizing Bougainville’s strategic location east of Papua New Guinea, Japanese forces were determined to eliminate any American presence on the island. Throughout the early months of 1944, military staff developed a plan and assembled the required resources for a major counter-attack. What became known as the “Battle of the Perimeter” commenced on March 9, 1944.

The Americal Division guarded the perimeter to the east of the beach-head, while the US 37th Infantry Division protected its western border. In the Americal sector, the 182nd Regiment occupied a central position between the 164th and 132nd Regiments. While Japanese forces initially seized control of Cannon Hill and Hill 700 to the north of the beach-head, 37th Division soldiers recaptured both locations on March 12, with the assistance of a bombardment from supporting US Navy destroyers.

Later that same day, Japanese forces launched a second Japanese attack in the 37th’s sector. Fighting continued into March 13 before Japanese forces were once again driven back. Two more attempts were made to penetrate the American perimeter on March 15 and 17, but both were successfully repelled. A final attack on the night of March 23/24 made some progress but was once again pushed back.

The final phase of the battle occurred on March 27, when the Americal Division’s soldiers pushed Japanese forces off Hill 260 in their sector. Having sustained heavy losses during the attacks, the Japanese withdrew the majority of their forces into the deep interior northern and southern ends of the island. Australian intelligence officials later estimated their losses in the fighting at 5,400 killed and 7,100 wounded. The fighting was the last Japanese ground offensive in the South Pacific region.

According to family sources, Staff Sergeant Frederick Leo Hubbard was protecting a young local boy caught in crossfire during the initial stage of the Battle of the Perimeter when he was wounded by enemy fire. Evacuated to military hospital, he died of wounds on March 11, 1944, the third day of fighting. A Purple Heart and Bronze Medal recipient, Fred was laid to rest in Fort William McKinley Cemetery, Manila, Philippines, after the war’s conclusion.

By the time of Fred’s death, his parents had returned to Clifton’s home community of Charlesville, Shelburne County. Clifton passed away there on January 20, 1949, at 74 years of age. His widow Cora remained in Charlesville, where her daughter, Sadie McComskey, was living. Cora passed away on May 6, 1960, at 79 years of age, and was laid to rest beside her husband in Green Grove Cemetery, Charlesville.

Special thanks to Dylan Hubbard, Boston, MA, great-grandson of Fred's brother George, who provided a picture of his great-great-uncle and contributed valuable information on the Hubbard family.