A Port Moody veteran who shared his memories of service in WWII so subsequent generations could learn from them has passed away.
Svend Hansen was aboard the Royal Canadian Navy vessel Penetang that escorted merchant vessels in the North Atlantic when he received a Morse code message on May 8, 1945, that the war in Europe was over. He decoded the message into English and spread the word that everyone could enjoy a double ration of rum because the threat of being torpedoed by a German submarine was over.
"The war was going the way we thought it was," Hansen told the Tri-City News a couple of years ago, just prior to the 75th anniversary of VE Day, adding the promise of more rum really boosted the sailors’ spirits.
Hansen had served on about 30 such escort missions, first aboard a small, anti-submarine corvette from early 1943 and then on the larger frigate Penetang.
Sailing the "triangle run" from Halifax to New York or Boston and then on to St. John’s, N.L., his time in the navy was largely uneventful.
In fact, it wasn’t until three days after VE Day, his crew encountered a German U-boat that surfaced just off St. John’s to surrender.
Following Hansen’s tour in the Atlantic, he prepared to volunteer for the war still raging against Japan in the Pacific.
But before he could ship out, the conflict ended after the U.S. dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hansen settled back in his hometown of Calgary, where he attended university and eventually took a job in the dairy industry.
In 1965, he was transferred to B.C. and bought a home in Port Moody’s Glenayre neighbourhood. Since the early 2000s, he lived in Newport Village.
In 2004, Hansen began telling his wartime stories as part of Historica Canada’s Memory Project, a bureau of volunteer speakers who take their tales of conflict to schools and community organizations. He did more than 100 such presentations.
"I find the social studies groups are very very respectful and very, very interested," Hansen said of his frequent visits with school groups. "Lots of questions come up."
In 2016, Hansen’s efforts were recognized with a special commendation from Veterans Affairs Canada.
"Mr. Hansen has volunteered significant amounts of his time to providing a first-hand account of the war and passing on stories of the sacrifices, horror and, eventually, peace that he experienced during his service," said a ministry statement at the time.
