Joyanne Pursaga

From the second Albert Jones opens the side door of his home, it's obvious his past in the British Navy plays a key role in his present life in Portage la Prairie.

Albert, who turned 86 on Sept. 19, proudly displays framed portraits of warships that line nearly every inch of his stairwell approaching a basement packed with memorabilia of his years of Second World War service.

That past took centre stage this week, as Albert and his son, Michael, attended Heroes Return, a reunion staged in Republic of Malta, an island he once fought to protect.

The event, which began on Thursday and ends on Sept. 28, commemorates the 60th anniversary of the official end of Second World War.

"It's the culmination of those war years," said Albert.

To attend the reunion, veterans must have taken part in defending Malta against "the siege," a German-led attempt in the early 1940s to gain control of the island, then considered the heart of naval control in the Mediterranean and the centrepiece of the British position in the region.

"Malta became the key to the whole Mediterranean war," said the British-born veteran. "The Germans did everything in their power to get Malta."

Malta is a 316-square kilometre island in southern Europe, located about 90 kilometres south of Sicily and 300 km north of North Africa. It became a base where Allied forces could intervene in Axis supply lines between the two continents.

German and Italian forces attempted to bomb and/or starve its garrison and people into surrender several times.

"At some points, Malta was so short on supplies that they kept a tab on what they had left," said Michael, a war historian who partnered with his father to write two books of military memoirs. "At one point, they were three weeks away from having to surrender."

Albert served on the HMS Illustrious aircraft carrier in Malta from September of 1940 to January of 1941, when German dive-bombers attacked and nearly sank the ship.

"About a quarter of the crew was either killed or wounded and the ship had a crew of 1,400," said Michael.

At one point in the battle, eight 1,000-pound bombs were dropped in just six minutes, said the war buff.

The crew fought against the Germans even after they ran out of ammunition, loading their guns with nuts and bolts instead, Albert recalled.

The attack caused extensive damage to the vessel. It was sent to the United States to be refitted before returning to active service in 1941.

For Michael, the return to the place where his father so narrowly escaped death is loaded with emotion.

"When I see film footage in a documentary or read an account of the British Navy, and see all of those ships going down, I think any one of them could have been my dad's," said Michael. "It just reminds me of the high price of our freedom that nobody seems to remember now."

Albert also served around Malta on the HMS Rosario from 1943-46, as a first class stoker for the navy's 19th minesweeping flotilla.

Almost every year, Michael and Albert visit a military site where the elder served to research and remember.

"Being fascinated with it and living it are two different things," said Michael. "I admire those who do choose it as a lifestyle."

He and his father flew to Europe on Sept. 17 on frequent flyer points for Heroes Return, with meals, activities and accommodations covered by the Veterans Reunited Funding program.

The project is administered by the British government to help war veterans commemorate major events and battles of the war and educate new generations about its history.

Albert came to Portage la Prairie in 1958, with just a carrier bag to his name and few plans to share the lessons he learned in combat.

He said the war had allowed him to see several similarities between Canada and United Kingdom. The HMS Rosario minesweeper he served on, for example, is identical to HMCS Portage, he said, proudly displaying photographs of both ships.

Decades after arriving in Manitoba, he began exploring his past, co-writing his first book, No Easy Choices, with the aid of his son.

No Easy Choices chronicles Albert's decision to enlist in the navy and his service on the HMS Illustrious from 1940-43.

"It was a terrible time for everybody," said Albert. "Lots of the lads signed up just to get off unemployment."

Albert says he chose to enlist in the navy for 12 years to avoid army conscription just two months shy of his 20th birthday.

"That was my dilemma in actually joining the navy," he said.

In 2003, the Portage veteran released his second book of navy experiences, Roll on My Twelve. That feat took him and Michael eight years to complete.

It's a project Albert hopes will preserve the realities of war for future generations.

"If you don't write anything down, that's history lost," he said.

The two last visited Malta in 1995, when a young boy seated across from them on a bus identified a pin bearing the crest of the Illustrious on Michael's jacket.

Michael said that display of war knowledge in the Mediterranean made him realize how much awareness is lacking in Canada, which fuelled his and his father's passion to revisit and share that history.

Portage Daily Graphic (Manitoba) September 24, 2005