Wilhelm Bauer (U-2540) is on display at the Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany. In 1983, it was restored to its original Second World War configuration and is the only floating example of a Type XXI U-boat. [Wikimedia]

The last of the U-boats is scuttled

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

On Feb. 12, 1946, U-3514 was sunk off the coast of Northern Ireland in Operation Deadlight, meant to ensure elimination of the German submarine fleet after the war.

The sub was sunk at 10:04 a.m. by ship guns and depth charges, the last of 116 scuttled by the Royal Navy.

In anticipation of the end of the war in early May 1945, German U-boat captains began scuttling their own boats, preventing an estimated 200 from falling into the hands of the Allies. On May 4, the German Navy ordered all U-boats to go to ports in Norway. On May 8, there were 156 still afloat.

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Second World War veteran George Beardshaw is believed to be the last living British Home Child. [St. Joseph’s Health Care London]

A WW II rifleman remembers

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

George Beardshaw no longer recalls the dates, but he retains the memories. A proud 102-year-old Canadian veteran of the Second World War, he was born in Yorkshire, England, on Sept. 14, 1923. The story of how he came to serve Canada, however, isn’t a strictly happy one, having been one of some 100,000 adolescent Britons, mostly of orphaned or impoverished backgrounds, sent to the dominion between the 1860s and the 1940s as part of the Home Children scheme.

Many, including Beardshaw, endured considerable hardship in rural households. Some even experienced exploitation and abuse by their Canadian foster families.

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